Establishing a presence and integrating your social media channels into your marketing plan is nothing new. However, merely creating an online presence, posting content and integrating widgets and links on your website is no longer enough to generate results. Marketing firms often convince clients that they must put focus (and dollars) into each and every outlet. While for some businesses, this is an ideal tactic, it appears that many marketers and businesses alike are losing sight of what works best for a particular business to reach their target consumers. We believe that your social media strategy should not be created utilizing a “cookie cutter” approach. Your strategy should be customized to fit your brand/product/service to further build your brand equity and support all other marketing efforts.

When deciding which social media channels to incorporate, we suggest considering the following:

• What do you want to accomplish by integrating social media? Are you trying to spread the word and increase brand awareness or generate direct sales?
• On what platform is your target market most receptive and how do they like to be reached?
• Does social media marketing make sense for your product/service?  Can you identify realistic situations and reasons that your customers would participate “in your conversation”?

Businesses must consider the consumer’s perspective of, “What’s in it for me?” Social Media marketing must provide something of value and interest to their target markets on a consistent basis. Once someone decides to “follow” or “like” you, you must give them a reason to stay interested and fulfill your specific social media goals whether it be to drive website traffic, collect email addresses for e-newsletter, or make a sale.   Utilizing social media channels purely for self-promotion will not retain your audiences’ interest.  Remember that social media is about “participating in a conversation” to establish relationships and increase awareness. The key to successful marketing and promotion is the consistent harmonization of your brand, its’ personality and image throughout all of your messaging platforms, including social media.