Social Marketing Dos and Don’ts

It’s very easy to sign up for all kinds of social networks, and it’s also very easy to get sucked into spending time on them. Before long, hours have passed and the person doesn’t have anything at all to show for the time spent. If you’re going to be spending time on social networks, don’t fall into that kind of trap. You’re on the networks to network for your business, and that’s what you should be doing. It’s fun to spend a few minutes just playing around, but it’s certainly not very productive at all. It’s better to focus on the goal of growing your business.

You need to find the right social network(s), too. Not everyone likes Facebook or Twitter or any of the other common options. There are some smaller networks, too, and they might be better for what you’re trying to accomplish. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to focus on them instead of larger options. That way, you’ll use the networks that will do the most good for your business, and you won’t waste a lot of time with networks that aren’t going to provide you with what you need. You should be networking with like-minded people.

There are many different kinds of social networking tools available today, and you should be using them. Take a look at which ones are available to you based on what networks you’re using, and choose accordingly. Tools that are the most efficient and effective are generally those that post your updates to multiple sites all at once. That’s a very quick way to say a lot of things to a large number of people without spending a long time going from site to site posting the same or similar updates on each one. Just get the information out there, and go on to something else.

On any social networking expedition, it’s vital to plan ahead. If you’re not sure what you want to say and what you want to offer in your status updates, you’ll waste a lot of time. Figure out a schedule to post on, and also make sure you’re setting aside time to respond to comments. Even if you can’t do it every day, you can plan enough time to respond so that people don’t feel you’re ignoring what they have to say. The social aspect of social marketing is very important, so do be social – or you’re defeating the purpose of using the marketing tools.