Social traffic is going to be more important in the coming years. The vast majority of online marketing experts know that social networking sites are the foundation of traffic, and it's only going to get more important from here on out. If you're looking to get more social media traffic for your blog, product or website you need to keep your audience interested and involved. Knowing your audience is the key to social media success.

What interests your audience?

Social media is all about connections. Your Tweets and Facebook updates are nested in with your audience's best friend, their family members and their other interests. In order for your content to stand out, you have to speak directly to what interests them. You're already halfway there - they are following you. But if you want them to comment, retweet or click on your links, you'll have to do more than talk about your company and yourself.

It all starts with understanding their interests. Your audience didn't join your Facebook group on weight loss in order to be sold to time and time again. They want information on weight loss - from tips to recipes to insights. They want to see information on a regular basis from you about these topics - not about your product.

So ask yourself - what interests your audience? What do they want to know? If you can pinpoint these topics, you'll be able to create content that really speaks to them.

Making the most of your social media content

Once you've determined what your audience is interested in, you can use a variety of different ways to create and display your social media content. One of the great things about social media is that it can take many different forms. You're no longer limited to standard sized blog posts or articles. You can create tweets, have graphics made, use video content and more to attract attention on the social networks.

Here are just of few of the ways you can make the most of social media content:

Create a survey - Since it is all about interaction, surveys are a natural fit. The survey serves double duty. It allows you to interact with your audience, but it also gives you valuable information about your market that you can use later on.

Create a series of quick tips - Quick tips are great for social media marketing because they are bite sized chunks of information that can be used by your audience right away. Have a series of 10 to 20 tips that you can use as Tweets and status updates to interact with your followers.

Use multimedia - Graphics and videos are a lot more eye-catching than written content. Try to look for ways to express the information through multi-media and you'll see an increased response to what you have to offer.

By keeping your audience in mind and focusing on creating interesting social media content, you can get increased traffic and more sales for your online business.