In previous blog I told you about why and how social media can be leverage for your online business presence. Now let’s talk what ways to get the work done.

Creating a profile on social or business networking media is not only enough to get you business, you need a solid strategy to taste the success from this. Without strategy working on social media is like “you building a house without having blueprint of what you want to build”.

Before going for strategies you need to remember one thing using social media means long term commitment. So set your mind that you have to be there for long haul.

Below you can find few guidelines which may give your social media strategy a solid foundation.

• Tell them what you do: You need to tell them in your profile that what your company do. Make sure your content is relevant, simple and giving crystal clear understanding to your audience about your products & services.

• Scrutiny the conversation: Now when you define that what your company do, find out who’s talking about this. Look out who is talking about these     
  products directly or related in general. While observing
  these conversations dig as much as you can, like: How
  they react (+ve or –ve) to the content when someone
  uploads regarding your product industry, what
  Content/coments bring the more reactions. There
  are tools available which can find out  where the conversations are taking place (I will mention in next part)
  

• Define your goal: You need to know what your goal is. Running endlessly without knowing your goals is of no use. There could be a lot of different goals    Like: sales, branding your products, lower your ads cost.
  You need to give them priority and then start working
  accordingly.

• Who is your audience: Check out above the results you got from scrutinizing the conversations and hit upon who are talking about your brand. Do they             
  like your brand or they believe what comments you
  receiving for your products? Pick those that match for
  your business and start monitoring them.

• Does your audience know you? : Not only you know your audience is important, even your audience must know you, what they know about you is important. It’s important to know to whom you are talking than to how many. You can have number list of your audience who: your fans/brand advocates, repeat actions, interacted with you; know your name, never heard of you.  You can select one and start working on it.

• Plan your content: Your content is a key to engage your customers, so this should make your fans happy. You need to plan your content which can engage your customers can deliver some value to them. This is most likely the reason why people buy from you. Your content should be meaningful for them.
  
  • Relevant content with style is nice job to do.
  • Write and talk as you are with friend.
  • Can use keywords for search engine visibility.

  
  

• Conversations: A study by social networking site myYearbook, 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site;74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision.
  

             (Click Z, January 2010)

The main goal of your social media activities is “Dialogue between peoples” who talking about your brand. Be active in participating conversations about your field. Ask questions and provide answers. Keep the conversation on by commenting & replying.