Social media as a marketing tool for business does get a lot of bad reviews, but this is mainly because so many business owners approach it without proper planning or goals.
Instead of wasting time and energy just splashing around Facebook and Linked In adding friends, and posting content, take the time to define your objectives, create a strategy and define exactly when and what you will do while on these sites.
Devoting a set timeframe to do your social media marketing is critical because we all know how the hours can get sucked out of our day.
Set a timer do your work and move on.
Planning Your Social Media Campaign: Define your target market Without a clear idea of who you're targeting you are doomed.
With over a Billion people now on Facebook you could be speaking to literally anyone.
As with all marketing the more selective you are about your target market the more success you will have.
You may think your product is for everyone but each time you add another criteria to your perfect customer your marketing placement and message becomes that much more refined and powerful What are your end goals of your social media campaign? It's always best to start with the end in mind.
What do you want to accomplish through your social media? I highly recommend more sales (hey but that's just me).
Then step back through the process of how you get to new sales from a social media site Example:

• Find where my market is ganging out of social media sites >
• Add them as a friend >
• Post content and that is relevant and education to them regularly to increase industry authority >
• Share links to your own content to drive friends to your site >
• Offer free report for email on landing page >
• Communicate offers through email >
• Generate sale!!!

There you go a quick 7-step social media strategy that took 5 minutes to write down.
Now you just fill in the gaps to create a complete plan and you're away.
The fact that so few businesses are doing this well means there is a great opportunity for you to strike now.
The next thing you want to do is automate the process as much as possible, this can be through tools or the help of specialist contractors.
Of course social media is just one piece of the marketing puzzle, but it is a very cost-effective way to target and engage your market.
So please don't rush in, set aside at least one hour to get a plan together and do it right.
One that you will follow and can measure whether or not it is producing the results your after.