The last few months have seen an unprecedented rush by email marketers to stake their claims in the new and burgeoning social media territories. As the number of social media participants continues to increase exponentially and brand presences proliferate in lockstep, it is important to avoid rash hastiness in the enactment of your social media strategy.

So, instead of jumping in too quickly, strive to make your implementation painless and successful for both your brand and your customers. Here's how you can do that.

Add One Element At A Time
When you’re taking the plunge into social media it’s not a good idea to follow Freddy Mercury’s famous lyric of “I want it all and I want it now”. 

Launching a social media campaign on Day One with a full-blown presence on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and a half a dozen other sites can be counter-productive. Not only will you be spreading yourself too thin, but your rollout will seem too “corporate” and not “organic” enough.

The social networks have their own forms of etiquette which take a bit of time to absorb, so you may want to “learn the ropes” on a not quite top tier social network such as Skyrock or MySpace before you leap into Facebook.

Limit your expansion to the social networks that are most relevant to your brand and that you can adequately service because social media is all about conversation and if you can’t reply to queries in a day or less, you’re missing the boat.

Cater Your Speed To Your Segments
If your email list centers on iPhone apps or gaming video cards you can certainly probe the ragged edge of experimentation in state of the art social media communication, as you can be certain that your audience is more than hip enough. However, if your brand deals in mobility scooters or walk in bathtubs, you would be well advised to take the slow road to embracing social media.

Older and less Internet savvy customers may still be confused by social media, or even outright wary of it. Take a good hard look at your demographic segmentation and tone down the speed and intensity for the prospects who might be scared off by it.

Announce Your Plans
You should not limit your social media presence promotion only to a button on your email marketing campaign messages. Discussing your presence in your newsletter, on your blogs and on your site will draw considerable extra attention and traffic.

If your brand has a sizable conventional media budget, provide your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter name on your ads. If you need more convincing, check out how many major corporations are now promoting their Facebook pages rather than their website URLs on network TV commercials.

Don’t Expect Instant Results
With the recent news that Facebook has topped half a billion users, many unsophisticated email marketers expect that they can slap up a Fan Page, engage in some light banter with a bunch of FBers, and triple gross sales by the weekend.

Unfortunately, establishing a successful social media presence takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Not only will you have to work hard at increasing the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, but you will need to keep them constantly engaged with relevant content and conversation.

You may find that your social media marketing may actually under perform at first as your brand builds up its “street cred.” Social media participants tend to place a greater emphasis on reputation than you might think, so simply presenting them with good selection, discounted prices, and the rest of the conventional marketing approaches may not be the best way to social media success.

If you can intrigue and enchant the social media crowd with your brand’s focused relevance and online responsiveness, you will have found the key to avoiding social mediocrity and achieving social mediawesomeness.

More than two-thirds (67%) of senior-level public relations (PR) professionals say their companies are now engaging in social media on some level and 69% say social media will be a top priority for PR in 2011, according to a survey from Vocus. Fully 80% of PR professional say social media will be more important in the coming year.

Surveyed PR professionals say social media is maturing in their companies:

Another 17% of companies are listening to social media conversations, and 7% respond only when necessary.

Below, other findings from the report titled Social Media Comes of Age: The Vocus 2010 Planning Survey.

Organizations of all sizes are expressing confidence with social media.

Larger organizations (annual revenues of $750 million to $1 billion) are the most confident: 50% say they are creating value via content creation.* Small ($1-5 million) and mid-sized businesses ($6-50 million) follow in confidence levels, 28% and 29%, respectively.

In 2011, social media will be a top priority for PR professionals, followed by strategic communications (66%) and measurement (61%).

Meanwhile, 76% of companies will spend either the same or less on traditional media relations, and 65% will spend the same or less on community relations and corporate philanthropy.

Looking for real, hard data that can help you match social media tools and tactics to your marketing goals? The State of Social Media Marketing, a 240-page original research report from MarketingProfs, gives you the inside scoop on how 5,140 marketing pros are using social media to create winning campaigns, measure ROI, and reach audiences in new and exciting ways.

Six in ten PR professionals (60%) say PR will be more challenging in 2011. Budgets are cited as the top reason (37%), followed by a variety of options (22%), social media (19%), and rapid change (19%). Only 14% cite the economy as their top challenge.

Moreover, marketing budgets are expected to improve in 2011: 42% of PR professionals say they expect budgets to "increase somewhat" or "increase significantly" over 2010 levels, compared with the 29% who said so a year earlier.

Roughly 20% say budgets are "decreasing somewhat" or "decreasing significantly" in 2011, compared with the 29% who said so a year earlier.

SEO and ad professionals are the most optimistic about their budgets in the coming year: 27% of search and SEO professionals expect their budgets to increase significantly in 2011, as do 25% of advertising professionals. Only 7% of PR and marketing professional are expecting such increases.

PR's role is gaining in importance: 63% of PR professionals say PR will be more important to the marketing mix in 2011, and 31% say it will remain the same. Some 5% say PR's role will be less important in 2011.

