Here are my 3 tips for successful social media marketing campaigns
1 - Make sure you can track everything you do
As with any digital marketing campaign it's important to track what works well and what doesn't, so you can improve next time, and measure ROI.
If you are driving traffic to a website or campaign microsite and you want a big enterprise solution then you could use Omniture - www.omniture.com
Or Google Analytics is free - use it. It tells you where users came from, what they did, and whether they came from a particular social media website or forum, or via a paid ad.
Their new flash integration means you can also track interactions within a flash game - www.google.com/analytics
Get buzz tracking in place - either automated or with a real person reviewing blog comments.
2 - Make sure widgets, video and games run across all social media platforms
Clearspring's widget technology is cool - you build one widget in flash, and it runs on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, blogs etc. And it has built in tracking technology. And it's free (if you want individual tech support then there's a charge).
Clearspring can also be used to track video views and game plays across social networks - www.clearspring.com
3 - Paid placement
To boost your campaign think about paid placement of your social media message. This is essentially an ad for your video, Facebook page, game or website.
YouTube, Bebo, Clearspring, most online game sites and Facebook all accept paid placement - ie promoting brand messages to their userbase.
These can be used to boost views to a Facebook fan page or YouTube video. Google recently allowed some brands to put their branded Twitter feeds into Google ads automatically. Using display ads on Google's content network or with Google Ad Planner is another good way to raise awareness and drive targeted traffic to your website or microsite.
