Social media has had a huge impact not only on the way we produce content but also on how people consume it. Customers now rely on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube to tell them what products or services they should buy and why they’re life would be better off with them.

As business owners and entrepreneurs, then, it’s essential to use those outlets to:

1. Advertise your products and services.
2. Develop more leads and increase sales.
3. Improve your brand awareness.

Because social media can be a tricky world to navigate, as what works and doesn’t work is always shifting, here are a few strategies that can help you better utilize the resource and tap into its great potential.

Consistently post content

As with anything in business, you must be consistent with your social media marketing. It’s not enough to simply post an image to your Facebook page once a month and hope that the people you want to see it will stumble across it. You must establish a schedule for posting across several platforms that will regularly get your brand in front of your target audience. This consistency will show your followers and viewers that you have something of value to offer them, which will in turn help attract more people to your page. And the more people are on your page, the more potential customers you have to buy your product or hire your service. It’s how you can ensure that your business makes it front of your potential customers who can then decide if they want to support you. After all, if they’re not seeing anything from you, then the decision is already made for them.

Stay engaged with your audience

You want to show your followers and viewers that there’s a real person behind the business by interacting with them across platforms. Beyond regularly posting, this means responding to comments and questions, asking for feedback from your audience, and genuinely connecting with your potential customers. Consumers often prefer to buy from businesses that they can relate to or feel connected with since they are invested in seeing that business or person succeed. As a bonus, when you engage with others on your posts, they’ll feel more open to engaging with others in the community, thus developing a connection with people who have used your product or service before. Overall, this can help grow your community at a quicker rate, so make time every day to be active and respond to your audience.

Keep up with changing algorithms

While it may not be easy, it’s important to pay attention to how the algorithms on various platforms change throughout the year, as this can affect how well your content is performing or how much it’s actually getting in front of your potential customers. When an algorithm shifts, it’s going from favoring one type of content to another, so if you’re using the older content, it can potentially get buried under ads and no longer end up on your followers’ feeds. To prevent this from happening, you’ll need to monitor the performances of your posts. If you find that one type of content that was working well for you is no longer effective, then look at what other similar businesses are now doing to determine how you need to shift. This could mean posting a short video instead of a still image, or vice versa. Whatever the case, it’s important to the success of your social media marketing that you continually evaluate and adjust your content as necessary.

Don’t be afraid of mistakes

Social media marketing generally comes at a lower out-of-pocket expense than other marketing routes, making it a good place to try new types of content or promotions without the fear of failing. It’s OK if a video doesn’t perform well or if you find that the aesthetic of your feed isn’t attracting followers. You can relatively quickly change your approach to bring in more potential customers. So don’t be afraid of making a mistake—you can always learn from it and move on to a more successful approach for your business.

Ultimately, social media marketing is a relatively inexpensive way to market your business to your customer base. With few up-front costs and a high ROI, there’s no real cap on the revenue you can make from it.