Some of my younger readers may not be familiar with this age-old euphemism often used as a gentle reminder to young, single women to keep their legs firmly closed before marriage. It’s probably not bandied about quite so much in this day and age as it was in the 50’s (not that I was around in the 50’s!!)

It’s the same with social media. So many people feel that they can get all the information they need to put together a successful social media campaign without going to the added expense of hiring a social media strategist to help them navigate through the process.

In some cases this might actually be true. For example, if you’re a very small business owner (1 employee…you) and you have a lot of time on your hands and you believe that you can put in the effort to grow your business as well as learn all the components of a great campaign, then maybe you don’t need someone to help you out.

That said, I’ve been in this business for a while and I learn something new every, single day. I wake up in the morning hoping to find some new tip or trick or strategy that will make me better at my job and that will add value to the services I provide for my clients. I spend a good part of my day plugged into the social media web of information. It’s my job.

I am focused on social media. I live it, I breath it and, much to my children’s chagrin, I am almost always connected in one way or another to some form of it.

There are sites all over the internet that will show you how to set up a campaign. They’ll give you the steps and the technical requirements of facebook, twitter, linked in etc. What they cannot give you is the personal customization that comes from hiring a pro.

In my post “If You Think All Social Media Campaigns are Created Equal, You’re Dreamin'” I explain how customization is imperative to success.

So while you can download a step-by-step guide to developing a social media campaign for your company you will find it much more difficult to find an ebook on how to customize a strategy for YOUR COMPANY.

I’ll tell you what though. As an act of good faith and value I will give you some really important tips on where to begin. Ready?

1. know your market/audience. I can’t iterate this enough. If you don’t know who to talk to and how to talk to them, you’ll fail. i.e. If you’re a skateboard company you’ll have an entirely different language to connect with your customers than if you are selling life insurance.

Demographics, geographical location, where they hang out (Facebook?), spending habits etc. There are many more parameters but this is a good place to start.

2. make sure you’re company name is branded across all social media sites. If your company is called ABC Company you want to make sure that when people search ABC Company you come up and not some kid, on a computer in Alaska.

3. Give away information. Yep, I said “give”. Information is value so the more of it you can give away the more engagement you’ll have from your audience.

4. Get everyone in your organization onboard. From the CEO to the mailroom, everyone should be promoting the brand online.

5. Make sure you have policies and procedures in place to govern how your company and it’s employees engage online. SUPER IMPORTANT! It costs a lot of money to replace an employee. Make sure they know what your social media expectations are from the get go. Or you may end up as one of these companies.

I think that’s enough for today. After all, you’re getting a lot of milk here and the cow is still standing out in the field. (too far with the analogy? 🙂