The first step to developing a successful social media marketing plan involves signing up for accounts with some of the most popular social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This is the fastest way to reach people in today’s marketplace; besides, everyone else is using them, so you should be too. If possible, you should personalize these accounts and make it sound like a real person is behind the account instead of a boring, soulless individual who only puts out generic, boilerplate comments that sound like they came from the PR department. Each networking website will require a slightly different approach. For example, it is a good idea to follow about 100 new people on Twitter each day. It’s the only place you’ll be able to follow people around and it won’t look weird.

Of course, it is not enough simply to follow new people. It’s important to make sure that the people you’re following have a real interest in the products or services that you are marketing; they’ll want to buy what you want to sell. It is fairly easy to find people interested in your products simply by searching topics on Twitter's homepage. This will give you a list of people that are ideal for the type of marketing that you are interested in doing. A social networking site like Facebook is going to require a slightly different approach. It’s possible for an account to get canceled if you make the mistake of adding too many new "friends" each day, and keep in mind that some people don’t like random friend adds. Don’t be the creepy Facebook person!

Luckily, there are groups on Facebook that can be easily searched in order to find ones relevant to what you are offering. Using status updates, you’ll be able to market to your "friends" on a daily basis. If a regular account proves to be limiting, consider opening up a Facebook page for your business and interact with "fans" in that way. When using Facebook, you should try and avoid direct messages so that interaction is focused more on relationship building instead of sounding like a sales pitch; people don’t want to feel like they’re being marketed to all the time.

MySpace is not as popular as it once was, but even a small percentage of Facebook's users equals millions of users. MySpace does offer you the opportunity to create a much more customized homepage than what is possible on Facebook. Another benefit to a MySpace account is the ability to write more in depth about your company’s philosophy as well as the products and services you have available. This account can also be linked to both Facebook and Twitter accounts. The key to any successful social media marketing is to make the experience as user-friendly and interactive as possible. By providing interesting content that is relevant to users, your revenue can only go up.