1. Do write attention grabbing posts. Attention grabbing posts can be created a number of ways including:
• Ask Questions – Asking a question helps engage your reader immediately.
• Arouse curiosity – Make them have to click through to find out what you’re talking about.
• Provide value – For example a “How to” statement demonstrates value and benefit.
2. Do Integrate Social Networking Into Your Company Website.
• Add a find me/follow me button. Most website and blogging platforms offer widgets, modules, or plugins that help you promote your social networking profiles
• Add it to your signature. Do you have an email signature? Do you send newsletters, autoresponders, and promotions? Add your social networking link or name to your signature.
3. Do Choose the Right Social Networking Sites
With more than 200 mainstream social networking sites, and that’s not including all the forums, chat rooms and blogs, it can be difficult to decide which site is the right site to invest your time and energy in. Evaluate them based on:
• Popularity – How many active members does the site have?
• User Statistics – Is your audience participating on this site?
• Features – Does the site offer business promotion friendly features?
• Your Profile Options – Are you able to build a profile to build brand awareness and promote your business?
4. Do Create a Social Networking Strategy. Before you begin comparing social networking sites, spend a few hours or days creating a plan. Write down:
• Who your target audience is
• What your social networking goals are
• What image you want to convey
• What options you need to achieve your goals and create your ideal profile
5. Do Test and Track your efforts – Social networking is like any other marketing strategy. It’s important to have a goal, a plan and a system to measure and track. That way you can be sure you’re spending your time and marketing budget wisely.
6. Do Update frequently – Like blogging your social networking results are only as good as your efforts. You can also make use of tools like HootSuite that allow you to schedule your posts on Twitter and let you track several Twitter accounts at once.
7. Do remember to be professional. Talk with your audience as if they were customers because they are potential customers. They’re also potential partners and valuable resources. What impression do you want them to have of you?
8. Do Start small. It’s easy to overextend yourself and join too many social networking sites. Start with one or two, build great profiles and actively engaged followers before you begin marketing and promoting on another site