This is just a guide for business that use online Social Media and Marketing tools. Every situation and business is different. However this should help get your head around what your business might need. Always remember “quality not quantity”

The first thing to keep in mind is that Social Media and Marketing are time-consuming and to make sure you have the time and resources to devote to them. You need to keep some consistency to when and how often you update you blog, news, Twitter, Facebook or eNewsletter. Have a schedule and keep to it!

The other important thing about Social Media and Marketing is that they are interactive. So you will have a lot of communication and feedback to and from you customers, clients and readers. You will not just be updating Social Media and Marketing on your planed schedule but also answering questions, having conversations and thanking people for following or retweeting. Social Media and Marketing is a constant line of communication between you and the rest of the Social Media community.

When writing for Blogs/News pages think about the following

• Work out before you start why you want customers/clients/readers coming back to your site and how often. This will affect how often you update/write articles and what you will be writing about.
• Are you doing this for search engine optimization (SEO) or to gain a relationship with your customers/clients/readers? This will affect what and how you write.
• What kind of relationship do you want with customers/clients/readers. Do you want comments and responses to your news/blog? Will you respond to them? Or do you want just information delivery.
• Keep on message. Customers/clients/readers are coming to your site to read your news/blog for a reason.
• Don’t alienate them by going off topic and write about your new kittens at home if your blog is all about organisation.
• Keep in mind what you’re CURRENTLY trying to promote.
• Don’t JUST write about yourself or your own company. Try and be informative and link to other information. Have something valuable to say. Remember you’re trying to add value to the reader
• You should try and write once per working day (5 days a week) or at the least, once a month but keep some consistency by updating on the same day each week or month. Have a schedule (and keep to it), for example write about 'tips and tricks' on Mondays and on Wednesdays write about new products and services.
• Be reliable and consistent.
• Polls can be a good way to find out what your customers/clients/readers want to read about and also give your customers/clients/readers a feeling of being involved.
• A list of your latest news articles or blog posts on your home page will encourage customers/clients/readers to look further into your site and read more.
• Service your clients. Make sure you are giving them useful information.

When writing for Twitter or Facebook think about the following

• Work out what you want to use Twitter or Facebook for before you start. Do you want to gain more contacts in your field, gain a better relationship with your customers/clients/readers, get new customers/clients/readers, push customers/clients/readers to your website?
• Is this news page/blog for SEO or to gain a relationship with your customers?
• Also think about what kind of relationship you want. Do you want comments and responses? Will you respond to them? Will you retweet other tweets? Will you like other people on Facebook? Or just be informative?
• Who you are following and are friends with can be as important as who is following and are friends with you. Customers/clients/readers can see who you are following/friending and may follow them also. Don’t just follow/friend someone because they are following/friending you.
• Keep on message. Customers/clients/readers are following/friends with you for a reason. Don’t alienate them by going off topic and tweeting or messaging blow by blow accounts of your day (it’s dull).
• Don’t tweet or message too often. Give your customers/clients/readers a chance to respond and it also stops tweet conversations from getting confusing. This helps to build relationships.
• Tweet or message with a link when you write a new news article or blog post.
• Asking questions in you tweets and message starts relationships with your customers/clients/readers and can also give you an idea of what they want to read/know more about. This can give you ideas for new articles or blog posts.
• Use a Twitter application like TweetDeck to keep track of your tweets and who you are following. There are even some applications where you can schedule tweet outputs and view when links are clicked on.
• Service your clients. Make sure you are giving them useful information.

When writing for eNewsletters or eZines think about the following

• Keep on message. Customers/clients/readers are receiving your eNewsletter for a reason. Don’t alienate them by going off topic.
• Keep in mind what you are CURRENTLY trying to promote.
  An eNewsletter can be a summary of articles/posts from your news page/blog for the month or season.
  Make sure to write an article/post for the day you send out the eNewsletter so that customers/clients/readers who already read your news/blog get something new.
• Don’t send out eNewsletters too often. Customers/clients/readers can start to feel like it’s spam or they may already follow you on Twitter and not need updates too often.
• Make sure your eNewsleter is a summary of articles on your website so that you can track what your customers/clients/readers are clicking on and reading.
• Be reliable. Have a schedule (and keep to it), for example send out your eNewsletter on the first of every month or even the first Tuesday of every month.
• Keep the same layout and features for each issue so that your brand remains consistent.
• Service your clients. Make sure you are giving them useful information, advice, promotion details, discounts etc.