Any modern business owner knows that there is an extensive sea of potential clients on social media. With all those consumers, it’s little wonder why so many businesses have turned to sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to expand their brand image as part of their content marketing strategy. Of course, a profile on these sites alone is not enough. To really connect with your market you’ll have to engage your followers online.

Create and Join Groups

Create a Facebook page or a forum thread on a topic connected to your business and join in other pages and groups that are linked to your topics. The goal is not to flood followers with images of your products and services. Instead, start conversations, chime in on topics, and interact. If you see questions that relate to your business or products/services you offer, speak up and offer helpful information. This shows new followers that you know what you’re talking about.

A good way to find the topics and comments related to your business is to really know your ideal client. Read more about how to identify and write for your target audience.

Social Media Contests

Set up contests to help engage your followers. Contests can be games or random giveaways where a follower just needs to like, share, or retweet a post. This spreads your brand further across social media platforms and gives your followers a chance to win a product or service. It doesn’t just have to be about likes and shares. You can also encourage followers to interact by using photo contests, quizzes, or polls.

Be Visual

Images may go viral long before text, and for a very good reason. The human mind can make sense of an image faster than they can read text, and social media platforms work the same way. Post pictures or videos on your profile to go along with your status. Be creative with it. You can post a behind the scenes picture at the office or a time-lapse video in the workshop. Other images that work are those highlighting staff, customer videos, or just fun pictures related to your product or service.

RELATED: The Power of Video Marketing

Be Responsive

While everything above can work wonders for increasing your followers and spreading the word about your business, it’s all for nothing if you don’t respond to your followers’ comments, questions, or concerns. Engage your followers by leaving timely well-thought-out responses to their comments. A good time line to answer these questions is within a few hours, but within a day is a more realistic. If you’re going to be away from social media for a while (several days, a week or longer) let your followers know so that they aren’t left hanging.

Putting together your brand and running your business is time consuming already so engage with your followers online and have fun with it. Show your personality so that social media feels less like work. The real key to keeping followers engaged is to be consistent and keep interacting with them.