The 5 Pillars of Social Media Marketing

Are you allocating budget to Social Media Marketing in 2011? Are you wondering how to boost your social media marketing success? While keeping up with Social Media Marketing Skills demands a lot from your organization, here are excellent tips that will help your business succeed.

The other day, I listened to some great tips on LinkedIn, answering the following interesting question: “Social Media Marketing – In-house or Outsource?”. I have read all answers and grouped them into five categories that could support your Social Media Marketing Success: Time and Money, Clear Goals, Skills, Engagement, Part of Total Business

Dedicate Time and Money

Do you have a budget in place and a staff who will dedicate their time to use Social Media for your business? While using Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Youtube or Twitter may be free, it takes a budget to run campaigns and hours of work to create a viable platform with a growing community of fans. Your commitment to your business should be translated into allocating sufficient resources to Social Media Marketing.

Define clear Goals

A good Social Media Marketing Strategy should be aligned with your business goals.

Do you have a clear strategic goal and viable targets? Consider exactly what you want to achieve form a social campaign. Is the goal of your campaign to build your brand or do you want to engage with your audience? Partner with a firm or consultant to plan the overall social media strategy.

Develop the right skills

How do you best stay on top of how to use social media platforms and know the best tactics to get maximum bang and exposure for your buck?. If you do not have the skills in-house, hire expertise from outside firms to support your strategy. Find a reliable firm that is committed to your business to support and train your in-house staff.

If you are hiring someone for your social media strategy, look for people who want to work for empathy. Make sure they are entrepreneurial, enthusiastic, creative and well versed in your culture.

Keep Engagement In-house

Keep engagement in the conversation in-house. You know your business better than anyone else. This is the best opportunity to learn first hand from your audience how they perceive you.

Remember that social media marketing is building a personal relationship with your audience. Give your organization a face and a name that people can connect with. Engagement requires sustained listening, responding, invitations to interact and interest in the community in an ever-evolving and ongoing cycle.

Make it part of total business

Be aware that social media marketing is an integral part of your total business. Social Media Marketing is related to operations, sales, marketing, customer service and purchasing. The “social” represents your total voice – it defines who you are.

To take this point even further, it is my firm believe that any type of marketing for your business should have a central place in your organization. Be it social or not. Marketing is the vehicle to make the connection between your business and your target audience.

If you want to build a sustainable business, you better define a social media marketing strategy that is implemented throughout your entire organization.

If you are willing to dedicate time and money, develop the right skills, set clear goals, start to engage and make Social Media Marketing part of your total business strategy, you will have everything in place for a social media marketing success in 2011.

What would you add? Do you have additional advice to increase social media marketing success? Leave your comments and ideas below.

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  1. Great write – I believe these are an essential 5 for any business to consider when starting a SM program or is reevaluating their current position.

  2. Good advice. I would probably change the order, slightly, though. Dedicating time and money should always FOLLOW the plan. Better to know what resources you’ll need and how much they will cost – first – to avoid the senior management wars that may come at an inopportune time.

    Marc LeVine
    Director of Social Media
    RiaEnjolie, Inc.
    http://www.RiaEnjolie.com
    Follow on Twitter @RiaEnjolie

  3. I agree completely with your points, Juan.

    It is also very important to keep your personal and business social media presences separate. Too many times have I seen small businesses trying to grow their online presence by simply adding personal friends to their facebook page, or following celebrities on twitter. It may provide some instant gratification by way of a few new fans or followers, but in the long run it hurts the credibility of the brand.

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