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Creative Ramblings > Branding > The golden rules of a successful social media strategy

The golden rules of a successful social media strategy

3 Sep, 2012 Branding Great Resources New eBook Project Permalink
strategy

Photo credit: Mukumbura via photo pin cc

I have had this idea at the back of my mind for several months already. And now is the time to share it with you.

Whether I facilitate workshops or advise clients, I often find myself having to explain what the phrase “social media strategy” stands for. Usually, people realize that they have been implementing a strategy all along. And, lo and behold! The door to a world of opportunities — and great ideas — suddenly opens for them.

Every industry is different. What works in a specific field may not work in another. However, some tips and rules are universal. And as such, they should be shared.

So here is the idea! I want to create the best collection of must-follow advice for successful social media strategies around. And I want to include you in it!

Whether you are a social media expert, musician, author, or small business owner, I am sure that I and others can learn a lot from you.

So, add your best tips to the Listly list below or in the comment section under the article for a chance to be featured!

  • “Add value” – Julio Viskovich (Twitter: @juliovisko)

“This most important tip I can give that is universal is to add value to other people. You can’t sell yourself or your product until people trust you. The cycle is know-like-trust-buy. In order to build the trust needed, you need to be genuine and add value to you audience and market.”

  • “Add your personality to the mix” – Dino Hukic (Twitter: @dino_hukic)

“Show some personality. It is important to add personality to social media. Every product, service, company and person should show their personality online. It is a way of standing out from the crowd and allowing people to connect with you. The way that this is conveyed through social media is important and it is still a hard task to keep it real and natural online, but if this is done properly, it can benefit you endlessly.

“Know your message and your audience: Direct and create your posts for your audience, and follow and seek followers who are relevant – quality over quantity.”

  • “Always pay attention to your audience” – Tom George (Twitter: @netbillboards)

“In sales you hear catch phrases like “God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak” It is also a fact that 80% percent of sales are made by 20% percent of the sales force. I think this concept can and should be applied to an effective social media strategy. You should comment and interact with your fans, followers and friends pages and posts often. Find the right ratio that works. This is how you build trust and get a dialogue going. The first thing you must realize is to avoid self delusion, to understand it is not simply all about “You” all of the time.”

“Always give first, without expectation of return. Never forget to say thank you. And if you are sharing content prepared by someone else, always make sure to review it for quality before sharing. Never say anything online, privately or publicly, that you wouldn’t want on the front page of The New York Times. Always take the high road and know that The Golden Rule and The Laws of Compensation are alive and well on social media.”

“When implementing one’s strategy, remember to be consistently engaged. For example, on a Facebook fan/business page, posting 1 time per day, M-F, is not the same as posting 5 times a week. Your fans begin to look forward to regular content if it is delivered in a dependable timeline. Alternatively, if you post 5 times in one day, only once per week, it is probable you will lose fans.”

  • “Behave online as you would offline” – Sian Phillips (Twitter: @_Sians)

“Engage with people, never ignore comments unless they really aren’t worth acknowledging.

Chat to people and make them realise you are real – you may be a front for your business so humanise it to make it more accessible.

Don’t be rude, confrontational or a bully. Be careful expressing an opinion as sometimes it can come across as arguing. Ensure you make it known it’s just your opinion and of course people can agree to disagree.

Have respect for other people on Social Media – remember they aren’t just an avatar, they are a person, and you wouldn’t go up to someone in the street in front of a crowd and shout abuse or be disrespectful.

Share great posts or connections when you can – this may then be reciprocated but more importantly you are helping other people and spreading some good info.

Help people where you can – if you have an expertise then have a search column for it on Twitter and answer those you can help with.

Most of all – be yourself.”

“Be authentic, real and compassionate. Remove yourself from the technology and be human.”

“I’ve been observing a lot of people who are unhappy with their jobs and how they behave at these jobs, let me just say that those who lack the passion and do not love what they do will reflect that in their work. What does this have to do with social media? You can tell when someone isn’t really happy to talk to you, you can tell when someone is genuinely interested in you and when they are not. In life and in social media it is the little things that count, something as small as saying good morning or hello to someone can make a big difference and if you mean it is that much more powerful. That is my big secret: I give a crap and I have passion for what I do : )”

“Despite the myths, getting a million social media followers and building strong, long-lasting relationships with loyal customers won’t happen overnight. Focus on posting great content regularly, position yourself for the long haul, and slowly but surely, progress will occur.”

  • “Beware TMI” – Deanna Dahlsad (Twitter: @DPopTart)

“There’s a fine line between ‘personable’ and ‘personal’. While personality is encouraged, know you customer and observe respectful limits. In most cases, discussing or mentioning or religion and/or politics can be more alienating than engaging to your audience. Those topics are even more risky than risque comments.”

