Many times when I’m asked about social media for brand awareness campaigns, people want to know what is the magic bullet to make it a success. What tricks are out there to make it work? Everyone seems to be looking for short cuts, but to be honest, there aren’t any. No magic push a button and it will work. It’s impossible to force people to join your community and be happy. A successful social media marketing campaign takes time and effort. Not a secret magic trick.

Let’s take a real life example; when you are going to a new networking meeting, most of the time you won’t know anyone at the meeting, but you are hoping to meet new people for business. Do you walk across the room, tell someone to follow you, and then shove your products and services in their face?

The basics of social media

It’s funny that so many people are still getting this wrong by not understanding the basics of a social media strategy. It’s the same as traditional networking and effort does go into it to make it a success. Building a huge list of people following you doesn’t actually mean anything if your followers are not willing to support and help you with your business objectives and aspirations.

Another big mistake that I see often is so-called “social media experts” that basically automates everything. Even though you can build a huge number of followers and likes by automating your social media strategy, are these people actually providing you any value?

The ROI of social media

Do you understand the value of social media? In my opinion, the value of social media comes from action and when it supports your business objectives. Another way is if you are able to connect with your target audience in such a way that it makes their life better, then that’s where value lies.

You don’t always have to convert with social media if you are trying to build brand identity, teaching others as brand ambassadors or creating conversation or for customer support. All of these are marketing expenditures that will usually pay themselves back in full through word of mouth marketing, brand loyalty, and growth in market share.

Personal branding

If you are using social media to build your own personal brand online, the same rules apply. Consideration, conversion, and communication are all great words that you should always keep in mind when you are building your lists. Success with social media marketing isn’t a magic trick.  Using common sense and hard work with your social media strategy will help you to achieve your goals.

	About: Anton Koekemoer I’m a digital marketing specialist and I’m very passionate about online marketing. My main goal with marketing on the web focuses on designing strategic plans and business solutions around digital technologies to get good results. I’m also a blogger, dad, and I like golf, photography, and music.