Social media marketing has become one of the most widely implemented advertising tactics in recent years. This is mainly due to its efficiency and ability to reach a highly targeted audience for little to no investment.

Below are six strategies you can use to maximize exposure for your business in Toronto.

1. Image-centric content

Understanding the natural appeal of visuals and using them to your advantage is a great way to bring more attention to your content. This phenomenon accounts for much of the success of networks like Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr that put an emphasis on pictures. Combining this with high-quality written content should help increase your follower count.

2. Social branding

One great thing about social networks is that they provide the perfect opportunity to build brand equity. Diversifying and maintaining accounts on multiple sites is an effective way to help distinguish your Toronto business from competitors. Just be sure to use the same logo and slogan to create a unique identity.

3. Polls, contests, and questions

A large part of creating a buzz around your business involves engaging and interacting with followers. These three techniques can be a fun way to get your followers in on the action and are highly inclusive.

A restaurant owner might create a poll where patrons can vote for the dish to be featured on the establishment’s menu. Over time, you can build some solid rapport with consumers this way.

4. Social share buttons

When content receives a lot of social shares, it helps bring in direct traffic and can have a positive impact on your rankings in search. That’s why it pays to install social share buttons onto your website.

These will appear around content and encourage visitors to share it conveniently on the network of their choice.

5. Networking with other local businesses

Since the whole aim of social media is to be social, it pays to feature content from other Toronto businesses from time to time. This proves to consumers that you’re not overly self-serving and can create future opportunities. Looking through an online business directory like ForLocations should provide you with all the information you need.

6. Cross-promote

If you have accounts on multiple networks, it’s smart to link them up to one another. Then someone on Twitter could quickly find your Pinterest page and vice versa.

The end result should be a sizable collective network, which should increase your company’s exposure.