It’s 2020. If you’re not already active on social media, what are you waiting for? If you have a social media presence, what are you doing to ensure you’re maximizing exposure for your business and brand?

One way to do this is by engaging with other brands on your social channels. “Liking,” commenting, sharing and tagging allows you to leverage their ample audiences and insert your voice into the trending topics of the day.

And if you discover that you’re good at this whole “social media” thing, you may even gain “influencer” status. To be a social media influencer, you need followers. Lots of them. As the name implies, an influencer is someone who can affect consumers’ buying decisions by promoting specific brands, products or services. The more followers you have, the more weight you carry.

Attaching yourself to the right brand helps existing and potential customers move through the funnel in a logical (on their part) and deliberate (on your part) way. Think from an end-user perspective. For a professional home stager, a partnership with a real estate agent or brand could be mutually beneficial. For an interior designer, a relationship with a home builder, furniture company or retailer might make sense. You get the idea here. This relationship could be organic or sponsored. Sponsored, or paid partnerships have special requirements on certain social platforms, so ensure you disclose sponsored content as such.

For those strategic (if not lucky!) enough to gain “influencer” status, social media is an opportunity to show your expertise, build your client base and leverage a massive and virtually captive audience (according to socialmediatoday.com, it’s 2 hours and 23 minutes per day) to sell yourself and your brand. On the flip side, if you’re a brand, retailer or manufacturer, consider working with an influencer to help spread your news.