by Bruce Newman

    This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Developing a social media marketing campaign has become more demanding as social media technology and popularity continues to evolve.  This seems counterintuitive at first since there are more tools and more people.  However, it also means that there are more people trying to reach and influence each other.  It therefore takes knowledgeable and effective strategizing to create an effective social media marketing campaign.  In short, it requires the 4 S’s – Social, Sharing, Sustain, and Strategize.

Social

The first rule of social media is to be social.  Your communications must be positive, knowledgeable, incisive, thoughtful, etc. It is okay to provide some negative comments provided they are appropriate.  They just must not be nasty, racist or insulting.  Think of when you go to a party and meet new people.  The appropriate behavior you display is similar to your online behavior.

When you are building and maintaining your social networks, you must be social.

Sharing

The purpose of social media is sharing; “pay it forward”.  By providing information and good, relevant content, you provide the basis building up your contact network and branding yourself as an expert of your particular specialty.  Since each social media platform has its own “personality” and followers, it is important to distribute your content across numerous platforms.  In this era of proliferating social media platforms and subscribers, it is important that you utilize social media sharing to share your information with as many people as possible.

Sharing of information that helps brand you as an expert and increases the size of your networks should be provided across multiple social media platforms.

Sustain

The rule in advertising is that people need to hear, read or see a product seven times before it makes a lasting impression.  In social media, this number is impossible to track and largely irrelevant.  What it does denote, however, is the importance of remaining in front of your target audience.  This is accomplished by providing a sustained and consistent effort.  Blogging once a month is insufficient.  One of the key components of a sustained effort includes scrutinizing various analytics to determine which strategies are effective and which are not.  (Scrutiny can almost be considered as the “5th S”.)  Optimally, a blog post created twice a week coupled with sustained effort commenting, asking and answering questions on several social media platforms is far superior. 

Sustaining your presence on multiple platforms will help enhance your social media presence, the size of your network and your credentials as an industry leader.

Strategy

In the past few years, the social media realm has grown from a small number of participants to hundreds of million people, many of whom use it daily for extended periods of time.  Given the ease of setting up an initial account and the huge number of subscribers, the difficulty of achieving an effective – and sustainable – social media presence has rapidly increased.  It’s nice to fantasize that a campaign will somehow go viral.  Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasing unlikely as that percentage continues to diminish.  In place of this dream is a campaign that incorporates SEO, possibly some type of paid advertising, blogs and social media to achieve a client’s specific goals.  An effective social media strategy takes significant planning and time to implement.  It does not happen overnight.  However, if effective it will provide substantial and recurring results, usually at a far lower cost than traditional media campaigns.

Utilizing an effective social media strategy across multiple blogs and social media platforms will achieve specific goals.

By adhering to the rules of the 4 S’s - regardless of the product, service or goals you are promoting, you can help ensure the success of any social media marketing campaign.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.