Let us talk about a few important guidelines which you need to adhere in order to utilize the maximum value from social media marketing:
You need to have the ability to take calculated risks. You do not need to visit each forum and read a number of posts to figure out the magic formula of succeeding with Facebook marketing. You need to have the drive to experiment with different strategies on a regular basis. You need to have a creative bend of mind.
You need to update your personal status a number of times. If your business is a small one, you need to maintain a delicate balance between sharing of personal information and distributing content. All this affects your brand value. You need to remember that people in general like a personal touch.
Your need to maintain regular interaction with your fans through questions and answers. By using surveys, you will be able to gather a lot of information from your potential customers. You need to remember that if you avoid regular interaction with your customers, the latter will forget you very easily.
Uploading of videos regarding your information, products and services generated a lot of views and attention among viewers. There are cost-effective websites such as Animoto which make it very easy to make good quality videos at a short time.
You should understand that the primary purpose of social marketing is to build reputation. This sets the foundation of your success both from short term as well as long term perspective. You need to educate yourself on the following:
Targeting the right customer
Targeting the right market
Analysing the competition level and making calculated decisions
You should not enter this field with the sole purpose of selling and making profits. You need to build brand loyalty at the same time. LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook etc. are great places to start networking with like minded individuals. You should always focus on providing high quality information to your fans. Once you have a large number of fans, you can initiate selling your stuff.
Social network marketing is still a relatively new topic among many businesses. Having a good grasp of the fundamentals, taking consistent action and analysing your results in a pragmatic manner will lead to major success. It will not only play a role in adding to your revenue but also in turning your business into autopilot and generating value by itself.