The Biggest Mistake You're Making With Your Social Media Marketing

There are those small business owners who are die-hard social media fans and swear by its effectiveness. There are others who wouldn't touch Facebook with a 10-foot pole. Most of us fall in between these two extremes.

The truth of the matter is that most (notice I didn't say all) entrepreneurs can attract high-quality leads for their business by strategically using social media to connect with and engage their audience.

Did you catch that? I said by "strategically using social media to connect with and engage their audience."

Strategically means making smart decisions with how you manage and utilize your social media sites. It can be overwhelming and frustrating when you're not seeing any positive results from your efforts. And how can you see results if you're only spending 5 minutes a month on 7 different sites?

Your strategy should start with research. Before you start dedicating time, money and energy to using social media, direct your focus on the right platform. Analyze where your target market and your competitors are spending their time. This may be a strong indicator that you will have some success with your social media plan.

Respect Your Valuable Time

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to developing social media marketing goals is that it still takes time. Ultimately, time equals money. You have to invest your time into building up your profiles and interacting with your followers, otherwise you end up with a bunch of profiles that don't do a single thing for your business. If you don't have a goal or plan in place you could find yourself wasting lots of valuable time just using social media for the sake of using it.

This is where having a plan comes into play. You need to think about what you want to achieve from social media. For example, let's say your goal is to attract new leads for your business using Twitter. You might decide you want to increase how many people you follow on Twitter by 500 in 30 days. This will in turn increase how many followers you have. Break that goal down into smaller, easier-to-achieve daily goals. To follow 500 new people in 30 days, you'll have to find and follow 16 new people every day. That's totally doable without spending a lot of time, and there is a clear benefit.

Let's say another goal you have is to increase your Facebook Business page likes by 100 and convert at least 30% of those to email subscribers within 30 days. Again, break that down into smaller daily goals that are easier to achieve. In order to reach 100 new likes in 30 days, you'll have to get 3 new likes every day. It's much easier to reach your social media goals when you have a clear plan in place. Also, you need to have a strategy in place to create engagement with your new fans and incentivize them to join your email list.

Just as people so easily fail at New Year's Resolutions (because they think it's a good idea but don't implement any commitment or structure into it), if you don't put a plan into place when it comes to what you want to achieve with social media, you'll find yourself frustrated and not getting the results you want.

Remember, when it comes to social media and having a plan, it's not all about you. Although one of your goals may be to get more followers and to turn those followers into customers, the main focus needs to be your audience and building a relationship with them. Remember, people buy from those they know, like and trust.

You can use social media to attract new leads and convert those leads to loyal customers by having a strategic plan in place. Then you need to implement that plan consistently! Make connections and create massive engagement with your fans and prospective clients by responding to their needs and interests. Be sure to use your time, energy and money wisely when creating your social media marketing strategy. When you develop a smart plan, all of your social media marketing will prove to be a profitable investment.