Social media has started to grow up, and by now, most people have a pretty decent handle on the basic elements of using it to help market and brand their businesses. But in order to stand out from the crowd, you may need to up your game a little bit, and I've got a series of posts that will help you do just that! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to give you 10 power tips to help you better your social media presence. I'll cover Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

10 Ideas to Make Your Facebook Page Work Better

Let's start with Facebook since it's the biggest elephant in the room. The past couple of years have been frustrating for many of you who are trying to market your business on Facebook. I'll admit—it's not as easy as it used to be, but if you put even just a few of these ideas into action, I think you'll see some improvement in your results!

1. Make sure your "About" section is completely filled out. There is a lot of good information in here, and surprisingly, there are many people who have neglected to fill out this section.

2. Post Consistently. There is a fine line between too much and not enough. This is a good rule of thumb:

• Post at least 5 times per week.
• Post when your audience is there (check your insights but typically around 9 pm).
• Be creative with your written posts. Facebook now encourages longer posts, and the longer people stay on your page, the better your algorithm is!

3. Create a call-to-action. If you haven't taken advantage of the call-to-action button located in your Facebook header, do so now. You can choose from several options such as contact us, learn more, sign up now, and more!

4. Spend some money. For the past couple of years, it has been a fact that in order to get “eyeballs” on your Facebook content, it behooves you to spend some money. Whether you choose to increase the number of followers (which is a good first step) or you choose to boost posts, you need to dedicate some monies to your Facebook presence. As a company, we have seen the biggest impact (for both us and our clients) when we boost certain posts throughout the week.

5. Use video. Right now, video is THE most engaging content you can put on Facebook as they have taken on the task of going head to head with YouTube. The secret to effectively using video on Facebook is to upload it directly to your page as opposed to posting a link to your YouTube channel. Our engagement on video posts are 100x more effective.

6. Pin important posts to the top. If you have something important going on—an event, sale, etc.—you may want to pin that update to the top of your page so it remains highly visible for a longer time. Remember, though, all updates after that will continue to go UNDER the pinned post until you unpin it.

7. Check messages and notifications. You'd be surprised at how many people actually will try to contact you using the messaging feature of your Facebook page. And you'd be equally surprised at how many businesses neglect to check the message section of their pages.

8. Use Facebook as your page. This feature has been around for a while but can be effective in getting more people to know about your business page. You'll typically use this for commenting on mutually beneficial pages. For instance: you are a wedding planner, and you just wrapped up a beautiful wedding and want to acknowledge the other vendors you worked with. You can toggle over to "use Facebook as..." and then when you visit the florist, caterer, venue, etc., you will be commenting as your page, not you the individual!

9. Ask for reviews and ratings. Reviews and ratings can help the strength of your page when it comes to your algorithm, but no matter what—do NOT reward people for leaving your business a review. A good time to ask is when you're sending out a newsletter or sending an email to a client after you've worked with them. Just put a link in there and say something to the tune of "If you were happy with your experience with us, we'd love to have you leave us a review on our social media sites!" (and then put the links to your pages in there.)

10. Mix up your content variety. No one likes to see the same type of updates all the time, and they especially don't want to only see updates that are 100% about your company. People love things that make them smile and laugh, so maybe once a week, put something like a meme or quote. If you have a hard time deviating from your professional "voice," consider making a meme or quote that is specific to your industry!