Find Your Voice
Identify what you stand for as a brand & what issues you want to cover and solutions you provide. Really think about who your customers are, where you can find them and what type of message will appeal to them
Claim Your Turf
Regardless what your neighbor's best friend's auto mechanic's grocer's 14 year old son told you, you do not need to be active on 12 different social media profiles to reach your customer. That said, you do need to make sure that you claim your vanity URL on the key social networks (Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, YouTube) before someone else does.
While you are at it, don't forget locational sites such as Foursquare and Yelp. Especially local businesses can see a positive impact from encouraging & responding to reviews.
Determine Your Strategy
Now that you have a digital presence on one or more key site(s), it is time to determine which 2-3 sites will generate you the most bang the buck. If you really spent time on Step 1, this should be an easy decision for you.
Couple things to remember after you have selected your key sites:

• Cross-share, cross-post & automate when it makes sense.


• But do not let your Social sites become photo-copies of each other. People expect unique content, not a Google+ account that is simply a mirror image of your Facebook page.


• Do not forget your web-site. For most businesses, their Social Media sites should be designed to build relationships & pull people to their webpage. A majority of conversions (or sales) should takes place on your site.


• SEO in 2012 is not the same as it used to be - Social Activity counts for over 60% of your ranking. Especially if you hire someone to do your SEO, make sure they understand this.

Listen and Respond
Did you know that over 60% of customers expect to hear from brands via social media and only 40% of brands respond to them? Social Media is all about a conversation: share, re-tweet, respond, engage in a dialog, recognize and thank your users. If you aren't participating in the conversation, your audience will gladly move to a competitor that is.
Additionally be aware of your surroundings: set up Google alerts for you, your brand, your industry and your competition. You may not see anything most of the time, but it only takes one unanswered bad comment to ruin a company's reputation
Measure Your ROI
It is getting harder and harder to find brands that are not participating in the social activity. Everyone seems to have a Facebook page and Twitter account. That said, approximately 50% of brands are not sure about the ROI of social media. Which 50% are you in? Unless you are in the trenches of social media marketing, stick with what works without the expensive ticket price: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Hootsuite, & SocialMention will give you all you need to know about your social media campaigns.

TreDigital is a strategic advisory and accountability company. We are your digital marketing guide. Our goal is to make digital simple while optimizing your marketing budget.
We help mid-size (20-100 employees) companies understand how changes in business, technology and media impact their customer expectations. We provide strategy and education services to improve customer acquisition and nurture loyalty with the new breed of consumer - the "connected consumer".