Advantages of social media go beyond increased traffic to your company website. It’s also a tool to develop your brand persona. For 72% of marketers, it’s also an invaluable tool for cultivating loyal patrons who believe in what brands have to offer.

At Danzor Flicks, we provide offshore remote staffing for companies, including marketing support roles. We see the impact of social media first hand. When done right, you can reap the same results yourself. It’s time you put serious thought to your strategy. As you assess your current marketing efforts and plan for next year’s, consider these points.

This important step is often overlooked. The New Year is a good time to evaluate your audience and identify which social network they use.

You can achieve success across multiple channels, but make sure you set individual and specific goals. For example, while you can aim for hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers, the same may not be realistic on Google+.

Jerry Low from Business.Com urges brands to find their focus, “Focus your audience. Focus the social media platforms you use. Focus your niche. And focus your posts to that niche.”

Each social media network has its own formula for successful posts. If you’re employing the same strategy on different platforms, you’ll find that what works for Twitter could be driving away your LinkedIn followers.

It’s time you optimize each post and consider the platform. Start with image sizes. Jamie Spencer of Make a Website Hub created an infographic showing different image sizes to use when optimizing social posts.

Dial down on promotional posts on social media. Remember, “Social media is about building trust that ultimately leads to sales” says Kim Garst on Boom Social. While social media is a great place to advertise your product or service, too much sales pitches will turn your audience against your profile as well as your brand.

Instead of talking about your company and product constantly, employ social media’s 4-1-1 rule. Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Insititute says that for every 1 self-serving post, you should retweet 1 post and share 4 other helpful content created by other people.

It’s not enough to add your audience on social media accounts. Posting content that encourage them to take action is one way, but creating deeper connections is a better way to nurture interest with your audience.

“If you want to connect with prospects, you have to engage with them.” says Debbie Hemley for Social Media Examiner. Be truthful and genuine when responding to posts or messages. The best way to do this is to first listen to what they have to say, before making them engage with your content.

One component of a successful social media marketing strategy is “maintaining a steady, consistent presence.” shares Kali Hawlk of Common Sense Millennial. This is where marketing automation becomes valuable.

This, of course, is nothing compared to being part of the conversation. Participating in real-time discussions over social media adds a personal touch to your strategy. It tells your audience that you are available when they are available. Including real-time marketing strategies is putting the ‘social’ back in ‘social media’.

“You should be building brand awareness and generating website traffic, leads and sales from multiple channels -- social media, email, pay-per-click, SEO and display ads.” says Jonathan Long of Market Domination Media. Social media is stronger when it goes hand-in-hand with equally strong digital marketing strategies.

Build a well-rounded marketing team that can give equal focus to all these channels. When you leverage the option to build remote teams, you can even hire people specifically to focus on each major social media platform. You will have people whose primary concern is to grow your brand on different networks.