Are you ready to conquer the social media space? Do you want to establish online presence at social networking sites? Then, start logging in to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn accounts, and follow these effective social media marketing best practices that will help you establish your brand socially and make your SMM campaigns work for you.

1. Offer assistance more than anything else.

When doing social media marketing, always keep in mind that among your primary objectives is to help your fans and followers get useful information from your page. Provide ways to help others. For example, if you are setting up a LinkedIn account, make sure to share useful resources, and then just sprinkle yourself lightly.

2. Plan, process, and undergo proper SMM procedures.

Similar to SEO and other online marketing campaigns, your social media marketing plans should undergo proper processes and procedures. Do not just dive in too fast, with no directions of where you are heading. Perform keyword research, content analysis, and competitive review to name some. These should help you know what to publish and avoid on your fan pages and social accounts.

3. Contribute quality, not quantity.

Create quality content that you can share to your followers. While community is queen in social media, quality content is still king, And this shall always hold true for any portal on the web. Do not overwhelm your users with tons of useless information, but provide them with enough quality, useful ones.

4. Connect to key influencers and brand advocates.

Reach out to the key influencers in your niche. Introduce to them what your brand and business is about. Be polite, honest, and sincere, and you’ll be amazed what brand advocates can do for you.

5. Position yourself.

Position yourself in front of consumers’ passions and interests. Give them whatever it is that they are looking for. It can and will create a powerful outcome for your brand. Hence, it is important to always get feedback and opinions from your followers. Ask them what they want, and be willing to give it to them.

6. Link to others.

Yes, you are promoting your business that comes with a website. But it doesn’t mean that you’ll only be linking to it all the time! Don’t be afraid to link out to other blogs, websites, and even news articles. Share to your followers what you think they’ll find interesting. When you do this, they will trust you to be giving out useful information, and not just selling your products or services.

7. Make your brand viral through videos.

Videos are great viral marketing tool. You can create instructional videos with top tips or top secrets related to your brand or product. Upload it on YouTube or Facebook and let your followers learn more about your business. Remember, the secret is humor, creativity, and safe controversy. Don’t be afraid to think out of the box.

8. Don’t forget to measure.

All your efforts will be put to waste if you don’t know how to measure and analyze your data. Use analytics and other statistics tools in generating quantitative data about your social media marketing efforts. As said by media experts, “you cannot improve what you can’t measure.” So always make it a point to measure your fan base, clicks, impressions, conversions, and other important figures.

9. Build communities and micro-communities.

Don’t just settle for large communities; build small ones, too. Locate and join micro-communities. These are small social communities that may be relevant to your business. It is much easier to have your voice heard in these and similar markets, than trying a post to Digg that may go nowhere. And once you’re in, create highly relevant and link-worthy content that may really be interesting to the members of the micro-community. Research what others are writing about and connect with the top players and influencers.

10. Engage, engage, and engage.

No matter how small a question was asked to you, send a quick and honest reply. Do not be snob to your followers and always make it appear that you and your brand can be easily approached whenever necessary. If your fans have to say something, listen. If they ask, answer. If they give out suggestions, try your best to implement them. The key is engaging to the community and making them see that you are still a human and not just a marketing robot.

11. Monitor regularly.

Make sure that you spend a few hours a day to monitor all your social media efforts and campaigns. If you want to save time monitoring across many resources within the social networks, try online tools like Pluggio or Hootsuite that can display all your social media accounts in one platform.

12. Reward incentives to your loyal fans and followers.

Your followers are your foundation. Without them, you may not be able to promote your brand properly. Hence, reward them with incentives, such as discounts or freebies, that will continue to encourage them to support your brand and business. It can be a way of saying thank you, as well.

Social media marketing is fun, but at the same time, it requires time and hard work. Which social media platform does your brand engage in?