You’re excited about your startup and you can’t wait for others to share your excitement, but somehow you can’t make your customers feel the same way you do. Chances are, you haven’t optimized a tool that’s staring you in the face. SOCIAL MEDIA. By centering your social media around empowering your followers, you can create excitement around your company and engage your followers to share your feelings – and ultimately empower your followers with your company.

Focus on your followers

If you think your strategy is falling flat, it’s probably because you’ve focused your social media on your company rather than your followers. The secret to success on social media? Don’t make it about you, make it about your followers. Ask them questions that are easy and fun to answer. Create polls and ask what they think. The more you genuinely care about what they think, the easier this will be.

Create fun ways to engage with your brand

Don’t just ask for purchases or donations. That gets old. Live stream on social media or hold a photo competition. Giveaways and social media takeovers are other fun ways to build excitement! Get creative with your posts, and it never hurts to research what others are doing! Follow popular marketing blogs to get an idea for what’s trending and what will connect with your followers.

Interact with other companies on social media

It helps to have a tribe. You can collaborate with other entrepreneurs to reach a wider audience on social media, and the support you’ll receive is always a win! Don’t know where to start? Begin by finding a niche hashtag that identifies your type of company, and interact with other companies that use the same hashtags. A little research can go a long way here, and there are plenty of tools at your fingertips.

Share user content

Everyone loves being talked about, and that includes your followers. When you notice a follower’s post that ties in with your company’s key messages, reach out and ask if you can share! Chances are, they will be thrilled you asked. By sharing others’ content, you show you care about what they’re talking about, and you further engage them with your content. When your followers feel as though you are truly hearing their voices, they will feel empowered by the content you’re creating, because they know the content is meant for them.

To sum it all up: Use social media to empower your followers – through your content and through engagement. By focusing your social media content on your followers, you can make your company’s voice heard and truly empower your followers and customers with your mission and vision.

Allison Mattson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Style Her Empowered (S H E), a nonprofit that educates and empowers young women in Togo, Africa by providing tuition sponsorship, skills training and mentoring programs. As an aspiring writer, Allison believes in the power of marketing and storytelling to empower women through S H E.