PR and marketing are working together on social efforts: 23% of PR professionals say marketing is leading social media efforts, while PR contributes, whereas 22% say PR is leading social media efforts with several other departments contributing.

* The participation was not necessarily proportionate to the budget (or funding for a program) based on the size of the company's earnings.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 508 senior-level public relations professionals from Oct.26, 2010 to Nov. 21, 2010

Source:http://www.marketingprofs.com/

Considering Facebook's 300 million active users, and the thousands joining every day—along with its Alexa ranking of 3 (that is, Facebook is the third most-trafficked website)—businesses really must tap into the power of this online behemoth.

Facebook offers many features for strategic networking and generating visibility for your company.

Among them, Facebook fan pages are (currently) the only feature fully indexed by Google. By inserting keyword-rich text throughout your fan page and updating regularly, you can create tremendous search engine optimization.

Using Facebook's Social Ads, you can then drive targeted traffic from the entire Facebook site directly to your fan page.

Once potential fans click through to your fan page, your goals are as follows:

This holiday season, there's a movement afoot to support the small business community.

Large retailers have always counted on Black Friday to turn their books from red to black and online retailers have Cyber Monday to cash in afterward.

And this year, American Express OPEN has launched Small Business Saturday (November 27) to help drive "shop till you drop" consumers to local small businesses. Check it out... you could easily get your hands on $100 of Facebook Ads credit.

Face it: as a small business, you probably won't be able to beat Wal-Mart or Best Buy low-price bargain HDTVs and Xbox Kinects Friday morning. But consider that big-box retailers typically don't have your service or expertise.

So how can a small business get the upper hand on these three monumental shopping days? I'll share nine solid marketing tips to help you cash in and remain highly competitive throughout the holiday season.

Understand that as the holiday shopping season goes full throttle, so do the marketing messages prospects receive. Make your message clear, understandable, and to the point. That means shorter emails, fewer emails, and emails that are more effective.

Add a complimentary channel to your mix by marketing a special offer via postcard. It's different from email and results in a favorable response from your contacts.

This point is important. People are sometimes impulsive and need to be reassured about their purchase. Most big-box sales are final, with very few exceptions for refunds.

You could instill more trust in your prospects by having a favorable guarantee policy. Perhaps your product requires support—offer extended or premium support. The name of the game is to bundle it with your service, not twist their arms when they purchase.

It sounds simple, but with bargain email marketing solutions, it's more difficult to accomplish. Leverage your CRM (customer relationship management) software to find your most active customers and send them an attractive, tailored offer, like special pricing, free shipping, gift with purchase, or product upgrades. Similarly, you can reward customers who spend a certain amount with credit toward their next purchase.

What I mean is this: Let your contacts know that you will have a special deal for them, but they have to let you know they are interested by clicking a link. This approach not only shows you who is responsive on your list but also allows you to better target your special offer to those who are genuinely interested in it.

Feeling brave? Make the offer available to the first 50 people who click the link—then work with only those 50 people directly. It might feel uncomfortable because you're not emailing the same offer to your entire list, but you'll have better conversion and your customers will be impressed with how customized and personal your message and offer are to their interests.

People are definitely going on Facebook during the holidays. Double-down on your investment and go big with an attractive campaign that people want to share with their friends.

Google is also a huge asset as people look almost instinctively for the best possible deal for products. Use targeted phrases, including "Black Friday," to nail this target searcher.

Simply because someone didn't purchase your special offer doesn't mean that person wasn't interested that time. Invite them to sign up to discuss your offering later. Offering a helpful guide that addresses the needs of your customers in your industry would be a great method to start. Following up with customers is just as important as prospects. Let them know you appreciate their business and start building even more trust from there.

No matter what industry you're in, there are sure to be some great deals that you simply can't offer that someone else can. Advocate for your audience and let them know where there's a special deal. It could be on electronics or even floor jacks; if you know your audience, you are in a much better position to share deals that matter to them. BFAds.net is a good source to check out the bargains happening during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Savvy shoppers will ask their friends on Twitter and Facebook for the best deals. Don't you want to be a part of that conversation? Let your audience be aware of your specials for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Small Business Saturday by using those in hashtags on Twitter (#blackfriday, #cybermonday, and #smallbusinesssaturday).

Perhaps you have a killer Facebook deal; you could ask fans to Like your Facebook Page to reveal a special offer. Apps like Wildfire or Bulbstorm make doing so easier for businesses to manage.

It's not just about making sales. It's a good time to monetize your social media audience by offering something they like.

With the advent of digital goods, you should be able to leverage the ability to package a ton of digital resources with others effortlessly. Bundling a useful training guide, free videos, or cheat-sheet to mastering a skill or area of your product can be a lifesaver to new customers. Help them out and help them trust your expertise.

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These suggestions are ways to enable a business of any size to compete against the bigger dogs. And the beauty of it all is that they require virtually no additional budget to execute well. The name of the game is personalization and relevance based on previous buying (or prospecting) activity.