So your company has finally set up a Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn account … now what? Merely having a presence on these valuable outreach and feedback sites is not enough. Knowing what to do – and what not to – is essential to mounting a successful social media campaign.

Maintaining a good relationship with your customers, fans, and followers is one of the fastest routes to improved visibility and perception of your company and brand. 58% of Facebook users (and there are 800 million of them) have “liked” a brand and 42% of them have mentioned a brand in a status update; the numbers for Twitter are similar. And when people do talk about your business through social media, they are much more likely to do so positively.

The quality of the interactions is just as important as the quantity. Blasting customers with new updates and offers every day is a surefire way to turn them off in droves. Social platforms are at their best when used in a collaborative manner: request feedback and opinions from followers on your products and services, offer them special deals and promotions, ask them about your customer service, encourage user videos, art, and other content and then share it with the rest of the community. The more interaction a company has with its customers online, the better.

Social media ventures that successfully leverage these direct channels to customers and create a mutually beneficial two-way dialog will provide a big leg-up on the competition. Strong branding and unified messaging strategies are an important first step often best handled by experienced marketing agencies.