Imagine that social media is a lot like an in-person social party hosted by your local chamber of commerce. There are quite a few people there and you know that in order to successfully navigate this party, you will have to engage in some face-to-face conversations with the potentially new customers who are there.

The easiest strategies that have almost always shown a good success rate in driving interactions is what is known as the 80/20 principle. 80% of your interactions, such as Likes, Shares, Comments, replies, retweets, hearts (Instagram), etc., should be focused on your followers and not on you.

I want to repeat that so that it sticks. 80% focused on your followers and NOT you.

Once you have established a relationship with them and interacted with them in some way, they will feel connected to you and your business. Social etiquette dictates that they should reciprocate any attention you give them. At this point, you can start mixing deals or direct promotions to get those followers to start clicking or buying on your website.

You would like to have a style that is accessible and authentic. A good sense of humor is always a bonus and don’t be too formal. Maintain a unique style and tone that is fun and professional.

There is no wrong way to do this. However, here are some helpful tips.

Try different times of the day to see when you get the most engagement.

Try to post updates on a regular basis so your user base can get used to your schedule and look forward to your entertaining and quality content.

Your followers and fans will thank you.

Content ideas

Create a theme for each day of the week:

• Sales Monday – Highlight an offer or discount code valid only for this week
• Exclusive Tuesday – Show a photo or video sneak peek behind the curtain.
• Useful wednesday – Informative tips or trends in your industry.
• Thursday Spotlight – Respond publicly to customer questions or show a positive review.
• Friday feature – Show a broader industry news article or relevant content
• Giving on saturday – Focus on some type of neighborhood charity or non-profit event that you support.
• Sunday of people – Stand out your employees. Show them how fun they are at work.

Updates that are effective in driving engagement

Do this if you want your followers to share, reply to, or like your content

• Get visual – They are more likely to respond to fun and inspirational newsworthy images (photos) than just text updates.
• Ask what you want – Believe it or not, just ask people to share your content and they will. Of course, the content is worth sharing.
• Sixteen the moment (Trending Topics) – Take advantage of current conversation trends. Whether seasonal, cultural or even current events. (Google Trends is a good place to find out what is currently happening. Http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends)

Updates that are good to encourage a direct response

If you want to act NOW, do this;

• Compelling offer – Generate clicks and generate leads by offering a really attractive offer. Ask your users for suggestions for these.
• Sense of urgency – Limit your offer to a specific period of time to create a sense of urgency.
• Clear call to action – If you’re trying to drive traffic to a specific URL, don’t include anything else that might distract people from going elsewhere. Create the funnel.

I hope you find this information useful and that it gives you a good starting point in developing a strategy that you can customize for your particular industry or business.

I understand that there is no “one size fits all” answer, but that is why the experts exist. We have made all the mistakes and we know what to avoid and what to emphasize. Good luck to all of you.