  • “Be yourself and be flexible” – Bryan P Hollis (Twitter: @brphollis)

“I have found that using social media as a hard-sell tool / tactic is not wise. Not through experience, but observation. Many would say that I am not the easiest person to “mesh” with. Social media networking should be genuine. Much like friendships, you find that you can count your network closely. This is genuine and a lot more gets accomplished than trying to cater to everyone.”

“I find one of the best strategies I use is to be interested in what others are doing and help them get the word out. I look at social media much like I do in-person networking. If it is all about me and I’m only selling or pushing myself it is a big turnoff. But if I can notice what others are doing that my groups on Facebook or Twitter would relate to and share it, then I’m sharing good information and helping others at the same time.

I am friends with many other authors and we all cross-promote each others’ work. It was so helpful when I launched my book because I had a team helping me promote.

And I think the more authentic I am, sharing both ups and selective downs, my weird sense of humor and my other interests outside of my healing practice, the more people feel comfortable with me. (And those that don’t aren’t “my people” anyway!) For example one of the things I do on Facebook is to share nature photos that I take. I’ve become known as the “tree lady” because of my interesting tree photos. Who would have thought that would be something that clients would say, “I saw your photos and knew I had to work with you!”?”

  • “Build relationships” – Jerry Doby (Twitter: @jdobypr)

“Maximize the brief moments you have with your audience/customers and let them feel they are dealing with a flesh and blood human being and not some “bot” on a mission to clean out their pockets. GIVE them something they can hold onto, a good morning, hope all is well, anything interesting with you today? Those types of things build trust, comfort and the willingness to in return, hear what you have to say”

“Social media marketing seems to work by a gentlemanly process of relationships – people get to know you, enjoy your company in an interview or a blog post. It’s the way books have always sold on in traditional publishing – by generating curiosity so that one day the reader stops and picks up the book.

It’s a fantastic tool for creating our identity as writers. We can show people who we are under the books, where we go exploring for ideas, where we get help. We can ask for advice when we need it. And it’s surprising how many are listening!”

  • “Create and maintain a blog” – Emmanuel Gonot

“There are many proven strategies out there and the only way to find one that really works for you is to just do it, get your feet wet, experiment, learn from the best minds in the industry. Having said that, I think that one of the best strategies is blogging. Create a blog (could be a new domain or a subdomain or a subfolder to an existing site) from which you can share content, centralize all your contact information, promote something, and interact with your community. Some people are not on Twitter and some are averse to FB or G+ or YouTube, but everyone can visit your blog and react to and share your posts. In my opinion, you haven’t really started to get serious about social media engagement until you’ve started your very own content sharing platform.”

  • “Create excitement around your brand” – John Thomas (Twitter: @blogliterati)

“Customer was king, is and always will be. How do you turn fans into loyal customers of your brand and how to ensure people who already use your products/services continue using them? By enhancing brand experiences and building meaningful relationships. And now more than ever, social media has made it so easy to engage on a personal and personable level with the customers.

Don’t ever enter social media because you need to be there or because it’s an in-thing. Humanize your selling strategies and efforts. Though you are engaging virtually, you are dealing with humans – real people with feelings and emotions, not just prospects to whom you need to sell products.

Start the day with a nice quote or an inspiring message before talking about your products or services. People love to kick-start their day with some inspiration. Create some excitement about your product/brand or service. Don’t directly sell, talk about real life issues and experiences and how your products or services could add value to people’s lives.”

  • “Define your purpose before jumping on the social networking bandwagon” – Liz Wilson (Twitter: @lizwilson2)

“Treat strategy as strategy. One of the first questions I hear a lot is “Should we be on Facebook or Google+?”. Often people are anxious to start using or expanding social networks before they have defined their purpose. So I would say:

  1. Be clear what you want to achieve via social media
  2. Consider who you are speaking to
  3. Think about what you want to say to them to engage them, and what they can say to you
  4. Only then begin to think about the right networks and how you will use them.

This is pretty simplified of course. But the essence is strategy first, tactics after.”

  • Don’t Be Afraid - Joe Cheray

“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. People want to know they are dealing with a human not a robot. It’s ok to show your aggravation with something. As long as it is done in as much of a diplomatic manner as possible especially if your dealing with a brand.

Don’t be afraid to admit your having an off day to your audience. There might be someone out there in your audience who is also having a bad day.

Don’t be afraid to share your success either. When you do something that you are proud of OWN it.”

  • “Engage” – Louis

“Engage with your customers, let them know that an actual human being is managing your social media account, not a bot.

