Social Media is quickly becoming a viable tool for brands to use. However, some companies and even small-time users are making simple mistakes that effectively kill their brand.

Create A Social Media Battle Plan!

Often times people dive in to Social Media without a clue on what to do. While using Social Media is great for personal use, if you’re leveraging it on a professional scale, you’ll want to create a game plan. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish, how you want to engage users and whether or not your target demographic can be reached easily online. These are all very important things to keep in mind when creating your Social Media battle plan. You wouldn’t create a start up without a product, why would you create your online identity without a face?

Be Social On Your Media Channels

The number one mistake brands and businesses makes is taking the wrong approach to Social Media by not being active. The whole point of Social Media is to actively engage your users and create a community. Unfortunately people are alienated from larger companies even on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

You need to be a participant in your own community otherwise people will feel alienated. The biggest advantage of Social Media is that you are able to connect with real people and get real responses instantly. Everyone dreams of doing something like this for their business but quickly ruin the opportunity when they use it without knowing what to do. Don’t make this mistake, create a Social Media battle plan.

Hire Someone Who Knows Social Networking

If you don’t know anything about Social Media, you would benefit from hiring someone who can actively monitor your online presence. Similar to a PR representative, they would monitor your social media activity. You can try it at home or you can let a professional handle it. The key thing to stress here, and ties in to my original point, you’ll need a Social Media battle plan and someone who can implement it.

If you’re just starting in the Social Media world make sure your demographic is targeted, engaged and in constant interaction. Those points will help jumpstart your Social Media strategy.