Unsure why your efforts to engage in social media hasn’t been as fruitful as you’d hoped? Change the way you interact with these 3 important points.

Social media interaction for businesses is often less about templatized posts and tweets, and more about grasping and observing the psychology of the target demographic. Many startups fumble with establishing a web presence to reckon with. The easiest way out is often the tried and tested methods which happen to be working for everyone. So why isn’t it working for you?

There are myriad strategies and guidelines to follow regarding engaging with your followers and how to go about gaining new ones, what kind of articles to post and how frequently, etc. However, a lot of these set rules lack a basic understanding of the meaning and purpose of social media, and how imperative it is to customize the experience in order to garner attention. For instance, if a person follows a number of tech blogs, the last thing they want to see is a bunch of posts on the same topic with little or no variation from everyone. The same goes for online stores and brands.

So, it seems that the key to reaping the successes of social media is to coalesce the unique offerings of a company with practical web tools and current trends of social media marketing.

Users make the content viral. Not you:

But the good news is, you are in charge of the ingredients. Make of it what you will. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you can never truly predict the outcome of a particular strategy or campaign. You can only work on properly conveying what sets you apart in a manner that you feel will be relevant to your target demographic and wait for the reaction. It’s often seen that the posts, campaigns and promotional offers you thought would do well received a lukewarm response, and vice versa. In such a situation, you can only aim to be as sincere as possible and model your campaigns around the useful data you have collected about your customer base.

The internet maybe whimsical at times, but no good thing gets ignored. Be sure to highlight your uniqueness instead of complying with the hackneyed rules of the herd.

Choose the best possible platform:

Social media sharing and bookmarking sites are mushrooming all over the place, each with its niche features and users. Invest your time in intensive research and find out which platform your target customers prefer. Look for flexibility. Currently, the most popular social media sites for promotional purposes are Twitter, Facebook, Vine and Tumblr. Be sure to only pick around 2-3 and make a point to be active on those platforms.

Engagement and direct communication with your followers and subscribers is extremely important. Reliability is cultivated when you make your presence felt on their timeline everyday with engaging content. Strike a balance – don’t be too overwhelming or too invisible. And proofread, always proofread. It would be a shame if a typo takes all the attention away from your carefully crafted content.

Increase engagement with interesting content:

If you feel you haven’t been getting the amount of response you had anticipated, you need to analyze and revise the kind of content you have been posting. Stay one step ahead of the trend. Start a new trend. For instance, Top ten lists have been around for a while now, and they are convenient, quick ways to convey ideas and hacks. However, once in a while, introducing engaging graphics and shaking up the perspective is great for catching the eye of your subscribers if you’re running a blog for your business.

Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes. Create campaigns and content that would convince you!

Social media marketing usually takes less time and investment owing to the availability of different web tools. It also has a wider reach because the whole world is logging in for work and play. Shaping an innovative and effective campaign can be trying at best, and attempting to do everything yourself will take your focus away from what’s most important – the specifics of running your business. It is thus advisable to delegate a part of this responsibility to dedicated professionals who will d work with you to provide practical advice and design advertisements and campaigns that reflect your vision and goals.