Social Media Success

It seems like every marketer is jumping on the social media bandwagon. I've heard stories of marketing managers reallocating entire promotional budgets to social media.

Putting all of your eggs into one basket is one way to learn social media techniques.

And there probably isn't a marketer alive that doesn't want to beef up his/her resume with social media expertise. But is this a wise business choice?

Here are 3 principles for social media success.

1. Understand the medium before you spend a cent of your budget on it.

What is the medium good at? What is the medium not so good at? How does the medium work? How will you measure the success of your investment in the medium? What investment will be necessary to create positive return on the investment?

Personally try the medium yourself. Follow and post to blogs. Speak with bloggers. Develop a personal Facebook page. Post your own LinkedIn profile. Follow the tweets of someone you are interested in.

2. Ensure that your target audience engages with the medium.

Just because you use it doesn't mean your target audience does. Remember that the marketer is rarely representative of their customers.

It doesn't matter how good those social media statistics look. If your target audience isn't on the social medium or using it to its fullest extent, you will be throwing your investment away.

3. Popularize responsibility with rules to maintain your good reputation.

Employee interactions with social media are not limited to the marketing team. In the absence of internal rules, anything goes.

You don't want to be spending your time putting out fires set by your colleagues. Establish guidelines and educate the entire company on appropriate use of social media as it relates to your business.