It seems you can hardly turn anywhere these days on the internet without hearing the term “social media strategy. But what exactly does this mean and why should you care?

What this means can vary depending upon one’s goals. For instance, if you simply want to socialize and meet lots of new people from around the world, then your strategy may simply be to use several of the social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and others to accomplish your task.

In the case of a professional blogger, you will need to take this several steps farther, as your intent is to build a large following in a targeted niche that will eventually generate potential customers for your services or products.

While doing so, you will meet many like-minded individuals and build some great relationships. But this should not be taken lightly or undertaken without considerable thought.

You should care about the development of a social media strategy, even one where your goal is to simply meet lots of people without the business angle, because whether you intend to or not, you are building a brand.

Your brand is something that you’ll come to be known for, and on the internet things tend to last for a long time so you’ll want to get this right from the very beginning because once you’re out there, you’re out there.

Professional bloggers should care because there are nearly 350 million people who read blogs regularly, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report.

Blogging is huge and it provides an excellent tool to reach the masses. Remember, blogs are 2-way communication tools that allow you to lead the discussion or join in on someone else’s. Blogs have changed the way people see the internet.

So, the development of your social media strategy should take into consideration your targeted market and that market’s potential customers.  Before beginning you should consider the following;

Define your goals

What are your goals, lead generation that moves toward sales, branding for popularity, what?

Consider your overall goal first then work your way backwards by laying out how you will arrive at that goal. This “how” is what makes up the components of your strategy. You should end up with a list of necessary actions you’ll need to implement to be successful.

This will lead to many followers, once you’ve established yourself as an authority in your chosen niche. People will follow you because you have something of value to contribute to their lives. They will enjoy your blog content if it teaches them how to solve problems that they have an interest in.

Where are they?

The answer to this question will help you in the development of your strategy because you need to be where your potential customers are. If most of your potential customers use Facebook, then that is exactly where you need to establish your presence.

In fact, from a pro blogger’s standpoint, you will need to establish a wide footprint across the internet. It’s best to have a profile on many social media sites, as this broadens your presence and establishes your brand globally.

The more eyes that see you, the more easily recognizable you will become as you position yourself as a trusted source of valuable information. An increase in traffic to your blog will be the likely result of this effort.

Build the relationships

As more and more people visit your blog, there will be an increase in comments related to your various posts. Don’t just leave the conversation open ended, but communicate with your audience. This is no different than real life, as you cannot build a friendship without talking to people.

When you see a tweet or an update from them on Twitter or Facebook, join in the conversation if you have something relevant to add. Retweet some of their really nice tweets and let them know that you are aware and in tune with them.

Be prepared for constructive criticism or negative feedback on your blog. Be aware that not everyone will agree with your position, and that’s okay. At least be ballsy enough to take a stand, but remain polite and professional. People will respect you for who you are.

Connect with some of your niche’s leaders

The highly successful bloggers in your niche are people who, like yourself and everyone else, started at square one. They’ve worked hard to hone their craft and get to where they are today, and you’ll have to do the same.

Once you’ve built your blog and accumulated some experience and a decent size library of articles, reach out to some of these individuals and see if you can contribute to their efforts in some way. Human nature usually causes them to reciprocate in some way that will help you with your climb through the rankings to greater success.

Don’t go hat-in-hand style and sounding needy. For instance, never ask for a link back to your site. Include them in a nice blog post and recognize some of what they have accomplished and in turn, they will share the link-love without you asking. You have to earn your stripes, so to speak and frankly, this is how it should be.

With any success, you may suddenly find tons of traffic coming your way because of the relationships you have built.

Test and build momentum

Be sure that you can somehow measure the progress and results of your efforts using various social media techniques. If these are not measurable, you have no means by which to judge what is worth continuing and what you should abandon.

When you find something that works, continue the practice while attempting to fine tune it to where the payoff is even greater.

Always be patient

The use of social media strategies will require your patience, as there may not be a quick result, that’s just how it is. Do not panic and get all spammy, becoming a damn nuisance to everyone.

For example, too many updates and self-promotion tweets tend to serve as a turn-off for me. It just seems that the person has only themselves and what they can get out of social media techniques on their mind. It’s a bit too self-centered and comes across as a negative.

Stay true to yourself, but establish a pace that does not annoy.

Another example is blog and forum commenting. Look, if you really don’t have anything to add, it may be better to keep quiet. You don’t want to be seen as someone who is just posting comments to place a link back to their blog.

I read a lot of blog post and comments, and I can tell by some comments that the person really didn’t even read the article that they commented on. Makes you look cheap and silly.

Again, if you have nothing to add just remember these two words “move on”.

Join discussion and forum groups

If you do have something of value to add to a discussions, people should certainly be aware of that. Join some groups that brainstorm about various things that you have a passion for. You see, when you are passionate about something, the discussion has a natural flow to it.

Participation in these areas allows you to further promote your brand while providing insights into who you really are and what your viewpoints are regarding various subjects.

Don’t be a fraidy-cat

Have you noticed how some online social media folks hardly ever say a word? Maybe they really don’t have anything to say about anything (hard to believe) or they are timid and in some cases afraid to speak up.

Perhaps it’s a bit of stage-fright since they know they are speaking globally and have a fear of being criticized in public or something. You will have to tackle this issue if it’s a problem for you.

Look, no one’s going to jump through your monitor screen and do diddly to you. You should also not wait for that perfect moment when you feel that you can safely speak out about something without retribution. The longer you wait to address this, the more difficult it becomes.

Just say something constructive and actively participate in these groups. It’s not that big, so don’t let it be. Once you break down that wall, you’re likely to have to reel yourself in, while wondering why it took you so long to get going.

In closing, I’d like to ask you if you have anything to add to this post as a follow-up.

These are a few of my thoughts on using a social media strategy to build your brand and I will follow this up with another post in the near future.

Have I missed something that you would like to discuss in greater detail?

If so, please leave a comment below or send me a direct via my contact page.

Keep blogging!