So, your company is ready to “do” social media. Great!
But what does that mean, exactly? Do you want to grow awareness for your business? Find and engage your customers and fans in conversation? Or, maybe even generate some leads and sales?
Our helpful guide will arm you with everything you need, including links to free and affordable social media tools, resources, and lots of best practices. We’ve even included a list of some of the common pitfalls to avoid – so you can get started with social media with confidence!
Tools and Resources from Getting Started with Social Media
Google Alerts
Monitors Web for brand and keyword mentions. Sends email alerts daily or in real time. Use Google’s Getting Started with Google Alerts support page to help you set up your alerts.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members. It’s also one of the best ways to tap into your extended professional network for ideas, contacts, and information. Visit LinkedIn’s Learning Centerto find out how you can use LinkedIn to grow your business.
Twitter
Twitter is a great way to share and receive real-time information. Follow industry leaders, peers, customers, competitors and share news, information, and insights with your followers. Get started with this list of 31 Twitter Basics.
Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social network on the planet, and as such is used for everything from sharing pictures of pets with friends to building relationships between customers and brands worldwide. Mashable offers a great guide to getting started on Facebook. And once you’re on your way, be sure to measure your progress with Facebook Insights.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, and can provide the “home base” for all your content marketing. WordPress offers lots of articles and a broad community of users to help you get started.
YouTube
You probably already know that YouTube is a video sharing platform – but you may not realize that it is also the 2nd largest search engine! So if the thought of churning out endless whitepapers isn’t your thing, get your video camera, skim the YouTube Getting Started guide, and go make some movies! 
Leadtail has lots more resources for online marketing, advertising, social media, and more in our Resources section.