What's Your Social Media Strategy?

The intensive use of social media is a reality of the 21^st century. To ignore this fact is disastrous for any business. Instead, one must face the reality that social media is here to stay and its usage is on the increase. We must learn to work with, rather than against, this technology. In fact, if used wisely social media can become a valuable element in your business strategy, and its significance to companies can only be expected to increase.

Whilst people spend a lot of time thinking and talking about social media, they spend less time using it to actually generate profit. Why? They are not social media experts and do not know how to use it effectively. To avoid falling into this trap and ensure your social networking generates revenue for your business, follow my top tips:

Set social media goals. What do you want to achieve? e.g. increase traffic, increase sales, increase brand awareness. Working to targets helps keep you motivated. In setting these you should analyse your resources (i.e. both financial and time) as well as your expertise in using social media to ensure you set realistic goals – consider: what can I realistically achieve?

Develop a social media strategy and plan to implement your objectives.

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Online marketing using social media is becoming a necessity these days. Traffic exchanges, safe list mailers and other advertising systems are still effective but social media is becoming much more effective in getting others to do business with you. A strategic plan and targeted goals on how you will use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social sites will assure success. What's your social media strategy?