Today, if your brand isn’t on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the like, you’re going to be out of the loop and left behind. You’re going to be left in the wake of other brands’ success.

So maybe it’s time for you to jump on the bandwagon. You need to create your Facebook page, start a blog, and create a video for YouTube right now…

Or wait a minute.

Is throwing yourself head on to the oncoming train that’s social media really the best thing to do? Should you just start signing up for all these accounts without considering what’s best for your small business brand?

Of course not.

This is why it’s essential for you to have a social media process. As with any kind of marketing strategy or campaign you’re planning to utilize, you must first understand why you’re doing it and what your goals are in using it, before going ahead with implementation.

This is the reason why some brands fail in their social marketing strategy. It’s because they never had a social media process to guide them. They simply decided to get in while ahead, but they didn’t really have a clear goal on what they wanted to accomplish using these platforms.

So before you can start creating buzz in your social marketing, here are some things you should do:

Review your business goals

Before you can create a social media process, it’s important that you review your business goals. What do you want to achieve in social media? Do you want to build brand awareness, create conversation, generate leads, or sell products?

Remember though that social media is primarily for connecting with your audience, and not for selling. If you do hard selling in different social media accounts, you just might drive people away.

Consider the platforms available

Though you may think it would be better for your small business to utilize all the social media platforms available to you, this may become time-consuming and cost-ineffective in the long run.

Instead, it is far better for you to focus on one or two platforms where you think most of your audience are in. This enables you to really target your audience and connect with them.

For example, if you’re a photographer, it may be more worthwhile for you to be on Flickr compared to YouTube or you might have concerns over copyright and want to review the platform terms of service. Perhaps a site like Deviant Art suits you better? Or if you’re a professional looking for clients, LinkedIn may be the better choice compared to Facebook.

Understand the platform you’ve chosen

You’re not going to be successful in your social marketing if you don’t understand the platform you’ve chosen. Once you’ve determined what platforms suit your brand best, you need to study them and understand how best to engage your audience using them.

One of the worst things you can do for your small business brand is to botch up your social marketing presence because you don’t understand the platform you’re using. So study it first before jumping in.

Remember to measure

Now that you’re ready to start your social marketing campaign, it’s also important to determine what you’re going to measure. How are you going to measure the success of your campaign? If you aren’t measuring it, then how will you know if your campaign is succeeding or not, if you’re getting a return in your investment?

There are many tools that can help you measure the success of your campaign. Google Alerts and Social Mention are some of the more commonly used ones. Of course my personal favorite that I’m an affiliate with is Sprout Social. So don’t forget to measure, since this is going to determine if you should soldier on with what you’re doing or if it’s time to re-evaluate and re-assess your campaign.

Without a social media process, your social marketing campaign will be destined for failure. So make sure that you start right. Plan ahead, and plan well. Don’t just jump into social media without reviewing your business goals, considering and understanding the platforms available to you, and having ways to measure your success.

Using social media is a great way to create buzz around your brand, but without a process, your small business brand isn’t going to go far.

By using LinkedIn effectively, it is possible to open doors that otherwise would not be available and to build relationships that can lead to bigger profits. Read on to find little known tips and techniques.

By using LinkedIn effectively, an online marketer can generate many leads for the products that they sell. In this article we look at how you can use LinkedIn to build relationships and bring traffic to your website.

There are various levels of membership sign ups on LinkedIn. Each offer a number of credit for directly emailing to people that you don’t know or are not connected to. Another point of difference is that you can also elect to receive a higher level of search results.

By starting with the free membership, it is possible to build a powerful profile with a keyworded link back to your site and to network and create groups. Once you have spent time working with LinkedIn, then it might be worth your while to upgrade to benefit from the extra credits.

Profile

Complete your profile with as much information as you can. There are sections for education, previous roles as well as what you are hoping to gain from being on LinkedIn. By providing as much information as you can, you will allow people to know your history and your skill set. This will help them feel more comfortable with you as they will know your full background. Upload a professional looking photo of yourself in a head and shoulders style, as people prefer to do business with people that they have seen, even if it is only online. Use a photo that says ‘approachable and friendly’ for the best results.

Connect

The more people that you can connect with on LinkedIn – the better. If you are in position to, spend time giving recommendations and asking for recommendations from your contacts. These personal testimonials will support your credibility and sales efforts. Adding more connections, means that more people will see you.

Optimise Your Profile

By optimising your profile for the search engines, you can get onto the front page of Google for a name search. Add your profile name like this: http://uk.LinkedIn.com/in/yourname, where ‘yourname’ is in this URL should be your own name once you’ve set it up. It is changeable – so you can add your business niche instead of your name if you prefer at a later date.

Then within your profile, under the Website section – select other and add a keyword for your website. Then add the http:// url address to your website, so that it will work as another link for SEO purpose to your site. The result is a nice PR8+ backlink to your site from LinkedIn affirming the keyword for your site. You might want to add your social networking pages to the other sections.

Groups and Answers

Using the Answers and the groups sections are a great way to build your reputation on LinkedIn. You can share your knowledge, your blog posts for more traffic and generally help people out so that you can connect with more people and be seen as a valuable contributor of LinkedIn. Don’t spam and interact in a professional and positive manner for the best results. You can ask your own questions too, make these short and to the point and don’t waste time by asking for information that you can easily find with a Google search.

By using these tips and techniques, you will soon be using LinkedIn effectively to build your connection, your reputation and your profits.

Copyright (c) 2010 Andrew Holtom