Before you get started using Web 2.0 features as a way of increasing your exposure and of marketing your goods, you need to have a solid social marketing plan in place that will guide the rest of your efforts. Here are the reasons to do so.

Tip 1: Need a Goal

To achieve anything in business or in your personal life, you need goals and the social marketing plan can help you set the appropriate goals for your work. Think of it as a vacation planner. If you never chose a destination, you would never really know when you’ve reached the getaway spot. All of your efforts would be fruitless.

Tip 2: Creates the Roadmap

While we don’t want to overuse the vacation metaphor, the truth is the social marketing plan acts like a roadmap for your efforts. It forces you to decide what routes to take to reach your goals and that means you really have to think about what will work and what won’t before you waste money.

Tip 3: Research sites you want to target

A good social marketing plan will also include the sites you’re going to target with your efforts which means it forces you to start doing some research on places like Mixx.com and Digg.com, as we as YouTube, MySpace, and others so you can see what will work best for your needs.

Tip 4: Helps Keep You Grounded

If you tend to jump from one idea to another, having a social marketing plan can prevent you from “channel surfing” from one idea to another. It gives you an outline of what you need to be doing and helps you stay on track.