Now that you know why you should be using social media to grow your business and you now know who you’d like to speak to, it’s time to ask the next obvious question.

How?

The thing about social media marketing is that you can’t do it haphazardly and expect results. You must have a plan that allows your marketing to be methodical and persistent.

This is very different from traditional marketing where it was possible to throw a whole lot of money and do a big campaign once per month or once per quarter.  Developing online relationships and establishing yourself as an industry expert is much like developing offline relationships.  It’s the small things that matter.  More importantly, it’s consistently being there for your audience.

Your plan should include all of the pieces of your strategy and might look something like this:

• Post to your blog twice per week
• Monitor and comment on competitors/collaborators blogs once per day
• Review Facebook fan page and profile once per day and comment where appropriate
• Review Twitter and participate 3 times per day
• Write an article twice per month and submit to online article directories
• Write a press release once per month and submit
• Review LinkedIn groups once per day and review Question/Answers area using pre-determined keywords.

Here at Attorney Social Media Marketing we develop matrices to help our clients track their participation, which our clients find very helpful in keeping them on track. It can also be helpful in determining how effective each element of the plan is in growing their online presence.

Just like any project, a good solid plan is a strong foundation on which social media marketing can help grow your business.  Don’t forget this critical step!