Social Media is increasingly becoming the weapon of choice to build brands online - fact. The fundamental mistake companies make is that Social Media is Facebook and Twitter - the fact is, Social Media is anywhere online where people can engage in conversation, whether it be a social networking site, bookmarking site, forum or blog - the social media landscape is monolithic.

Search Engines are in love with Social Media and this evident from the likes of Google's Real-Time social media news display on selected search results - they're trying to tell you something - to use Social Media. The fact is, companies that have used Social Media successfully are enjoying incredible benefits, so what do you need to do to get yourself on that social media ladder?

1) - Research - At the beginning of a Social Media campaign, you need to do your research. Identifying your key demographic is paramount, gender, age, interests, hobbies - any information that you can put together to identify your typical customer, your typical follower. You can do this by researching past orders, surveys via email marketing/online surveys or questionnaires or researching your competitors/current social media landscape within your niche. Another great part of the research process is to identify key influencers within communities that match your typical customer. Key influencers are the voice of a community, normally a 'social leader', if they say or do something, other people within this community will follow them. It's pretty simple to find a key influencer on a blog or forum by how much input they have into a forum, amount of posts and feedback.

2) - Get a social identity - Think about how you are going to approach creating a brand online. Think about how you will portray yourself on social media sites - adopt a personality. Will you have a character representing your brand? How will you use that character to portray your brand? Spend time doing this, it is absolutely crucial that you do this correctly.

3) - Tell the world you are social - Get Facebook and Twitter buttons attached to the site, put links on mailers, emails and any press releases you put out. Ensure you use Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon to circulate news and press releases ensuring maximum social exposure.

4) - Maintain your Social Identity - Once you grow your fan base/followers - KEEP THEM ENGAGED. A lot of businesses have made the error of not engaging with fans and followers and as a result, they can lose them. Social Media is a full time job. Updates must be regular, fans need to be answered if they ask a question and incentives should be put online to keep them engaged/viral content.

5) - Measure your success - Use monitoring tools such as Google Analytics to gauge traffic volume from social media sites that you are affiliated with. From this you can track how your social media efforts are paying off. This is absolutely crucial if Social Media is to work as you can identify benchmarks and keep fully informed of your progress via Social Media.

Remember, Social Media is a perfect compliment to a Search Engine Optimisation campaign.

Posted: 09/02/11 12:19