IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Social media continues to evolve and be a powerful force and way to reach new and existing customers, clients, and markets. One of the biggest problems with this power vehicle is that businesses don't know how to take advantage of it.

"Business owners are spending countless hours online but wiping out. They aren't reaping the benefits of their online outreach," says Starr Hall, social media strategist and author of The Social Wave: Why Your Business is Wiping Out with Social Media and How to Fix It (Entrepreneur Press). "If you fall into this category, it's time to change your social media approach."

Hall offers three can't-miss tips to get started.

1. Create a Call to Action

Make sure that your website visitors are asked to do something once they arrive at your site. If you can only get them to do one thing, what would it be?  Give you their email address and name? Or, view a video? Whatever it is, try to have no more than two calls to action and always ask visitors for their contact info in a subtle but powerful way.

Starr advises, "Make sure to clearly communicate what you will be doing with visitor information. This can include how many emails you will send every month and what you'll be sending."

2. Engage More

"It is not just about posting online, you need to take time every day whether it is 15 minutes or two hours and talk with people online. Be social. It isn't called anti-social media," says Hall.

Like face-to-face encounters, talk with and not at people to build relationships and ultimately build relationships that have the potential to turn into referrals and revenue.

3. Power-up Your Profiles

Make sure that every social profile you have is rich with keywords for your industry and company, and that every single section and box is filled out completely. This not only helps with search engine optimization, it also puts you in a high level networking position—the more people know about you, the more likely they are to connect.

Starr Hall,an international publicist and authority in social media marketing, is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com, the author of The Social Wave: Why Your Business is Wiping Out and How to Fix It, and the co-author of Get Connected: The Social Networking Toolkit for Business.

SOURCE Entrepreneur Press

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