Everybody is jumping on the social media sites bandwagon these days. From viral videos on YouTube to endless Tweets about the daily grind, people have taken it for granted that, for their businesses to succeed, they need to be making the most of social networks. You might be doing it yourself, or you might be considering moving into it on the basis that everyone else is doing it. If so, you need to consider whether you have asked the single most important question- is it worth it?

Who Are You Targeting?

The most important factor in determining whether putting the time and effort into developing a social media strategy is worth it is who your audience is. Who is going to buy your product, or use your service? Are they the sort of person who is going to make heavy use of online networks? Are they the sort of person who is going to be influenced by what they see on online networks? If your product is mostly aimed at young people, or technologically savvy people, or people who

When planning a social media strategy, there are a lot of things to consider, from your target audience, to the most appropriate medium, to considerations of ongoing control over the methods you use. One point worth remembering throughout, however, is that your approaches will only work where they are welcome, and that spamming people with unwanted content, comments, or invitations to join will do more harm than good to your business. Here are five ways to avoid potentially damaging situations on social networks:

There are many aspects to an effective social media strategy, from deciding on a target audience, to deciding how you’ll measure success. One of the most important decisions you have to make though is what methods you plan on using as a part of the process, and what sites you’re going to target. Below are a few types of site, along with some characteristics you need to take into account.

Sidebar Adverts

These have been dealt with separately, because they represent a separate approach from most of the main bodies of these sites. Cost effective when compared to many other forms of advertising, they still require more outlay than setting up blog or other account. They can also be seen as an annoying distraction by some users, but have the advantage of selling to the audience quite directly. A useful part of a social media strategy.

Video Sharing Sites

Of which the most obvious example is YouTube. Here, videos can grow unpredictably or sink without a trace, and spending money on the production is not a guarantee of views. Instead, produce them simply and regularly, focussing on content, and possibly on quirky ideas.

Blogs

One of the more old fashioned forms, but still useful, because they allow you to communicate eloquently with your audience. Particularly useful if they seem to offer a behind the scenes look at your business, because they communicate its more human face.

Article Sites

These let you produce articles on a variety of subjects, and are useful if you want to establish yourself or your business as an expert in a particular field.

Your social marketing strategy will differ from most normal marketing strategy in one key respect. People will be able to talk back to you. Of course, in theory, it has always been possible. They could send letters, complaints, and other feedback. Maybe it even got read. The difference now is in the sheer volume of information flowing both ways. This is not a one way burst of information about your product. This is an ongoing conversation where the customer has at least some of the control.

Short But Often

The trend in most online communities has been towards shorter forms of communication. Just look at Twitter’s one hundred and forty character limit per Tweet for proof of that. Your social marketing strategy needs to reflect that, so that your online communications with your target audiences are short and to the point. Your blog posts should be brief, and about one topic. Your videos shouldn’t turn into epics.

They also need to be frequent. The days of the one big blog post a week are gone. Instead, someone in your business needs to post every day, comment on the forums regularly, and do whatever they can to keep the conversation going.

It might come as a surprise, but your social media strategy doesn’t have to involve conversations with every customer and potential customer out there. It doesn’t have to involve spending all day every day online. In some cases, it doesn’t even have to involve going onto the Internet at all.

Only Some People Are Important

All right, so every customer is important to you. That’s a given, if you’re building the sorts of relationships with clients that lead to them coming back again and again. But not every customer or potential customer is equally important when it comes to influencing people online, and your social media strategy has to take account of that. If it doesn’t, you can end up chasing red herrings, spending hours trying to convince people one by one when a group approach is simpler, easier, and more effective.

Follow the Leader

Online communities often subdivide into groups, dedicated to particular topics. It’s important to recognise, however, that they also subdivide into less formal groups- clusters of sites, friends or followers joined by mutual interests, friendship or influence. Vitally, those groups also have leaders, or at least central figures who tend to set trends.

A good social media strategy can be hard to get right, so here are ten tips that will hopefully help you to do it far better:

1. Have one. It’s amazing how many people dive into online communities without any idea of what they want or how they plan on getting it.
2. Be clear about who you are targeting, and why. It will help you pick an approach that is far more appropriate to your needs.
3. Select the right medium. There are lots of ways of using online communities, from Tweeting, to putting advertisements on Facebook, to trying to create popular “viral” videos on YouTube. You need to pick a method that will reach the audience you want.
4. It needs to be ongoing. A good social media strategy is not just one burst of activity at the start. Make sure you keep blogs up to date and messaging regular.

It seems that everyone has some sort of social media strategy these days. Big companies are all over Facebook, or spending big money on viral videos and applications. Everywhere you go, a business is trying to sell to you through them. It seems only right that your smaller business should follow suit. But where do you begin if you don’t have a dedicated marketing

department? And how do you succeed on a tighter budget?

Lower Cost Advertising

The first point is not to panic. A lack of funds won’t necessarily destroy your chances of building up publicity online. How many times have you seen a no budget YouTube video take off, while bigger ones flop? All you need is persistence, a bit of know how, and a coherent social media strategy.

Make it Personal

The biggest advantage you have as a smaller business is that you can avoid the cold, impersonal feel that sometimes

characterises some bigger companies. You need to pick social networking options that let you carry on a conversation with your customers, and what you say needs to be about more than simply your products. You need to make people feel like part of an online community centred on your business. Options for success include starting blogs or Twitter accounts about the business, posting regular updates that include as many human elements as you can manage.

Who, How and How Much

Of course, you shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that you are there to help your business. As fun as engaging with online

How often have you run into people whose online business tactics seem to amount to “well, we’ve got a very nice website”? Worse, does that describe you? If it does, then you probably need to reconsider.

Unless you’re an established brand, customers won’t know or care about your website. They certainly won’t have any reason to go there. Sure, a few will be pulled in by the search engines if your pages are well optimised, but do you really think that your competitors won’t have done the same?

The days when you could just build a site and sit back are long gone, sadly. Instead, you need to take a proactive approach to gaining customers, based on a well thought through marketing strategy.

There are many ways for you to increase the popularity of your website or your business. One of the best among them is the social media strategy. However there are some certain things that you must have in mind to be able to make that strategy work for you:

It doesn’t really matter which of the Social media sites you are part of, it becomes a part of your brand as well as an interactive part of your business. So how should that brand appear to your viewers? What are the worst mistakes you can make when you are promoting your brand at these social media sites? We’ll tell you what the experts say…