There is no doubt that the growth in social media tools over the past couple of years has been enormous.  Everywhere you go on the internet there seem to be references to business’ Twitter accounts and facebook pages.

Follow us here, subscribe there, join online now.  It’s easy to feel that everyone is tweeting, poking or blogging for business.

But what results are they getting?

And is it actually bringing in clients to their business?

If you are dipping your toes in the social media waters and working out whether you should dive in completely, here are some pointers for you to consider.

1.    Get a plan:  It doesn’t matter whether you want to do a leaflet drop, an email campaign or set up a Twitter account, the better you plan, the better results you’ll have.  And the first step of every plan is deciding on what results you do want.

Do you want to increase your number of newsletter subscribers?  Do you want to promote a new workshop or book?  Do you want to increase the number of international clients?  Whatever it is, make a decision and build your plan around it.

2.    Get focused: The more focused you are on what it is your offering, the easier it will be for people to “get you”.  Online audiences are far more impatient and quick to react than offline ones, such as magazine readers and exhibition visitors. And this is especially so with Twitter users whose attention is focused on just 140 characters at a time!

People click in and out of web pages fast and furiously and if you don’t explain what you do and the results you can create quickly and clearly, you’ll end up with lots of hits – but very little clients.  Be niche, be clear, be focused.

3.    Delegate the set-up: Don’t let the excuse of hating technology stop you from setting up social media tools.  Find someone who you can delegate your account set-ups to and let them worry about the “how-tos”.  There are plenty of virtual assistants and online business managers out there who offer their services, usually by the hour, as a cost-effective and quick way of getting set up on Twitter, facebook or LinkedIn.

4.    Systemise your weekly actions: If you ask most successful social media users about systems and automation, they usually shudder and frown.  But most of these people have been early adopters.  They have been dabbling in these tools for years so it’s easy to add another feature or platform to their tool-box.

If you are coming in now, the amount of stuff you can do can feel overwhelming.  So, to get you kick-started I recommend a systematic daily and weekly action plan that gets you going, until it begins to feel more natural to you.  It will also stop you from been distracted from working on other parts of your business!

5.    Measure your results: Taking the time out at the end of each week or month to work out how close you are to achieving the results you were expecting is critical to your long term success.  It will stop you wasting time on things that are just not working and it will help you do more of the stuff that is.

6.    Join the party: and finally, get stuck in.  Social media tools, like most other marketing tools, have absolutely nothing to do with selling.  They are there to start and build conversations, grow relationships and help position you as someone who knows their stuff.

People will “talk” about you as you “talk” about others.  Share links, recommend other businesses, show your human side.   The more you join in with the party, the more likely the party will come to you!

So should you be on Twitter?  Can you really get more clients using facebook? Who would actually watch your YouTube video?  All those answers will never be found until you decide to give it a go.

Every business is different.  Every target client is different.

And to help you find out whether social media will be successful for you, get a plan, get focused and get stuck in!

(P.S. If you are want someone to hold your hand and show you the way, check out my Social Media Training Programmes – click here for more information)