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Last month I tried to explain what Social Media is all about. As promised this month I hope to show how it fits into your business.

First off, Social Media is often talked about as being different or separate from traditional marketing. It is not! It should be an integrated part of any relationship marketing strategy. There are of course differences but the same could be said for any channel for communicating with customers. The fact is, no matter what the channel of communication, the old rules of marketing apply.

Top 10 Steps for Social Media Success

The most common complaint or concern over Social Media is “I don’t have the hours in the day to blog / Tweet / update Facebook / update Linked in”. Well, it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time, perhaps 1-2 hours per week if you have a well-defined plan.

1. Research First – Who / how / why your prospects and customers are using social media? Which of your competitors are using social media? What are their best practices? Who are the “web influencers”? Who can affect how your brand is received? If your customers spend time on social networks then you must be there. If your customers are not on social networks then perhaps you should spend your marketing pound elsewhere.

2. Plan, Plan, Plan. Create a detailed social media strategy based on your research and align these with your business objectives and target market.

3. Do you know how to leverage the strengths of each channel?

• Video is good for capturing the imagination and can be optimised.
• Twitter, Facebook, Linked in are great places for conversations.
• Blogs are good for sharing knowledge
• Websites can be used as landing spot destinations from social media.

4. What is the desired customer action? – You must be clear on this before beginning any work and every activity you invest in should push the customer towards this action.

5. Blog – A must! Corporate blogging gives the multiple benefits of brand awareness, authority on a subject, search engine optimisation, customer service and lead generation. It is the hub of all your social media efforts.

Steps 6 - 10 coming later this week!