It's been less than 15 years since Facebook and Twitter were founded, but 69% of the public uses some type of social media according to the Pew Research Center.

Despite its growth in popularity, many brands are struggling to connect with audiences and drive lasting engagement via social media. If you're not seeing the sort of results you'd like from social channels, you're not alone. Fortunately, a few simple tweaks to your current strategy could lead to an uptick in online interactions.

Here are six common social media marketing mistakes that could be hurting your engagement.

Facebook advertising is a large and growing business. Businesses spent more than $9 billion on Facebook ads in the second quarter of 2017 alone, according to Facebook's Q2 earnings report. That's an increase of 47 percent from 2016!

But for small and medium businesses that are just getting started, Facebook advertising can be very confusing. So, before jumping in, you should understand the two major types of advertising on Facebook — news feed ads and boosted posts — to help you determine which is best for meeting your business goals.

Whether you're wondering how to create a Facebook business page or simply want to increase the engagement of an existing page, investing time and effort into this social network is a wise decision. Regardless of age, location or behaviors, one thing is for certain: your audience is on Facebook.

As of March 2017, the social media giant had nearly 2 billion monthly active users, according to Facebook. To put that in perspective, that's more than one-quarter of Earth's population. But with so many people on Facebook — and so many businesses using the network to attract and engage potential customers — how can you make sure you're getting noticed?

Facebook video is big. According to Facebook's 2016 Q4 earnings call, people are watching 100 million hours of video per day on the platform, a number expected to rise even further in the future. Video marketing is also growing as well, as eMarketer reported that 63% of marketers plan to increase their social video spending in the next 12 months, with much of that going to the social media giant. However, if you're just getting started with Facebook video advertising and wonder how you can boost your viewership, here are three tips and tricks you can use to get ahead of the game.

When customers keep their activity online, this attribution is easy to track. Even activity across multiple devices can be properly attributed to its source marketing content. But things change when customers leave the digital realm: Offline marketing results are more challenging to accurately attribute. Too often, marketers are forced to either estimate the offline impact of their SEM, social and other digital campaigns, or they don't factor them in at all.

This creates a distorted view of how these channels are driving returns on investment (ROI). Accuracy in measuring ROI is essential in helping you know how to allocate your resources. Fortunately, improved approaches to offline marketing make it easier to pin down concrete numbers.

Video has become increasingly important to the social networks. According to a recent study by SocialFlow, over the last year their platform has seen a 164% increase in the number of video posts on Facebook and Twitter. And even though video only made up 2.3% of the posts in 2016 it represented 20% of the engagements on those platforms. While you might be tempted to think that social video ads are only for big companies, this format may actually be one of the most cost-effective tools you can invest in if you're a local business. Here's what you need to know to get started:

According to Modern Restaurant Management, 80 percent of people will look at a restaurant online before trying it, and 88 percent of that group will visit the same day. With these statistics in mind, it's easy to see how crucial social media marketing for restaurants is. Your online presence can either bring diners right to your door or drive them to the competition.

Here are three things you can do right now to attract diners on social media.

Many business owners already understand social media's impact on content marketing. Sharing links on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram is essential to exposing your content to the widest audience possible. However, even though marketers may spend hours researching and writing content, the same amount of time should be used to craft and hone a specific social media strategy.

According to a report from Simply Measured, 63 percent of marketing organizations now have social media teams, which was a jump from 49 percent in 2015. It's the job of these professionals to create a strategy that'll bring your content marketing to the next level.

While popular culture would have you believe that a social media consultant is a made-up job title, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. These professionals serve an essential function in today's world, working with business owners to help target potential customers with ads, boost loyalty among established markets and manage various social media profiles. And while a small or midsize business may recognize the need to hire such an expert, what separates an average social media consultant from a real expert? Here are three things to look for:

What business doesn't want more leads? But wanting more is the easy part. Getting leads is hard work, and acquiring high-quality leads from strong prospects is even more of a hassle. Reaching leads means finding the right place to make yourself visible and available. There are a number of ways to do this, even on a small budget, but it takes careful planning and a strong understanding of your audience.

If you're up to the task, here are four methods for capturing new leads for your business.