Read & write

It's easy to realize the importance of social media marketing today, when everybody and their mother are on Facebook or Twitter. Every business owner agrees that social media is awesome for gathering leads and gaining credibility and awareness. The hardest part, though, is to reach those people with a message so vibrant that they will want to share instantly with their peers. 

 The biggest challenge of social media marketing is to develop pieces of communication that have the potential of becoming viral. This is why big companies pay special attention to their social media presence. They hire specialists to handle their profile on social media networks. They choose the best writers and art directors to tailor their messages for those people who belong to the core target group.

Analysis is important. Each campaign brings a new opportunity of seeing what worked and what didn't. Social media marketing is sometimes a trial and error process. Only by determining what you did well and by repeating it will you manage to build scalable campaigns and make the number of fans skyrocket.

Being inexpensive, advertising on social media channels is very tempting for many businesses, even for those who don't have big advertising and marketing budgets. Nonetheless, it is very important to select very carefully the ads you're going to show to your public. The audience is not stupid. They will realize you paid to have them see your words, so you need to make sure they are damn good, if you want to get results. The result in this case is the desire to share. This is what you want to awaken in your followers' eyes: a sparkle that makes them click Like and click Share or maybe send your ad via email to their friends.

You don't have to fake it till you make it. In social media, it is important to be genuine. Your product must have something that resonates with your consumers' mind. Find that little something, bring it to the light, dress it in appealing words and images and let it fly free in the virtual world. 

One of the social media marketing goals should be to build relationships. This is what social media is about, in the first place. People are there to interact with each other. They want to share their beliefs, their opinions and the things they love or hate. You want to be the thing they love so much that they can't refrain from sharing. You want to be their partner and their friend, to support them when they are down and to enjoy their victories together. 

This is not an easy task. It requires a big deal of time and attention. If you can't make a proper effort into the direction of getting closer to your fans, you may lose the battle even before you start it. Try to spot the leaders in your community and get closer to them. Leaders are good, because once convinced they like you, they are going to be your spokespersons without any doubt and they will bring you even more followers.