You’ve heard everyone talk about how powerful social media is for marketing your business. How, if you’re not using it to market your business, you’re stuck in the ’80s. So you go out and create a Facebook page, open a LinkedIn account, start tweeting on Twitter, create a blog, and start searching YouTube. . What are you doing now?

A friend tells you to post snippets about your businesses and create a blog post about things you know (though you’re not sure what a blog is). You start sharing information on various sites at night and before you know it. Bam, you put in dozens of hours a week and get nothing for your efforts. You tell yourself, what a pain in the neck social media marketing is!

If you want to avoid the pain of spending too much time posting on social media sites and getting nothing in return, read on. I’m going to show you half a dozen cardinal rules that you must adhere to in order to maintain your credibility. I’ll show you how to avoid the most common pitfalls beginners make and help you make the most of the time you spend marketing on your social media sites.

Social networks are not advertising

First, remember that social media posts are not advertisements in the typical sense. You have to post what I call the 4 Cardinal Wanted Items! People are looking for useful information. They want interesting facts. Participants want to be entertained and they want to connect with others! Posting information about your product/service should be rare. To be successful on social media, you need to give participants what they’re looking for. If you want to advertise conventionally on social networking sites, use their pay-per-click/view services. Their ads cost around $1-$3 per click, otherwise only the 4 cardinal elements are served.

Create and stick to a schedule

Second, set aside a scheduled time to post your information and stick to it. It’s so easy to sit down, start posting your information, and before you know it, it’s three in the morning! I schedule my post twice a week and spend an hour each time. During the week, I gather useful information and links from my daily life. These include; email communications, my current events, new and old photos I find, online articles I read, RSS feeds I use, Internet headlines I like, and just surfing the net. I suggest you do the same. Use them as part of the 4 cardinal elements post I talked about earlier.

Be patient and stick to your growth plan

Third, don’t create false expectations about your results. Before your network can produce significant traffic, it needs to grow to a reasonable size. Having a total following of a couple hundred Facebook fans, LinkedIn contacts, and Twitter followers is great, but it’s not a big enough network to produce powerful results. Your social media influences (ie the power to make things happen) are directly related to the number of members in your network. Social media has a viral quality. In this sense, it is a type of word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth depends on your credibility and the size of your network.

Save time using aggregator software

Fourth, you need to take advantage of technology to save time. If you’re not using aggregator software for your post, start using one today. Aggregation programs allow you to post to multiple social networking sites simultaneously. They also allow you to schedule posting for future dates. These programs can save you a lot of time and energy. Personally, I like the sequels to Tweet Deck and Hoot. Search for them on the web and you will find that they are free to use.

how big is big enough

Fifth, if you are going to build a social network, you must have a goal. In my experience, the real power becomes apparent with around 1,000 unique followers. I’m not saying that anything smaller is useless. The real move, however, the powerful results start with your ability to influence over 1000 people.

If you focus your efforts on building your social network by providing your followers with what they are looking for (ie the 4 cardinal elements), your network will grow at a slow but steady rate. If you want them to grow faster, feed them what feeds their needs more often. Post to your network every day if you have time. The more often and regularly you post, the better. The only other way to make it grow faster is to spend more time farming it or pay someone else to spend more time farming it.

how much is this

Sixth, you have to set financial limits. I know what you’re saying. You’re already spending too much time (and money) posting on social media sites. If you still find this too time consuming, hire a service to do your posting. They can be had for as little as $100 per week. It can also cost you $2000 per month if you want to grow big and fast at the same time.

If you have an organized method that you developed, you can hire a college student to get into your post for much less. As a marketer, I can generate between eight and twenty new followers per day. You can do the same by following my advice.

By following these six rules, you’ll get so much more out of your social media marketing efforts. Remember to publish the 4 cardinal articles regularly. Create and stick to a schedule, even if you don’t finish, stop posting when your hour is up. Set time and money goals and limits for your spending. Use aggregation tools to be more efficient, and above all, be patient. You know the saying. Rome wasn’t built in a day, well that goes for building your social network by word of mouth too. That will take some time too. Stick to your plan, and before you know it, you’ll be ready to start reaping the rewards of your social media marketing campaign. That’s my opinion, I appreciate yours!