Below are 10 ingredients that we believe are vital for any successful Social Media Marketing campaign. The items below are in no specific order but generally speaking they start with the most important aspects of a social media campaign from our agency perspective.

1. Engaging– the most successful social media campaigns are the ones that have the conversations going both ways instead of just one way. If you can engage the audience you are already on your way to a successful social media campaign.
2. Dedication- You need someone who is dedicated to monitoring and responding on social media in a professional and clear manner. They should be assessable 24/7 and able to respond to any inquires at all hours of the day.
3. Clear goals- Simply saying “increasing revenue” as a goal for social media isn’t enough. Set goals and dates for when you will reach those goals on SM. They should relate to social media (likes, followers, RT’s) and also be tied into overall business/organizational goals like growth of profit #’s.
4. A Budget- even if you create engaging content that goes viral you will need a set of eyes to see it in the beginning and share it. Using a budget is important in any campaign and not dedicating money to spend on social media is often devastating and many companies’ biggest social media blunder.
5. Persistence- You MUST be persistent with your message and postings. Even if it seems like no one is listening KEEP GOING. Quitting too soon after being discouraged is often a large reason why companies fail on social media.
6. Responsiveness- you need to be responsive on social media if you have active accounts there. If a customer complains it should take you no more than 3 hours to respond to that customer, or faster. The more responsive you are, the more valuable social media can be to you.
7. Community Management Skills- Managing a successful campaign means you will need to effectively manage communities online. Often this involves people with different backgrounds, beliefs, and religion… so managing people with different views to share the same view on your business or product is truly an online art.
8. Creativity- The is obvious to most, but it’s often overlooked. Many believe simply being on social media is being creative, it isn’t. Post contests, engage, and interact in a creative way. It will make you stand out from the competition.
9. A game plan- Don’t just post random content to your audience. Create a game plan and know when the best times to post are. It isn’t/shouldn’t be a random time, but a time when most you connections are online.
10. 3^rd party tools- Utilize 3^rd party tools to maximize your social media time. Some of the best companies on social media have teams of less than 5 people but they manage their conversations more efficiently and are getting more done then teams of 20-30 by using a few tools like TweetDeck or TweetLater.