Start a conversation, ask a question and encourage replies.

Be omni present – have the links to your social media pages visible on your page, in your email signature, on your business card.”

  • “Enjoy doing social media” – Julia Angelen Zunich (Twitter@JulesZunichPR)

“My best tip is to only engage in social media if you enjoy it. Forcing yourself to do it makes it miserable (and boring for us.) Find someone in your organization that loves it and let them be the champion.”

  • “Focus on the needs of your audience” – Michael McDonald (Twitter: @vtwinfitness)

“The first thing that comes to mind is make it about them not about myself. Find out what my customers/clients/friends want or need. A good communicator is a good listener. What value can I be for someone else?”

  • “Foster a social organization” – Lauren Licata (Twitter:@LaurenLicata)

“If a social strategy is going to work, you need to transform your organization into a social one. This means, you need buy-in from management who understands the objectives of the social media marketing program. You also need to identify SME (subject matter experts) in each of your company’s functional area who are willing to actively contribute to your blog. For example, I work at a branding and design firm and we’re setting metrics to encourage all departments; 2D design, industrial design, accounts, etc. to contribute relevant content to our blog on a regular basis. The marketing team should drive these efforts, but a marketer is not an expert at say, prototyping. It takes everyone in an organization to produce and distribute valuable content on a regular basis!”

  • “Keep your message consistent” – Kevin

“Make sure that you keep your message the same in all forms of social media as well as the rest of your company, to keep people from getting confused as to what your trying to get across. Also make sure to get your message out and be genuine and to the point, no need for smoke and mirrors.”

  • “Learn, teach and connect” – Ileane Smith (Twitter: @Ileane)

“I’m here to learn, to teach, and to connect. I think if we can use social media to do those three things, we’ll have a great strategy in place.”

  • “Learn the specificities of each social network” – Adam Houlahan (Twitter: @adamhoulahan)

“Don’t try to be a master of all Social Media platforms at once, how you strategize for Twitter will be vastly different to Pinterest or Facebook etc. Whilst this lives under the comment “have a plan” your plan has to have sub categories for each platform you intend to use. Not all platforms suit all business types, so research your competitors & see what they are doing well and what may not be working for your industry as a whole. Starting small also allows you do hide some initial mistakes without being out there on every platform.”

“Treating your prospects, clients, contacts, and aquaintances with the valued part they play in your life….they are the reason you are you. Be yourself with them. It is a fair exchange. They could do business with anyone. They have chosen you because you are authentic. Be consistently authentic. Listen. The word listen has the key to all relationships. It really means list ten…..list ten things your speaker is saying. They will tell you what they want. Your job is to give them permission to have it by investing in themselves through your products. You can help them acquire and achieve. You are the achiever they have chosen. List ten things they want from you.”

  • “Never stop learning” – Ching Ya (Twitter: @chingya)

“Social networking is an on-going learning process. Be humble and never stop offering quality content and engage with like-minded people.”

  • “Remember that audiences are like you” – Natalie Brown (Twitter: @natalie_brown)

“When you market yourself, product or service, remember that you are targeting people just like you. Think about your interests, needs and desires and market to those same people and meet their need with what you do, make or sell!”

  • “Remember the purpose of social media” – Lynn O’Connell (Twitter: @omdirect)

“Don’t view social media as another channel for distributing your press releases. It’s not. Instead, speak person to person. Respect your readers and strive to provide value with every tweet or post. That could come from news updates, commentary with a strong point of view, or from providing links to articles you know will interest them. There are many effective strategies, but no one — no one — wants a constant stream of self-serving marketing messages.

Let’s say you’re promoting a conference. DON’T spam your readers with constant reminders of early bird deadlines. DO link to interesting content by speakers or, even better, get guest posts from speakers and promote those. Use social media to give your audience a taste of what your conference will be about instead of hard selling registration with every post.”

  • “Respect your audience” – Matthew Shepherd (Twitter:@MatShepSEO)

“You don’t have to be on every social media platform out there especially when this dilutes your ability to share unique and meaningful content and hold good conversation.

Understand how your community uses the social media space you are in. Respect that for many this is a recreational, social and learning activity. This is not just another opportunity for interruption marketing.

For goodness sake at least try to be interesting! For example, just because your business sells a specific type of insurance and that’s what you want to sell to your social media network doesn’t mean that is all you have at your disposal to share and discuss. Your social media community is unlikely to want to consume that kind of content all of the time. Talk about topics relevant to people who buy insurance such as small business advice, home and garden maintenance, auto tips, local events, simple how to financial and insurance guides etc.

