In this day and age, it's simply not enough to have a website or any other traditional form of advertisement. According to the 2013 eMarketer report, nearly 2 billion people worldwide use social networks that's one out of every four people. Some people think of social media as a virtual hangout, but over the years it's become a powerhouse in marketing. That's why we're here to give you this helpful guide on how to create the ideal social media marketing plan for the utmost optimization. 

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Where Do I Start

As a marketer, it's important to advertise in places and on websites which get a lot of traffic. Here are some of the distinguishing characteristics that entail some of the most popular social media sites:

Facebook

The legendary Facebook will undoubtedly go down in the history books, and it's an effective business tool because of its areas for:

  • Company info
  • Contact info
  • Updates and hashtags
  • "Likes"
  • Popular cities and age groups
  • Updates

It's also a great platform to:

  • Put together an administrative team to manage the feed under a single page.
  • Include info about your other pages in the sidebar so that viewers won't have to sift through them one by one. 
  • Create custom tabs by using the iFrame Page Tab, which allows you to upload a "website within a website," if you will.
  • Tag other businesses and people.

Taking these steps not only optimizes your business, but it may benefit someone else as well. 

Twitter

You only have 140 characters to get your point across, so it is imperative to write concise, informative tweets consistent with the content of your company. Here are some ways you can optimize your Twitter account:

  • Using hashtags (#) is one of the deciding factors as to whether your website will end up having 10 visitors or 10,000 visitors.  People with the same interests may be able to find your social media content by typing a popular keyword that matches your hashtag. Whether your content shows up first among results depends on the time and frequency of the hashtag use. (e.g. #TGIF, #WonderWednesday, etc.)
  • Following relevant individuals, products, and companies pertaining to your industry will reduce the number of trivial posts clogging up your feed.
  • Inserting @ followed by someone else's Twitter username encourages a more personal approach toward potential customers.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another great tool for your social media marketing plan. Statistics from 2011 show that LinkedIn has over 100 million worldwide users and counting. 

With LinkedIn, you'll not only be able to share content, but you'll also be able to connect with millions of professionals as well as participate in industry discussions. 

You'll have spots to put important information such as:

  • Job openings
  • Company size
  • Recent blog posts, tweets, etc. 

You can also create groups, and then invite individuals or other companies to become a part of the community for a more interactive experience.

YouTube

In recent years, YouTube has become a credible search engine, and is a great way to convey information to someone who may prefer watching videos to information in other formats. Syncing your videos to your other social media pages is another great way to drive traffic. 

Enhancing Your Social Media Marketing Plan

There are multiple ways to showcase your content through several different media. Use images, videos, blog posts, and podcasts to vary up your method of presentation, because simple posts can become tedious. Include links to your other pages. Other increasingly popular social networks to consider are Pinterest, Tumblr, and StumbleUpon.

Visit Enhance Your Social Internet Presence for a more in-depth guide to your social media marketing plan.

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