Brands that want to engage customers in the social media world sometimes misunderstand how to use social media.  Social media is generally for people and businesses need to blend in if they want to succeed.  In terms of social media, the customers have the power and when there are a lot of consumers on a site, they have quite a bit of influence over a business.  There are many tactics a brand or business can take in order to engage customers in the realm of social media, but there are also a lot of issues that they need to avoid.  Here are a few things to help your brand engage customers in the social media world.

-Precision
The first thing your business needs to do is identify and find areas in the social media world that will allow people to engage with you and your brand and have conversations about your products and services in an open manner.  If you place your brand in the wrong location, you will not hit the right people and you will never engage them.

-Observe and Monitor
Once you find the right customers who are willing to talk about your brand and what you do, you will want to look at the conversations they hold and monitor what they say.  You should watch for things like authority, reach, and sentiment and then you can adjust what you do within the social media framework to meet what those customers need and want.

-Proceed with Care
Before you get too involved in aspects of social media, you need to think about your approach with plenty of care.  Sometimes, it is better to simply let people talk about your brand without interfering at all.  Other times, you can participate in a subtle way.  If someone is taking a negative tone against your brand, you can offer support to help change minds and utilize the customer service aspects of your business.

-Give Value
Whenever you do anything in the social media world, you will want it to be of value so you are not brushed off.  If you get involved in any way, you need to add value in terms of insight, good information, offers, and customer treatment.  There should be no catches involved with the value you offer.  Customers should never have to do anything to get it, they just need to be there.

-Entertain
Engaging customers is as simply as entertaining those that visit your social media sites.  You can create groups, send out videos and pictures, make apps or entertain in any number of other ways.  Entertainment is what people really want and you never know when you might hit something that will go viral and really expand your business to new heights.

-Remain Social
If you always talk about yourself and your brand, people will get bored.  Take an interest in what others are talking about and use it to your advantage to gain trust.