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Five top tips for social media marketing success

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12th May 2010
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Making your social media campaign a success requires defined targets and a lot of commitment, explains internet marketer Nikki Pilkington.
 
Not everyone "gets" social media as a business tool. In one camp, there are there are the "one hit wonders" – those who set up a Twitter account, send out 100 tweets a day for a month, fail to sell anything and immediately give up. On the other, there are the "social climbers" – those who work hard to build a credible presence across numerous platforms, but forget that the ultimate goal is to increase sales, and so end up putting in hundreds of hours for little or no return.
Here are five questions to help make your efforts worthwhile.
What do you want to achieve?
Yes social media is primarily a social endeavour, but if you've gone to the trouble of setting up a business presence, your ultimate aim is to boost sales. How many hours are you willing to put in to social media in order to achieve one sale as a direct result? How profitable you need your time to be is down to you, but to make a business social media profile worthwhile, you need to be getting out more than you put in.
 
What are your interim targets?
As the number of people connected to you through social media channels grows, so too does your potential customer base. An interim target might attract, say, 100 new followers or fans per week. However, remember that engagement is what gets you interested followers, not following everyone in sight, so the numbers alone won't tell the whole story.
Other targets might include having one new business meeting per week as a result of a Twitter connection or receiving five requests for more information.
Are your goals realistic and relevant?
A successful social media campaign for you might look very different from a successful social media campaign for someone else. Make sure that you set goals that are relevant to you by ensuring that they correspond with your overall business goals. For example, the number of potentially interested followers for a niche business like an equine breeder will be far smaller than for, say, a skin care brand. In addition, one sale for you could be worth several thousand pounds, whereas another provider may only take a few pounds per sale.
Are you planning for the long term?
Social media isn't like a one-off leafleting campaign, it's a long-term undertaking and your goals need to reflect that. Whilst you may not be sure where you want to be a year down the line, you do need to be thinking several months in advance. Mark out a set amount of time to spend on social media each month, and make sure that your targets reflect that time investment.
 
Are you learning from your achievements?
There's no point in goal setting if you don't regularly weigh up how you're doing. Have a regular time every month where you reflect on what you’ve achieved. Analyse your results, and if necessary, pinpoint where you’ve made the greatest leaps or had the most significant setbacks. Again, you are looking to assess the return you get on your time investment in order to tweak your efforts to ensure they are directed towards the most profitable social media endeavours.

Nikki Pilkington is the owner/founder of NikkiPilkington.com, an internet marketing company based in the UK and France.

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