Scott and I had a meeting with a new website/blog client today, Andy Cohen, who’s embarking on his first social media campaign.

After spending a couple of hours with him, I decided to start a series here on our website called Social Media 101 Tips, as a way to get our clients started. There won’t be anything new here, but our clients will find us to be a resource, which is exactly why we started New England Multimedia’s blog in the first place.

Future posts will be Platform-Specific, focusing on tips for each of the Big Three: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Here are my Top 10 Basic Social Media Marketing Tips.

1) I recommend every small business start with a Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, and a Facebook Page.

You can expand and extend into other social media platforms later, as time allows. These are the “Big Three” that everyone involved in social media is using, and you can’t go wrong if you use all three. The trick is finding the time to use all three, and knowing how to spend your time wisely.

2) Fill out your social media profiles with as much information about your business as possible.

Your social media profiles are often the first place potential followers will see who you are and what you do. Use keywords specific to your industry, and always include urls for your other social media profiles, your website, and your blog. On your Facebook Page, you have two places you can do this: in the “Info” tab, and in the little box underneath your profile picture. On Twitter, you have a very limited amount of space, which is why you might want to build a custom background. (See #3)

3) Make sure you use a good photo of yourself on your profiles.

Using the default makes you look extremely unprofessional. Better yet, try to incorporate your brand somehow. See our Twitter profile and Facebook Page for examples. (Note: we have a custom Twitter profile, and we used the same photo for our Facebook Page. If you’d like New England Multimedia to build a custom Twitter profile for you, contact us.)

4) Find your target market and build relationships with them.

You’ll want to use your social time wisely. More on finding your target market in upcoming blog posts, but in the meantime, Lisa Orell wrote an informative blog post called “How Do I Find My Target Audience on Twitter & Get Them to Follow Me?”

5) Learn the basics for using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn so you can make the most of your time.

Here’s some great info from Twitter for businesses: Twitter 101 For Business

Here’s LinkedIn’s “New User Starter Guide”: New User Starter Guide

Here’re an excellent blog post from Mashable on getting started with Facebook: HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page

6) Learn Twitter etiquette, and apply the same principles across all your social media profiles!

Here’s a humorous, on-the-money tutorial by Vadim Lavrusik: “10 Commandments of Twitter Etiquette.” Basically, don’t use your social media profiles to shout out information about yourself all day. Share information that your target market will be interested in, and mix it up with updates and Tweets about what you can do for them. Keep an eye on what people are talking about, and get involved in the conversation. Properly share or retweet items your followers might be interested in.

7) Use a link shortener.

I prefer Bit.ly to shorten links so I’ll have more space to Tweet, and so I can track the number of clicks my links are getting. I like to use the tracking statistics to tweak my strategy by changing headlines, time of Tweets, etc. See #9 about pre-scheduling tweets and updates with Hootsuite for another link shortening option.

8) In Twitter, use “Lists” to manage your followers and the people you follow.

Using lists enables you to keep an eye on specific groups, whether for marketing opportunities or information you can learn from and/or share. Mashable wrote this great post about Twitter Lists that will help get you started with this critical practice before your network gets too large for you to keep up with: How To Use Twitter Lists.

In LinkedIn, use “Groups” to find your target market and make your presence known by getting involved in discussions. Become the “Go-to” person wherever possible, and turn your time into opportunities to show your expertise. Sign every comment with your name, followed by a list that includes links to other social media profiles you have, plus your website/blog. Info about Groups: LinkedIn’s Groups Overview.

9) Use Hootsuite to pre-schedule Tweets and updates to your social media profiles.

This will save you time you can use elsewhere to build relationships with people in your target market — a critical aspect of social media that will make or break your social media experience. If you use Hootsuite, they have a link shortener like Bit.ly with tracking information to see how many clicks your link gets. Here’s Hootsuite’s “Getting Started” support: HootSuite’s Help Desk.

10) On your Facebook Page, ask questions with your updates and information-sharing to foster discussion.

Make your Facebook Page a source not only of valuable information and special offers, but a place where people want to spend their valuable social media time. If you want to get really fancy, check out Mashable’s tutorial, “HOW TO: Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business.“

There’s so much more to social media, but these are the Top 10 that I want to pass on to get people started.

What would you add to the list?

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Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, through LinkedIn, or on our Twitter profile.