I’ve lost count of the number of blog posts, articles and Forum comments that I have read online espousing the benefits of social media and social networking sites for a business. Some of them are really insightful, some of them have some good case studies and some of them are just absolute crap. At the end of the day most of these posts all say the same thing. In some way they all espouse the three things that I mention below. For most business owners there are three goals that should be achieved from social media marketing.

Raise awareness of your business- Obviously, all marketing should have an effect on raising awareness of your business. The more you are out there, the more people should know of your existence. Social networking sites are a good way to spread awareness of your business. I mean, this should be obvious. There are 500 million people worldwide who have a Facebook profile. If Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd biggest in the world. Chances are that some of your target audience members are on Facebook. Your existing clients will probably be on there too and if they join your business Fan Page it will show up in their news feed and this will be seen by their Facebook friends. They may become curious, click on the link and become a Fan themselves if your offer is sufficiently interesting.

Increase traffic to your main website- Social media marketing is also designed, or should be designed, to increase traffic to your main website. This can be through Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter but also through writing articles and submitting them to directories like this one or participating in web forums and networking groups that are related to your niche. You need to make sure you always provide useful content on each of these sites and then subtly provide a link to your main website so that people will click on the link and visit your main site.

Engage directly with your target audience- Don’t underestimate the importance of the world social when it comes to social media or social networking marketing. You need to remember that you are dealing with people. Engage directly with your audience and have a conversation. Don’t preach and listen when your audience talks back to you.

If you want to engage in this type of marketing make sure you aim to achieve the three goals I have mentioned above- make sure you work to raise awareness of your business, increase web traffic and engage directly with your audience.

Your strategy for social media makes reaching prospective customers much more easier.

Having a strategy for social media marketing is significantly important for making your online campaign successful. Though one can make free use of social media, its monitoring and implementation is time-consuming. If you think you lack the necessary time, it is imperative that you seek professional help, capable of monitoring the conversations and messages that keep pouring.

Identify the habits of users

The most important aspect of any media marketing strategy is to know the audience you want to reach. Apart from identifying your audience, you need to find out the way they make use of the Internet. You would appreciate that the social media habits of students are quite different from that of working moms. Your message through various platforms should be addressed to your audience directly, for getting their attention. For instance, the use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is necessary for most professionals like photographers or dentists, but the same cannot be said for a local ice crème parlor. Before engaging with your audience, you should find out where they spend their time and how they interact.

Offer solutions to prospective clients

A very effective way of creating an audience comprising of prospective readers or clients is to offer solutions to problems related to your business. One way of doing that is to make and answer their queries, even if those are not directly connected to your product. Make extensive and efficient use of Twitter plus Facebook to interact with the existing and likely clients. When finding your content helpful, the audience forms a positive opinion about you, and looks at you as an authority on that subject.

Transforming visitors into clients

By interacting with your prospective clients directly and developing a personal relationship, the chances of transforming the prospects into clients go up considerably. Provide your subscription forms and/or buying options on the home page itself, and link the same to your other media accounts. You can grab the readers’ attention by feeding them with rich content. Compile a list of their email addresses to make your mailing list, and offer them good reasons for coming back to buy your product and services.

Remain transparent and responsive

It is vital to maintain transparency when dealing with people through social media sites. People who frequently utilize social media do not take long to identify spam. You’ll be driving them away from your site by bombarding them your messages of marketing. Be honest and genuine while interacting with your audience through social media. Consider them as if they were friends you happened to meet in some social gathering, and treat them accordingly. If anybody posts any negative comments, you must respond promptly even if you were at fault. Such actions send a clear message to other existing and prospective customers that you are sensitive to clients’ requirements.

Finally, do keep monitoring your company regularly by using various monitoring and searching tools, such as Google Alerts, for example.