As with everything else in business, successful social media marketing entails building a strategy. Aligned with your core business principles such a platform should provide information on monthly, seasonal and annual occurrences that affect your business and, as such, affect your customers. Planning such a strategy will help to drive traffic to your Web site and your blog but it’s important to remember some key points in order to get the most out of it:

• Develop a planned strategy: three- six or 12-month. Know what blog topics you’ll be posting on what dates. By doing this you’re letting your subscribers know when to expect your next blog post and they’ll anticipate it on the same date every time. If your postings are all over the map – different times, different days every month or every other month – you might not get the feedback you want. You might not get any feedback.
• Don’t be aimless. In other words, don’t rattle on about the weather if you really want to discuss information on what your business offers consumers during a particular season. Likewise, don’t rant on a particular issue that’s bothering you. People drawn to your blog site don’t want your opinion; they want information on a solution.
• Entertain. While the name of the game is to supply information, at the same time, have some fun with it. Even the driest of subject matters can be presented in a format that’s enjoyable to read.
• Learn the art of creating the perfect subject line. If you’re introducing a new blog topic via mass email, make the subject line intriguing enough so that people will want to click through. Use action words and present tense to give a sense of urgency.
• Be engaged on social media network sites. Use Twitter and Facebook not just as a place to dump information on your business. Interact with people; share information and be interested in what they’re telling you. That sort of give and take helps to build a network and a following.

Social media marketing is, indeed, a multi-level strategy to engage, to capture interest and to build continuing relationships. Doing it correctly can make you and your business stand out in the crowd.

Unlike any other source, Social Media sites have given organizations the opportunity to create their online image and in turn, build their brand image.  Social Media Marketing lends organizations the skills to develop relationships with clients, insight into the company, and global exposure to the essence of what their company is.

Why is this beneficial to a business? It is beneficial because it gives organizations the tools and resources to build the image of what they see their company as of today, and what they see their company as in the future.

Several tools used within Social Media that will help a company build their image include:

• The physical image of a companies brand like logos, pictures, and videos are tools used several times a day on social media sites to help build a companies image.  Unlike a website which is usually static everyday, Social Media sites such as twitter and facebook are updated several times a day driving a company image into the minds of their audience.

• Brand image can also be developed through words.  Status updates, blogs and tweets to name a few are ways a company can develop their brand image. Through stories and descriptions their audience will have a grand picture of what their product is and how it  benefits them.

• Communication will also help develop a company’s brand image.  The unique benefit of Social Media compared to other internet marketing tools is that it directly speaks to the audience and encourages feedback.  Through this feed back an organization can measure if their brand image is being conveyed correctly and what type of steps can be taken to ensure a strong brand image.

The combination of images, words and communication that Social Media Marketing has to offer is genius, it gives all the right ingredients an organization needs to build and maintain their online image.  Used correctly, Social Media can ensure a company’s brand image goals will be successful goals.

The Social Media website Facebook has done in nine short months what it took television 13 years to do – build a network of 50 million users.  Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and others also account for 11 percent of all worldwide Internet usage. That is 11 percent of what the entire world is doing online and with the multitude of activities one could be participating in online, those are serious statistics!

The results of Social Media Marketing differ drastically from the results of traditional marketing efforts like television or direct mail for two main reasons:

Consumers today are not the same consumers of yesterday.  Today, consumer are watching television, updating their Facebook, texting on their cell and eating dinner, simultaneously.  Until something strikes their curiosity, they have the ability to not fully focus on any one particular task.

Consumers today have built infiltration systems and are less likely to respond to one particular advertisement.  Advertisements are on billboards, web pages, products, text messages, commercials, blogs, and social media sites.  With so much information surrounding each consumer it is only reasonable for the human brain to cope by filtering all this information. Statistics show that consumers are more likely to trust a friend’s opinion or advice over that of an advertisement. This goes to show you that consumers are more interested in what their friends have to say and social networking is one of the places they interact with friends. Therefore, if their friends are commenting on a companies page or product on social media sites, their friends will see and  are more likely to respond.

