By Janette Leon-Speyer and Ilana Youngheim, Web Success Team

Have you logged into Facebook or Twitter today? If you haven’t yet, I’m sure you will. So many of us spend so much time on our social networks. We are talking to our friends, looking at our favorite products and event talking to companies. Social media is essential to how we communicate on a daily basic now.  How does this affect the approach of businesses?

Social media is essentially used for marketing and for branding. It’s a way to do business and how to connect to each other. This is why social engagement is so critical to the success of your business. Engaging your consumers is no longer just on the shoulders of your marketing and PR firm. The job now extends to the sales team, customer service and staff.  It’s all about working together as a group to engage with your consumers. When your customers have questions or problems you are all there to answer.

A recent study from the Pulse Point Group found, the most socially engaged enterprises are experiencing business value returns 4 times higher than those who have the least social engagement presence.

Keys to engaging with your consumers:

Opportunities to Engage

It’s important to know who is interacting with your brand. Continue to create engagement with them; you can track where the consumers are coming from through Google Analytics. It’s important to know who your audience is and what they are looking for. This way you can build product and social platforms around them.

“Like” or “Follow”

When a consumer hits “Like” or “Follow” what does that mean? It means they are publicly endorsing your product. They are showing interest in your brand.  Respond with a “Thank You”. Show them it matters to you those they “like” your product. Right away you are engaging with them.

Build Relationships

Getting a new fan or follow is great but keeping them is even better. To do this it’s about building relationships with your consumer. Talk to them, find out whom they are. It’s as if they walked into your restaurant. The waitress would go up to them and ask them if they want a menu, then what they want to drink, then what they want to eat. Be attentive! They are potential consumers and so are their friends.

When customers ask questions, be ready to answer. Also, post questions to get people involved in your brand.

Here are some tools to help you interact:

1.     Set-Up Notifications via Mobile or Email

It’s easy to miss messages on Facebook or Twitter. Make sure to set up notifications. When a message comes in you will be alerted on your phone.

2.     Set up a social media management account

Hootsuite or SocialoOmph, allow you to see your social media platforms in one place. You can do all your updates, answer questions and schedule future posts. This is a great way to stay organized. Multiple people can be working at the same time.

3.    Create a Social Engagement Team

Have a person in your firm to manage and follow your social media performance. Your company will have the ability to engage with customers and to grow your business.

Once you turn them into a follower the opportunities are there to create engagement and they are endless. Be creative and garnish those relationships. Every relationship is a potential consumer and should be treated as such.

If you liked this article you may also like:

• Tweet Like a Star and Still Be a Professional
• The Five Phases of Social Media Marketing
• The New Wave to Engagement in Social Media: Relationship Marketing