Social media’s impact on today’s culture has completely changed the way that businesses can present information to potential customers. Ever-changing technologies and easily accessible data provide unlimited avenues for consumers to do their due diligence before making purchases.

You’ll find tons of articles online about the importance of building a social media following and how it can increase your leads and business prospects. While this is true, it’s just as important to discuss the development and implementation of a rockstar social media strategy. Tossing up a Twitter or Instagram account with no solid plan as to what type of content to post, when to post, or how to find your core audience can leave you with lackluster engagement results.

Here are four tips to help you get the engagement that you want and increase your social media following:

1. Check out the competition’s accounts

   Visit the social media accounts of your top five competitors to see who’s making the most waves online within your industry. Note how they engage with their followers and the types of information that they share. Do they bombard their followers with their product listings, or do they offer them helpful tips and how-tos? This type of competitive research will prove invaluable to your organization and can help you pinpoint any shortcomings within your online activities.

2. Be consistent with branding

   Make sure that you use the same logo, and if possible, the same username on all of your social media accounts. The power of branding on social media is apparent in the success of brands such as Apple and Netflix. Be sure that followers can distinguish your company from other accounts, and that they can easily subscribe to all of your social media feeds.

3. Let other people brag for you

   The power of testimonials from everyday people and industry experts can quickly put you on the track to great social media success. Always re-post positive feedback and stellar reviews from customers to your social media accounts, as social proof from unbiased consumers can hold a lot of weight.

4.  Plan out social media activities before joining platforms

   Save yourself time and frustration by becoming familiar with social media platforms before setting up your accounts. Then, develop a possible social media schedule and streamline your activities by using management tools such as Tailwind, Hootsuite, and SproutSocial. It can be helpful for small businesses to focus on just one social media platform initially and then expand to others as followers increase. That will reduce the risk of feeling overwhelmed with content creation and engagement with your followers.

Before creating social media accounts, find out which platforms will work best for the types of content you’re looking to post. Know where your target audience hangs out the most, and take note of the kinds of material with which they engage. Use branded hashtags for SEO purposes and to reinforce company messaging. For example, this can be a company slogan or mantra, or anything that helps make your online presence memorable with your viewers.

Developing a workable plan to engage online visitors is the roadmap that’ll help you utilize social media to its fullest capacity and drive more traffic to your business. And remember: it’s free advertising.