Explosion of social media in last year or so has done one thing for sure: it has made brands and businesses realize the importance of making an online presence through the various social networking sites. Power of social media overwhelmed us so much that it has even left corporations racking their brains over what actually could be the best possible social media strategy to market their services/products.

Of course, ultimate objective of brands and businesses is to make the most of social media platforms to create more awareness about their products/services and engage in conversations with their potential customers and translate that engagement into sales.

So then, what could be the ideal social media strategy for a corporation? First thing first: a corporation may opt to have its own in-house social media team to promote their products/services. But if a corporation really doesn’t have the expertise or confidence in their in-house team to make their presence felt through social media, then, they’re better off hiring the services of external agencies which can do the job for them.

So one may ask: what these external agencies can offer which your in-house team may not be able to offer? Your in-house team may carry out the social media services but they cannot be expected to be experts as desired by a corporation, unlike external agencies who have a highly dedicated team in place 24x7, who have the expertise to understand your business needs and know what it takes to help corporations not just safeguard their reputation of brand but also enhance its image across various social networks. Among these external agencies, Engage Brands is of the leading social media service provider and has an exemplary team at its disposal to discharge the responsibilities as per the expectations a corporation may have from a vendor.

Carrying out an effective social media strategy is key and it’s important to have proper social media guidelines. Now, social media guidelines shouldn’t be in anyway different from those of the company’s existing values and culture. It should be such that they encourage the external agencies to focus on developing engagement with users across social networks, as you never know they could pan out to be your potential customers in future.
And what about the key question of driving traffic to your site through social media? Well, most brands and businesses should look at making optimum use of popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube as an integral part of their social media strategy in their bid to make their products/services heard loud and clear. But equally important is one aspect which organizations sometimes overlook. Organizations must look to spent considerable time on these sites and find out what exactly people are saying about their company, products or services as these can help them know where they stand in the market.

Corporations could resort to consistent e-mail marketing and social bookmarking as part of their social media strategy to push their products/services. It won’t be a bad idea at all if corporations concentrate their energies on sending personal replies to those customers whether they are complaining about your company (if they are not happy with the product/service) or showering lavish praise. And while interacting with them, they can always include a link in your message that takes them back to their site.

It’s critical to understand that achieving a successful online presence is a long drawn out exercise, and corporations should brace themselves up for a long haul if they wish to see their social media efforts fructify.
Similarly, business houses can have a lot going for them when they actively participate in various discussion forums and make it a point to include a link that will take them to their site.

There’s line of thinking among corporations that having a huge chunk of friends present brands in good light before potential customers. Nothing wrong with that, but corporations can benefit a lot if they create a fan page on these sites. You got to remember that the people who use your products/services are your fans and not friends. Then, of course, your fans trigger the word-of-mouth which plays a significant role in doing the PR stuff for you.
If you think your job is done with merely having a fan page and impressive number of fans, you are going wrong. Brands got to interact with their fans on a daily basis which can sow the seeds of customer loyalty in the long run. For instance, if any of your fans has a birthday, it makes sense to send a birthday wish to your fan along with link that will take your fan to your site.

Corporation hiring external agencies to carry out their social media optimization services must be readily served with regular reports (reports could be a weekly or monthly affair depending on the way a corporation wants it) from the vendor and review those reports in detail and get back to the vendor with feedback or any input from their end.

Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, organizations must see to that they provide adequate information to their vendors about any new product/service launch, new contests, rollbacks etc as this would help in a big way in keeping their followers (if your vendor is doing SMO on Twitter), fans (if your vendor is doing SMO on Facebook) and users (for other social networks) engaged.

Social media strategy is ever-evolving with every passing day and in the coming days, weeks, months and years we are definitely going to see many new practices being adopted by brands and businesses.