In my previous article ‘Social Media Marketing, planning your way to success’, I touched on social media marketing methods that you could implement on a free basis and how enlisting a little help from a few professionals may improve you success, but what we didn’t discuss was your Social Media Marketing Strategy.

More and more businesses are realizing that social media is an extremely effective way of marketing your products, services and the ability and importance of using social media to build brand awareness.

A couple of things that you must remember while creating your strategy is the importance of Community – this helps build belonging and trust within your social network. Flexibility – your Strategy is not set in stone. If you need to change it (which you will) don’t feel that you are back to square one – you’re not, you’re improving and building a solid platform from where you can most effectively work.

With that in mind here are my 5 Tips to creating an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy.

Don’t over stretch yourself

Twitter, facebook, linkedin, buzz, digit, myspace, bebo …………… do I really need to go on?

To run and maintain an effective Social Media Marketing campaign you need to research your social media tool of choice (depending on your market placement) and focus on your chosen few. If you try to be the master of all, you will fail gloriously.

Out with the Old, in with that new?

Defiantly NOT! The great thing about Social media marketing is that you can totally combine more than one method of marketing your wears.  Let your clients/potential clients see the colorful advert you placed in the local newspaper, they either know you already (and they feel a sense of community and belonging) or when you send them a offer through the post/email they will have seen you before and there will be a element of trust already present.

Create campaigns that complement each other, that way it doesn’t look spamy sending out the same message all the time but you benefit from the exposure.

Shout load and clear

Small to medium businesses can be very loyal to other local businesses so make sure that you take full advantage of local listings (most of them are free) including Google’s own Local business listings. Don’t forget to submit your website to all major search engines, my previous article may help.

Don’t be afraid of colour

The well known phase “A picture is worth a thousand words” isn’t just a phrase, in this case it is absolutely true. If your news topic, article subject or product can be complemented or even enhanced by the use of either a simple image or perhaps a “How to” video then use it.

The use of images and videos (some product related others friendly/silly) can break down possible barriers and make your company appear friendly, approachable and show that you care about your company and more importantly your customers.

Take responsibility

Ultimately your social media marketing will only be successful if used correctly. Make sure that you are updating, announcing, commenting and spreading the good word of your work. You can and should have multiple people inputting and influencing your social media efforts; however one and only one can be truly responsible for making sure the job is done. Assign this to someone, or even split the tasks between a few people/departments but make sure that everyone knows there roll.

Hope it helps …. comments, feedback is always welcome and if you have any question do not hesitate to contact us

Word Count – 574