Internet is the world’s biggest source of information exchange to which social media has added new dimensions. Social media sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter are all working towards one common motive of “socializing”. The so-called socializing proves to be helpful in bringing you closer to your friends and also assist you in reaching and spreading your product and services to your prospective customers. Social media thus has emerged as a platform for building contacts, sharing information and marketing your brand, products and services. These social networking sites bring you to the forefronts of the world wide web and consider you as a valuable asset. Here are 11 tips to effectively utilize social media marketing to take your business to the next level:

Set Specific Goals: Perhaps the most important and defining point of social media marketing your goals will help you set targets and specific activities to engage in to measure success. Ensure that goals are specific instead of being ambiguous and vague. Set a goal like “increase visitors by x number” or “increase sales by x amount” instead of “boost customer engagement”. The goal and success must be quantifiable so that it can be measured accurately.
Set Specific Activities To Reach The Goal: Set a list of specific activities that will help you reach your goal. Spending 2 hours on Facebook or Twitter per day is pretty vague and meaningless. Engaging 5 contacts or new users is more goal oriented and targeted.
Regularity: The mantra for being successful at socializing is to be regular and stick to a schedule. Your regularity at social media sites infuses better and richer interactivity. Schedule your days appointments without forgetting to include your rendezvous with social media.
Quantity and Quality Of Contacts: Social media is all about building a brand, recognition and a rapport with your customers. Ensure that communication and interactions are professional and reflect positively on your brand and company image. In the race of building contacts people often make friends with undesirable contacts which can cause quite some embarrassment.
Focus on Niche: To make the most out of social media, make friends and build contacts with people of same interests and hobbies as your targeted audience. That way you will be able to truly share and improvise over your areas of interests and promote your brand, product or service. Join various groups and communities of common interest. Share your knowledge, tips and expertise with people and lend a helping hand to needy. This earns you a lot of goodwill, recognition and enhances business image.
Interest Specific Profiles: The social contacts can serve you and your business in a profitable manner. But, be sure to make separate spaces for personal and professional interactions. Let your personal profile breathe a life distinct from your professional profile. The simple solution is to create a profile dedicated for a specific interest/field of business.
Socialize: Remember that social media is all about making friends, building contacts, sharing and getting closer. While you are trying to serve the business end of things, the space is filled with people just trying so engage socially and have fun. Try to add an element of informality; tweet on subjects of your interest or write onto your friend’s wall. Upload videos or share information and be informed on what’s happening in your knit.
Branding Matters: Your brand is your identity and the way a customer identifies you. Presenting consistent image and recognizable creatives are key to establish an easily recognizable brand. Effective branding not only reflects professionalism but only positively reflects on the rapport you strike with your end-users and customers.
Set Targets: If you are seriously involved in socializing and want to benefit from it, the best thing you can do is to set targets in terms of number of contacts or activities to be undertaken in a specific time period.
Measure Results: While undertaking any activity, you have to invest a lot. Social media involves investment of time and efforts on part of an individual or a team. Use specific metrics to measure results. Try to collect statistics, analyse and review them to refine your marketing strategy.
Learn From Experience To Get Optimize Result: As you will keep involving and engaging yourself in social media, you will learn more and more about its various dimensions. There are things that you can read in a book but there’s little that you can learn from anywhere but experience.

Socializing is a lot of fun and social media sites are packed with entertainment picks for all ages. Make friends, play games, join communities, share pics but at the end of the day be aware of the fact that you are on the “World Wide Web”.