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Just as a coach and his or her team put together a game plan before each and every contest, your company’s strategy should be reviewed regularly to see if something is amiss.

With that being said, where in your online marketing plans is your social media game plan?

According to a 2011 survey of small and midsize companies from Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls, just 33 percent of those surveyed were using social media at the time, however 40 percent indicated they intended to use it this year. Interestingly, there was a sizable percentage of entrepreneurs (25 percent) who stated they don’t feel at ease using social media.

For those companies who have avoided being in the social media loop up to now, the simple realization is that this mode of communication gives businesses the opportunity to provide real-time information to both current and potential customers.

So if your business has been lacking a social media game plan as part of its online marketing strategy up to this point, how should you go about crafting one tailored to your needs?

Among the factors to look at:

• Understand why you need social media in the first place – As with any project that a business puts in place, there needs to be a purpose for it. When you decide to go ahead with a social media game plan, make sure you have the why, where, when and how set up. This prevents you from wasting valuable resources, most notably time and effort;
• Know your audience – In order to save the noted time and effort, zero in on the audience you want to target. Define the demographics and have them ready to go to avoid lost time. Some business leaders can be heard stating that one of the reasons they don’t use social media is because they don’t see a clear return on investment (ROI). Don’t let that drive you away from SM, as there are different metrics available to assist you in knowing whether or not you are reaching your targets;
• Use social media for savings and promotions – It is not uncommon to see businesses using social media in order to offer clients specials, coupons, etc. Given that social media is a real-time interaction, businesses can make their latest offerings available to both current and potential customers in real short time;
• Promote on a regular basis – Given I literally look at hundreds of Web sites daily in my line of work; I see both positive and negative social media campaigns. The positive ones are those who promote their social media content, be it links, shares, tweets, etc. on a regular basis. Remember, there is a fine line between promoting effectively and spamming. It is also a good idea to study the different metrics out there in order to see which days, times of the day, etc. are best for putting your social media efforts out there for all to see;
• Lastly, expectations are high – In today’s information age, businesses large and small are expected to be partaking in social media. The bottom line is that many of your present and potential clients use social media to learn about a company. In the event you are not social media savvy, can you add up the dollars going out the window by not being present?

I still come across businesses who fail to see the benefits of social media; they are either not willing to put in the time and effort and/or they figure there are better roads to travel in attracting customers.

Yes, social media is not the one and only part of your game plan that you should be deploying in trying to attract and retain customers, but it sure is an important one.