This isn’t just a push medium. Read your communities updates, comment on them, be genuinely interested in the community, converse and don’t be afraid to share your views.

Follow people who interest you and follow those people who follow you (if they appear to be a genuine person or organization). If we all behaved in person like many businesses do in social media we would all be pretty lonely people. Your social media success should not be measured by follower numbers it should be guided by quality and frequent engagement.”

  • “Solicit your audience’s feedback” – Nigel Lamb (Twitter:@xposure)

“When sharing a blog post, news item, promotional item etc. always ask for feedback on it. Don’t just ask people to read it. Tell them what they can get out of it and how they can join in and help, by giving their feedback.”

  • “Start with a plan” – Martin Lindeskog (Twitter: @Lyceum)

“You have to start with answering the question “why” you are in business and why you should use social media at all.

Ask more questions: Where are you customers online? What are your objectives with your social media activities? Then comes the strategy along together with the tech. tools. These ideas are presented in the Groundswell book by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff.

One rule could be to have a calendar, scheduling your social media activities during the week, months, with milestones places on a timeline.”

  • “Start with a plan, test and measure” – Michele Smorgon (Twitter: @maxOz)

“1) Clarify Your Marketing Goals and Specific Objectives.
2) Determine your target audience or ideal client. It’s important to identify exactly who you want to reach in order to develop a solid plan of action. Be as specific as possible.
3) Then consider your marketing platforms and where to reach your audience
4) Decide on Your Value Offering
5) Test and Measure”

  • “Tailor your messages” – Doug Wolfgram (Twitter:@dougwolfgram)

“Most people don’t stop to think about point-of-business. It is silly to think that one post applies to all social networks. Remember that each network has unique users with different mindsets when they visit. Tailor your message accordingly.”

  • “Tell a story and optimize” – Pattie Simone (Twitter:@WomenCentric)

“There are two things that can help you maximize your social media strategy. First, tell a story. People love stories, especially ones that reflect your unique personality and your “take” on any given subject. Stories humanize your brand; great stories also share timely info, smart tips and /or valuable resources. You can expertize yourself and direct great traffic to your site via interesting stories.

Number two – understand the value of optimized content! So wherever you are sharing tips, intel, news, advice, etc., think HOW your prospects are seeking your kind of products, services or information and include those search engine optimized phrases and hashtags in your posts. This will help boost the number of eyeballs on your content, and the number of warmer leads that connect with you!”

  • “Use Facebook contests to engage and reward fans” – Donna Hamer

“Here are three simple steps to get started:

Step 1 – Use a third party app (this is a little piece of software that you add to your Facebook Page). It manages the entries, is very simple to use and complies with the Promotional Guidelines.

Step 2 – Understand and implement the seven Guidelines. For example, don’t ask people to use any of Facebook’s functions such as liking a post, commenting on a post, sharing a post, tagging and so on – to run your competition or promotion.

Step 3 – Educate yourself and your team on Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines so that your business grows its digital footprint.”

  • “Walk the talk” – Dave Kragenbrink (Twitter: @dkragen)

“You have great ideas and content, that’s wonderful. But you have to practice what you preach. If you ask your readers to believe you, they have to know you believe yourself.”

,

Creative Commons License
This article by Cendrine Marrouat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

About The Author

Cendrine Marrouat is a journalist, blogger, content curator, author, and workshop facilitator located in Canada. She is the founder of two social media blogs: Social Media Slant and Creative Ramblings. On March 6, 2012, she released The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips, a comprehensive resource that provides bloggers of all levels with essential information and precise guidance to attract quality traffic to their blogs. She is currently working on an eBook on social media strategies that should be released before the end of 2013.
  • http://www.gfx.com Doug Wolfgram

    Most people don’t stop to think about point-of-business. It is silly to think that one post applies to all social networks. Remember that each network has unique users with different mindsets when they visit. Tailor your message accordingly.

  • Harold Gardner

    Be sure that your SM strategy is a part of the whole marketing effort not some bolt on after thought. I see companies that have a different message with SM than the rest of the organization.

  • http://egosoletrader.com Martin Lindeskog

    Cendrine:

    You have to start with answering the question “why” you are in business and why you should use social media at all.

    Ask more questions: Where are you customers online? What are your objectives with your social media activities? Then comes the strategy along together with the tech. tools. These ideas are presented in the Groundswell book by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff.

    One rule could be to have a calendar, scheduling your social media activities during the week, months, with milestones places on a timeline.

