Many of the clients who approach Pop Labs for social media help are able to set up their social media accounts and fill in their profiles, but they lack the understanding to really make a business impact with their social media efforts because they don’t know how to increase social media interaction. Part of the disconnection between establishing social media and getting results is misunderstanding the purpose of social media.

The internet has not always been a participatory platform. In the 1990s, much of the information on the net was meant as a static bulletin board for whatever organization or movement you wanted to investigate. Over time, the process became more and more interactive, as consumers were able to filter their product search options and even begin to correspond with people around the world through electronic contact.

Social media was the final blow to the idea of the internet as a static, non-changing world of boring, digitally dusty web sites. Today, almost every site changes by way of blog, social media updates and other means of message control.

To stay a step ahead of the digital curve, we not only forecast where digital communication is headed, but how you can use it to your advantage. And in the case of social media, that means interacting with your audience to improve sales and customer service.

With that in mind, consider these four methods of improving and increasing your social media audience interaction.

#1 ALTER YOUR STYLE
Not getting what you want out of your audience? Maybe your posts are boring. There’s only so much in the way of company news a person can handle. Change up the actual format of your messages. Instead of issuing online press releases, ask your audience relevant questions about your business. Link to appropriate news. Write poems if you have to. You’re better off trying anything than nothing.

#2 ADJUST THE VOLUME
There is no magic formula for how many posts you should pump out on a given platform. A tweet may only be 140 characters long, but enough short messages and you’ve got yourself a novel.If you aren’t getting feedback, try increasing or decreasing the amount of posts you are putting out there.

#3 TIME THE CURRENT
There has been some debate as to when it is the best time to post messages to improve interaction. There is no perfect method yet, but here’s what you need to know: If you post when people are online in high mass, you will be there when they are looking but you will have to compete with massive amounts of other posts. If you post during off hours, you will have less competition but less eyes on the page. If you want to change your results, vary your post time.

#4 CROSS FEEDS
Social Media is a large-scale feed for first adopters. People post to multiple feeds with Hoot Suite or track multiple feeds with Rockmelt. To that end, feel free to get creative by feeding the fans of one site over to another. Your audience might be better suited for a particular platform. Shuffle the audience and the strategy and see where that takes you.

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