The World Wide Web is an ever-changing landscape and if you want your business to thrive online you have to be able to roll with the punches and change with it. One area of growth that has just exploded in recent years is the importance of social media and having a social media presence for your business. This includes a video presence on YouTube, Twitter, Google+, and of course, Facebook. There are many other social media sites out there like StumbleUpon and Reddit, which can be useful for some businesses but are very niche. We’re going to concentrate on the big few and help explain how you can more effectively level social media to keep your business relevant and profit from great online branding!

Everyone is on Facebook
One of the important things to realize is that Facebook is massive. Most people understand Facebook is the largest of the social media websites, but many don’t realize just how large they are. There are over 1.1 billion active accounts on Facebook worldwide, and that number just continues to grow. These are people, families, businesses, organizations, and more. Not only does your business or website need a Facebook presence, but there are a few ways to ramp that up, including:

• Creating a Facebook fan page
• Using Facebook private groups as rewards for coaching and for-profit programs that you run. Think of this as the social media version of an online members’ only club
• Use Facebook advertising to generate fans, leads, and more!

These are just three ways that you can easily ramp up attention to your website and your business. Using them in combination works even better and allows you to build up a loyal and responsive fan base over time.

Why you need a YouTube account
Many people think of YouTube as being maybe the most expendable out of all the social media account options, but they really need to think again! YouTube is owned by Google, and the movement online is towards visual media. Much the same way TV replaced reading as a major form of entertainment for many individuals; video is beating text, even online. There’s no better way to build your authority than by creating an account where you can upload a variety of videos on the same topic. As your collection of uploaded videos grows, so will people’s perception of you and your company as an authority.

You would be doing yourself a disservice to leave it be at that. YouTube videos are great for linking to your website, for uploading to your actual website, or for uploading to Facebook and as Google+ updates. In other words, you can build a good circle of high quality links Google likes for SEO while using social media to promote your business over a variety of sites. This lets you bring attention to what you’re doing in three or four different places all from making one video.

Twitter for fast updates
Twitter is a place where you can make a lot of updates quickly, without having to dive into full articles or long videos. This is another place where you can announce the posting of a new video or blog post, get some attention to your business, and share interesting articles or websites from others who might, in turn, spread you around to their circle of influence. Having an active Twitter account is important to keep followers updated and to give you an outlet to make comments, push new changes in your brand, and keep in the mind of your fans and customers even when you don’t have a major new change.

In conclusion
Just merely being around on social media isn’t enough to give you and your business the boost that you’re looking for. However taking the advice in this article to help leverage your social media accounts to build your brand, now that will produce the long-term results you’re looking for!