Creating your business building social media strategy

You want to create a strategy of use that connects the overall mission of the organization with the resources you have available. When creating your business building social media strategy, consider the following:

1. Do your research. It is important when using social media tools to check them out and see the environment. What are the norms? What is the current status and trends? You can't just hop in and hope to be recognized as an expert and be accepted. You have to understand what you are getting into, so that you can cater to those in the circles you want to join. Use search tools, use analytic tools, and get to know the social media environment before you jump in.

2. Remember that people are not going to like you if you are always trying to sell them something. You should not try to push products on them, or use your social media options to always promote your products. Instead, use them to provide value to your target audience. Subtly promote your products, and add enough value otherwise that people won't mind when you do self-promote.

3. Have a good profile and site, rather than becoming a junk spot for links to affiliate programs, and multi-level stuff, or other people's goods. No one wants to be sold to all the time, so provide value. Make sure you provide plenty of profile information, post quality content, and add value to those who follow or fan or befriend you.

4. Use the available tools to you. When creating your business building social media strategy it is key that you use the search tools available to you. They will help you to find the people who are already interested in what you have to offer, and help you keep track of trends and relevant issues in your market.

5. Interact with people. The whole point of social media is that it is social. People want to get to know you, not know what you sell. They likely already know what you sell, so don't just post information, and be done with it. Engage your readers, start conversations, ask and answer questions.

6. Focus on relationships, and sales will follow. The idea of social media is that you should already be in front of the people who want or need your product, so you don't need to be scrambling for that, instead, work on building up your relationships with those people talk to them, tell them you care, and take an interest in their life, their business, their community, etc. That way you start to form a community of your own around your brand. You will find that as this community begins to grow, your brand loyalty will too. Basically, sell yourself and a relationship with you, rather than the product, and the product will follow naturally.