  • http://www.emmanuelgonot.com Emmanuel Gonot

    There are many proven strategies out there and the only way to find one that really works for you is to just do it, get your feet wet, experiment, learn from the best minds in the industry. Having said that, I think that one of the best strategies is blogging. Create a blog (could be a new domain or a subdomain or a subfolder to an existing site) from which you can share content, centralize all your contact information, promote something, and interact with your community. Some people are not on Twitter and some are averse to FB or G+ or YouTube, but everyone can visit your blog and react to and share your posts. In my opinion, you haven’t really started to get serious about social media engagement until you’ve started your very own content sharing platform. Thanks, Cendrine!

  • http://mikadouglas.tumblr.com/ Mika Douglas

    Be authentic, real and compassionate. Remove yourself from the technology and be human.

  • http://www.julioviskovich.com Julio Viskovich

    This most important tip I can give that is universal is to add value to other people. You can’t sell yourself or your product until people trust you. The cycle is know-like-trust-buy. In order to build the trust needed, you need to be genuine and add value to you audience and market.

  • http://list.ly Nick Kellet

    You can’t beat a bit a of crowdsourcing. Keep me in the loop. I’ll contribute.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      You can contribute right now. ;-)

      • http://jdobypr.com Jerry Doby

        I believe the best tip/advise I could give is to be human! Maximize the brief moments you have with your audience/customers and let them feel they are dealing with a flesh and blood human being and not some “bot” on a mission to clean out their pockets. GIVE them something they can hold onto, a good morning, hope all is well, anything interesting with you today? Those types of things build trust, comfort and the willingness to in return, hear what you have to say.

        I read quite a few great tips on this post…very educational!

    • http://www.wordsmithmusic.com Wordsmith

      Social networking has truly been my main source of advancing my career and gaining new fans. Most independent artist do not have major label budgets, so social marketing is like the new guerrilla marketing without having to run the streets throwing flyers & free cd’s in peoples faces. I also found that being personal with your fans goes a long way; meaning answer every fan that takes the time to write you a message back. Don’t place yourself above anyone and remain down to earth as fans are intrigued about talking to their favorite artists personally. A final note with social marketing is don’t over promote your product; yes its sounds strange, but I found that if you space out your promotion the results are better. If your constantly online posting stuff every 10 to 20 mins its taken as spam in peoples mind, so be careful and make each post count!

  • http://www.empireavenue.com/STARGAZER666 Louis

    engage with your customers, let them know that an actual human being is managing your social media account, not a bot
    start a conversation, ask a question and encourage replies
    be omni present – have the links to your social media pages visible on your page, in your email signature, on your business card

  • http://halfmealhabit.com/move-more Half Meal Habit

    Ask fun and engaging questions at your FB site or Tweets, like “What’s your favorite band?” and “Name your funnest summer day this year?” will get people engaging more!

  • http://sometimesimsuchagirl.wordpress.com/ Jaclyn Anne

    I am still learning myself, from what I have found, the most important step to success is: Do not give up!

  • http://www.greatpoetrymhf.wordpress.com Mary Helen Ferris

    Treating your prospects, clients, contacts, and aquaintances with the valued part they play in your lfe….they are the reason you are you. Be yourself with them. It is a fair exchange. They could do business with anyone. They have chosen you because you are authentic. Be consistently authentic. Listen. The word listen has the key to all relationships. It really means list ten…..list ten things your speaker is saying. They will tell you what they want. Your job is to give them permission to have it by investing in themseves through your products. You can help them acquire and achieve. You are the achiever they have chosen. List ten things they want from you.

  • http://feeds.feedburner.com/msileanespeaksyoutube Ileane

    Hi Cendrine, this used to be my tagline on an old blog so I’ll refer back to it now:

    I’m here to learn to teach and to connect.

    I think if we can use social media to do those three things, we’ll have a great strategy in place.

  • http://www.internetbillboards.net Tom George

    In sales you here catch phrases like “God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak” It is also a fact that 80% percent of sales are made by 20% percent of the sales force. I think this concept can and should be applied to an effective social media strategy. You should comment and interact with your fans, followers and friends pages and posts often. Find the right ratio that works. This is how you build trust and get a dialogue going. The first thing you must realize is to avoid self delusion, to understand it is not simply all about “You” all of the time.

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  • http://www.memarketingservices.com Mandy Edwards

    I would say respond. Businesses miss out on so much because they fail to follow through. If someone posts a question or a comment on your page/account/whatever, respond! A friend of mines like to say, “would you ignore someone like that in person?” Of course that answer is a resounding NO! Why businesses fail to respond online still gets me…

  • http://www.laurenlicata.com Lauren

    “Foster a Social Organization”

    If a social strategy is going to work, you need to transform your organization into a social one. This means, you need buy-in from management who understands the objectives of the social media marketing program. You also need to identify SME (subject matter experts) in each of your company’s functional area who are willing to actively contribute to your blog. For example, I work at a branding and design firm and we’re setting metrics to encourage all departments; 2D design, industrial design, accounts, etc. to contribute relevant content to our blog on a regular basis. The marketing team should drive these efforts, but a marketer is not an expert at say, prototyping. It takes everyone in an organization to produce and distribute valuable content on a regular basis!

