8 Things You Should be Doing in Social Media

Does it seem like the face of social media marketing is changing at a blistering rate? Well, it is. What worked well in 2006, may not work now. Heck, what worked in 2010, just may be passé now. If you are planning on publishing an article in 6 months, using traditional methods, you just may miss out on some real, right-here-right-now opportunities. So, how do we keep up? How do we continue to stay in step with modern marketing in the world of web 2.0?

Here are a few of the key ingredients to being successful in social media marketing.

1. Entertain: If you are bland you are out. Humour, and wit is a must. It’s the entertaining pieces/posts that really drive the hits.
2. Spread Your Reach: One single avenue is not enough. Take your message, not only to Twitter, but to Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, and now Quora (For the time being). Having content spread around like this gives you the appearance of being everywhere, 24/7.
3. Be Passionate: Passion for what you do is everything. That quote by Kerouac, you know the one, “[...] the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”, remains true today, even more so now.
4. Listen: Hear, really hear what your audience is saying, then provide them with just that. Be the problem solver.
5. Freely Share Information: Don’t give away all your secrets but enough to instil brand trust.
6. Be Real Time: With social media in the forefront of the web, people are much more likely to share a bad experience with a company on Twitter. When I was a restaurant manager, I was taught that a person having a good experience may tell one or two people, but someone having a bad experience will tell ten. Social media has changed that, drastically. That one upset person can now voice their opinion to thousands. How we survive that, depends on how well we take care of the issue in a very public, air-your-dirty-laundry, way.
7. Create Your Tribe: Follow those leaders in your niche so that they will repost your content to their followers, drawing them to you.
8. Engage: You’ve listed to your market, you’ve taken care of issues, you’ve put yourself, and your expertise out there, you’ve built your tribe. Now engage your audience. Social media really is a 24/7 cocktail party, so join a conversation, or start your own.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few good points, so please, engage me,  join in the conversation.