So where does this leave Social Media Marketing?  It leaves social media sites to do what it does best, socialize.  By having hands on contact with consumers companies are not only letting them into their world, but they are also in theirs.  Consumers are laying their cards on the table and all you have to do is play.  Think outside the box when it comes to social media, think beyond banner advertisements and mass emails but open yourself up to the concept of the opportunity to capture the attention of the world by opening the lines of communication.

There is a clear difference between hunting and farming, have you ever thought about the distinctions in approaches for these two styles of obtaining food? Both of these methods provide food, however the two styles are much different from each other; mainly due to the time it takes to get the end result.  In hunting, almost directly after the prey has been killed the “hunter” can eat.  In farming much more time and effort is involved.  A seed must first be planted, a good environment for growth has to be established, the planted seed requires consistent water, nourishment and TLC. After a few weeks of this consistency the crops are ready to be harvested and then the farmer can eat.

Hunting can be compared to traditional marketing, while farming is much like social media marketing.  In traditional marketing take for instance telemarketing, within a matter of a few minutes you can tell if the client on the other end of the phone is interested in the products or services that are being pitched. Within a few moments after that, it is quite easy to know whether the deal is sealed not. Traditional marketing more often than not provides almost instant gratification. Social media marketing is much different, like farming or face to face networking; social media marketing requires time and consistency.

When utilizing social networks as a tool to promote a business it is important to treat the interaction on the platforms like you would if you were farming.

• First develop or plant a relationship with the network that is built.
• Secondly water those relationships consistently.
• Thirdly monitor their growth, to see if anything needs to be changed in the strategy

Then with patience and perseverance like farming, you will see the results of the harvesting. Eventually the crops will grow and business will begin to flourish because of the time that was spent with your network.

The purpose of this analogy is to show that the time frame to measure the success of a social media campaign is not set in stone, nor is it immediate.  The goal is to plant and water a seed for a lasting relationship with the network you build over time, which will create the opportunity for a successful partnership, if the time spent with that network is meaningful.  A successful partnership is the end result of participating in the conversation happening on social networks. Forming a relationship with your targeted network of decision maker’s, results in increased profits over time.

Every effort put into a social network profile whether it is interesting status updates, helpful information and insights, news and information on your industry, or feedback and interaction about your service will help your organization grow into the business you envisioned.  Social media marketing can help a business grow to the next level while creating the opportunity for more quality business relationships.

Social media marketing is set apart from other forms of communication online because of the ability for users to both give and take.  Friends, fans, and followers agree to participate in relationships via social media platforms, with the expectation that the communication will be a two way street.  While there is no proven method, with years of case studies, that guarantees the success of a social media marketing campaign; the following steps will help to make a social media marketing campaign a more successful exchange of communication.

Step 1: Let them know you’re alive!

Once you have added all of your contacts and networked with new friends, what is the next step?  Provide your readers with tangible information. Making your status updates relatable and writing about relevant topics and interesting one-liners, will help to gain more followers on a consistent basis. This is the key to making social media work for business. While your topics should relate to the industry with which you operate, they should also appeal to the audience you are looking to communicate to.  The object of a status updates is to grab a “friend’s” attention immediately and provoke thought and participation.

Step 2: Ask Questions.

One of the best ways to open up a two way conversation is to immediately involve your audience.  Facebook allows the ability for a business page to start discussion topics. These topics can be related to a product within a company for example if your company is a dental office ask users how they feel about going to the dentist, ask them on ways to improve their visit and invite topics that consumers love to debate and talk about.

Step 3: Lead by example!

A sure way to engage readers in the content you post to your social media sites is to participate in your network’s topics.  Post a simple “like” on a friend’s status update, or contribute in a discussion topic on someone else’s page. The more you participate in the conversation on other’s pages, the more traffic you will drive back to your page.

Our experience shows that an active social media profile includes communication both from the profile owner, the end user and the network in which they are involved.  Networking with your network is the best way to make a social media marketing campaign work. Social media can be applied to any type of industry as long as there are clear goals, a clear strategy and consistent communication.