Success with social media can lead to quick growth and name recognition, and help to build links which will increase click-through traffic and search engine rankings.

Why Do You Need a Plan?

Great content without a plan is likely to get some attention from social media, but an effective plan can maximize the traffic volume and help you to reach readers that are more targeted. A plan will help you to know what type of content to develop, what type of readers you want to see it, where to promote it, and how to keep the momentum.

Developing Your Plan:

1. Look for social media sites that focus on your niche

When most new users start using social media they go straight to the major sites, like Digg. While Digg is great for sending huge amounts of traffic, it’s basically an all or nothing thing. You have a much better chance of getting some exposure and drawing traffic on smaller, niche social media sites.

2. Find social media sites that your readers most likely use

Ideally, you’ll want to be targeting the same sites that your readers are actively using so that you can increase your chances of getting votes. Whether your readers use niche sites or major social media sites, you’ll have better results if you can utalize the support of your existing readers.

3. Look for ways to add elements to your pages

Voting buttons and widgets are popular and they can be effective if you are targeting the sites that your readers like to use. Sometimes it is just a matter of reminding readers that they can vote for you if they like your post.

4. Creating the right content

One of the most important aspects of marketing your website with social media is content creation. Not just any content will do, and people aren’t going to vote for sub-par content. Once you’ve studied the social media sites that you are targeting, you should have a good idea of what will do well and what won’t.

5. Know what you want to gain

In order to achieve real results with social media, you need to know specifically what you are after. Otherwise you will look back and realize that you had a few bursts of traffic, but nothing real to show for it. Do you want to gain subscribers, inbound links, sales, name recognition, etc? A social media plan helps you focus your exposure.