Implementing social media strategies in a well-planned manner is extremely important from the point of view of building awareness about your key products and services. It is necessary to connect with the prospects on Facebook and Twitter. Understandably, several small businesses are looking for reliable means to help monitor and effectively respond to their core customer base in order to fortify the social presence on the Internet.

Here are six simple’ albeit key steps to boost your social media presence:

1. You should be willing to put in the hard work so as to form a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with your target audience. This is possible by seeking relevant insights and actionable advice from experts for a well-designed plan.
2. In fact, their intervention is necessary to leverage an array of generic as well as niche networking channels. Social media marketing does need optimum utilization of time and resources apart from constant innovation.
3. Avoid chest-thumping. Instead look for participation. The Internet provides a vast landscape for user-endorsement. If people follow what your business and brand actually ‘means’ to them, and they see meaningful actions, to back the words, this will result in a positive experiences. Then they can favorably talk about your brand without any initiation. Of course, if you are not careful enough, it can all go wrong, damaging your brand reputation and image. Social media-based driven public relations exercise demands utmost care and attention.
4. You should be prompt to set the record straight in case you notice that the chatter online is trending negative. You cannot let it spread by maintaining constant dialogue with your target audience. A practice of ‘File and Forget’ won’t work.
5. Another key is to be relevant. Social media branding should revolve around a campaign that takes into account the people’s needs. Brands have to stick to the message as far as possible they can, even while being flexible to accommodate the dynamic social scene. The narrative should be dictated by current trends.
6. Of course, brand managers have to be careful in this. They need to chart a strategy which blends both the proactive and the reactive elements. Social media can be unforgiving and really punishes those brands that slacken, lag behind or drift. Apart from consistency, cohesion is equally critical. To put it simply, cohesion involves rallying your messages around a brand principle irrespective of the channel.

One thing is for sure: more and more information exchange – social and personal – will take place on or within Facebook as well as Twitter. Given the size of their user base, it is inevitable. Importantly, content delivery is gradually shifting to embrace interactive apps in a big way; not just on social media, but on wireless devices/ mobile platforms as well. Advertisers and publishers, marketers and brand managers must need to be tuned to the fast-changing media-scape.