So many businesses are creating a Twitter or Facebook account and they "watch" to see something happen. They set-up Twitter, tweet a few times and hope that people will start following. Then they might continue to post things about "what they're doing"... totally misunderstanding how to really use it. There isn't any real strategy or effort into using the tools. Social Media marketing it is not a "set it and forget it" proposition. Social Media sites attract a notoriously fickle crowd and being "followed" on Twitter or having "friends" on MySpace and Facebook doesn't necessarily translate into dollars in the business owner's bank account. You need to have a strategy behind and sometimes you need to change the way you communicate your business information.

So, what’s Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube (via Wikipedia)

For a business owner, the general goal of a marketing strategy is to drive up the sales. Your social media marketing strategy should also have a goal too. Examples of social Media Goals includes Online Branding, Reputation Management, Special Announcements and content distribution and of course, sales. Don't expect hard numbers to analyze in sales like you can with a search engine optimization or pay per click campaign.

So far, the most effective use of social media is branding and reputation management. It is a long term approach to building a following/awareness around your brand. The true value comes from when someone heard you through word of mouth via Twitter or Facebook.

The trick is to get the right message to the right people. If you are not running a business that can generate lots of content, information and products announcements, you don’t have to setup a Twitter or Facebook account for it. If you setup a Twitter account and you don’t generate content or information, you need to change that! If you are a self-employed or professional, than having a personal account might be much more beneficial for you.

A social media marketing strategy has to have a set of KPIs that can be checked periodically. The following indicators can be used to measure the indicators of success in social media marketing:

• increase in Twitter followers
• increase in Facebook fans
• clicks on promoted links (tracked via bit.ly)
• pageviews to destination content
• conversions on destination content
• increase in domain level PageRank
• subscribers to YouTube/MetaCafe/DailyMotion/other video sharing channels
• increase in trackback or link mentions in web 2.0 sites
• traffic referred from social media sites to the site

What can I include in a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Actions part of a Social Media Marketing:

• Fan Page on Facebook with regular updates.
• Group on Linkedin with regular updates.
• Blog attached with your website with regular updates.
• Write articles or white papers and post them on your website. Promote them using Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
• Press Release of your latest updates and Achievement.
• Add an Web 2.0 toolbox such as ShareThis to post articles, white papers, and other relevant resources related to your offering in web 2.0 social sites.
• Don't forget to build a community on these websites by connecting with others who have an interest in your industry or better build a community on your site!
• Empower your colleagues, customers and business partners how to support your company through social media.
• Create entertaining, educational, enlighten, engaging content. Your target audience won't recollect you if you offer average content.

Social Media isn’t a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It seems smaller companies have been much more willing to embrace social media than larger companies. Corporations are last to the game and their fear factor of letting go of control is the main reason.

A July 13, 2009 study by Anderson Analytics found that 46% of US social media users said something good about a company and 23% said something bad about a company. The message to corporations is clear: people are talking about your company whether you're involved or not. By getting involved, they can have some influence on fence-sitters and can even use social media as a damage control tool to mitigate their foolish shortcomings. Source: here

52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking Website—double the percentage who had said something negative (23%). Source: here

If you decide to create an account on Twitter or Facebook be ready for a change in how you communicate: you will need to be more communicative with your audience. Share information, announcements on those accounts (at least once a week!), start Twitter contests, engage with your audience, communicate! ...and despite what any Social Media Marketing Expert is tell you, you don’t have to be on any social network, your audience will probably talk there about you and your products anyway.