by Derek Wilmot

Free Social Media Marketing Plan: How to Gain a Following for Your Business Using Social Media Marketing Strategies

If you are looking for a free social media marketing plan, then here’s some clever tips you can start using now to build and promote your business.

As the world of Internet marketing has continued to grow in importance and popularity, the world of social media has come more and more into play. Social media allows business owners to get their message out to their target audience very quickly because of the viral and social nature of the way information is being shared.  And here are some of the most clever ways that you can increase your following now using social media marketing:

A Free Social Media Marketing Plan That You Can Start Using Today:

1-  Social Networking Sites: The most popular Social Media sites being used today are without a doubt, Facebook and Twitter.  As a matter of fact, Facebook is now getting more daily visits than even Google, so if you can learn to master the use of this site in a balanced but strategic manner, in can be a great value to your business.  One thing you may want to do if you haven’t already, is to connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and then also set up some groups and fan pages on Facebook that you can use to further enhance your online presence and marketing brand.

2.  Social Bookmarking: Another critical element to a free social media marketing plan would be to set up accounts with social bookmarking services such as socialADR and Digg, to create bookmarks for your content that can be viewed and shared by other users.  This is perhaps one of the most overlooked but also most effective strategies within the Social Media marketing world that can best help to propel your chosen marketing campaigns to the top of the search engine results!

3-  Keyword Research and SEO for Social Media: Probably the most important part of any online marketing campaign, especially a free social media marketing plan, would be to use strategic keywords and search engine optimization techniques to further ensure that your content will be found and rank high to be seen by your target audience.  Keyword research is literally, the absolute foundation of any effective online marketing campaign, but strangely also one of the most underused tactics.

The Importance of Using Keyword Research within Your Social Media Marketing:

Interestingly enough, many online marketers understand the basic idea and concept behind keyword research and search engine optimization but still do not put it to use the way they should.  The most important aspect to any effective and free social media marketing plan is that it should help to build and reinforce your online identity and company brand, get your message across to your target audience and build awareness for what you do by further increasing your list and your following online.  Using targeted keywords can really help to put your content right where your audience is looking to improve your exposure and brand awareness.

Where to go to Create and Refine Your Free Social Media Marketing Plan:

If what you are doing is not currently creating and driving enough traffic to your website and/or blog, then it is probably time to re-evaluate what you have been doing.  Always test the results from all of your online marketing campaigns as well as your free social media marketing plan and then continue tweaking your content until you get the results you are after.  Even then, there is always room for improvement!  The best thing to do would be to enroll in an Internet Marketing Mentoring and Coaching Center that specializes in teaching and training business owners with on-going live webinars on all the latest strategies for building and promoting a business online!

Next, to learn more of the top strategies for Social Media that I teach, please read my other article on a Free Social Media Marketing Plan , watch my Free Social Media Marketing Plan Video and connect with me on Facebook!

10 Essential Questions to Ask When Setting Up Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

If you are looking for a free social media marketing plan, then here’s some clever tips you can start using now to build and promote your business.

As the world of Internet marketing has continued to grow in importance and popularity, the world of social media has come more and more into play. Social media allows business owners to get their message out to their target audience very quickly because of the viral and social nature of the way information is being shared.  And here are some of the most clever ways that you can increase your following now using social media marketing:

A Free Social Media Marketing Plan That You Can Start Using Today:

1-  Social Networking Sites: The most popular Social Media sites being used today are without a doubt, Facebook and Twitter.  As a matter of fact, Facebook is now getting more daily visits than even Google, so if you can learn to master the use of this site in a balanced but strategic manner, in can be a great value to your business.  One thing you may want to do if you haven’t already, is to connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and then also set up some groups and fan pages on Facebook that you can use to further enhance your online presence and marketing brand.

2.  Social Bookmarking: Another critical element to a free social media marketing plan would be to set up accounts with social bookmarking services such as socialADR and Digg, to create bookmarks for your content that can be viewed and shared by other users.  This is perhaps one of the most overlooked but also most effective strategies within the Social Media marketing world that can best help to propel your chosen marketing campaigns to the top of the search engine results!

3-  Keyword Research and SEO for Social Media: Probably the most important part of any online marketing campaign, especially a free social media marketing plan, would be to use strategic keywords and search engine optimization techniques to further ensure that your content will be found and rank high to be seen by your target audience.  Keyword research is literally, the absolute foundation of any effective online marketing campaign, but strangely also one of the most underused tactics.

