1. What should the social media marketing campaign accomplish?
Like any other undertaking, it is best to know where you are going before you set out on your journey. Figure out exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish through your efforts in social media. Are you trying to increase brand identity? Are you trying to keep current customers up-to-date about your products and services? Are you trying to increase traffic to your website?
These are just some of the questions you might ask yourself. Once you know where you want to end up, then you can plan the route(s) which will lead you there.
2. Which social media site should you target? And should you target more than one?
Depending on the type of your business, and the nature of your online presence, you may need to pick a specific network through which to market your website. The variety of options available makes it important to pick the right social media site(s). For example, if you site relies on advertising dollars (it doesn’t matter if you use a CPC or CPM model, or both) then your main goal most likely will need to volume of traffic. In such a case Digg, and Stumbleupon should be your main target since they can send massive amounts of traffic, if you can capture the attention of users with good (and usually entertaining) content.
Study the social networks, and figure out which one is the best fit for delivering your goals. This does not mean that you should only pick one or two and ignore the rest of the social networks. What it does mean is that you need to pick network from which you are going to start.
3. Study the culture of each social network, especially the ones you want to target.
Step 2 and 3 are very closely tied, since picking the right social network will require you to study each network. Studying the network will involve signing up for an account, and actively using (e.g. adding friends, joining groups, posting, reading, discussing, submitting) it for at least a few weeks. During this process you will become more intimately familiar with the workings of the network, the mindset of the people using it, and the potential avenues for reaching new eyeballs.
Some of the social media sites such as Twitter can be a bit of a mystery to new users. Many sign up and never tweet (post) for months, because they cannot understand the point of Twitter or how it can fit into their lives (or how they can fit into it).
So study each network, and be a real user so that you understand not only how to use the network, but learn what the people on the network look for and thrive on.
4. Figure out how you can provide what the users want through content that is related to your business.
In most cases, people using the social media networks are looking for a means to find information, groups, and communities they are already interested in, or simply want to be entertained (or both). This is an important element in developing the right approach, because Facebook users are much more likely to join a fan page for a footwear ecommerce website which provides funny anecdotes or interesting facts about shoes on their Facebook fan page, than one that provides weekly discount coupons.
Find creative ways to get the attention of potential clients.
5. Respect the connections you make, and don’t spam.
It will take a lot of hard work developing a relationship (however cursory) with social network users. These are relationships that can be very powerful while at the same time extremely fragile. Every hard-earned fan, follower, or friend can be a valuable means for spreading the word about you and your company, so long as you make sure to not abuse the fragile relationship that you have created. Losing a fan or follower is only a click away, and most users will not hesitate to make that click if they realize they are being spammed or otherwise abused.
These five steps are not meant to be a definitive guide to social media marketing, but will help anyone interested in harnessing the power of social networks to get started on the right path.