  • http://mindblowingresources.blogspot.com John Thomas

    Customer was king, is and always will be. How do you turn fans into loyal customers of your brand and how to ensure people who already use your products/services continue using them? By enhancing brand experiences and building meaningful relationships. And now more than ever, social media has made it so easy to engage on a personal and personable level with the customers. Don’t ever enter social media because you need to be there or because it’s an in-thing. Humanize your selling strategies and efforts. Though you are engaging virtually, you are dealing with humans – real people with feelings and emotions, not just prospects to whom you need to sell products. Start the day with a nice quote or an inspiring message before talking about your products or services. People love to kick-start their day with some inspiration. Create some excitement about your product/brand or service. Don’t directly sell, talk about real life issues and experiences and how your products or services could add value to people’s lives.

  • http://www.creativebrandmarketing.co.uk Nigel Lamb

    When sharing a blog post, news item, promotional item etc. always ask for feedback on it. Don’t just ask people to read it. Tell them what they can get out of it and how they can join in and help, by giving their feedback. Very much like this article :)

    • http://www.toushenne.de Robert

      I totally agree with you Nigel! Some people only think about spreading the word of new blog posts and aiming at traffic, but most forget to ask for feedback, or at least for sharing the article.

      And as you, I will share this article, too, because I see it as a constant reminder of what is important. Thank you Cendrine!

      • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

        Hello Robert,

        Would you have a tip to share as well?

  • http://www.nailyournovel.com rozmorris

    Social media marketing seems to work by a gentlemanly process of relationships – people get to know you, enjoy your company in an interview or a blog post. It’s the way books have always sold on in traditional publishing – by generating curiosity so that one day the reader stops and picks up the book.
    It’s a fantastic tool for creating our identity as writers. We can show people who we are under the books, where we go exploring for ideas, where we get help. We can ask for advice when we need it. And it’s surprising how many are listening!

  • http://mikemcdonaldfitness.com/sitemap/ Michael McDonald

    The first thing that comes to mind is make it about them not about myself. Find out what my customers/clients/friends want or need. A good communicator is a good listener. What value can I be for someone else?

  • http://www.getthemessagepr.ca Laurie Lockhart

    Know your message and your audience: Direct and create your posts for your audience, and follow and seek followers who are relevant – quality over quantity.

  • http://www.socialmedia-max.com Michele Smorgon

    1. Clarify Your Marketing Goals and Specific Objectives.
    2. Determine your target audience or ideal client. It’s important to identify exactly who you want to reach in order to develop a solid plan of action. Be as specific as possible.
    3. Then consider your marketing platforms and where to reach your audience
    4. Decide on Your Value Offering
    5. Test and Measure

  • http://socialmediasass.com Karla Campos

    I’ve been observing a lot of people who are unhappy with their jobs and how they behave at these jobs, let me just say that those who lack the passion and do not love what they do will reflect that in their work. What does this have to do with social media? You can tell when someone isn’t really happy to talk to you, you can tell when someone is genuinely interested in you and when they are not. In life and in social media it is the little things that count, something as small as saying good morning or hello to someone can make a big difference and if you mean it is that much more powerful. That is my big secret I give a crap and I have passion for what I do : )

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  • http://www.wchingya.com Ching Ya

    These are some great tips. Actually mine is quite similar to most of the contributors above: “Social networking is an on-going learning process. Be humble and never stop offering quality content and engage with like-minded people.” Just wish I have time to do more :)

  • http://www.dotdynamic.ca Matthew Shepherd

    You don’t have to be on every social media platform out there especially when this dilutes your ability to share unique and meaningful content and hold good conversation.

    Understand how your community uses the social media space you are in. Respect that for many this is a recreational, social and learning activity. This is not just another opportunity for interruption marketing.

    For goodness sake at least try to be interesting! For example, just because your business sells a specific type of insurance and that’s what you want to sell to your social media network doesn’t mean that is all you have at your disposal to share and discuss. Your social media community is unlikely to want to consume that kind of content all of the time. Talk about topics relevant to people who buy insurance such as small business advice, home and garden maintenance, auto tips, local events, simple how to financial and insurance guides etc.

    This isn’t just a push medium. Read your communities updates, comment on them, be genuinely interested in the community, converse and don’t be afraid to share your views.

