Many business owners are at a loss to understand what it takes to become successful in social media marketing.

Several successful business owners, tech-savvy entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals are exploiting the opportunities presented by social media and it is high time you did – unless you want to throw away business to your competitors.

Social media is the order of the day and you owe it to your business to build an unassailable online presence. Of course, there could be several challenges but you have to evolve the right SMM strategies to succeed.

Have a full-time trained employee or hire a professional agency that knows how to manage your social media presence and then create and implement an online SMM strategy.

Be clear in your mind about what you want to accomplish and then identify the right social media channels to accomplish those things. Select the social sites where your prospects and customers proliferate and do not waste time by indiscriminately joining all the social media channels that are available.

You will be more effective with your time, more rewarding with your money, and you will have a booming business if you spend enough time on the select social media channels.

Integrate social media into your marketing strategy to encourage engagement with your community. For marketers, the potential to grow their business through social networks like – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+ – are truly endless.

If you scroll through your Instagram feed, you will notice sponsored ads appearing in between filtered pictures. It is impossible to visit one’s Facebook news feed without popping into a few compelling ads along the way.

Apart from ads, it is important to build your social channels with informative content punctuated with attention-grabbing visuals. Once you optimize your social channels for success, you will acquire loyal brand promoters and will start converting visitors into customers.

Set a limit on how many tweets you have to publish per day and how frequently to post content on the other chosen social media sites.  Research how often your competitors are posting and conduct industry research to see the ideal quantum of content to publish every week on each channel.

Be extremely prompt with your responses. If a visitor tweets at your handle or posts on any of your social media page and never receives a timely response, trust will be lost. Deliver a thoughtful response in a timely manner so that your following grows and as a result your business zooms.