Whether you run a thriving business or have commenced a fledgling enterprise, social media interaction is a key factor in your future success and growth. This is increasingly truer nowadays when social networking sites rule the roost having captured the imagination of the worldwide online community.
So what is the best path to initial or continued social media success? What are the various related facets you need to remember to ensure the prosperity of your venture? The following discussion seeks to conclusively resolve these queries:
1. Make a Thorough Overall Evaluation
At the outset, you ought to conduct a comprehensive critique of your overall business goals, resources at hand, and your business segment’s tastes and preferences. Doing this will provide a bird’s eye view of where your enterprise is in relation to other businesses and help channel your efforts towards greater visibility and profitability. Established enterprises can gain new insights into their working and correct their mistakes as a result of this initial exercise.
2. Maintain a Customer Focus
The next step is to analyze your audience across all parameters and get to understand their behavior as their views matter the most on social media platforms. You can do this better by:
a) Developing content especially suited to their needs and concerns. You would do well to study the competition and exploit any unexplored area.
b) Informing your customers about latest events and happenings.  
c) Inviting increased comments and feedback from them.
d) Holding opinion polls and quizzes to gauge their views on common points of interest. e) Invariably responding quickly to their feedback and even critical views – this will boost your reputation and integrity immensely.

3. Decide Your Primary Goal 
Determine what the central aim of your social media campaign will be. Depending on the dynamics of your enterprise, this would ideally either be increasing revenues (and profit) or building brand loyalty. Your succeeding efforts will be shaped by what your ultimate aim would be.   

4. Establish Effective Measurement Means and Criteria 
Without sound techniques to gauge social media interactions, it would be difficult to measure their impact on your business. Again – depending on your chief social media objective the measurement techniques and criteria could be:
a) For revenue increase – number of conversions, clicks, and e-shopping deliveries.
b) For brand loyalty – number of likes, positive comments, and media mentions.
Also you would take recourse to various renowned online tools like Google Alerts and Klout as this goal is largely unquantifiable.

5. Ensure Proper Documentation  
This is a vital aspect most people overlook. It is essential to have well-laid out explicit documentation in place to effectively plan, organize, schedule, direct, control, and coordinate resources in order to ensure social networking success.  The documentation ought to be reviewed regularly to update information.
6. Swift and Smooth Plan Execution   
Your planned social media campaign must now be harmoniously executed with emphasis on the type, nature, and frequency of content as also where it will feature. A definite action plan with key personnel and their attendant functions must form part of this stage. Also don’t forget to have backup plans ready.
7. Use Modern-Day Publicity Wisely  
This stage involves using your marketing resources to the hilt by:
a) Embedding social media links in your website and business pages.
b) Advertising through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular sites.
c) Conducting quizzes, contests, and schemes to arouse interest.
d) Publicizing your venture through print, television, and radio media.   

8. Post-Analysis  
This is a continuing procedure – here you must recurrently appraise results, measure your social media parameters, identify lapses, and take immediate remedial measures. 

Conclusion
Remember, ultimately, that all ventures have their own specific strengths and limitations thus no “one-fix” social media solution will work.