Social media marketing is changing every single day. New platforms and technologies are constantly being created giving marketers access to new streams of data that they can use to adjust their strategy. The way brands are using social media today is different from what it was even just one year ago and it will be different another year from now. The most successful social media marketers are those that embrace these new platforms and marketing tools and incorporate them into existing strategies to always keep improving. If you want to take your social media business strategy to the next level, then here are four tips you need to keep in mind.

Engage with customers

In the world of social media marketing, you’ll often hear the advice to do a lot more listening than talking. Social media is different than traditional marketing channels in that promoting your products or services is not the primary goal. Social media is about building brand awareness and opening up lines of communication with your customer base. As such, you don’t want to be putting so much attention into your promotional content that you’re not able to adequately listen to what your customers are saying to you on social media. But there’s something even more important than listening, and that’s engaging. Find ways to truly interact with your customers or potential customers on social media and you’ll be on the right track.

Use social media management tools

There’s no shortage of social media management tools that you can be using to track various metrics and better engage with customers. Which ones you use will depend on your particular strategy. Social media management tools can give your social media people a central dashboard where they can schedule the publishing of content, route inbound messages to the right person, and see what’s being said about the brand on social media.

Get the right content to the right people

Outside of social media, almost all advertising is paid advertising. But social media is more diverse. While you certainly can pay to sponsor posts, there’s also earned, owned, and shared content that are free. There is a place for all kinds of content in your social media strategy. It’s a matter of finding the right balance. When you’re putting together a post, you need to consider your audience and objectives and decide on which type of content will be the best for that particular situation.

Find the right balance of human and machine

One of the most exciting things happening in social media marketing is the emergence of chatbots that can help to automate a lot of the business-customer interactions that take place over the messaging platform. Chatbots can be an excellent tool but they don’t replace the need for high quality social media people. Finding the right balance between human and machine so that your chatbot is helping and not hindering your social media strategy is of utmost importance.