Best Practices for Getting Started with Marketing with Social Media

It seems as though social media marketing has been “around forever” but many marketers are just now starting to see the value of building their brand on social media.

Here are three helpful best practices for using social media to brand and market your business:

1) Build trust and reputation with respect: This Best Practices page for Twitter is a good resource for someone who is thinking about starting a social media marketing program for their business but feeling overwhelmed on where to start. I like how this list of Twitter rules includes listening and being respectful.

2) Look to the big brands for inspiration and ideas: For those starting a Facebook Fan page for their business, I would suggest checking out the different pages that you already follow on Facebook. Here’s a quick link that will work for a vertical directory of your pages if you are already be logged into Facebook for it. If you’re not logged in to Facebook, you’ll be able to see the top Fan Pages. Great examples.

3) Be sure to focus your efforts on sites that match your target market: If your target market is female and your product has something to do with either decorating, recipes or crafts, consider a Pinterest social media program. Brafton has some best Pinterest marketing practices for your brand for starting your boards and pins. On the other hand, if your target market is content hungry 20-30 something young professionals, then Reddit might make more sense for your brand.   Reading the  rules of Reddit would be a good thing to review before attempting to post content.  LinkedIn has less than 1% of all the social media traffic but is the number one site for business professionals.

Each media has their own function, best type of audience and best practices.

Feel free to link other social media sites best practices pages in the comments below.