While social media started as a method for friends to communicate, it quickly evolved into an indispensable business tool because it opened a channel for large organization to communicate directly with consumers. This new relationship replaces the traditional one-way approach of advertising with a two-way conversation where consumers have a bigger voice and brands become a bigger part of consumers’ lives.

Social Media Strategy is unique for every situation, but a few principles stand firm:

• Provide useful, engaging, and relevant content for your followers
• Build trust and respect your followers – do not abuse the relationship with blatant advertising
• Keep communications positive
• Design messages that will be shared by current followers and found by new users
• Don’t let too much time elapse between posts
• Use services to schedule posts, but avoid blatant automation

While having consulted for a handful of small business on Social Strategy, I personally maintain two Twitter accounts relating to my music career. Some tweets apply nicely to both profiles, but others are clearly best for just one. I decide in every case, but have streamlined a process so that it hardly takes any time.