Entrepreneur David Sammon Building Brands Through Social Media

Effective Marketing Strategies in Social Networking The difference between getting lost among the masses and achieving success on social networks lies in the ability to interact with your audience in a meaningful way

When you consider all the possible social networking channels and the millions of people involved in them, it might seem ironic that we are talking about one-to-one marketing and success on social networks in the same sentence. For some business consultants, the world of social networking seems like a vast and amorphous territory. However, for many others it is a great vehicle to raise awareness, foster genuine connections with existing customers and attract new ones.

The difference between getting lost among the masses and achieving success in social networks is determined by the ability of a company to interact with its audience in an authentic and meaningful way.

Of course there are many examples and recommendations on how to do this. However, many of them reflect the demands of an individual company. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to social networking success, the next ten best practices have consistently delivered results for businesses of all sizes and types.

Social media marketing

1. Set goals

When you set your goals, you are more likely to achieve them. But they should not be so ambitious as to be unattainable or so easy to reach that they fail to deliver tangible results. Set realistic milestones, such as adding a certain number of new fans or followers over the next month, improving your SEO results, or engaging in a number of high-quality conversations per week, and then building on those Successes raising the bar each quarter.

2. Be consistent

Your posts, profiles and personality in social networks should consistently reflect who you are, the type of business you are engaged in and the interests of the audience you are trying to attract.

3. It's where your customers are.

Instead of squeezing little by trying to span many different networks, identify the two top online destinations where your customers and prospects are most active and dive deep into them.

4. Tell your customers

Tell your customers where they can find you on the internet. Include your social networking information on your website, business cards, blog, email signature, newsletter, and any other means you use to communicate with your customers. And, when appropriate, insert it into your face-to-face conversations.

5. Join existing conversations and start new conversations.

Listen and make comments when appropriate, trying not to sound like commercial of your business. You can also use the elements you find in the stream of social networks as a launch pad for a new exchange, or simply start a fresh conversation from an interesting fact, a question that arouses interest, or some news.

6. Be relevant.

When your fans and followers read your posts, they should go with the following three ideas: they learned something new, the information is interesting and / or helps them in some way, and it specifically concerns the company’s expertise.

7. Interact.

To really make a good impression, make sure your posts offer tips and ideas that are not widely known and that contribute to enrich the conversation. Remember that the interaction consists in cultivating dialogues, not monologues.

8. Participate actively.

We know by now that it is not about publishing to be published. The trick is to strike a balance between being active enough to be present in the top of mind of your audience, but not so much that you run the risk of chasing it away because of the excess of information sharing. To determine the level of activity that is right for your business, carefully observe the guidelines your audience gives you based on your interaction levels.

In this sense, a question that often arises is whether to forward the same message. David Sammon On Facebook and Twitter , you can publish the same information, written in a different way, twice a day, because of the speed with which the feeds change and the intense activity in these sites can bury your message. However, if it is LinkedIn, it is enough with a single post on a certain topic.

9. Be responsive.

Whether you've just conquered a new follower, received flattering feedback, or been stoned in public, make sure you respond quickly and professionally to every message. Send a genuine thanks, not an automated one, to your new followers. It recognizes and appreciates the satisfied customer and asks the dissatisfied customer how he can clear up the misunderstanding outside of cyberspace.

10. It confers honor to whom honor deserves.

You will be able to win to your audience when you share news, blog posts and other relevant content citing the source of the information. After all, sharing gives way to more conversations, which creates more opportunities to interact.