Source: Flickr

Below are 5 Steps to Running a Successful Social Media Campaign for your Business:

Step 1: Let’s ditch the notion of a “campaign”…

It is not completely incorrect and you should see Social Media marketing as taking over traditional forms of PR and advertising campaigns. However, the word “campaign” – with its connotation of political or military aggression – is deceptive if you wish to begin engaging using social media! Likewise, we should forget the notion of running a campaign as this implies that Social Media use has a fixed time period. Alas, this is far from the case. Social Media “Campaigning” means constant and consistent interaction with others and maintenance of social media accounts.

Step 2: Remember, it may be Media but it’s nothing without the “Social”…

Many Social Media newbies make the same huge mistake, thinking that merely creating a profile, adding some friends and making a handful of posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and the like is enough. However, without negating the importance of SEO, businesses must realize that Social Media is a growing part of people’s Internet use, and indeed the gateway to the Internet for many. For example, platforms like Twitter and Facebook are huge drivers of traffic to other URLs: when we have our friends’ recommendations we need the Google bots less and less. Accounts on these various social networks need to be maintained by constantly chatting to people; that means commenting on others’ posts and replying to any comment you receive.

Step 3: Target your audience by offering something of value…

The increasingly social web encourages everyone to have their say, with anything from sharing a video and linking a news item to commenting on a blog and voting in a poll. Blogging, micro-blogging on Twitter and podcasting are ways to engage your audience. You don’t need to aggressively market yourself; if you tweet interesting comments and blog valuable content your audience will do the promoting for you! Of course it takes time to build your readership and followers, but focusing on quality will mean that they stick around once you’ve got them. As well as exposure and traffic, the inbound links your followers create and your regularly updated website content are a key part of successful SEO.

Step 4: Give and you shall receive…

Social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are not only excellent places to promote your own business, they also provide an easy way to give something back. Take a few minutes each day to comment on others’ blogs, status updates and questions. Finding relevant questions to answer is also an excellent way to establish yourself as an “industry expert”. Again, there’s no need to overtly promote your business – if you’re interacting with others they’ll decide for themselves if they want to learn more about you. Taking time to do this also means you won’t be deemed a spammer when the odd promotional post is snuck in.

Step 5: Monitor your online presence and success…

This could be as simple as seeing what discussion topics, tweets and blog posts have received the most feedback. There are loads of tools to help with this too, such as Twitturls, which reveals the most tweeted recent links – great for monitoring trends and getting blog post ideas. It is also crucial to monitor what others are saying about your brand e.g. with Google and Twitter searches. Dealing with negative feedback can be scary, but you will be respected for responding. Do nothing and you only let others undertake online branding on your behalf! Check out the Facebook Nestle page for an excellent example of Social Media use going wrong including a condescending response to fans earlier this month.

Social Media “Campaigning” means being friendly, helpful and interesting. Ceaseless Social Media use offers a unique opportunity for businesses to disseminate a personal and accountable face – it’s not quick and easy, but it is effective.

Natasha Stone from Silicon Beach Training is the guest blogger of this Facebook ShopTab Blog post:

Natasha is the Social Media Assistant for leading training company Silicon Beach Training. As well as bespoke courses worldwide, Silicon Beach Training provide regular hands-on courses in their Brighton Training Centre. Courses include Social Media, Blogging and WordPress as well as Business, IT and Management training including Prince2, Web Design, MSP, CSS, Photoshop and Programming.