Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Social media profiles – we all have them, but here’s a question… How many of us know what is being said about us or our brand on them?

I’m sure we all pay varying levels of interest to each of our profiles depending on our mood and interests.

In the current digital world improving your social media presence is a big obligation for individuals and businesses alike.

Here are a few Tips for Building and Managing a Social Media Audience.

• Remember that people want to socialise with the person behind the fancy logo or strapline.
• Try not to always post about your business offers.
• Post at different times of the day, we all have different schedules.
• Follow up on Tweets and engage in conversation.
• When you find interesting articles, rather than post them all immediately schedule some to post later via social media management programs.

Scheduling posts will help you reach more of your followers, especially those from different time zones. At the same time you want to be careful not to automate everything, follow up on Tweets and engage in conversation; social media is about other people too. When your followers learn that you’re an industry expert, they’ll trust your business when they look for a product in your area.

You may be surprised to learn that there are plenty of tools that can help you monitor and improve your social media activity. Personally, I had been using Hootsuite for a good six months before I upgraded to a pro package. It offers a host of features which help manage multiple profiles and it has helped me a lot to keep on top of all the updates.

Finally, remember – as humans we like to share our feelings and be part of the pack. Don’t be the guy at the party that only talks about himself.

Here is a nice breakdown from docsocTV on what Hootsuite can do for you.

Photos: Zulf Photography

Video: www.docstoc.com

Hootsuite: www.hootsuite.com