Social Media Marketing Plan – Just How Important Is It?

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A social media marketing plan is very important! You own a business – doesn’t matter if it’s online or offline – before social media became this landslide, in your face marketing tool conventional wisdom taught us that in order to get traffic, leads, and sales – we needed a marketing plan, a good marketing plan.

It’s no different than having a good business plan (you do have a business plan – right?). Einstein said it best, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

Every good social media marketing plan should be using, at the bare minimum, these marketing tools:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Google Plus
4. Pinterest

But simply knowing about these tools isn’t enough – integration is key. Let’s explore a few below.

Given Facebook’s bad press lately, they are still considered the king of social media – due to its sheer number of active members, some 800 million plus. Every social media marketing plan should have at it’s core a Facebook page..

Among the Facebook Fan Page’s biggest advantages is the ability to connect with an unlimited number of fans on the site. With a mere profile page, an individual is limited to 5,000 “friends.” Establishing a Fan Page will also enable you to assign admins to maintain your account, so you can designate one person (or a group of people) to routinely update your Fan Page to keep fans engaged and coming back to the site.

…More at The Importance of Integrating Social Media Marketing

Notice what Business2Community wrote, “unlimited number of fans”. This is extremely powerful and valuable given that a personal profile page is limited to 5,000 friends and no fans.

Facebooks new timeline threw a few people a curve ball, but creating a page is just as easy. If you don’t have the time to create it, hire someone. Fiverr is a good place to start.

Next on our list is Twitter. While this medium is quite straight forward and very easy to use, it’s worth mentioning there are some of the things that shouldn’t be done..

Using Famous Quotes for Affiliate Links: There is a group of individuals that utilize famous quotes on a consistent basis and attach their affiliate links…

This goes without saying – if you’re trying to build a brand and promote products, leave the quotes where you found them..

Posting a Link with No Information: Posting links with absolutely no information whatsoever will also help you get lost followers…

Clear, concise information – don’t leave your visitor guessing.

Posting the Same Product Over and Over: One of the most important types of posts you’ll want to avoid will be posting the same link over and over again…

Can you say SPAM! This type of blantant marketing is slowly getting filtered out – don’t get caught behind the eight ball on this one.

Following Anyone and Everyone: For those that think that following anyone and everyone will be highly profitable, you’ll want to rethink that strategy….

More at How to Avoid Bad Twitter Marketing Techniques

Keep it tight – rule of thumb is follow those that have relevance to your niche or industry. It’s not quantity that counts, but quality.

New ripples, Google apps availability, What’s hot section and the hangouts with extras are features that bring social conversion to the next level for Google Plus business pages and also more possibilities on Google+ to teach, learn, work, and play…More at Google Plus Marketing “How To” Advice | Media Tapper

The last item on our list is Pinterest. This site alone has been the fastest growing social media site in history. Started just a scant 13 months ago (at the time of this writing), it’s biggest attraction is pinning items of interest – mostly pictures and photos.

As you can imagine pictures come in all shapes and sizes, cover every nook and cranny on anytopic, niche, product, or business. You name it – a picture is worth a thousand words.

Pinterest is pretty easy to understand once you get the hang of things. The first step is to get invited (big button top of the home page, “Request an Invite”) and once you receive the invitation, verify and you’re in.  Then start pinning things that interest you – you can even organize your pins into categories, or boards.

This can get quite addicting so watch your time. Good time management skills are a must – dedicate an hour to pinning and move on with your plan

Bottom line, if you want more traffic, more leads, and more sales then get involved in social media and integrate these four social media platforms into your social media marketing plan today.

More Reading..

• 5 Questions To Determine Which Social Media Site To Use For Marketing Your Business
• Q&A: TopRank CEO Lee Odden on integrating SEO, social media and content

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