If you haven’t realized by now that you need to be using social media marketing as a part of your advertising and marketing campaigns, you should probably read some other posts first, like How “Twitter Works for Small Businesses.”You’re already at least one step behind everyone else in the realm of marketing, so you need to start getting caught up.If you’re one of the many, many more entrepreneurs or business owners who’s already convinced of the necessity of social media marketing for your business’s success but are struggling to actually get your efforts to translate into increased traffic (and ultimately, sales/conversions), take some notes. It’s time to fix some bad habits for the sake of R.O.I. = Really OuTragious increases!

First: Realistic Expectations

Like so much else in life, you need to start out with realistic expectations for what social media marketing can and can’t do for you and what specifically it’s supposed to do.

I’ll be forward here: it’s not the complete answer to your marketing need. Social media profiles don’t replace a website. Social media marketing isn’t the only marketing you need to do. It’s not just a “free” answer to all forms of paid advertising; matter of fact, if done right it will cost you a bit. It’s not going to take you from Acer to Apple by itself. And, most importantly, it’s not easy to do well.

Second: Your Crap, Is It Together?

One reason your social media marketing campaigns may be failing is that the rest of your marketing essentials aren’t in line yet. Don’t start with social media campaigning before you’re ready, though you should get your profiles started as early as you can swing time for. Just do me a favor: keep them set to PRIVATE. Bad social sites are like watching a horrifically bad movie! One last plea: don’t invite your friends just because you’re prompted.



The whole point of SM marketing is to drive targeted traffic to your site and increase customer loyalty while expanding your professional network, so how can that work if your site is in shambles? Make sure you have strong, compelling site pages and blogs up and running so that when people come to your site, they actually want to be there. If you just add people but they have no way of knowing that you’re a legitimate person /company worth following, they won’t care about you and you’ve lost them from the get-go.

Third: Understand What Social Media Marketing Is For

This goes along with the first section.

Once you understand that there may be hard truths to a social media marketing campaign that works, you need to understand what an ideal campaign does before you can find the best ways to make it happen.

As aforementioned, SM marketing campaigns are for building networks and increasing quality traffic, but primarily it does this through forging real relationships. Simple advertising and web content are objective and impersonal; anyone could be writing that content or posting an ad (on that note, there is a right way to advertise on Facebook). This is personal. This is you. SM marketing is all about letting people know who you are for real.

And What Else?

Move on to Part 2 of the series! It’s a three-part epic, so be prepared for some huge tips.