There is such a huge over-emphasis around social media marketing that many people simply jump right in without first formulating their strategies. Social media is not necessarily about signing up for every major social network and adding as many friends or followers as possible. While having numbers may make a company appear more legitimate, it means nothing if your followers do not provide any value to you.
Defining your Goals
Before even signing up for anything, it is necessary to figure out what marketing goals are of priority to your company and which of those goals provide the most value. Do you want to connect with your customers? Do you want to improve your online presence? or do you simply want to increase sales? In many cases, there may be advertising methods that may give companies more leads than any social media marketing method ever could. Social media marketing may not be the answer to everything.
Analysis and Choice of Strategy
For those who are at the primary stages of social media marketing, the most important step in a successful campaign is to analyse the potential of each social network for your business and focus on only the selected few. Most people claim that social media marketing does not cost anything and that one should use as many resources as possible. This is completely wrong. Social media marketing takes up a great deal of time. On several occasions, marketing managers will spread thin across too many platforms limiting the amount of time available for each. The result is a decrease in the quality of connections, posts, and content. A poorly maintained profile page is worse than no page at all.
Re-evaluation
Be sure to continually re-evaluate the impact of your social media marketing campaign, and do not be afraid to alter strategies to accommodate for growth. Patience and quality are the two most important words in social media marketing. Keep both of them in mind and exposure will come naturally.