If your business doesn't participate in social media marketing, it's missing out on numerous opportunities traditional marketing cannot produce. Thinking about starting online marketing might be daunting, but when done correctly and with a plan, social media marketing is a cost-effective, simple way to grow your business. It will increase your sales leads, grow your brand recognition and provide excellent opportunities for clear customer-based communication. Social media marketing should be started today, if it isn't already happening.

Use these tips to start your social media marketing:

Define your Goals:  Your online marketing should help grow your business and increase brand awareness. It should:

·         Build authority

·         Provide direct connection between customer and your company

·         Educate and inform customers

·         Gain inbound links

·         Generate leads & drive sales

·         Improve customer service

·         Learn more about your target audience

·         Monitor brand reputation

·         Reach new channels of customers

Develop a Plan: Use a social media marketing plan to provide more sales leads, grow your business and maintain what you've already got. Your plan should include a:

·         Schedule

·         Ways to build Relationships

·         Plans to stay the Course

·         Ways to measure the Results

·         Enough flexibility to make the Right Tweaks

Determine the Methods: With so many different methods for social media marketing, determine your target audience, figure out where they will most likely see you, and focus on a few online mediums rather than all of them at once. A few popular places to grow your business online include:

·         Your quality Web site

·         Your company Blog

·         Twitter

·         Facebook

·         LinkedIn

·         Pinterest

·         Google +

Create and Maintain a Schedule: Create a schedule of what you'll post, when you'll post and when you'll respond to others comments and posts.

Ways you can Measure Social Media Marketing Success:

·         Facebook Fans

·         Google Analytics

·         Impressions

·         Increased call volume/sales

·         Reader comments

·         RSS Subscribers

·         Search Results

·         Twitter Followers

The great thing about social media is that it is interactive. It lets you be heard, but gives your customers a voice, too.  Use it to create a relationship and connect with your clients. Smart companies and savvy business leaders use social media for marketing. They want the best social networking and social marketing management, so they often hire outside companies that specialize in Internet marketing, SEO work and social media management.

The best providers produce consistent, custom content that gets you noticed on social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media marketing services get people talking about your product, your service, your business. Find a provider that excels in social marketing by coordinating social media, SEO and social networking efforts that support your brand and guide leads to you.

Use professional Internet marketing copywriters to create custom blogs and Internet articles that showcase your business, highlight your services and feature your products. The work is time consuming and involves a bit of a "science," so hire out these service so you can focus on what you do best-operate and manage your business. Find a professional team today to effectively start using social media for marketing.