Social Media is currently being touted as the answer to life, the universe, and everything online, but there is a lot more to it than just hitching a ride.

Lets take a look at some of the things you need to think about before you even contemplate a social media marketing strategy.
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With social media marketing, whilst many items are difficult to determine, if you start out without specific goals, you may well be wasting resources.

Here are some ideas for more specific goals:-

* My business is mainly local, thus I need to target regional specific venues, or vertical venues that might broaden my reach locally.
* My product has a niche focus thus I will target venues frequented by media within my niche aimed at bringing in 20 media mentions in the first wave of my viral marketing campaign.
* I want Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Robert Scoble to subscribe to my blog - obviously I need to target people in my niche - specific linkerati and influencers.

Aim for targets within your reach, thus if you don’t have a strong enough hook, don’t try to land a big fish.