There’s no doubt admitting the fact that social media platform has proved to be one of the most useful tools for marketers. Common reports have made it clear that around 80% of all marketers use the social media tools for effective online marketing. However, what is more important is the fact that whether marketers are heading in the right direction while using these tools. Whenever marketers start using social media for marketing, they are faced with three basic challenges – where to begin, who to involve or engage and what to do. Marketers really need to sort out for themselves as to where to get started. Give below are three realistic steps to help marketers head in the right direction for marketing of their brands, products and services.

Step #1 : Build Your Understanding
First and foremost, online marketers and advertisers need to listen to their target audience and what the social marketplace is saying about their companies and services. The concept of using social media for online marketing is completely different from the awareness-based traditional marketing. While using social media tools, marketers need to participate, collaborate with and engage customers to listen to what they have to say and to get their feedbacks. While shifting to one to other, they need to understand and differentiate among the good, the bad and the ugly.

Therefore, the starting point is to listen to consumers. For a transparent engagement on the social media web, marketers need to look at things from the customer’s perspectives and find out what works and what does not. Active listening is essential to establishing and managing relationships.

Step #2 : Create Your Presence
After you have listened quite well to consumers and have a strong understanding of consumer conversations, you are prepared to move on to the next step – creating and establishing your presence. And how do you create your online presence? You do it by using a blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn among others.

To choose your points of online presence, you need to have your business objectives in mind and take note of the audience. What about kickstarting a CEO blog which remains combined with LinkedIn. And remember to post blog entries which are provocative and comment generating. If you find yourself surrounded by a large share of detractors, pay careful attention to not encouraging unstructured conversations.

Step #3 : Collaboration
After you have established a listening platform for consumers and make endeavor to understand what customers are saying, you may also be faced with something negative. Instead of getting discouraged ask your customers about how you can resolve the issues. And, really, social web has been a wonderful way to have insights that prove constructive. While you listen to conversations, you are certainly going to learn. Learning, however, is not enough. You need to put it into practice as well for maximizing the benefits. Putting what you learn in practice can be quite a tough task to handle, depending on your organizational structure. But the effort that you are going to put in throughout the process will definitely be worth the rewards that you get. Remember, no matter what consumers hear or see on TV and radio or read in print, it will all be verified on internet.

So, the key to using social media to your business advantage is Listen-Participate-Collaborate. The gap that exists between awareness and purchase can only be bridged by your genuine and appropriate promotional efforts. So, be prepared to build and fine-tune your skills and you are definitely going to put your social marketing efforts on a solid business footing.