The Jedi Way To Social Media Marketing

[zerbeTRON]

When your business decides to take the jump into social media, there are some important steps you’ll need to take in order to come up with a good, effective social media marketing strategy for your company. I’ll outline some major things you need to do to get prepared to send your businesses to social media rock star status. Don’t fret, you can do it! Chickety-check this guide below young padawan:

Use the Force...

When starting out with a new social media strategy, it’s good to assess what you’ve already got. Do you currently have any social sites? Are you using those sites right now? Never abandon efforts! Take time to find assess what profiles you are using, even if incorrectly, and start there. Depending on your business’s particular industry or niche, you may be active on the wrong sites all together, so take the time to assess the current brand awareness levels and start mapping out where you are. This will help you later determine other networks of interest. If you don’t use social media at all, then you’ll have to start fresh. Patience youngling, the force is strong with you. J You’re ready for the next step.

I thought they smelled bad…on the OUTSIDE…

Once you’ve established where the business is and is not currently in the social sphere, now it’s time to dig deep and do some social media monitoring. Using tools like RavenSEO or Whosetalkin.com you can monitor your company’s brand name and keywords to get an idea of who is talking about you, and what they have to say. Learning early on if you’re combating a positive, negative, or neutral image of your business and industry is crucial. There are other tools and plug-ins available to do this, but the easiest way is to start with some twitter searches. Check and monitor conversations related to your brand, competition, products, and more. You can use the basic twitter search function, of if you use a desktop application like Seesmic, this allows you to monitor multiple searches throughout the day. I’d also recommend using SocialMention.com to track mentions across all social media platforms. If you’re not hearing any buzz, that’s ok too. It just means you better make some!

Midichlorian Count B******!

That’s ‘star wars speak’ for how jedi you are. This step requires the most work, but its so worth it. Research. God this is so vital to coming up with a good long term strategy. Learn about the customers you’re targeting. Where do they hang out online? Who is your target audience? What do they want out of social media? Based on you industry, you’ll find that different social networks will work better. Once you’ve got a solid understanding of who you should be targeting, it’s time to find out what networks your current and potential clients use. This requires a little trial and error, but it ends up being easier by working on the right networks. If you find that the target audience is the age range associated with myspace, and there is a buzz on that network, then focus efforts there. If you find the target audience isn’t using social media in that fashion, dig deeper to find out if they frequent sites like reddit or stumble upon. This part of the process will take the longest, but it makes the biggest impact to how your social media strategy will develop. Not sure what social networks are big players, or up and coming? Need help discovering new niche social sites? Take a gander at this list here:

http://knowem.com/

This site lists the most popular social sites and allows you to check if your particular username is registered on any of them. It’s also a great way to sample new social networking sites you may not have heard of otherwise.

Try Not. Do or Do Not. There is No Try

In the wise words of Yoda, it’s now time to put it into action. Determine which networks, forums, and social sites your business belongs on, and write out your strategy. List the networks you’re going to target. Come up with a plan of attack. What information will go on what profiles? It’s a good idea to be detailed when writing this out, because 9 times out of 10 it’ll need to be revised a few times before implementation. Take the time to strategize what you expect to accomplish on each of the respective networks. Maybe you want to amass a large twitter following, but you want to use Tumblr as a blog source. Or maybe you plan to connect facebook to twitter, and try to get active on a forum. Whatever it may be, decide why you want to be on these networks, and set some goals. Get past the “money” issue and really decide what you want from this.

Do you want to connect with your clients? Do you want to get feedback on your products or services? Maybe you’re looking to find new talent to join your team? Get your priorities in order and plan ahead. Once you get the green light, it’s all about putting it into action. Remember, social media takes time, but ultimately, it’s about consistency. Good luck Young Jedi, you’ll be a Master soon.

[Mode Merr]

I picking up what you're laying down!

[Edson Carlos]

BTW you are perfect material for the PL Army ;)

[Edson Carlos]

<--- Jedi Master, hello equal. You rock my tube socks.