Is Social Media Marketing Right For Your Business?

Social media is definitely the buzz, and over the last 12 months its begun to establish itself as a viable marketing initiative - albeit very different from anything most companies have every done before. And its easy right? Throw up a FaceBook page, set up a Twitter account, create a blog, put some videos on YouTube and you're away. Not so fast...

Develop A Plan

Like any other initiative in your marketing plan, you need to approach social media from a strategic perspective. Here are some of the questions you should ask as you develop a plan:

• What is your objective?
• Is social media right for your business?
• How will you fund this initiative?
• Will you have the resource to sustain your activity?
• Who will manage and maintain this initiative?
• What type of social media is most applicable for your business?
• Are you willing to put your brand in the hands of your audience?
• How will you encourage people to engage in your social media?
• How does this initiative integrate with your overall marketing strategy?
• How will you measure success?

Get The Basics Right First

You can see that there's a lot more involved than simply starting to Tweet. Asking the right questions and developing a strategic plan first, will mean your business is much more likely to generate commercial outcomes from social media.

But before you start, answer this one last question - do you have the basics of your online communications right i.e. is your website up to scratch (Search Engine Optimised, good usability, clear conversion pathways)? Creating brand awareness and traffic with a below standard website is just wasted effort and resources.