The Three Most Vital Tips For Successful Start With Social Media

Too often consultants put social media activities on the back seat of their marketing strategies. This is very understandable for those that are not “techies” and find it uncomfortable being “there”. Many start, but have hard time with keeping up. Many don’t see results they expected and give up trying. Social media, just like any other business activity, needs a little plan. Here are three most vital, super simple tips to get your success rate improved and see if your social media activities start producing some positive results.

1. Outline your GOALS so that you have a focus.

Once you know what your objective is with your social media marketing you can focus on those activities and strategies that will help you achieve your goals. Set goals around things you can measure.  What are you trying to achieve? Increase traffic to your website/increase sales/improve search engine rankings/improve brand and product reputation/create or improve brand or product awareness/improve public relations/improve customer support quality. Make a list of all that applies.

• Remember to measure your results, fine tune your strategies and create better outcomes. Be patient and persistent. It takes time to see things move and happen. Evaluate often and tweak as you see appropriate and necessary.

2. Make a list of your top 50 KEYWORDS.

Start with some common words that web-surfers are likely to use when looking for a business like yours.  Keep this list visible whenever you are generating content.  A few of these words should appear in all of your tweets, posts or blog entries.  These words will help you create valuable content and messages that have relevance to your products and services. Most importantly though, is how powerful they are in making you more “find-able” online.

• This list will grow as you develop more content, new products and services. Look what happened in “social media” language world: “friend” is now a verb and “blog” once began with “we” (weblog). The social media lingo is in development and maybe you can get everyone “tweeting” about the next big “it” word in your industry.

3. Complete your PROFILES.

Think of your online Profiles as a very brief version of your resume.  Do not leave any fields blank, unless the information does not apply to you and your business. Use your keywords, professional photo, logo if you have one and list all your sites. The more complete your profiles, the better visibility you will create. When listing links to your sites, use http://yoursite.com instead of www.yoursite.com. http:// makes it clickable and eliminates few steps to getting to your sites.

• If you use more than one social networking site, the key is to maintain consistence.  Use the same photo, include the same links, and use your keywords. Maintaining the same image and message on different platforms creates recognition and eventually builds trust.

Hope this was simple enough to see that success is not that far away! Just a little focus and you will be facebooking, tweeting, blogging and youtubing successfully in no time!