In my last article, Why Social Media?, I discussed why social media is important – atmosphere; setting the “stage” or “vibe” for your company is one main goal of social media involvement.  Resuming this discussion, I would like to now provide ideas on how to start your social media campaign.

As Joe stated yesterday in his post, A Social Media Fallacy, a recent study from the Participatory Marketing Network shows that 67% of people who join a brand group or fan page do so for getting news or product updates.  That is a large group of people who are looking for nothing else but updates and news from your company, about your product, or for anything involving the services you offer.

So I’m sure you want to know how to get started?  Well, that’s the easy part. First, identify your goals.  Do you want to post videos?  Maybe compile a news feed?  You might even think about offering a special weekly promotion only for people who are “friends” or “fans;” this step will also give people even more incentive to follow you in the Web 2.0 space.

Once you have an idea of your goals with the site, you need to pick your social media platform.  Each presents a unique community, impacting the overall experience for both you and your followers.  Generally, MySpace is favored by the teenage to young adult age range; Facebook is generally college students, recent college graduates, and / or business professionals.  Twitter allows for brief status updates, micro-blogging, and user selected Twitter Favorites (with FAVRD; while the messaging space is limited, new posts are quick and simple to complete.

After targeting your social media space, you’re ready to put your plan into action.  It’s at this step, however, where a lot of people seem to fail.  Why?  Because you can’t just setup your account and walk away; you need to update regularly.  My advice is to update daily, or at minimum, four times per week.  Social media is a time investment, with some of the most successful companies investing upwards of five hours per day in the space.  They effectively spread the word about their services and products, as well as find public relations benefit through reviewing and responding to customer comments.

If you can put your plan into action, and maintain regular and frequent updates, people will take notice of you in social media; it’s just a matter of time.  If you don’t, maybe you need to re-evaluate and alter your goals.  Just remember, it’s all about atmosphere, not selling.

Most recent posts by Angela

• Shoppers Want Companies with "Human Face" - June 5th, 2009
• Protect Yourself: Beat Brand-Squatters - May 22nd, 2009
• Social Profile: The Mommy Blogger - April 24th, 2009
• Why Social Media? - February 27th, 2009

1. Rocky Says:
   March 17th, 2009 at 10:13 am

   Thanks for proposing simple steps for getting involved in this space. You are answering the very popular questions we get so often from clients, “OK, what is social media, do I need to do it, and, if so, how do I test the waters?” Nice articles on the topic from you and Joe.