Leverage the Power of Social Media Effectively

Social media marketing is practically free. If you were to attempt to reach out to millions of people through physical means you would have to make a lot of investments. This technology is the way to most efficiently reach out to your potential clients, not only in terms of finances but in terms of time as well.

It's clear that social media has grown dramatically over the last few years and that with more than 800 million active users; the number of Facebook users is easily more than twice the size of the entire population of the United States!

Many of today's successful businesses have been around for years, long before the internet was a viable option in marketing a product. Although billboards, TV commercials, and radio and print advertisements have been successful in the past, they will not have the impact they once did in today's market. Many people no longer check the newspaper for movie times, they reference online venues. Many people no longer hand-write letters, they electronically draft emails.

Social media is the fastest growing marketing tool, and any business not capitalizing on its numerous capabilities could be at a disadvantage to its competitors. Waiting around and not taking advantage of this vastly growing marketing tool is an opportunity that companies are missing. Business is ever evolving and so must marketing campaigns in order to keep pace with the competition. So then why wouldn't someone immediately get involved with social marketing? It cannot be money, as most of these networks are free.

It's tempting to go out and create a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Digg, Delicious, YouTube, and Foursquare account all at once. But the problem with this strategy is that if you grow too fast, you won't be able to keep up with all the benefits of each site. The best approach is to create one site, like Facebook, learn the details and properly implement. Create your Fan page, join groups, participate in events, and engage with others. If you start up 12 at once, you won't be as active and your lack of participation could defeat your overall goal. It's better to have 1 or 2 completely utilized social networking sites than 100 poorly designed and ignored platforms.

Not everyone receives information through the same medium. Some people like to read, others like video, and some people will be drawn to pictures on your site. The key is to mix up the way you post. If you simply put out a blog every day, your followers will become blind to your communication method. Change it up a little. If you have a blog one day, then put up a simple video the next. Post and tag people in pictures later in the week. The more variety in your posts, the more interaction you will achieve.

Define your base strategy. Setup a budgeted roadmap with intermediate white stones that will help at fine tuning the campaign all along the way. The roadmap should stay in tune with what is being done or what has been done in the real-world. Social Media Marketing is never an innocent act. It is time-consuming and will incur expenses. Being precise about the campaign will definitely decrease the burden. As said earlier assess the main objective and methodology. One at a time! Don't try to aim for all objectives in one go. Remember! Stick to your company's marketing and communication policy.

If you can afford it out source it. If that doesn't fit well with your marketing budget & you have to do it yourself then get educated. There are plenty of courses, seminars, mentors & workshops out there to help you learn. If you are really on a shoestring budget spend some time scouring the web looking for free information on social media blogs, websites & video channels. But make sure you do. There is no point spending time on something if you are doing it wrong. Social Media marketing isn't difficult & shouldn't take long to get up to speed but it doing it the right way or wrong way is the difference between it paying dividends or not.