You must be sure to keep your professional and personal Facebook accounts completely separate from each other. Followers of your business page don’t need to see games, personal photos or other items not related to business. If your name is associated with your business, try using a nickname for your personal Facebook page so your followers, customers or clients will not be able to link the two.

Users with mobile phones can take advantage of Facebook Places to see what’s new. It’s easy to encourage your customers to participate by offering a discount or special offer to people who check in at your store and show the cashier they’ve done so. There is a similar feature at Foursquare that might work for you as well.

Think twice about paying for a professional social media marketing service. A lot of these firms actually conduct deceitful practices, so they can con business owners that are not familiar with Internet marketing. There a number of companies that have the ability to use fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to then fake registrations onto your page. In spite of the high view counts, your advertisement is not seen by real people.

Keep track of responses to your posts that are sent. Use what you’ve learned to send your messages at the perfect time. For automated messages, it is possible to select particular times for your tweets to go out.

A LinkedIn connection can greatly multiply the social media marketing impact of your blog. Add a share button to LinkedIn on your blog to increase your advertising reach. This will allow your blog posts to be shared among a very professional group of people, which may not be as active on other social media websites. Considering that LinkedIn has 100 million users, the potential benefit can be huge.

Demonstrate humility when posting on social media sites. Your company might be big, but if you have a big ego, your social media campaign will be a big failure. You must always remember that it is your customers who ultimately wield the most power in your relationship, not you. If it weren’t for them, you would be out of business.

People are more interested in a blog when they can comment on it. This becomes really critical if you have no direct contact methods they can use like a personal email address. Leave posting options open so that people can post their thoughts; however, be sure to keep a close eye on comments. You can set it up so that you have full control over what gets published. Delete negative comments and spam.

The peak in visitors on social media is typically during work hours, Monday to Friday. Utilize tools that allow you to write your posts anytime you want to, but they are uploaded and published during hours that you choose, including those when most people are actively online.

Use hash tags to get the most people to see your Twitter posts. For instance, if you are posting cleaning tips, put hashtags like #cleaning and #sanitary. Hash tags will index your tweets so that they appear in searches and lists, allowing non-followers to see your posts too.

To find out what Twitter follower lists are the most influential in your niche, try out Tweepi or Twellow. These programs are designed to locate the highest attention lists, and also who runs them. You can then message them with the suggestion to add your profile to their lists.

Social media is an effective way to expand your exposure online. When users of social media share reviews or other tidbits of information regarding a business, the business benefits even more. Contests and special promotions are a great way to get your followers to spread the word about your products.

Consider posting contests for freebies in your various social media profiles. Everyone loves a freebie, so this is a great way to get more people on social media sites to follow you. Choose the freebie you think your customers would like, post about it on your social media and then spread the word on forums, websites and blogs.

Create headlines that make people want to read your information. In many instances in social media, all folks see is the headline. That means that you are almost fully dependent on the magnetic pull of the headline to capture the reader’s attention. Taking the time to think of a creative headline will help your content rise to the top of the social media heap.

YouTube can help to direct your viewers to your other business ventures. YouTube is used and enjoyed by many people. Use your Youtube profile to advertise your business and maximize your Internet visibility. Give other users good information about your business, and do not forget to include a link to your blog or website in your profile.

Building a solid company brand is crucial to succeeding in social media marketing. Build your social media pages and backgrounds utilizing your company’s logos and symbols. You should also utilize the same colors on all of your social media webpages. When followers see similarities on your account pages, they’ll feel confident it’s really you and will be willing to trust what you have to say. Consistency means advantageous branding in identifying yourself and letting you stand out from your competition.

Social media is a modern way to market your business, and it is important that you give it a try. It could be utilized for successful marketing and branding your service and/or product. It can also be effective in exposing you to a large amount of potential clients. The above article has given you some valuable advice to help you develop a successful and lucrative social media marketing plan.

Richard Vanderhurst