Having social media business accounts alone does not mean you will engage consumers. You need to work at it, be engaging and interesting, and offer way to entertain and teach your followers. Getting your message out through social media is very possible with smart ads, apps and more.

1. Get Into the Facebook App Game

Facebook has recently released a list of favored app developers and each can be advantageous in engaging Facebook followers and gaining new ones.
Some of the apps you can take advantage of are games for followers to play, quizzes that reveal something about them and contests where followers can win prizes. There are even apps where people can enter videos, photos or recipes where the winner is chosen by the community. Facebook app developers are coming up with all sorts of innovative ways to market your business and choosing a recommended developer ensures you’re following Facebook advertising rules.

2. Entertain and Educate Using Google+

Some companies are using the power of Google and Google+ to engage followers and receive shares by posting videos and photos. An example would be a one of your own YouTube videos that shows a demo of your product or services. Or, you can change it up a bit and post video reviews based on your industry. In you sell video games, why not upload videos showing the features of new games to your audience?

Google+ is also affords a great way to participate in email marketing campaigns. Because every Google+ user has a Gmail account, use those to you advantage to email coupons, discounts, promotions or industry news.

3. Be Funny in 140 Characters or Less!

People search for the funny and humorous on social media so why not give them what they want? With Twitter business accounts not only can you advertise and promote your tweets, you can also compose some funny tweets and include an image and a location.

Create your own posts full of humor or retweet those of others. There are tons of popular joke sites on the Web to help you tweet the funniest jokes or come up with tweets based on humor right inside your business. Make sure to attach images and a location to add a boost to your tiny URLs to increase engagement.

4. Use Pinterest and Invite in the Browsers

Pinterest may not be as popular so some other social media platforms (48 million users), but the average consumer does enjoy browsing for products they like—in pictures. Signing up for Pinterest is free and creating boards based on your products is easy.

Dedicate each board to a particular category or aspect of your business and make sure you insert the Pinterest icon on your blog and website and Tweet about your boards. Another great way to use Pinterest is to start a public board and invite users to post images and links to the products they love. The longer users browse your boards, the more likely you are to gain interest and sales.

In order to use social media to help promote your business it means you must employ fun apps, games or contests, offer videos and lots of images, connect with email marketing and create fun places for consumers to browse your products.