by Zoe Cairns of ZC Social Media

Lots of people approach us frustrated and under the presumption that social media doesn’t work. They think it’s all a BIG fad.

But it is actually a new way that we communicate, a tool we can use to engage with existing and prospective clients online.

The first thing we ask when approached by a business which is not having much success with social media is: “Have you got a social media strategy plan?”

In 99.9% of cases, the answer is “no”. Your social media strategy is like a business plan, enabling you to define goals and vision.

Your social media goals should align with business goals and be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely).

You then need to research, look at where your competitors are engaging, where your target market is hanging out, and determine which social media pillars you should be using.

You need to think about key centres of influence, key people who can get your message out to the masses. Who are the key people with credibility in your industry? These are the people to start engaging with.

One of the most important areas is content. Many people struggle with what to post and tweet. Look for industry blogs, news sites and consider these four areas ZC Social Media always discuss with their clients: conversation; articles; tips and promotion.

Don't spam by constantly sharing links and selling. Share good quality information and content that can build a know, like and trust factor to make people come and buy your products and services.

An important aspect of your strategy is your blog.

Blogging will enable you to direct more people (traffic) to your website rather than a third party website.

Measuring your social media activities and progress is essential, otherwise how do you know if you are improving or achieving your goals?

There are tools that can measure various parts of your social media progress.

TweetReach will measure how far your tweets travelled, Hootsuite can analyse the number of new followers on Twitter, mentions and how many people clicked on your displayed links.

Analysing and measuring your social media activities and results will enable you to review and change anything going forward. Always make sure you keep an action plan.

The biggest social media task is to take BIG ACTION.

• More at www.zcsocialmedia.com