Social media is a key factor in building your business’ success, whether that business is a more traditional one, or one of blogging.  There is no denying that if you use social media correctly and efficiently, you will have a more successful and profitable business.

One of my good friends (Joselin Mane) created a social media kit and he sums up how to use social media correctly with these 5 different phases.

1. Research

Determine where your marketplace tends to gather online.  Use Google Alerts & Google Reader to get a sense of the sites that your marketplace is using.  Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter are currently the most popular Social Media sites, however make sure to do the necessary research not only on your marketplace, but also your competition and your industry.  Lastly, commit to a certain amount of time to social media everyday.  Social media is about relationships and they take time to build.

2. Setup

Every website has its profile requirements and protocols.  So make sure you are familiar with what it takes to complete the entire profile.  Take 5-10 minutes to look at existing profiles so that you get a sense of what creating a complete profile entails and what a good profile looks like.  They generally tend to request your name, location, age, photo, website address, hobbies, books, etc.  Make your profile reflect your brand either personal or professional.  Also make sure that the profile highlights your expertise and has links back to your main website and an easy way to contact you.

3. Listen

This is one of the most essential phases because if skipped or done wrong, it can dramatically hinder your brand and/or reputation.  Since each site has its own method of communication, it’s critical to follow the communication protocol of the social media tool you select.  So take time to learn the proper communication style, the language used, and the tone of the group or site.

4. Contribute

The best way to establish your creditability and reputation within any social media site is to focus first on providing consistent value.  Each site is different, but as a rule of thumb to follow regarding sharing your recommendations is for each link to one of your products/services, you should promote at least 5 products/services created by someone else.

5. Relationship

The essence of Social Media is relationships.  Since people do business with people they know, like, and trust, social media is the ideal and fastest method to expedite the relationship building process.  The key is to leverage the social media site for information about the person.  That’s why it’s important to have a complete profile.  Just as you will be looking at another’s profile, he/she will be looking at your profile.  The next step is to email or chat with them to see if there are areas where you could assist them or develop a mutually beneficial relationship.  And lastly, make sure to attend as many live events as you can because nothing beats meeting in person.

For a better idea of how to manage your time and what kind of time constraints you should put on social media, check out an article I wrote called: 8 Daily Tasks to Increase Blog Traffic

What are you thoughts on these 5 phases?  Do you think there are more?  Let’s here your opinions in the comments.