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5 Keys to Increasing Your Influence on Social Media As you prepare to launch your company, keep these social-media rules in mind.

By Nina Zipkin

Social media is a key part of marketing and creating your brand identity. All entrepreneurs can use these five rules to help shape their company's voice, grow your followers and connect with customers.

Related: Make Your Marketing Message Stand Out on Social Media

  1. Be discerning. Combine your original point of view with curated postings from other respected sources in your industry. Don't bombard your audience, but be creative and post at regular intervals.
  2. Be engaging. Make it a rule to be accessible to your audience. Interact with them and have real conversations -- don't just post your news of the day.
  3. Find your niche. You can be a generalist as it pertains to your company and post about anything and everything. Better still, find a specific topic that resonates and focus on that. Own a subject and work to become a go-to source.
  4. Spend your time wisely. Set aside time as you lead up to your launch to connect with potential customers on social media.
  5. Embrace each platform's culture. Every social-media portal encourages a unique voice. Make sure your content reflects that. If you're unsure, listen for a while, you'll catch on quickly

Related: How to Handle Social-Media Criticism

For more social-media tips, check out the video above.

Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

Staff Reporter. Covers media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

Nina Zipkin is a staff reporter at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

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