YNOT EUROPE – Social media is a great tool for research as well as customer service. Used effectively, social media can improve your profit margin.

There is a flipside in that it can become a distraction in business situations. Sometmes it’s tough to see how stopping to read Twitter or browsing the Facebook news feed can be productive for business.

Social media is just like any other tool. Used right, it can make a major impact; used wrong, it can become a time sink. The challenge is to formulate a good strategy that maximizes the tool’s impact while minimizing the distractions.

Make a plan, set goals and execute.
The key to making social media useful is to have a specific plan and a goal. Many small companies don’t enter the social media realm with a plan, but instead expect tweets and YouTube videos to generate traffic and sales all by themselves. That just isn’t how social media works. Social networks like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are entry points that provide targeted traffic and may help to engage potential new customers.

Do you need more traffic to your website, or are you looking for more brand awareness? Do you want to prevent bad press before it happens, or are you more interested in creating a community that will generate good press? Decide on the goal first.

Once you have a goal, set a plan. Establish metrics by which you can measure success and implement tools that will help you measure return on investment.

Then execute. Don’t be afraid to reach out, make mistakes and be vulnerable. Even if you make a mistake, you’ve probably learned something about your marketing efforts, your potential customers, your product or yourself.

Avoid potential distractions.
Social media doesn’t have to be a distraction if you set up a few guidelines to avoid wasting time.

Here are a few things to consider:

When you need to concentrate on an intensive task, close social media windows and apps.

Don’t use the tools when you’re bored. Remember: You need to train yourself to think in terms of business application, not recreation.

Prioritize. Focus on the tasks at hand before using social media to create more work.

Jim “GonZo” McAnally is marketing consultant and a veteran of the adult online industry. For more about him, visit GonZoConsulting.com.