Social media marketing is nothing but electronic word of mouth. When a customer shares his views about a product, brand, company or event through a social networking platform, it goes viral. This kind of marketing resonates better because it is from a trusted source and not a third party. The opinion formed is one that is earned and not paid for.

The Next Big Thing

Most companies are using social media for business because they recognize it’s potential. Social media marketing concentrates on creating content that encourages customers to share it with others within their social network. Some of their reasons include:

• Social media applications are easily accessible to anyone with internet access
• Social media marketing is relatively inexpensive for companies to implement promotion campaigns
• Social media allows a business communicate directly with the target market in an informal setting
• Social media allows a business build a relationship of trust and credibility with the target audience
• Having built a relationship with customers, social media allows a business to conduct detailed market research
• Social media marketing can go global instantly

Evolving Your Social Media Strategy

The strategy to maximizing unique visitors to your company’s website through the use of social media activity isn’t fixed. There are a few broad guidelines you can adopt to your needs.

1. Identify business goals: Study the overall needs of your company and how the social media can be used to achieve them.
2. Set marketing objectives: You can determine these using the SMART approach, i.e., make them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
3. Identify ideal customers: You need to understand your target audience well. Their age, occupation, income, interests, problems, obstacles, habits, likes, dislikes, and motivations help you understand whether they will buy from you.
4. Research competition: Look at the websites and observe online activity of your competitors. You need to focus on what you can offer that they don’t.
5. Choose channels and tactics: Once you know your target audience well, you can determine which platform to focus on. You need to be where your customers are. Your tactics will depend on your goals, objectives, as well as the best practices of each platform.
6. Create a content strategy: Content and social media always go hand in hand. Without great content, people will not pay attention and without social media nobody will know what you have to offer. Pay attention to the three main components – type of content, time of posting, and frequency of posting, for a successful strategy.  
7. Allocate budget and resources: To budget for your social media marketing, make a list of the tools you will need, services you will outsource, and any advertising you will purchase. With this list, you would have high level view of what you are investing and how would they affect your overall marketing budget.

Social media technologies take on many different forms including blogs, business networks, enterprise social networks, forums, microblogs, photo sharing (read more: Two Ways an Image Can Boost Your Social Media Marketing), products/services review, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing and virtual worlds.

With a smart strategy, you can take control of your social channels and give them a much needed facelift. Once you establish your online visibility, not only will you gain brand loyalty but you will also be able to convert visitors into customers with ease and eventually increase ROI.

Author Bio:

Simon Hopes guides you towards the effective use of social media for your business benefits. Though using social media for business kind of reserves the ROI for you, it is only the disciplined approach that favors the seekers.