Now ranked the second most popular social networking site, Twitter is a must for all marketing savvy businesses. The chat room nature of the site allows businesses to communicate with customers in a way other social media sites can’t. But on Twitter, success is all about the followers. Below are a few tips on how to get more Twitter followers.

Follow Others Who Share Your Interests

In the world of online marketing, you often have to give in order to receive. On Twitter, many businesses follow others in the hopes those users will reciprocate. It’s important that you choose to follow businesses and individuals who might be interested in your business’s offerings, including other businesses in your industry. To follow someone on Twitter, search a keyword that applies to your business. On the right, you’ll see “people results” for the search term you entered. This is where you’ll find businesses. You can follow by clicking the link to the right of the business name or, if you prefer to review the business’s tweets first, follow by clicking on the “Follow” button below the business description.

Regularly Engage in Conversation with Fellow Tweeters

Replying to a Tweet is easy. A “reply” link is located beneath each post. When you reply, an @ symbol appears next to that user’s name, which not only allows the user to see the tweet, it will show up to anyone doing a search of that user. Most avid tweeters regularly check their accounts for replies and are all too eager to respond back. This sort of chatty conversation is the backbone of Twitter. Followers of that person’s account may click on your name to read your tweets, especially if they feel they may have something in common with you. This is a great way to get new followers. It’s important to note here that you can communicate with Twitter members even if you don’t follow them. Their tweets simply won’t show up on your feed.

Promote Your Twitter Profile

Twitter provides handy buttons, available in the resources section, that you can post on your company websites. Many businesses also choose to use a newsfeed, also available in the resources section, which can be inserted into your website, blog, or even your Facebook profile. A newsfeed provides visitors an up-to-the-minute ticker of your latest tweets. Not only does this let customers know where to find you on the site, it broadcasts your tweets to visitors who might be drawn to what your Twitter profile is offering. For instance, if you regularly tweet specials or the latest news about your company, loyal customers will want to follow you to be sure not to miss important information. Consider posting a news item or a line of text at the bottom of your company blog inviting customers to follow you on Twitter to get the latest specials.

Use Hashtags

Avid Twitter users are all too familiar with hashtags, which are topics preceded by the # symbol. If enough people hashtag a topic, it will “trend,” which makes it eligible for the “Trends” list that appears in the right side panel when a Twitter user conducts a search of the site. If a user clicks on a hashtag, this leads to other tweets on that same topic. By using existing popular hashtags in your post, you can bring new people to your site, increasing your exposure. One popular hashtag at present is #thingsicantlivewithout. Post something profound in a popular and people might even retweet it, allowing their followers to see it and possibly click through to your page.

Pick a Theme and Stick to It

If your business is building homes, stick with posts related to home-building. If you’re a technology company, provide helpful posts that are technology-related. By staying with the same theme, rather than a broad variety of topics, you’re more likely to carve out a niche for yourself in the Twitter universe.

Provide useful information

If your Twitter account is used only for posting random ads, you’ll lose any customers you attract. Give customers a reason to follow you, by thinking like your customers and providing information they would want. Consider incorporating your Twitter account into promotions, offering customers the possibility of winning prizes by following your Twitter account or be eligible for giveaways with a follow or retweet. You’d be surprised how many people are more than willing to promote your offerings for the possibility of winning a prize.

Put a face behind the profile

Is your Twitter profile too corporate? Consider assigning real people to your profile. Pinkberry is one of many Twitter success stories because of this, according to Business Insider. The company’s digital director, Pamela Naumes, is an active part of Pinkberry’s Twitter presence, letting users know even in the company description on Twitter that she is the one behind the tweets. This gives followers a real person with whom to connect, personalizing Twitter so that when Pamela asks, “What is your favorite Pinkberry flavor?,” followers know a real person will be reading the responses. Omaha Steaks has customer service representatives trolling the site, looking for ways to connect with customers. If you post a complaint on the site, you’ll likely hear from @OmahaSteaksJoey, @OmahaSteaksPaty, or @OmahaSteaksJami, the company’s consumer services manager, among others. Likewise with any compliments you post about the company. This not only reinforces the company’s presence on Twitter, it makes customers feel as though they can easily communicate with customer service at any time.

