Every day, I get emails and calls from companies that want to be on social media to improve their marketing but aren’t sure how to go about it. Good social media will make your business look alive and interesting; boring or lazy social media can actually work against your brand.
How do you get started? How do you keep it up?

1. Keep it reasonable.

Don’t overwhelm yourself from the get-go. Start small and scale up as you find out what you enjoy managing – and what your target market responds to.

2. Be Accountable.

Is marketing important to you? Good. Now put it on your calendar, where you put all of your other appointments and obligations. Mark the dates when you will post or load up your core posts for the week (always leave room for spontaneity!), and also set aside a small block of time to consider your social media. It’s not just about posting – take time to monitor, respond (that’s what makes it “social”) and to learn from your efforts.

3. Choose your weapons.

You don’t need to be on everything. Again – feel free to start small and scale up. Just because your friend’s business is all over Twitter and Facebook doesn’t mean that it’s for you. For example, if you are in a B2B business, you should probably establish a LinkedIn presence. If you are a local business, maybe Google+ makes more sense for you. You’ll find your fit. And if you take on multiple accounts (most people do!) there are a number of easy management tools that can bring those feeds onto one wonderful dashboard, where you can control your social media universe.

4. Plan your fame.

What do you want to be known for? Don’t just post anything and everything about your business. You’ll gain followers by providing consistent information about topics they are interested in. If you only post once about a topic and someone follows you, then too many off-topic posts may drive them away. If you have multiple topics, consider linking topics to particular days you post. For example, we all know to look to Twitter on Monday for #meatlessMondays (vegetarian recipes). Consistency builds following.

5. Save something for a rainy day.

You may want to sit down for this: the truth is, you won’t always have something earth-shattering to say. That’s fine! When you DO have a great idea, put it on a rainy day post list. Save these for times when your topic well is running dry. These posts should be non-time-sensitive, so you can go to them in a pinch if you’ll be out of office or just don’t have something else to post.

6. Delegate… but not totally.

The more the merrier – consider harvesting post ideas or content from people across the company. If you allow them to post directly, be sure that anyone who shares the keys to the car (passwords to the accounts/rights to post) understands your brand guidelines and do/don’ts. Better yet, have posts provided to one person who will maintain oversight for consistency of brand voice and posting, who can schedule them out in the way that will create maximum impact.

7. Have fun.

You know which accounts get followed the most? The ones where they’re having fun (they also happen to be the ones that get media attention, the rare times that happens). There are some aspects of marketing that, let’s be honest, will bore you to tears. Fortunately social media isn’t one of them. It’s one of the few you can manage from the phone you carry with you 24-7, and it’s one that can add tremendous power to your business.

Did you apply these rules? How did it work for you? Let us know!