Social media guide for dummies

Want to make your presence known on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and take advantage of this marketing strategy? Well here is a simple step-by-step guide to help your business.

A social media plan can seem over-whelming to create, but once you have a guide it takes all the confusion and guess work out of using this popular tool for business marketing. If you've been holding off on using social media to market your services, then the following guide is one for you:

Step One: talk the talk

This involves taking a totally different approach to that you would in other sales or marketing situations. ‘Hard sells’ are not welcome, and will not work in this environment – it is essential to understand how to combine marketing and socialising on these types of sites. Social media is al about being social, so promote your individuality and your personality – make yourself standout; this may merely involve being pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. Know that you need to let a little bit of your ‘real self’ shine through, but remember a little bit goes a long way.

Step Two: It all starts with the all important profile page

Adding information about yourself, your business and your interests to your profile, as well as contact information and links to your website or blog – will give your organisation a personal feel. Facebook allows you to share links about pretty much anything, so include content from YouTube or other sites relating to your organisation. Join groups that show a little bit about both your professional and your personal interests, but stay middle of the road. When you are using social media for your business, it is best to steer clear of anything too political or too religious or you may isolate people, unless of course either one of these subjects is essential to your business. Fill out your profile information as wholly as possible. Step Three: get Connected Start adding friends and follows, find people you already know as well as people from your industry or people interested in your services. Ask your friends to recommend other friends of interest, start sharing links and sending out emails to those in your network. Make sure your profile links are easy to find, add it to your signature block and your website. It is key to remember your list of connections is less about the amount and should be more focused on quality, building up credible and high value relationships.

Step Four: Start Posting

First things first, begin by posting about joining social media sites – letting people know that you're new and looking to network will attract some attention in the beginning. Share hints and tips that will be of use to your followers and friends – making yourself interesting will also make you popular. Tell your audience how to save time, save money or ease stress in a way that shows your knowledge, without asking for their business. And keep going - mix up your posts with both useful information and fun trivia, inspirational quotes, personal information and links to other people's content. Link to respected people, link to websites and blogs you follow and other entertaining and helpful content.

Step Five: Do it daily

Spend a small amount of time everyday - but don’t let yourself get sucked in to wasting hours of time, plan time to build your presence.