While Twitter’s format takes a little adjustment, those who regularly use the site can’t deny its addictive quality. With more than 175 million registered users, the site is an undeniable resource for business marketers. The key, though, is to have an active Twitter presence that encourages followers and promotes business growth. Using these few simple tips, you’ll be tweeting to the masses like a pro in no time.

On Facebook, it’s all about the “likes,” especially for businesses. One fan hitting that like button can put your name in front of thousands of potential customers, since that like puts a status update on that person’s wall. Companies are struggling to learn new ways to prompt fans to like a post. Actively participating in your Facebook fan page by following these few tips can help you coax more likes and increase your exposure.

Post Regular Status Updates and Interact with Fans

An inactive Facebook profile is just as bad, if not worse, than no profile at all. If you are clueless about social networking, search for someone on your staff who might be more Facebook-savvy. Someone needs to be updating your Facebook profile on a regular basis, as well as interacting with your fans. This shows your fans you have an interest in what they have to say, which increases your customers’ engagement in whatever it is you’re promoting.

Publicize Your Facebook Presence on Your Website

It’s hard to find a website these days that doesn’t have a Facebook button on it. Web surfers have begun looking for it, in some instances, clicking through to follow if the subject is one that is of interest to them. Many businesses choose to slip the button in a side panel, along with Twitter and LinkedIn buttons. But for real impact, consider giving your website visitors a call to action, like “Follow us on Facebook.” Get Facebook badges here.

Regularly Offer Coupons and Deals Only Available to Facebook Fans

Nothing prompts customers to press that like button like offering a coupon or giveaway for doing so. “Like us on Facebook and get a free product sample,” for example. Not only will that  be broadcasted to all of that Facebooker’s friends, you’ll be sending a free sample the person will tell friends about if it works. But you don’t have to give samples away to get likes. Just posting exclusive deals to Facebook followers will make a huge difference in the number of fans your page enjoys. Once your customers learn that special offers are being posted on Facebook, your fans will likely grow and you’ll find yourself with a loyal, responsive Facebook following.

Encourage Fans to Post Photos of Themselves Enjoying Your Product or Service

Call it someone’s fifteen minutes of fame, but when a business has quite a few followers, having a photo posted can feel a little like celebritydom. Invite your fans to get in on the fun by posting a photo of themselves enjoying your product or service. This is not only a ready-made positive review of your business, it shows you care about your customers. Even better, if those fans tag themselves in the photos, the photo turns up on their wall, displaying to all their friends. If you’d like to give fans an extra incentive to post photos, offer discounts to those who post photos. Or have a contest for the best photo of a fan enjoying your product, awarding something to the winner. A contest can engage customers, bringing out competitive natures and encouraging interaction between your followers.

Install “Like” Buttons on Your Company Websites and Any Blog Posts

To prompt even more likes, add a like button everywhere you can. Any fresh content on your company websites needs to be treated with a like button, available here. On sites like Blogger and WordPress, though, you likely won’t need Facebook’s code to insert a like button. In fact, once you start looking for it, you might be surprised how often you will see that like button option on websites. Usually the Facebook like button is accompanied with text stating how many others have liked that particular post, or the words: “Be the first of your friends to like it.” Often the like button is best placed at the end of content, since, logically speaking, someone will be prompted to publicly like something after having thoroughly read it.

Incorporate Your Facebook Page Into Customer’s Daily Lives

These days, Facebookers announce everything they do. They check in at the hair salon, grocery store, and during lunch at Burger King. This public sharing extends beyond check ins, however, with Facebookers publicly announcing which articles they read, what television shows they’re watching, even what items they buy on Amazon. Take a lesson from mega-businesses and give your customers the opportunity to announce what they’re doing from your site. If you’re offering online courses, let them tell everyone when they accomplish a particular goal by clicking on a link. When a user completes a purchase from your site, allow that customer the option of sharing news of that purchase with others. Much of this is accomplished through the Activity Feed plugin, but you might also be interested in some of the other plugins Facebook has to offer, including recommendations, comments, and a Facepile plugin, which shows pictures of others who have liked a business’s site. For more information on plugins, visit Facebook’s Social Plugins information page.

