Social Media Marketing Strategy:
"What are you THINKING?"

The challenge with all social media markting is not taking Twitter's mantra of "what are you doing?" literally . . .

• For communications with family and friends, tweeting and sending Facebook updates about an individual's daily activities may be fine. But why would a business acquaintance want to continue to receive that?
• Social media communications need to address, "What are you thinking?" This avoids boring followers and fans with tweets and updates that don't share relevant information.

The Social Media "Good News"

Social media marketing can help introduce your company to prospects . . . help build an image among target consumers . . . generate traffic to the website . . . as well as generate quality links back to the site for SEO purposes.

To accomplish these things well, we use a "Social Media Roadmap" to guide what we're trying to accomplish and ensure that we have a specific strategy to get it done.

Influence, Engage, and Add Value

To get the maximum benefit from your social media marketing efforts, you need a plan. Every social media channel should play a role in your plan — because each social media site reaches its particular audience where they hang out online.

With a well-planned social media marketing strategy, you can:

• Become a go-to source for information about your area of expertise, to build your brand and differentiate your company. (The idea is to share useful and relevant information with prospects).
• Open a dialog and engage prospects in conversations that can provide mutual value. You can learn more about your target customers, and connect on a more personal level.
• Listen to your target audiences — and influencers — in your industry. You need to join in on conversations that are already happening without you, and begin to guide future conversations.
• Encourage prospects to pass on your useful information, to extend the reach of your social media marketing efforts.