    Follow people who interest you and follow those people who follow you (if they appear to be a genuine person or organization). If we all behaved in person like many businesses do in social media we would all be pretty lonely people. Your social media success should not be measured by follower numbers it should be guided by quality and frequent engagement.

  • http://www.lizwilson.me Liz Wilson

    Treat strategy as strategy. One of the first questions I hear a lot is “Should we be on Facebook or Google+?”. Often people are anxious to start using or expanding social networks before they have defined their purpose. So I would say 1. Be clear what you want to achieve via social media 2. Consider who you are speaking to 3. Think about what you want to say to them to engage them, and what they can say to you 4. Only then begin to think about the right networks and how you will use them. This is pretty simplified of course. But the essence is strategy first, tactics after.

  • http://omdirect.wordpress.com Lynn O’Connell

    Don’t view social media as another channel for distributing your press releases. It’s not. Instead, speak person to person. Respect your readers and strive to provide value with every tweet or post. That could come from news updates, commentary with a strong point of view, or from providing links to articles you know will interest them. There are many effective strategies, but no one — no one — wants a constant stream of self-serving marketing messages.

    Let’s say you’re promoting a conference. DON’T spam your readers with constant reminders of early bird deadlines. DO link to interesting content by speakers or, even better, get guest posts from speakers and promote those. Use social media to give your audience a taste of what your conference will be about instead of hard selling registration with every post.

  • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

    All the comments are fantastic! Thank you so much for your contributions! Let’s keep them coming…

  • http://www.sianphillips.ie/ Sian Phillips

    Brilliant idea Cendrine. I have never had a strategy in place as far as I know. I just chat and share and help. So I guess to put that into a strategy it would be as follows:-

    Engage with people, never ignore comments unless they really aren’t worth acknowledging.

    Chat to people and make them realise you are real – you may be a front for your business so humanise it to make it more accessible.

    Don’t be rude, confrontational or a bully. Be careful expressing an opinion as sometimes it can come across as arguing. Ensure you make it known it’s just your opinion and of course people can agree to disagree.

    Have respect for other people on Social Media – remember they aren’t just an avatar, they are a person, and you wouldn’t go up to someone in the street in front of a crowd and shout abuse or be disrespectful.

    Share great posts or connections when you can – this may then be reciprocated but more importantly you are helping other people and spreading some good info.

    Help people where you can – if you have an expertise then have a search column for it on Twitter and answer those you can help with.

    Most of all – be yourself.

    Thanks for sharing on Bizsugar.com as always Cendrine

  • Jules Zunich

    A nice list. From my experience my best tip is to only engage in social media if you enjoy it. Forcing yourself to do it makes it miserable (and boring for us.) Find someone in your organization that loves it and let them be the champion.

  • http://www.natalie-brown.com Natalie Brown

    When you market yourself, product or service, remember that you are targeting people just like you. Think about your interests, needs and desires and market to those same people and meet their need with what you do, make or sell!

  • http://www.esparkinfo.com/ eSparkInfo

    I’m doing quite a lot of social media marketing at the moment and found this information very useful. thanks!

  • http://www.kenyagjohnson.com/blog Kenya G. Johnson

    You can still be creative in 140 characters without the shorthand acronyms. If you want me to take your business seriously, shorten “Thank you” to “Thanks”. “Thank u” is not cool.

  • http://www.integrationtraining.co.uk/ Dipa

    Each of these points is also very helpful-not just to IMs but also for freelance writers like me- for one; we need to be human and put ourselves in the reader’s shoes. we also need to customize our content according to different needs-so well said indeed. Thanks for the share!

  • http://www.sociallylostinmedia.com Dino Hukic

    Show some personality. It is important to add personality to social media. Every product, service, company and person should show their personality online. It is a way of standing out from the crowd and allowing people to connect with you. The way that this is conveyed through social media is important and it is still a hard task to keep it real and natural online, but if this is done properly, it can benefit you endlessly.

  • http://www.social-media-training.org.uk/social-media-courses/facebook-training/ Fatima

    This is another great share by Cendrine; your tips are practical and they guarantee success.

  • http://carolwoodliff.com Carol Woodliff

    I find one of the best strategies I use is to be interested in what others are doing and help them get the word out. I look at social media much like I do in-person networking. If it is all about me and I’m only selling or pushing myself it is a big turnoff. But if I can notice what others are doing that my groups on Facebook or Twitter would relate to and share it, then I’m sharing good information and helping others at the same time.

    I am friends with many other authors and we all cross-promote each others’ work. It was so helpful when I launched my book because I had a team helping me promote.

