It’s an increasingly common and frankly inevitable scenario: you’re sailing happily across the social media landscape, up-voting this and re-tweeting that, and it hits you: negativity in social media about YOUR company.

When it comes to engaging customers on Facebook and elsewhere, there are two kinds of social media ideas: those that are awesome, and those that are awesome and actually WORK.

When Alec Baldwin commanded the staggered real estate sales team at Glengarry Glen Ross to ALWAYS BE CLOSING, the last thing on his mind was posts and tweets – how could they know how much the sales process would transform in a film that came out 12 years before Facebook and 14 years before Twitter.

Social media is so simple anyone can do it.

Wait, scratch that.

Social media is so simple anyone can do it wrong. Let's look at how you can stay in front of a social media blunder and create the kind of social media presence that can actually help your audience while promoting your brand.

In the digital marketing world, it may be the most frequent of all frequently asked questions – and it’s also among the most important: how do you attract more visitors to your website? 

B2B companies face a tougher challenge than B2C companies, because their pool of potential customers is so much smaller. A B2C company can market to individuals from all walks of life on any platform, but B2B companies have to target very specific individuals: namely, the “decision makers.”

Social media is one of the most fascinating battlegrounds of 2015. This constantly changing environment has become overrun with ambitious companies looking to leverage their social media presence for profit. But nobody has quite figured out the best way to do that yet. And so, expect to see various companies experimenting with social media in the months to come. Some will have success… and others will have to fire their social media managers.

It’s hard to believe that something that didn’t exist 20 years ago is now part of the daily routine for nearly a billion people around the world – but that describes Facebook perfectly. The brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg has become a global phenomenon, with 936 million people using the social media platform on a daily basis. That means nearly one out of every seven people on the planet checks their Facebook at least once a day. Clearly, that’s an enormous audience you want a piece of.

We live in a social-media dominated world, especially if you’re under the age of 40. Your friends are always tagging you on Facebook, you like to follow what Kim Kardashian posts on Twitter, and you never forget to post a childhood photo on Instagram for #ThrowbackThursday.

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and over 4 billion hours of video are watched. YouTube is the third most visited site, just behind Google and Facebook (source: Alexa). Some of those videos go viral, creating YouTube sensations. Where would Justin Bieber be without YouTube? (Probably back home in Canada). 

No formula exists to make a video go viral but you can take advantage of YouTube for SEO. The more you optimize your videos, the better chance your videos will be found in Google search results, perhaps even page one! YouTube's recently launched, YouTube One Channel, gives you plenty of opportunity to promote your brand and best of all, it's free!

Promote Your Brand!

What YouTube really wants to do is help advertisers engage their target audience by encouraging and pushing users towards channel subscriptions. This will allow advertisers to grow a community on YouTube. As a brand, you will receive several benefits from the One Channel design.

1. First Impression: Use the new trailer feature to win over new subscribers.
2. Dress Up: Design on your desktop and look good on tablets and all other mobile devices.
3. Uniqueness: Nobody's channel will be like yours. Organize your videos and playlist to fit your one of a kind brand.