Is Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Plan on Life Support?

 Given the buzz that continues around social media these days, it only makes sense that your company’s marketing plan should involve this medium.

Unfortunately for many small businesses, however, their social media marketing tactics are clinging to life, pushed to the backside by those who are not seeing a clear enough return on investment (ROI) for such efforts.

If you find that your company’s social media marketing plan is in need of a shot of adrenaline in order to boost your brand and reputation, there are tactics you can employ to do just that.

Among them are:

• Coming ready to play – Much like in a sporting event, the team that comes prepared to play oftentimes leaves with the victory. Stop and ask yourself if you’ve put together a winning strategy for successfully using social media marketing. Your company must have an attitude in place of wanting to be social, wanting to share information with the public. If you find the mindset at your small business is to be more closed off to such thinking, you’re already playing from behind;

Emphasizing the ‘cost’ of social media marketing – Many marketing pros are given the bottom line by the office heads to work within their budgets, especially in these challenging economic times. If you’re a marketer, emphasize that there is little to no cost with social media marketing. Essentially, you are looking at time and effort to get your message out there through SMM. It is important to drive home this fact to those with the purse strings, allowing you to spread the word about your company’s products and/or services on the cheap if you will;

Cross promote – If your company only has a presence on Facebook, what about Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more? The ability to cross promote your information is critical to reaching various audiences. There are different tools that allow you to update various social media properties at one time. The key here is to make sure the message works on the different social media channels all at once, saving you the time on doing each site individually;

Post frequently without spamming – There is a fine line when it comes to posting on different social media venues without becoming a spammer. If you post too often, especially posting the same message several times a day, you’ll lose a percentage of those following you on the different sites. Try to limit such postings to two times a day, preferably early morning and later in the day. In the event you have a company press release or white paper and you want to get it out in front of countless eyes, don’t post it every other hour. Target your posts for key times of the day and certain days of the week when you have a special white paper, infographic, etc. that you want to be seen;

Measure metrics – What company head doesn’t like numbers and to over analyze them? One of the issues company leaders oftentimes have with social media marketing is that it can be difficult to measure the ROI on such efforts. Make sure you are obtaining relevant data when it comes to your efforts so that you can show those in charge how such marketing is benefitting your business. With different measuring tools available, take the time to make sure they are in place so you can see where your social media marketing efforts are winning, where they need a little pick me up, and where they need to be redirected from.

Leave no stone unturned – Two of the keys to a successful social media marketing campaign are fresh content and solid contact information. When you’re surfing the web and come across a company’s social media page, two of the first things you likely look at are how often it is updated and what contact information is available should you want more details about the business. Unfortunately, too many companies fail to take the time to update both, leading to visitors coming by once and once only. Make the effort to provide fresh marketing content and easy access to contact information a given, not a choice.

When all is said and done, social media marketing is an inexpensive means by which to reach out to both current and prospective consumers. In doing so, you learn what the preferences are of those interested enough to stop by your site, making it all the more easy to sell to them. What could be easier than that?

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items small business loans, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.