Monitor your success

Facebook offers Facebook Insights, which allows page owners and developers to track activity on a Facebook fan page. This information is only available to administrators of a particular business account, but it will give you information on page impressions and likes generated by your page or a particular app or post within. This is the type of information that can help your business decide what future action to take in order to get additional views. In addition to Insights, keep an eye on your page likes and fans, even keeping track of how those numbers change from month to month. The numbers don’t lie and if your followers and likes are increasing, that tells you you’re doing something right.

Facebook likes are still uncharted territory for many smaller businesses, but they are definitely worth the effort. Just one like can be seen by untold numbers of people, increasing brand recognition and bringing new followers to your page.

YouTube isn’t just for watching funny videos anymore. Businesses are realizing the potential of the video sharing site and catapulting it to social media megasite status. How can your business take advantage of the large customer base YouTube provides? The key is to draw people to your videos, experts say, and using the tips below, you can increase your YouTube views.

Follow Others Who Share Your Interests

Create Playlists

Post Relevant, Useful Videos

With any social media page, if you exist merely to post ads for your service, you’ll lose people quickly. If you’re in business, chances are you offer a service others want. Find a way to create instructional videos on topics people might search. Automotive repair shops can give lessons on everyday do-it-yourself jobs like changing a headlight or oil changes. Computer tech support companies can break down computer repairs into a series of step-by-step instructional videos. YouTube users search for these things and your videos will give your business exposure similar to the type of exposure a television ad would give. End each video with your company logo and a brief discount offer to anyone saying they saw the ad on YouTube.

Comment on Similarly Themed YouTube Videos

You may not have noticed, but YouTube can be a very interactive viewing experience. Many of the more popular videos on the site have comments posted, with some visitors replying to other people’s comments. This can create a very interactive, forum-like experience, with the conversation becoming sometimes heated and controversial. Posting respectful and topical comments on similarly themed videos can help draw attention to your own videos, with some curious viewers clicking over to see what videos you have.

Annotate Your Videos

YouTube allows members to add annotations to their videos that include calls to action. This call to action can either be a clickable link to send viewers to your website or a link to a newer version of an old video. You can also use this feature to embed links to your playlist or channel, encouraging visitors to both view and subscribe. Annotations can also be used to pause a video for a length of time while you insert text to illustrate a point. To annotate a video, you’ll need to go to the Annotations Editor by choosing the drop down below your YouTube username. You’ll then choose My Videos, find the video you want to edit, and choose annotations. This process is user-friendly and quick, but it will make you look like a YouTube pro.

Encourage Comments and Interact with Commenters

To appear prominently in Google search results, comments are everything. Since videos generally involve very little text, commenting and responding to comments is one of only a few ways to put keywords on your video page. The important thing is to always be respectful of your visitors, maintaining your professionalism at all times, no matter what. Other ways to slip those important keywords into your page include beefing up your video’s description and tagging your video are two other ways. To tag your video, use the Edit option while logged into your video’s page. More detailed step-by-step instructions are available here.

Encourage Visitors to Subscribe

While it’s true that savvy YouTubers know to subscribe to a channel they like, a happy reminder never hurts. The option does pop up atthe end of your video, as well as a button that prominently shows at the top of every video on the site. But tagging your video toward the end to state something to the effect of, “If you like our videos, subscribe” can never hurt. On a few of your videos, try verbally inviting your viewers to subscribe.

Link to Your Videos on Facebook and Twitter

Cross-promotion among social media sites is essential to success on any social media forum. Promoting your videos is as easy as clicking the “share” button under your video and choosing from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or e-mail. You can also choose to embed your video, which allows you to incorporate it into a blog, website, or anywhere where you utilize HTML. Google+ also allows you to watch someone’s video with friends, creating it as a Google+ hangout.

According to YouTube, more than three billion videos are viewed every day, with more than 800 million unique visitors to the site every single month. While this creates a valuable marketing opportunity for businesses, it’s important for those businesses to provide interesting, useful content in order to attract viewers and keep them coming back. Using the above tips, you should be able to begin a group of subscribers that will continue to grow.