Essentially, social media marketing is becoming an effective lead generation tool. Though, many businesses worldwide are still slow to catch on to the benefits of a targeted campaign. So, how do SEO companies and digital agencies persuade the skeptics that their business needs social media management?

The answer is a Social Media Audit.

Jonathan Briggs, Strategy director at theothermedia.com released a professional template to solve the puzzle of how to produce a social media audit. The result is a PDF that analyses every facet of a client's current influence and where improvement can bring value through more targeted visitors, and nurturing leads. There is a link to the template in my bio.

The template for social media audits can apply to pre-sales strategies where a skeptical client may not "see" the power of an effective campaign. So many businesses lack the time to carry out a solid online campaign though many SEO services are used to carrying out the work anyway. If that outsource SEO company or internal marketing manager is armed with an audit report that will reveal the true benefits at a meeting, social media management will start to really become a key factor in any online business marketing strategy.

You can tweak it if necessary though I recommend you simply use the template. It is very comprehensive e.g. how you can evaluate if a pre-sale is even worth the time as in the Reactions on page 2.

Showing competitor analysis can give the need for impetus on a campaign. A page can be prepared to show the current reach for a client's top competitors.

One aspect of the SEO audit that should be used is keyword analysis; social media helps a brand gain more reach through targeted keywords just like article marketing, so SEO companies should include an on-page SEO audit. It can be seen why this should be part of the audit in that respect as showing the client how targeted keywords play a part in twitter, Facebook and buzz posts, instills further confidence. SEO companies can mention the power of twitter search for example by highlighting the use of keywords. If the keywords are analysed and added properly, it can be explained that the client products and posting attempts to reach out will be found.

SEO companies can use the template to show clients how their exposure is working, and then explain how it will be improved - that's where the provider is close to closing the skeptical CEO.

The final bit in the template on deadlines gives a view of the long term plan to help their brand reach. This includes timelines and costs, the absolute requirement as a final step towards closing the deal.

In summary, I would say any social media audit has 3 stages from the pre-sale through to the project end:

1. Initial Audit using the aforementioned template.

2. Monthly updates to check how the reach is working, reactions to the client brand, etc.

3. Monitoring to keep abreast of any changes needed like a bad reaction.

There are a wide range of tools both free and paid tools for doing the social media management tasks. More than I can go into here on this article. As analytics is a key part of the audit, what can help the template data you collect from clients is backtype.com which quickly shows the company twitter reach. Another tool for measuring reach and influence connect.postrank.com/ can really add stats power to the audit data. Stats carry that "show not tell" weight which is needed here.

What is really needed is analytics, a stat that shows where the business's social media is succeeding and failing. A carefully planned audit shows all that and more for the business thinking that they can skip social media as a business development tool.

Understanding the social media realm is a daunting task and unquestionably scary for most of us. Well now, it's time to really buckle down and grasp it. Social media can be used in many ways i.e. fun and business. We are going to concentrate on the business aspect of it. You can use Facebook and twitter to promote your properties and keep in touch with your tenants. This aspect alone should encourage you to understand social media and use it as a vital tool for communication. Here are some tips on understanding social media and getting started.

1. Sign up for Facebook and create a page. Very important tip: make sure to create a new Facebook account that its sole purpose is for your property. You don't want to mix your personal account with your property page. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

2. Keep your social media login information consistent, this makes it easier to log on to Facebook and Twitter. Use the same email and password for both social media portals; it's just easier to remember.

3. Make sure to document your login information. It should be on a Google doc so you can share with personnel to help manage your social profiles.

4. Customization: Facebook allows you to upload photos and change your profile picture - this should really be your logo. Twitter gives you the option of more customization. You can change the twitter background and icon. Very important tip: keep it simple. Have a nice background and with information of your property and that's it. Don't overdo it!

5. Send out a letter to your tenants explaining you have a Facebook and twitter account setup for your property and encourage them to sign up.

6. Now, it's important to manage your social profiles. This is an excellent means of pushing out promotions to your tenants and letting them know of what is occurring within your property.