The maintenance of an online media profile is far more important than its creation. It only takes a few minutes to create a social web page; it takes an ongoing effort to keep that page remaining useful. Would you patronize an online computer store that still showed inventory, awards and product reviews from five years ago? Whether you are in the field of technology or not, potential customers look at your website in the same way.

There are so many online media pages out there that the only ones receiving any attention at all are the ones providing constant value. Constant value means up-to-date news, products and customer service. Below are five ways in which you can increase the effectiveness of your online presence through maintenance of this site.

There are no better PR representatives for your company than the customers that you already have. Keep them engaged by involving them in discussions, shouting them out, taking pictures with them and posting them on the site (with permission, of course) and generally making them feel welcome as leaders in your business family.

Vet all of the information that comes through your site and is officially endorsed by you. Remember that the reason people are patronizing your business is that they expect you to have answers to certain problems. If they are able to find better solutions that you do not touch upon, you will lose credibility in their eyes. Keep your eyes open for valuable information and disseminate it even if you are not the content creator.

You can actually create partnerships with news organizations to feed their material through RSS, or you may simply repurpose material that you find. If you undertake the second, however, make sure that you have a professional copywriter perform the service for you if you do not have a dedicated in-house writer. Presenting yourself with good grammar and spelling is essential to maintaining a reputation.

This may seem obvious, but many business owners simply forget to update their social media sites when they have new sales. They will update their landing pages but forget about their other pages and completely confuse their customer base.

On some social media sites, you can set your front page to mimic your landing page. This is a safe bet for busy business owners who do not have the time to double as a webmaster. On those sites that do not have this capability, you will simply have to make a habit of checking that the marketing messages match or delegating that responsibility to an individual.

When you post on your online media sites, you should post to begin a topic of conversation. Questions are great for original postings as they include the audience instead of preaching to them. You can also find out what they are thinking about their industry and their competitors this way. Leave your questions open ended and take note of which topics garner the most response. Come back to those topics from time to time when nothing else is happening.

One of the best ways for an old customer to reassure himself that the business he has chosen to patronize is a good choice is to see the new customers come in and say the same thing. Reach outside of your business customer circles and always attempt to bring in new blood. Post on message boards and in forums that have something to do with your industry and drive them to your online media page. New names on the page make the page look newer.

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