Social media sites weren’t created with businesses in mind. The idea behind Facebook was to create a way for people to meet and communicate online. Twitter is full of conversations from people chatting with one another and having fun. If you want your business to be successful on social media sites you need to be ready to loosen up and have fun.

Give People What They Want

People are using social media ton interact and have fun. They tag one another in ridiculous photos, invite people to join them on Farmville, and post photos of cats in teacups. Look at an individual’s page and then at any company page on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest and you can see the difference immediately. These pages are professional but they are too uptight, which isn’t what people are looking for on these sites.

Out of the over 10 million business sites on Facebook, most of them are boring. They have pictures of their products or their latest 10% coupon. These sites dwell in dullsville and then wonder why no one is “liking” their content. People need a reason to become your followers, and they won’t do it if your business page is going to put them to sleep.

Therefore, you need to find a way to be entertaining on Facebook and Twitter. Give them a reason to “like” and interact with your content. One way is to play games. There are many games you can play on social sites to engage your fans. You can create a start to a funny story and ask your followers to add the next line. You can create one day a week, like Monday or Wednesday, and designate it for when you post funny jokes to help people get through the day. For example, take a look at how our client, Bamboo Steakhouse, makes it easier for fans to get through the mid-week blues. 

Fun and Educational

Who says learning has to be boring? When you find interesting topics that will help your fans present it in an amusing format. Another client of Social Spice Media, who is a dentist, was able to make a dull subject like toothpaste fun.

Create a cartoon or infographic with funny images. As long as the posts aren’t irreverent, you will find that people love to laugh, even at themselves sometimes.

Do You Like Me? 

Another way that you can engage people is to ask them what they think about the information you are posting. For example, you can ask people to re-tweet or like your content if they find it engaging, funny, or entertaining. When you create a game or a contest, you ask people to enter. For other types of posts, however many businesses don’t come out and ask fans to re-tweet or like their content. That is because they assume people will share information they enjoy. Truth is that many people won’t unless they are asked so don’t be afraid to add a call to action at the end of the post to increase engagement.

Be Interactive

Social media sites are successful when people post on each other’s walls or Pinterest boards as well as liking and sharing information. If you want people to engage on your page, you have to be willing to engage with others. Comment on other people’s pages and share amusing or interesting content you find from other Facebook or Twitter members.

You also need to remember your manners online. If somebody interacts with your Social content make sure to thank them. You should then interact with them or give them a “like” for their comments. It makes them feel special and connected with you and your organization.

Keep Advertising to a Minimum

When you are participating in social media marketing, you will want to plan on 80% of your content being entertaining and the other 20% being advertisement for your product or service. So for example, create marketing content for your social media site once every other week; post it for a few times over the next two days, and then go back to the entertaining content.

When you interact and have fun on these sites you will increase your social media foot print, increase your revenue and attract more fans and followers who will carry your brand to you next client.