The Four Steps To Creating a Social Media Marketing Campaign

Some business owners are still a little unsure how social media marketing fits into their marketing plan. While some people assume it to be as simple as starting a Facebook fan page, social media marketing can be quite an involved and time consuming process. Opening and creating social media profiles is of course an important step, however, there is a process that you should follow when launching your social media marketing campaign.

Here are a couple of tips to get you started:

Step 1- To get started on your social media marketing campaign you need to first determine what the goal of your social media marketing campaign is. Some common goals could be, increase brand awareness, build brand reputation, build relationships, provide better support, or increase website traffic. At this time you also need to determine your target audience and do some research to determine what social media outlets they are using. Some markets are tougher than others to gain ground in social media, but I would recommend that every business has some type of presence via social media.

Step 2 - Test the waters by starting your social media campaign within 1 or 2 social media sites. As you get more comfortable with these first attempts add a new social networking site to your campaigns. Often times you can syndicate your content across multiple channels fairly easily once you get the hang of it.

Step 3 - Open the lines of communication between you and your audience. Start conversations, get people talking and keep the conversation going. What does your target audience want to hear from you? What will grab their attention and cause them to take action? Start to develop the kind of content that your audience wants from you. Create a blog, follow some blogs, and talk about what you're learning.

Step 4 - Now it's time to measure your results. Is your target responding to the posts you're putting out there? Are they opening a dialog with you? How can you alter your marketing techniques to improve these results? Continuing to hold yourself accountable is the key to a successful marketing campaign. Set goals…reach them…set new goals.

This should get you going with your social media campaigns.