You may have conquered offline advertising.

Your sales team is out there doing the “warrior-networking” thing and is creating nice commissions for itself.

Your website sits at the top of Google for an incredibly competitive word. (personal injury attorney, accident attorney, anyone?)

Top 10 most expensive keywords:

However, you cannot seem to crack the social media code.

It is no surprise as social media is an entirely different beast with approaches & algorithms that make only partial sense to those of us familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

We know that social media is a vital part of our online business strategies, yet we are unsure how to prepare, launch and become continually successful at it.

This is even more true for small businesses who may not have the budget or time resources for a social media expert.

It is next to impossible for a small business owner to run their business and try to create even the first successful social marketing campaign.

If you have no idea where you should be heading with promoting your business with social media we are here to help.

Here are five expert tactics that will bring your social media efforts to an entirely new level.

1) Engagement Is The Key To Success

Too many businesses take to social media and try to make a strong presence quickly, (blasting out content, pictures and quotes) and commenting on social networks with feedback like “great”, “enjoyed that” or “learned a lot” and nothing more.

The problem is they are only making half the effort that is needed for success.

While they may actually read all the comments on their own or others posts and tweets — that is as far as they go.

As a business, you need to be willing to go the distance and truly interact with your audience, and create posts that speak to them. That includes engaging on other platforms too.

Audiences need to know that someone is on the other end and actually listening to their problems and hearing their questions.

Try to contribute to your community with your knowledge and experience.

Responding to your audience brings a feeling of familiarity to your business. You no longer are just a business, you become a trusted friend.

Your willingness to care is going to take on a life of its own as your answers and comments are shared by your audience.

While this is a relatively simple task it helps to put your business on the map that is one that listens to and cares for their audience.

This one simple task can help you jump over your competition by leaps and bounds.

Pick a time each day or week where you address this, and track the data via your web analytics.

2) Offer Exclusive, Entertaining, Useful Information And Deals

You have to give your audience a reason to follow you on social media.

Simply asking and saying ‘please’ is not enough anymore. In fact, outright ethically bribing your audience to follow you may be the only way to gain followers and an audience, especially in the beginning. If done with integrity and a helpful intention, it will work.

But, do not feel as though you have to bribe your audience with monetary gifts and rewards all the time.

Sometimes the act of sharing exclusive information with your audience is all that is needed.

People like the feeling of being in an exclusive club and receiving high-quality information can be their gateway drug within your business.

Another tactic you can use on the promotion of your business is by sharing exclusive sales and deals that are not offered anywhere else.

While your audience will love the special deals, you will enjoy the immediate boost in sales.

If you are feeling generous, the best way to promote your business on social media is through the use of freebies and sweepstakes.

Everyone loves to get something for free and this is all the more true with online relationships.

Simple sweepstakes that involves the giveaway of an inexpensive product has the potential of reaching thousands of targeted audience members.

Remember, the more unique you can get with your sweepstakes theme and prize the more people it will reach.

However, gone are the days of the “get a free iPad” campaigns. These will not help your business since tire-kickers and freebie-seekers are the only ones you’ll get.

3) Build Up Your Reputation

Social media is one of the best platforms to build up your online reputation.

As you already know your online reputation is one of your most valuable assets available to you.

Without a good reputation, your efforts online will more than likely fall flat.

You can use your time on social media by offering insights, opinions, and valuable information to your visitors.

By simply sharing this information you are building an incredible online reputation while you are promoting yourself. An incredible way of killing two birds with one stone, if you will.

Your reputation builds because all you are offering is helpful advice and tips. That is why it is so important in the early stages of promoting your business that you stay far away from self-promotion.

Your audience can smell a sales pitch a mile away and this will do more harm to your reputation than those hefty commissions can solve.

4) Use All Platforms That Are Available To You

Many businesses will only use Facebook or Twitter and forget about all the other resources that are available to them.

Just because you don’t think Pinterest or Tumblr would offer much of an impact in promoting your business doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them.

In fact, many times you may be able to grow a rather large following if you are able to tailor your contact to the type of audience that hangs around those platforms.

However, the smartest step is to do some research first. Where is your audience hanging out? Perhaps you are in a B2B environment? You should consider LinkedIn and create not only your personal profile there, but also create LinkedIn company pages.

If you are unsure what you should be sharing on Pinterest or Instagram, spy on some of your competitors and follow along those similar lines. Once you see that your content is being enjoyed by the audience, start getting creative with the content that you share and create.

5) Video Is As Social As You Can Get

Too many businesses are forgetting the absolute engagement power that comes with creating content for YouTube.

YouTube is still one of the largest social media powerhouses and should not be ignored.

It’s the 2nd largest search engine and owned by Google. YouTube is a good platform to promote your business online.

YT should be used to get very personal with your audience and is perfect for creating how-to videos and tips that your audience will appreciate. Create a few short videos to start. Begin by answering the top 5-10 most common questions that customers and prospects ask.

These videos are very easy to create and your audience is going to love sharing these.

As an added bonus the link back you will receive from is valuable for targeted traffic. It include an editorial “no-vote” in Google’s eyes, but still important to direct traffic to your segmented website.

One of the most important things to remember about promoting your business online is that you have to build a reputation that instills a sense of trust and loyalty. Without these two components, your campaigns are likely to fail.

Conclusion:

These are just a few ways you can start promoting your business and building a loyal following…So to recap, here are the 5 strategies to review:

1. Create interaction: Engagement Is The Key To Success
2. Infotainment: Offer Exclusive, Entertaining, Useful Information And Deals
3. Brand reputation: Build Up Your Reputation
4. Be omnipresent: Use All Relevant Platforms That Are Available To You
5. Get personal: Video Is As Social As You Can Get

We always love to hear what your methods have been in successfully promoting your business through social media.

What are you using now? Fill in the comments below, would love to get feedback:

FREE: Download the free Social Media Performance Handbook that will show you how to set up your social media campaigns in 7 simple steps. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.