Until recently, businesses had well-established “rules of engagement” that dictated how to talk to prospects, customers, vendors and competitors. But with the recent ascent of social media into the business arena, those rules of engagement have been set aside and new rules are being written. Business owners who get these social media marketing strategy tips and actively participate in social media marketing can enjoy the benefits. Business owners who ignore these tips but try to participate in social media marketing anyway, will fail.

If your business is thinking about participating in the social media phenomenon, here are 5 marketing strategy tips you need to know before you start:

Marketing strategy tips #1: Social media is not about you. Don’t jump into the world of social media to talk about yourself. Rather, join because you want to hear from other people. Even if you never talk about yourself, you can still derive tremendous value from listening to your prospects and customers and adjusting your business based on what you hear. Create rules for yourself about how often you want to engage others before you mention something about yourself. Some people follow a 10:1 ratio of talking about others ten times as much as they talk about themselves.

Marketing strategy tips #2: Be personable. It’s so easy to default to the original rules of engagement, which tended to be impersonal. But social media isn’t impersonal. It’s very personal. Be willing to share some of yourself. Decide what you’re willing to share and what you aren’t willing to share, but be willing to share something.

Marketing strategy tips #3: Be professional. For so long, businesses equated impersonal with professional. But that’s not the case. You can be personable while still being professional. Professionalism in social media means not trashing your competition or making inflated claims. It means not dominating the conversation. It means helping customers not forcing them.

Marketing strategy tips #4: Engage others. Social media is a medium of engagement. People aren’t just listening, they’re participating. So take part. Ask others. Involve others. Listen and respond. Keep the conversation going.

Marketing strategy tips #5: Enjoy it! This is so important. If you don’t enjoy participating in social media then stop doing it. If you don’t like it, you won’t engage others and you’ll end up doing what a lot of businesses do – create a cycle of pre-written, timed-release messages that don’t do anything other than annoy. Just because social media is popular right now doesn’t mean you have to participate. Enjoy it or find something you do enjoy.

Want to know the best way to succeed at social media? Just follow the same rules of engagement and etiquette that you might have at a dinner party or cocktail party. Listen to others, share a bit of yourself, be professional, engage other people, and enjoy the conversation. The scenario is very similar – it just so happens that with social media, people aren’t in the same room.

Use these marketing strategy tips to help you grow your business with social media.

Author Bio: Aaron Hoos is a business writer. He accelerates business performance with copywriting, technical writing, internet marketing, and sales funnel strategy. Read more about marketing strategy tips or visit AaronHoos.com.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: marketing strategy tips, social media, marketing, internet marketing, online marketing,