A lot of manufacturers and partners ask me, "how do I incorporate this whole social media thing into what I'm already doing?" I often talk about being key in any effective marketing strategy is "social media amplification." Being present in social networks isn’t enough. By maintaining a static profile or Tweeting once in a blue moon, you’re showing users of those networks you’re disengaged, too busy, or unaware of how to navigate the networks. Strategically using these networks by gathering and sharing relevant content will position you or your company as an industry thought leader. This is social media amplification and it means posting articles and discussion questions on LinkedIn, letting Twitter followers know what you’re reading and writing comments on blog posts you find interesting.

Many business leaders and marketing teams do an excellent job of taking the first step towards amplifying their social media presence, but then stop. As a quick recap, this first step includes setting up your accounts in a variety of networks: LinkedIn, Twitter and even among blogs in the industry by creating a company account to track news. If you haven’t yet taken this first step, I recommend you begin there. While you’re setting up the accounts, be sure to include keywords in your company description or personal profile, which you are carrying out or plan to carrying out across your networks, i.e. “cloud backup, business continuity or business analytics.” Sprinkle them throughout, post your profiles, and then move onto what our team considers the meat of social media amplification: content sharing.

Here are the basics on how to amplify your social media presence beyond simply having a profile:

• Set Your Priorities: Evaluate your company’s bandwidth for managing your social media presence. Do you have a marketing team or are you building your account on your own? If your time is limited, we recommend you prioritize your social media investment and begin with LinkedIn. With a bit more time, add Twitter and blog engagement into your planning.
• Narrow Your Content Focus: What news are you most interested in sharing and conversely what are you most interested in reading? Set up Google Alerts for the keywords you’re most interested in to most efficiently receive relevant news. Keep your search to a manageable number of keywords so the content you gather each week isn’t overwhelming.
• Set a Goal: Define how much content you want to post and where you will post it each week. Set up a spreadsheet system to log the content you’re finding and make sure to set a date each week of when you’ll review content and then post it to relevant networks. You will want to stagger post dates and groups across accounts so you are dispersing content and your company’s name across a variety of networks over time, instead of posting multiple articles a day. This is essential for staying strategic.
• Create Original Content: If you have the capacity, consider launching a company blog where you can comment on and interact with the content you’re finding. Be sure to post links to your articles across networks. If you don’t have the capacity to keep a blog, keep in mind that periodically linking back to your company site, particularly on blogs, is a smart move.

Do you have any other tips on social media amplification? Have you tried it and found success?