Social Media Strategy - The Basics

Social Media Marketing has the presented the marketer with so many choices in the last few years.

* What platforms should I be using to promote my blog or company?
* How many channels will I select to achieve my goals?
* Should I stick with what I know or what should I push the boundaries and
test something new?
* What channels should I use to to communicate to my target markets?
* What are the messages I should send out?
* What listening tools should I use?
* What apps should I use to increase my effeciency?
* What analytics tools are the best for our situation?

So where do you start?

First: Define your audience – get very clear on who you are communicating to (eg Is it Gen Y, Gen X or Baby Boomers?)

Second: Set the goals (they don’t necessarily need to be all financial in nature) – Leads, brand awareness,quality of leads, increase in dollar value of the sale and number of sales

Third: Develop your social media marketing strategy

Fourth: Then the tactical level of selecting the different social media platforms that are appropriate for your audience .. where do they hang out? Facebook, YouTube or other channels? You then can calculate what resources you need such as financial, tools and people.

Fifth: Optimize and Integrate Your Social Media Channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as Optimizing your website and blog for search and don’t forget the PR. Many companies are now cranking up their PR efforts as this skillset has probably a better understanding of social media than most.