A business colleague of mine, who is a marketing strategist and consultant, recently posed these questions: “Has social media taken over our lives? Do you find yourself spending more and more time on Twitter and Facebook? Has it become too much?”

In my consulting practice, I have the opportunity to work with businesses of all sizes and at all phases of the business life cycle.   These questions about social media, particularly for business, resinates with me because as I have engaged clients, the mere mention of social media can send them running for the hills in a panic.  Social Media is a substantial and necessary component  for doing business today and used correctly can take a business from local to regional, regional to national or international if desired.  The key to a successful social media campaign is to have a social media strategy.   To approach social media without a strategy in place can and will do more harm than good.  Business owners who complain about the tremendous time commitments that do not payoff in results, damage their reputation and brand, and a host of other “lack of strategy symptoms” are being swept into a vortex of social media chaos.  The development and implementation of a social media strategy  is essential and should deliver  “quality messaging” that aligns and works in harmony with brand messaging and other communication strategies.  The right social media strategy will increase your brand awareness and will drive the desired business results.