How to Be Successful in Social Media Marketing

This is the second installment of a monthly Friday series that will be explaining:

1. How to boost your company’s social media presence.

2. How to take advantage of social media marketing.

There’s a lot of hype about social media marketing lately, and many businesses are jumping in without realizing just what social media marketing consists of, and why, when used effectively, it works so well. The other day I watched a great video with Mitch Joel, CEO of Twist Image, who explains his strategy behind a successful social media campaign.

Just what makes something social on the web? Joel mentioned that the social aspect of social media has nothing to do with a conversation between the brand and its customers. What is effectively social is making content “as findable and sharable as possible.” This makes a lot of sense, and also explains why certain well-executed social media campaigns have been wildly successful. Whether your post goes viral or not is dependent on this shareability. Without it, your posts are just more white noise, ignored by the majority of the internet.

So what makes something sharable? Joel says it must be the right balance of educational and entertaining. Beyond that, the type of content that is sharable to your audience depends on the demographics of your target market. Before any social media campaign, it is absolutely essential to ask, “Why do we want social media?” This forces you to examine some key questions, the answers to which provide the template for your social media strategy. That “why” sparks these questions:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Who is your audience?
• How do you serve your audience? What value do you bring?