Unique Original Articles » How to Succeed In Social Marketing

Success in Social Media Marketing is dependent on your ability to stay on top of the news and keep up-to-date. You must be on the look out for what’s coming next

Social media is no longer simply a trend, it is a fact of life. Despite this fact the social media market is continung to rapidly expand, transform and grow.



Abraham Maslow (remember that diagram on Maslows hierarchy of needs) identified the five basic needs required for human survival:

Safety

Belonging

Self-esteem

Self-actualization



Now you may be asking what does that have to do with social media? Well, the truth is that social media helps us meet some of those basic needs: belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization by staying connected and being able to share and promote ourselves. All that connectedness helps us on the road to self-actualization. Perhaps that is the true root of the success of social media marketing.



So, what are the things that will enable you to see success with social media marketing? Here are a few tips to get you started:



Best Practices

· Have a plan. Do your homework and develop a Social Media roadmap. Who is your audience? What are your objectives? What will your strategy look and feel like? What tools and technologies will you employ? What will you measure and how (metrics). Who will manage your social media? How much can/should you invest in social media?



· Commit the resources & the time. You must forecast how much time you need to devote to social media, who will work on social media, what you will do, when or how often you will do things and how you will engage in social media marketing. You should anticipate and plan for success because change can happen quickly and in social media immediate response can mean the difference between success and failure. Inability to respond quickly will most likely kill any chance you have of success.



· Provide value to your audience –The most successful social media marketing programs involve listening and participation. Participation involves giving something of value to your visitors before expecting anything in return (sales, conversions). Typically in social marketing you are providing content in the form of articles, subscriptions, ebook etc.



· Be Honest and forthright. –Insincerity will alienate your audience. The world of social media detests anyone who is fake. Be open about what you do, and why you are participating in social media. Research and observe communities you are interested in participating in. Your research should tell you al ot about the community and make it pretty obvious what types of commercial messages are appropriate or inappropriate.



· Accept the fact you are not in control of the message. Although there are things you can do through your participation in social media and the content you provide, you must recognize that it is the opinion of others that counts most. Friends sharing with friends carries an innate level of trust and respect you can’t get on your own. Once you make information available on the social web, people will inevitably tear it up, stretch it, pull it and reshape it according to their own interests and opinions. Brands need to protect their identities, copyright and intellectual property. You can influence opinions with good content but rather than “controlling the message” people share among themselves marketers should encourage the mashup and creativity that comes from informal information sharing.



· Encourage participation! As companies become more comfortable using social media, they will see opportunties to engage in communications with members of the community-especially with promoters of their brand. Developing relationships and community within social communities on the web can facilitate buy in, provide invaluable feedback and increase traffic opportunities.



· Metrics should roll up to objectives-Social media marketing is more like public relations than direct marketing. Social media works by providing resource “A” that results in “action “B” which in turn influences outcome “C”. You need to be clear about what you want to measure and make certain your metrics address both pre-goal performance indicators as well as commercial outcomes. This will help identify those social media tasks and events that directly resulted in a successful outcome. There are many software programs available to help you specifically address social marketing analytics.







Perhaps the most important success factor in social media marketing is staying educated on the trends. The social media landscape continues to evolve and change rapidly. Position yourself so that you can respond and get ahead of the competition with constant research and intelligence about social media marketing.




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Article Source: JS2 Article Marketing