    And I think the more authentic I am, sharing both ups and selective downs, my weird sense of humor and my other interests outside of my healing practice, the more people feel comfortable with me. (And those that don’t aren’t “my people” anyway!) For example one of the things I do on Facebook is to share nature photos that I take. I’ve become known as the “tree lady” because of my interesting tree photos. Who would have thought that would be something that clients would say, “I saw your photos and knew I had to work with you!”?

    It always surprises me what I post that has the most “legs” I’m still learning!

  • http://www.adamhoulahan.com Adam Houlahan

    All great tips here Cedrine, I would add:

    Don’t try to be a master of all Social Media platforms at once, how you strategise for Twitter will be vastly different to Pinterest or Facebook etc. Whilst this lives under the comment “have a plan” your plan has to have sub categories for each platform you intend to use. Not all platforms suit all business types, so research your competitors & see what they are doing well and what may not be working for your industry as a whole. Starting small also allows you do hide some initial mistakes without being out there on every platform.

  • http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips Andrew Macarthy

    Be Consistent (And Persistent)

    Despite the myths, getting a million social media followers and building strong, long-lasting relationships with loyal customers won’t happen overnight. Focus on posting great content regularly, position yourself for the long haul, and slowly but surely, progress will occur.

  • http://YouBeingSocial.com Jennifer Quinn

    You’ve done a great job collecting a broad variety of social media golden rules! When implementing one’s strategy (which was very succinctly and efficiently summarized by @maxoz), remember to be consistently engaged. For example, on a Facebook fan/business page, posting 1 time per day, M-F, is not the same as posting 5 times a week. Your fans begin to look forward to regular content if it is delivered in a dependable timeline. Alternatively, if you post 5 times in one day, only once per week, it is probable you will lose fans.

  • http://budget-lecterns.com/ kevin

    Make sure that you keep your message the same in all forms of social media as well as the rest of your company, to keep people from getting confused as to what your trying to get across. Also make sure to get your message out and be genuine and to the point, no need for smoke and mirrors.

    • http://youbeingsocial.com Jennifer Quinn

      Kevin — I completely agree! This is why I recommend to people and businesses that if necessary, they should create separate accounts and profiles to attract different demographics and/or product users. For example, if a nutrition company sells pediatric and geriatric formulas, it would be beneficial to have separate social media personas to convey their message to each group separately.

  • http://www.fanpagecompetitions.com/blog Donna Hamer – Fanpage Competitions

    ** Use Facebook Contests to Engage and Reward your Fans !

    Here are three simple steps to get started:

    Step 1 – Use a third party app (this is a little piece of software that you add to your Facebook Page). It manages the entries, is very simple to use and complies with the Promotional Guidelines.

    Step 2 – Understand and implement the seven Guidelines. For example, don’t ask people to use any of Facebook’s functions such as liking a post, commenting on a post, sharing a post, tagging and so on – to run your competition or promotion.

    Step 3 – Educate yourself and your team on Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines so that your business grows its digital footprint.

  • http://www.womencentric.net Pattie Simone

    There are two things that can help you maximize your social media strategy. First, tell a story. People love stories, especially ones that reflect your unique personality and your “take” on any given subject. Stories humanize your brand; great stories also share timely info, smart tips and /or valuable resources. So in addition to all the great advice already shared here – you can expertize yourself and direct great traffic to your site via interesting stories.

    Number two – understand the value of optimized content! So wherever you are sharing tips, intel, news, advice, etc., think HOW your prospects are seeking your kind of products, services or information and include those search engine optimized phrases and hashtags in your posts. This will help boost the number of eyeballs on your content, and the number of warmer leads that connect with you!

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  • George Williams

    Always give first, without expectation of return. Never forget to say thank you. And if you are sharing content prepared by someone else, always make sure to review it for quality before sharing. Never say anything online, privately or publicly, that you wouldn’t want on the front page of The New York Times. Always take the high road and know that The Golden Rule and The Laws of Compensation are alive and well on social media :)

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  • http://www.newsmakergroup.com/category/blog/ Suzanne Mannion

    A social media strategy will get the best results and will be extremely efficient if its goals are well established in advance. At some point, business managers and some communication experts may confuse it with the company’s goal, and the strategy could take a different course. That’s why we strongly recommend to all our clients to help us define a clear and realistic goal for every strategy we plan to implement, regardless if it’s a social media, a PR or a marketing strategy.
    Also, with the constant evolution of social media, it’s important to keep our strategy’s purpose in mind, while enjoying its positive effects.

  • http://www.newsbucket.org/ Arul shaji

    Great article! thanks a lot for sharing this useful info with us.