A plan of action designed to achieve an overall or long-term goal – that's how the Oxford Dictionary defines strategy. Simple and effective! Each marketing medium and media vehicle chosen by the brand must fit perfectly into its overall strategy. Television, print, radio, internet portals and mobile have done this and now it is time for social media to follow suit. We have reached a point in time where the question has shifted from “Why social media” to “How does social media?” Social networks are everywhere. It is hailed as the greatest revolution of recent times. To put things in perspective, if we assume Facebook is a country, it would be the third most populous after China and India. If YouTube was a television channel in India, it would have been the 11th largest. Twitter is the second largest search engine, closely followed by Youtube. As you read the stats above, over 100 hours of video have been uploaded to Youtube. Aston Kutcher and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and Panama. More than 25% of search results, regardless of brand, point you to user-generated content on social media. All of these things work in favor of social media despite the ban on Facebook and YouTube in China (statistics courtesy of Socialnomics). The return on investment (ROI) in the case of social media is huge considering you are still in business after 5 years! There is no escaping these media. One should not enter social media without having a proper strategy in place. Any mistake made on this medium is magnified to a large extent. In this article I will explain how to build a successful social media strategy from the group. Follow the 5 steps below and you will have a successful social network...... middle of paper ...... available on the market, both paid and free. My advice is to try Tweet Deck, Google Analytics, Klout, Facebook Insights and Youtube Insights before moving on to paid tools. Some of the metrics you need to measure in addition to achieving your defined goals are share of voice, awareness, engagement, influence, and popularity of your properties on social media. Work on the information you learn to optimize your content and plan. Remember, you always have to learn and grow, because the nature of social media is never static. Follow these five steps diligently and you will have a successful social media strategy in place. A good social media presence will help you run successful campaigns. You can contact me anytime through my social media handles mentioned on this site. And yes, don't be present on any media just because your peer/competitor is.