From Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms, these Web 2.0 tools allow you the opportunity to become more visible to your audiences, while also helping you connect to people individually.

The key to making social media outlets work is to become active in usage. The more you can engage, the more others will respond.

Social Media and Engagement

Talking with people is the best way to relate information, but when you have a wider audience, it becomes necessary to utilize tools for better reach. With the immensity of the Web, social media is a better way to engage with people who are already showing interest in the conversation.

Social media offers engagement by:

• Creating personalized accounts – When you sign up for a social media account, you not only save a place for yourself online, but you also can make your profile unique. This allows you to show what you have to offer and who you are. This is a much more intimate way to show who you are and what you have to offer to the online dialogue.
• Encouraging responses – With options like commenting and 'Likes,' as you see on Facebook, it's simple for you to see what others think about the things you post. You can get responses almost immediately and you can reply back to others' posts to encourage more conversation.
• Making sharing easier – Social media tools allow you to share information you have, as well as information you have found online. With this continuous sharing, you are able to create on-going movement in the way that you relate. Plus, others will be able to share useful information in an audience with whom you might not be connected.
• Offering free resources – Since many social media platforms are free, they are budget friendly ways to extend your reach into the online world.
• Allowing for cross posting of ideas – When you connect your social media accounts, you can post your blog entries, ideas, status updates, etc. across all of your social media. This increases your website visibility, and it will allow you to move up in the search engine ranks. Remember, the Web is a web of ideas and information. The more connected you are, the more search engines will rate you higher.

There are a number of social media platforms that can work to help you engage online.

These sites require that you set up an account and profile, then you can use built-in tools to share information. You can also customize your pages to look like your website and you can add in special features to make them even more interactive.

The goal of social media is to make sure everyone you connect with is interested in what you have to say. Choosing the people and accounts you link to is an important part of the process. You want to network with people who are already interested in what you have to share, so that the effectiveness of your posts is immediate.

For those who are interested in selling items, for example, you want to have your social media accounts focused on people who are looking for the products you have for sale. While this reach can extend to potential buyers as well, the more excitement you can build with an interested audience, the more new people will want to find out about your company.

Like any business tool, the more you use the social media in your everyday work, the more effective it will be. Remember, Web 2.0 is about creating opportunities for interaction, and though social media platforms have ways to get people to talk, you also need to be invested in the process.

• Post often – If you've been on Twitter or Facebook already, you know there are some connections that don't speak up often. They might post once in a while, but since they aren't frequent posters, you don't generally check their pages for updates. To make sure your audience is constantly engaged, you need to give them plenty of posts.
• Post relevant material – It's ideal that you post information that your audience is interested in reading. When you do, not only do your readers feel you are posting just for them, but they will also begin to see that you have something to offer.
• Get personal – Though it might be tempting to stay away from the personal details of your life, this choice can also create a barrier between yourself and your audience. People want to get to know you, so be willing to share some parts of your life, your interests, etc.
• Choose the right time of day – When thinking about your audience, consider when they will most likely be online and checking their social media accounts. If you can post during these times, you are more likely to get responses from your activities.
• Answer your feedback – If you get feedback and answers to your posts, try to answer as many of them as you can. When you do, people will come back to learn more and to reply more. Though you might not be able to address every comment, making the effort will be appreciated.
• Create excitement – It's not enough to simply post interesting things, you need to generate excitement for your posts and what they have to share. Creating a series of posts will help bring people back, or building excitement for a special announcement can also be effective.
• Schedule posts ahead of time – If you find that you don't have time to post regularly, then it's a good idea to invest in a product that will allow you to post ahead of time.
• Know your audience needs – As you continue to use your social media, look at the posts that generated the most engagement. From those metrics, you can begin to see what you need to post more regularly, or what topics need to be addressed for your audience.

What you need to keep in mind is that social media is social. You need to be willing and ready to actively engage with your audiences to meet their needs and to keep them interested.

Once you have a system in place, things will get easier and you will find the results are worth all the effort.