Small-to-medium businesses everywhere are struggling to understand how social networks can best be leveraged to sell. Some are striking marketing gold, but every business is different. Case studies on successful social media strategies only really serve as inspiration; it’s your job to find an innovative way to use your social media channels.

The first step is putting goals in place. How many Facebook fans and Twitter followers can you get in a month? In a quarter? In a year?

Now comes the strategy. Remember the golden rule: content leads to commerce. Sharing entertaining and informative content that applies to your industry is a great way to draw in followers. Think of your social media platforms as publishers. Your followers are looking for great content; when you syndicate that content using social media, you’re publishing your own magazine with shared and original content.

Promotions and discounts are great to share via Facebook and Twitter—but what about contests? When you make your audience take an active role in the development of your brand, you can gain lifelong followers. As an added bonus, contestants in a competition are more apt to share your brand with others. When they share their stories and generate their own content, they’ve done a lot of marketing work for you.

When you reach your goals and finally have your audience’s attention, gentle sales cues represent the next step. Pick a shopping cart that gives you the ability to set up a Facebook store. Make it easy for potential customers to find resources for buying through your store on your Facebook fan page.

While Twitter is a different sort of forum, many of the same rules apply. Use your Twitter and Facebook channels to open a dialogue with your customers. Listen to what they’re saying and respond. Social networks open conversations. The businesses that think of social networks as one-way channels to drop marketing on customers and potential customers are missing the point.

Establishing your brand is a crucial part of growing your business. While social networks offer fantastic resources for selling goods, businesses should be taking the same approach as individual users: use your networks to connect and open a dialogue. You may end up three steps ahead of the competition.

Twitter, a massively popular social media platform, is one of the largest revenue generating channels for businesses of nearly every size and industry. With more than 336 million active users, retailers are able to engage with customers, build relationships, and promote their brand on a daily yet worldwide scale.

But although Twitter is a widely used channel for monitoring customer engagement and promoting sales, its effectiveness is limited not only by a business’s understanding of the platform, but its adopted strategies and tactics as well. Marketing a huge, complex platform like Twitter is not without big rewards, but it takes an incredible amount of research, time and dedication to reap a large following and an even larger number of conversions.

If you’re attempting to tackle this platform for the very first time, or are simply looking to refine your marketing approach, check out the following tips that’ll allow you to successfully leverage one of eCommerce’s most powerful platforms.

Your Twitter profile comprises your username, profile and header images, bio, location, birthdate, website, and theme color. You can also pin one of your Tweets to the top of your profile. Your profile acts as a direct reflection of your business and brand. A heavily branded, visually strong profile allows visitors to immediately connect with a business’s image in a single glance.

A strong, cohesive profile image entails: the use of your company name as your username, a concise, keyword-rich bio, a profile picture showcasing the company’s logo, and a visually captivating header image that captures the essence or style of your brand. Add your business’s location, link to your website, and choose a theme color that works with your branding to complete the setup.

Twitter is an excellent channel for driving sales, but don’t expect a huge spike in conversions right off the bat. Marketing a social media platform is first and foremost about building relationships – a process that doesn’t happen overnight.

Millions of people use Twitter, and not for the purpose of being force-fed sales pitch after sales pitch. Users log in on a daily basis to connect with friends, family, and their favorite celebrities and brands. Once trust has been established, your followers will be more open to receiving promotional news and advertisements that they’ll want to share with their own network of friends and family.

Managing a social account is bound to come with its fair share of hurdles and hiccups. Although your goal is to gain a massive following of supportive fans, you’ll doubtless come across customers who’ll turn to Twitter to express their outrage and dissatisfaction.

It’s important to remember that not only is every relationship important to the success of your business, but how you choose to handle a public outcry will be witnessed by an untold number of onlookers. Always reply to every Tweet with a friendly yet appropriate tone, regardless if the user has stopped by to drop a warm hello or express their displeasure regarding their latest purchase.

Tweets are limited to 280 characters, which is much more versatile than the previous limit of 140 but still doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room to craft a compelling message that encourages action. Consequently, it’s important every Tweet is strategically crafted with care: bolster the appeal of Tweets with links and visual content (images, videos, articles), use trending hashtags, and Tweet during peak hours when most of your audience is likely to be online.

More importantly, always ensure you’re Tweeting content that your readers will find of value, such as important news, great tips or guides, or even helpful advice – understanding what your readers want and expect will go a long way toward maintaining existing followers and attracting new ones. For maximum results, try to Tweet as frequently as possible – ideally, at least once per day until you’re able to determine what number works best with your brand and audience.

Few psychological tactics work as well as inciting a feeling of exclusivity in your shoppers. Offering your Twitter followers access to exclusive deals and promotions can go a long way toward not only building strong relationships, but increasing your sales too! But while this tactic is a tried-and-true marketing ploy, it should always be used strategically and with care.

Retweeting content and mentioning others in your Tweets is a great way to build a following. Promoting credibility, and consequently trust, allows Tweeters to feel secure in retweeting your posts, especially if they’re unfamiliar with your name or brand.

Mentioning others is also an excellent way to build social relationships with fellow Tweeters, who will appreciate any namedropping that will send traffic in their direction. And in the world of social media – collecting allies is a must!

Twitter offers shoppers a number of benefits, but unless you’re a world-renowned brand, odds are your customers won’t go through the trouble of trying to track down your Twitter page. Allow shoppers to easily follow your brand by adding a linked Twitter icon on your website’s home page, sharing buttons on product pages, and/or even include a link in your newsletters and promotional material that encourages following/engagement.

Twitter is an ever-growing social platform that can yield big numbers for your online store. And while undertaking this unique social platform can seem a bit intimidating, its rewards are well worth the risk and investment.

The above tips are just a few basic yet critical tactics that can help you grow your following. If you’re interested in taking your Twitter presence to the next level, reference your Twitter Analytics for detailed information that can help you improve and refine your Twitter marketing approach.