The word “social” in social network can be a bit misleading when building an online brand for your company.  Social networking was born out of the concept of sharing one’s personal life and not professional endeavors.  Today, people as well as companies are using social media to drive personal and professional branding.  Social networking is still a format that is deeply embedded in personal social experiences but can be manipulated as a corporate marketing media. 

Look at your corporate website.  You want to reinforce the images and wording on the website when creating your social media presence.  This stance will also help to ensure you are also as protective and concerned for your corporate image in your social networks as you are on the website.  Remember, this is still the World Wide Web.  Also repeating the foundation of your website on your social media outlets will reinforce the brand recognition already in play and that your target audience is familiar with. 

Once you have built out all of your social media outlets, it is time to connect all the dots.  You will want to provide active links from your website to each social network.  Each social network profile should have links to the other social networking profiles and your website as well.  Think of it as a giant internet based spider web designed to catch traffic as it drifts by.  All of this inter-linking also helps to establish your organization as a multi-social-network presence on the internet and helps to boost your SEO and SMO.

Now that you have built the foundation and all the pieces are connected, it is time to start posting.  Post only relevant and current information that reflects and supports the brand image of your website, social network and corporate outlook.  Focus on quality over quantity.  Be sure to include keywords from your website and social media in your postings to boost your SEO and SMO.  In doing so, your presence will be more cohesive to your corporate message and have the largest impact on your target audience.  If you happen to find a motivational quote or a humor piece that is appropriate for your audience, post it as an unexpected treat for your readers.  This type of posting creates a human factor to your interaction and transparency is important.  When posting information, you want to make sure you post to all of your networks. Social Media Marketing is kind of like being the Lounge Lizard of the Internet, minus the sleaze and shinny suit) who plays the numbers game.  Get your message out to various sites and opportunities, some is liable to say yes and pick you up.  Most networks have tools that allow you to link posts to other networks.  Take advantage of these tools, as they are great time savers.  To learn more about content posting, see Opening the Lines of Communication through Social Media.

Review at least annually your website and social networks to make sure they are still in alignment with your corporate stance and voice.  Make adjustments as needed, just make sure you update the entire spider web to reflect that changes made.  Also, periodically test links to make sure they are working correctly and land on the pages that are intended to.  

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