The Importance of Using Keyword Research within Your Social Media Marketing:

Interestingly enough, many online marketers understand the basic idea and concept behind keyword research and search engine optimization but still do not put it to use the way they should.  The most important aspect to any effective and free social media marketing plan is that it should help to build and reinforce your online identity and company brand, get your message across to your target audience and build awareness for what you do by further increasing your list and your following online.  Using targeted keywords can really help to put your content right where your audience is looking to improve your exposure and brand awareness.

Where to go to Create and Refine Your Free Social Media Marketing Plan:

If what you are doing is not currently creating and driving enough traffic to your website and/or blog, then it is probably time to re-evaluate what you have been doing.  Always test the results from all of your online marketing campaigns as well as your free social media marketing plan and then continue tweaking your content until you get the results you are after.  Even then, there is always room for improvement!  The best thing to do would be to enroll in an Internet Marketing Mentoring and Coaching Center that specializes in teaching and training business owners with on-going live webinars on all the latest strategies for building and promoting a business online!

Next, to learn more of the top strategies for Social Media that I teach, please read my other article on a Free Social Media Marketing Plan , watch my Free Social Media Marketing Plan Video and connect with me on Facebook!

The first step in setting up the right social media campaign for your business is to do an audit of all your social media marketing activities up to the present day. Once that is determined, your current state, you’ll have a starting point from which to create the right plan and implement the proper strategies for your social media marketing campaign.

When conducting the audit, here are some essential questions to answer so you’ll start you social campaign on the right road – eliminate wasted time and money.

1. What is the end result or goal of your social media marketing that you’d like to accomplish? More leads, more followers, more sales, more customer loyalty/confidence, more control over your companies reputation online.

2. What tracking methods will you use to determine if you have the right strategies in place to achieve the goals that you set? These are a few that are free to use and their invaluable… knowem.com,  SocialMention.com,  HowSociable.com

3. Do you need an in house social media manager (an employee) , or is outsourcing the duties a better fit? Are you able to keep a full time employee on payroll which would probably include paying medical benefits, vacation and dealing with sick time…or is it better to find a social media management company and let them handle all the duties.By using a social media management company, you would only pay a set hourly/weekly/monthly fee and also have a custom package designed especially for your business.

4. What do your followers see as far as the sites or pages that you are directing them to from you social media networks? Are your profiles set up to deliver your followers, and potential customers, to a page that will get them to submit their name and email address (squeeze page offering a free eBook or special report) so you can start building a relationship with your list? No matter what site or page you’re sending them to, be sure that there is a call to action on that page. If you’re just directing them to your home page and hope they’ll stick around and find the info they came for, you will be disappointed with your results. The average website surfer will only give your site 8 to 20 seconds to determine if it’s what they’re looking for.

5. Do all your social media marketing efforts link to each other and do they work in synergy with each other? Are your websites, blogs and social sites setup to interact with each other and work together to create a more viral effect? You have to make it easy for your subscribers to navigate around your site and share things on your site with others that they find valuable, interesting and important.

6. What other experts in your niche can you network with, and how do you find them on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn etc…Are you networking with other people and groups within your niche market that may be already considered experts in the field? If you do, not only will you learn a great deal, but you’ll also be able to develop relationships with these experts and therefore raise your own businesses status in the social communities. By aligning yourself with these experts that are already much respected in the social communities and within their niches, you’ll gain an almost an instant respect and credibility. When this happens you’ll see your subscriber numbers go through the roof because you’ll have a great number of your subscribers share your sites and info with others.

7. What tools and software will you use to automate a portion of your social media marketing? There’s a lot of programs and software to automate portions of you posting and tweeting with you followers/customers, most have a free option or trial as well as paid versions that will handle a lot more duties. Some of these include… Socialoomph.com, Socialblaster.com,  Socialposter.com (submit to  up to 250 social and bookmark sites at once!)

These sites provide a great way to give your followers and customers a constant drip of information and keep them in tune with what your company is doing.  While this may seem like the ideal way to ‘set it & forget it’ be aware that the whole point of social networking is to answer and support comments and questions in real time. These automated systems can certainly help, but there is always going to be a need for a ‘real person’ to monitor the going’s on.

8. Is your current social media campaign currently providing valuable information to your followers that is different then your competition? Just as in the early days of email marketing, the key to get people to become subscribers and followers was to give away high quality, valuable information in the beginning and expect nothing back in return. This is the stage of relationship building, and it’s one that must NOT be overlooked. People only buy from those they know and trust. It’s