10 Steps to Launch Your Social Media Presence

1. Be Social - If you are going to make social media work for your business you (or someone representing your company) are going to have to become actively involved. Keep in mind that blatant promotion rarely works in social media and can kill your social media presence quickly.  Start by listing as many social media groups and communities that you can think of for your industry or market.  Where does your market get together online?
2. Profile Your Target Audience - before getting involved in social media, you need to know who you are trying to engage with.  Try creating a persona of your ideal target audience.  What are their demographics?  What keeps them up at night?
3. List Topics of Interest - after completing Step 1, make a list of topics that will be of interest to your target audience.  This will serve as a compass for your content strategy as you start participating in social media.   Hopefully (if you know your market well) you can easily rattle off 25, 50 or maybe even 100 topics off the top of your head.
4. Create a Twitter Account - go to (www.Twitter.com), create an account and set up your profile.  If you have a blog, consider integrating your blog and Twitter.  That way your content can be syndicated out through Twitter without any additional effort.  
5. Create a Facebook Page (www.Facebook.com) - Profiles are for people but pages are for businesses and brands.  Set up a page for your business and complete as much of the profile as you can.  Search and join relevant groups in your industry.  Look for friends and colleagues and capitalize on opportunities to connect.  Send an email to your friends and share your new page.
6. Create a LinkedIn Account (www.LinkedIn.com) -LinkedIn is a powerful social network for business professionals. Try to get your profile as close to 100% complete as possible.  Again search for and join relevant groups on this network.
7. Create a Flickr Account (www.flickr.com) - Flickr is a photo management and sharing site.  Many of the social media platforms integrate with Flickr, which means you can upload a photo to Flickr and have it automatically syndicated to many other sites.  Look for opportunities (such as trade shows and events) to take photos and share them. 
8. Create Accounts on the Top Social Bookmarking Sites - sites like Delicious, Digg, Stumbleupon and Reddit.  It's important not to abuse these sites.  Make a point to bookmark other sites and resources of interest most of the time.  Only bookmark your very best content.
9. Subscribe to the most popular blogs in your market - consider setting up an RSS reader like (Google Reader) to track the most influencial blogs and bloggers in your market.  Look for opportunities to engage the readers and/or the bloggers at these sites.  Make relevant and useful comments on these blogs when and where it's appropriate.  Below is a good overview of RSS and how it works.

10. Join the Conversation - These first steps will start you on your way to building a social media presence that can help to grow your business. Use these accounts and tools to join the conversations already going on in your market.  Don't be afraid to share other people's content as well as your own.  Focus on providing value to your target audience and you will be well on your way to success!

This is a getting started list and there are many other items that could be included.  Please offer your suggestions for additions or changes. This list may be updated from time to time.

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