When entering into the complicated world of social media marketing, a business must have clear goals and realistic expectations of their efforts.  There are several examples out there of companies that have seen huge results from a simple YouTube video or a photo that went “viral” and changed the whole company’s quarterly performance. Business is a tall-tale factory when it comes to these stories and it is important to dig deep to uncover the methods, tools and preparation that makes for a successful social media marketing campaign.

First, it is important to address your goals as a company in social media. Goals help clearly define a strategy, allowing a company to understand the methods to put that strategy in action. Below are three of the main goals for social media marketing and examples of how they were put to use.

1. Awareness (need more customers)

Threadless.com wanted to have more awareness on social networks, particularly on Facebook. They knew that in order to increase awareness on Facebook, they had to attract more fans to their page. They felt that awareness meant attracting at least 50,000 fans to their Facebook page. Their strategy to attract fans was 3 fold:

1. Create a Facebook badge on the front page of their website that would link directly to their Facebook page.

2. Add links at the bottom of their email newsletter and write an article indicating the Facebook page was up.

3. Being very active at predictable times on the Threadless Facebook page and clearly stating goals to their fans.

- One example of this activity involved a video blog featuring two energetic employees giving away discounts and items to people that became fans of Threadless, people that changed their profile picture to feature the fan with Threadless product, and fans that commented on the videos that were uploaded. These videos ran every hour for 7 hours on every Thursday. Threadless understands people are conditioned for consistency (think TV scheduling) so they gave their video “spins for wins” campaign time to resonate with fans. Every week for 5 months, they kept this 3-4 minute video giveaway going. They now have over 82,000 fans with no small part being attributed to their video show.

2. Customer Service/Retention Marketing (need to keep our customers).

Starbucks was seeing customers leave their brand. Sales were shrinking because of a number of factors and one of these was company perception. So Starbucks went to work. They honed their listening skills and developed several systems for responding to customer concerns. Goal: keeping customers loyal (customer retention).

1. Make a community - Starbucks created a very intuitive community that they moderated, but did not take down negative comments. The community (mystarbucksidea) sources for ideas and showcases good ideas that are then implemented. Customers feel as though they are a part of the company’s decision-making and this creates a sense of belonging to the brand.

2. Utilize Twitter - Twitter allows Starbucks to monitor customer sentiment easily and in real time. Anytime someone mentions Starbucks over Twitter, a member of their 7 person team is alerted to decipher the nature of the conversation.

3. Developing a dashboard to filter keywords - Starbucks utilized keyword aggregation software to listen to the voices of the entire web. They want to make sure needs are addressed and customers understand their brand.

3. Relationship Target Marketing (Electronic PR and Creative Contacting).

This is the final and probably most difficult goal to building a strategy. The company must have the time, energy and compelling message to reach people in their industry that might talk about their product or service. A company must listen and find where these “mavens” are and build a mutually beneficial relationship over time.

An example used by David Meerman Scott in his book World Wide Rave involves Lisa Genova. Genova is the author of Still Alice, a novel about a young woman’s descent into dementia due to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. After writing the book, Genova could not find a publisher to bring her text to market. So she used the internet and her networking skills to team up with the Alzheimer’s Association to endorse her book and market it through her blog. Content on her blog and social networks tied back into her passion for Alzheimer’s awareness, which made her book all the more relevant. Her book has sold over 250,000 copies and has reached the New York Times Bestseller list.

There are 3 main ways to tackle this more arbitrary form of social media marketing.

1. Reach influential bloggers and traditional media spokespeople - Bloggers and traditional media outlets are constantly looking for compelling content/products they can use. Getting them to use and review your content/products is all about relationships. Most of these influencers are using social media to communicate directly with their audience. Find the names of your industry leaders and reach out to them over Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow their conversations and see where your company fits into the mix. When the time is right to comment, be polite and if they have a problem, try to use your product as the solution.

2. Contact industry mavens and establish relationships – Non-profits and other groups are great sources for endorsements. They not only provide credibility to your product, but also open the door to all of their contacts. Find what is unique about your product that relates to these organizations and use social media to contact their decision makers for meetings. This can be very mutually beneficial as highlighted in the Lisa Genova example.

3. Monitor secondary market conversations for product tie-ins - No Product is an island. Every product works well with some other product without taking away one another’s sales. If you are a clothing manufacturer, look for fashion events and the people that are running them. Or check out what other companies will be at the fashion show and look for their point people to develop a relationship with. The key to this strategy is to always keep your mind open to the opportunities around you and being bold enough to introduce yourself to the appropriate people.

Remember that in your approach, you must provide a solution to a problem. Think creatively and contact them with answers. You will only have one shot to get it right.

As always, your feedback is very important and welcome. Hook up with us on Twitter (@ryanjlewis @bonfiremarkting), fan us on Facebook or leave your comments below.