Activity is rewarded
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Linkedin are designed to reward the people who really use them a lot. Say you have a Facebook page for your business. Once you've built it you've got to repeatedly update it, like other pages, comment on them, reply to comments on your own, etc. This will gradually bring in more likes and comments, and on and on it goes.
Of course you can implement some expert tips and tricks to make the process run quicker. But as long as you participate often it will start to work for you.
Results take time
Also, social media users should just keep at it without being too concerned about getting immediate results. They should have faith that it will work in the long run. Just as with search engines, social media sites will take their own good time to bestow benefits on users.
I urge anyone in business to remind themselves of this fact. It will counter a common misconception about social media. Many tend to believe that you just have to create a Facebook page and that's it -- people will just start flooding to it in their thousands. (I know this to be the case because I have spoken to several people who had this attitude!)
You don't get something for nothing
We can blame spammy marketers for this "set and forget"' mentality. All those ads about push button technology and making money on autopilot have made people think that they don't have to do anything after they've created an account!
Of course it's human nature to want something for nothing. So often those who you'd expect to know better buy the lie. Inevitably they're disappointed when nothing happens. They walk away bitter, feeling had.
If only they knew that they just had to work at it! And they don't have to spend all day, every day participating. If they just got into the habit of logging in regularly, sharing their own and others' content, engaging with others, they'd slowly but surely start to reap the rewards.