Marketing with Social Media, Do You have a Plan?

Social Media Butterfly

I attended a seminar on Using Social Media in Marketing Your Small Business the other day. It was a well done class and everyone was excited to learn about the new tools that were introduced. The fact that most social media outlets are cost effective has sparked the interest of many business owners in this area. As I listened to the questions asked of the presenter a couple of things became evident to me.

First, many business owners and managers are interested in using social media because they have heard that it is a cost effective way to market a business. The fact that social networking is appears more accessible to the average user is also appealing, but the cost, really, is your time. Can you be disciplined enough to write your blog article, maintain your Linkedin, Facebook, and Flickr accounts, check technorati and digg to see who is saying what about you, do a few twitter tweets and still get the real work done? Yes, with self disipline. A Small Business owner can have someone else write the blog or maintain the sites, but then you lose control of the image of your organization.

Second, you can damage your image, your brand, rather than enhance it if you dive in without a plan. How do your social media outlets work together with your website and other marketing materials to achieve your company’s goal? Do they lead prospects or customers to where you want them to go? Do you have a solid landing page? Is there  a call to action?  Are you working from a strong base as Kevin Palmer suggests to ensure that you get the most out of your efforts? Check out what Kevin has to say to make sure.

Graphic by toputop.com