Designing and building a social media campaign that\’s successful is a bit like designing and building a high-rise. First, you need to research your material, then you need to put down a solid foundation, and then you need to continue with regular maintenance to ensure your online promotion is a success.

The Proper Building Blocks

The proper building blocks are key to successful marketing. The strongest plan needs to include the following building blocks:

Democratized Social News Sites

These tools permit online marketers to network with a community by both voting on content and by submitting your own content for others to vote on. Examples include Reddit and Mixx.

Social Sites

These sites offer a fantastic opportunity to build and interact with a network, and to publish your original content in a number of forms such as videos, photos, links, news, and more. Examples include Facebook and LinkedIn.

Editor Controlled News Sites

When content the user submits fits the editorial guidelines it is accepted and distributed. These high profile websites can produce enormous results. Yahoo is a great example of a news site.

Micro-Blogging Sites

These include sites like Twitter and Friendfeed, where your comments are limited to 140 characters or less. Keep your comments interesting. A great way to broadcast to a large audience.

Social Bookmarking Sites

A great tool for marketers are social bookmarking sites where you can submit URLs of interest to sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon, which will drive targeted traffic to specific page. These sites are great for doing research pertaining to the type of content that your audience is interested in.

Wiki Sites

If you want to dominate search results, Wikis are a great tool, because they frequently rank high. Use wikis to reach new audiences by posting original content and editing existing content.

Social Question & Answer Sites

Marketers can answer existing questions and post new questions on sites such as Wiki Answers and Yahoo! Answers. This is a great way to develop and grow brand reputation and become an authority. It\’s also an excellent way to do audience research.

Social Content Sharing Sites

Flickr and YouTube, are just a couple of the sites that let you post specific content types, from photos to video to reviews. These sites can aid marketers to build brand recognition and to target relevant audiences.

Niche Sites

These sites target a specific niche, such as Chihuahuas, Italian wine, or blogging. As a marketer these are excellent because you are able to target a extremely relevant audience.

Blueprints

In order to create a campaign that will be successful you must have a detailed plan. These steps will ensure your campaign is solid.

Background Research

Learn where your online audience is located. Examine the type of content they submit to social media sites for ideas of what interests them. Also, identify thought leaders to target in order to spread your message to a broad audience.

Brainstorming

The purpose of brainstorming is to generate tons of ideas that you can use for promotions. Have a look at what has worked in the past and then build upon that. Look at what has worked for other similar companies or products and then see how that could be integrated into your platform. Take the time to filter out the good, the bad, and the really good, so that you can find a workable solution.

Idea Research

You will need to follow up on the ideas you implemented to see if they actually worked (and how well they worked) based on what currently happening. Flexibility is really important, as is the ability to adapt and change if something isn\’t working. After all, there\’s no point in continuing down a path that isn\’t working.

Story Production

Work hard to avoid a message that is an obvious sales pitch, and what\’s referred to as marketing speak. Use videos and photos to enrich your stories.

Schedule and Launch

You need to be aware of the days and the times you targeted audience is on the social network sites. Make sure you link your promotions to relevant events to generate timely interest.Brian Scott is a professional freelance writer and online virtual assistant. Visit his free website, www.VirtualAssistantJobs101.com to find paying virtual assistant jobs which let you work from home.

Brian Scott is a professional freelance writer and online virtual assistant. Visit his free website, http://www.VirtualAssistantJobs101.com to find paying virtual assistant jobs which let you work from home.

Author Bio: Brian Scott is a professional freelance writer and online virtual assistant. Visit his free website, www.VirtualAssistantJobs101.com to find paying virtual assistant jobs which let you work from home.

Category: Internet
Keywords: social media, facebook marketing, online marketing, adsense