With so many people actively using social media, more companies are using this as a medium to communicate and engage with its target demographics and publics. Not only is it important to use the latest trends in technology to find an ample consumer base and to establish  lifelong relationships with online publics, but it’s absolutely essential to use these tools in order to compete with competitors head-to-head in the global, marketing environment.

If you’re new to the social media marketing world, you may want to follow a good, solid social media strategy for your business. How can you build a successful strategy? Consider the following:

Be SMART

Like all effective marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns, you need to map out a plan based on research, strategic planning, appropriate implementation and reliable evaluation methods. All of these fragments rely on one thing: an understanding of your business’ goals and objectives. Social media strategies rely heavily on good, solid goals.

To identify an appropriate goal for, you have to use SMART. What does this mean? Your goal has to encompass the following elements: it has to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (set-time). By using SMARTs, you’ll be able to plan an effective social media plan.

Multiply Your Reach

Reach in social media refers to the extent to which your message received. In other words, the greater the reach means the greater the brand awareness with your target publics (demographics). What is an ideal way to increase your reach? Using multiple social media tools or platforms. Most social media strategists use software like TweetDeck or HootSuite to consolidate their efforts when it comes to sending messages through various social media platforms.

Talk With Your Consumer Base

How do you keep your consumer base from checking out your updates and actually engaging with your business? Talk to them. It’s that simple. Whether it’s through a simple response, reply or retweet, consumers want to be acknowledged. By responding with your audience, you’ll be able to contribute to engaging conversations as well as maintain your relationship with your consumer base.

Reward Your Audience, Increase Brand Loyalty

If you’re looking to build an audience with brand loyalty, you may want to consider rewarding. Several social media platforms, Facebook being one, offers tools to better execute social media strategies that revolve around rewarding engagement.

An example for a rewards-on-engagement strategy involves the use of contests. By using contests that revolve around audience submissions, you’ll be able to engage your audience effectively and keep track of its effectiveness through social media metrics.

Some companies tend to reward multiple participants by giving them small rewards like customized pens, t-shirts or other business products. For larger engagement rates, some business rely on grand prizes, like airline tickets or high-valued electronics.

Social media can be an invaluable tool for business that want to focus on amplifying their consumer base or to for those who need to build their brand through online relationships. By using SMART goals and using effective tools to multiply your reach, engaging your audience and rewarding their loyalty, you’ll be able to execute a successful social media strategy.