For a lot of businesses, social media can feel like a waste of time. Even though the average person spends almost half their day interacting with digital media, it might seem like this has little do with growing your sales.

Why bother engaging with random people via different platforms?
Why keep adding more posts to the already overwhelming pile?
Most of all, is there actually any benefit to posting, liking, commenting and sharing?

These are all good questions to answer.

First of all, every business should have a different approach to social media. Just like you have a unique approach to the market. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy.

What we have learned from working with a lot of different businesses on their marketing, is that to grow online engagement you have to customize your approach. Here are 5 insightful tactics that can help you be smarter about your social media for your company.

1) Go to where your customers are

If you think about it, a lot of your customers will tend to ‘congregate’ in a specific place. This is true for both online and offline. For example, if you go to a trade show in your industry, you will see a lot more of your potential customers.

Similarly, if you go to online forums, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Twitter or Instagram you will find that people always tend to congregate around interests. If your business serves some of these specific interests, then make sure to be engaged with the people who follow it. While it might not bring you immediate sales, at least knowing where these places are online is important.

2) Stay connected on their preferred platforms

As you grow your customer base, you will likely notice that some social platforms have more impact on your particular audience. Depending on their age, interests, lifestyle, there will be varying degrees of engagement. If your business demographics scale older, then consider Facebook. If they are more corporate, then focus on LinkedIn. If your business is very image-friendly, then Instagram may work the best. Knowing which platforms have the most engagement for your demographic is important.

3) Be known as the ‘go-to’ for your type of business

Perhaps the biggest hidden value of social media is that you can become known as the ‘go to’ person for a specific type of business, product or service.

Once people in your community (both online and offline) know you as the ‘go-to’ for a specific product or service, it is much easier for them to reach out to you when they need what you offer. If you are connected to them online, you are always on the periphery of their attention, and when they need your products or services, they will reach out.

4) Try everything so you can use the platforms effectively

When it comes to different social platforms, it is well worth testing them all. Each has unique pros and cons and has a learning curve of its own. While some platforms will perform better than others, knowing how and when to use a specific platform is incredibly valuable. It’s like being able to navigate through a busy city. If you know how to get to a destination, it is much easier to get there.

Also, being able to use a platform in the way it was meant to function means you will get better engagement. You are swimming with the tide instead of against it.

5) Track your success over longer time periods

One of the traps of social media in business is that it seems like all your short-term efforts are wasted. You may post consistently for a month or two, and nothing much happens. But when you do it consistently for a year or two, you will start to see some results.

This is the biggest trap a lot of businesses fall into on social media. They don’t keep at it and think long term.

Remember that everyone starts at zero followers and grows from there. If you are consistent, your regular followers and fans will be very used to seeing you online, will feel like they know you, and want to work with you.

These 5 tips are useful to have the right focus and approach to social media for your business. They will help to refine your strategy and to build your engagement.

If you are looking to make more of an impact with your audience, then Brandastic can help you. We are a social media and digital marketing agency based in Costa Mesa, California. We help companies to streamline their social media and online engagement efforts, and to grow sales over time.