You don't have to apply a full-fledged method immediately though. It takes time to get momentum going. In the meantime, here are some tips you should keep in mind when starting out:
Start Small While Thinking Big
It would be foolhardy to jump into every trend you see without looking into its relevance for your business. Try out a couple of social media sites first and create profiles there. Regularly add friends, fans, and followers by contacting both regular customers and prospects. It is important to update your profile regularly with new content and fresh information. If you see results from the first few endeavors, it is time to expand your social media coverage.
Place a Widget on Your Blog
One of the best ways to get a solid following is to make it easy for people to recommend your site and service. Widgets provide both of those. Get notice to those popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg among others.
Test the Effectiveness of Widgets
Different audiences will have varying response and characteristics. For instance, some blogs might receive a lot of Facebook fans but receive hardly any recommendations on Digg. In the same way, some blogs can get thousands of Retweets but make little or no impact elsewhere. Identify which tools should be kept and which tools to drop in your blog.
Don't Go for the Hard-Sell
It might be tempting to bombard your followers with offers, discounts, and marketing materials on a daily basis but this tactic hardly ever works. People appreciate exclusive offers now and then. But if they think that they are forced too hard by your company to be able to get sales, they will not really like it. It might be more helpful to provide industry news articles and reports. Answering their questions and concerns is also important.
Look at the Strategy of Others
Are you wondering why a certain company is getting so many regular followers? If so, look at their social media strategy. Through this, you can be able to dig up their secrets, the tool they are using and how were they able to establish a strong following.
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Source: http://ecash-parthg.blogspot.com/2010/08/social-media-how-to-get-maximum-out-of.html