When teaching a class about Social Media Mastery, I find it interesting to see the level of knowledge and involvement when it comes to using social networks as a marketing and sales tool for business. It goes the gammit, from total lack of involvement, to over the top, in your face. To find a balance for social network involvement, is to understand the rules of Social Media Mastery.

Rule 1 – Understand the Big 6 [Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+]. There are similarities among all the networks, from having an account and communication among the community. Each network has its niche, and that is where you need to decide what network to choose. Facebook is involvement of business to consumer. LinkedIn on the other hand is business to business. Pinterest is a reverse of the business to consumer model where the consumer drives the interest. Do you know your audience? If so, choose the right network to master.

Rule 2 – Research. Diving into a social network without knowing all the dynamics is like diving into a pool of quick sand. You'll quickly be spending countless hours of unproductive postings to an audience who may or may not produce results.

Rule 3 – Complete your profile. A typical profile on any given network takes approximately one to two hours to complete. Plan for it. Social Media Optimization is beginning to have an impact with the search engines. Take advantage of your social networks to help be found in searches. It's just not your domain that will help you get to the top. With that said, a partial completion of your profile will not help at all.

Rule 4 – Engage. You've finished your profile. Who are you going to invite to your social network domain? Think this through. Your 85-year-old grandmother is not going to help you on LinkedIn where the environment is all about business. Her days of contacts to help your business may be over. On the other hand, grandmother might be very involved with her grandkids who are into video games and you just happen to be reaching out to the gamers who want to beta test your latest and greatest video game. Don't miss the opportunity.

Rule 5 – What's the message you want to share and how often? You are striving to be top of mind for your clients not a pain in the neck. Make sure you mix up the messages to include helpful tips, business involvement, and every once in a while encouragement to buy. We'll talk about the 3-2-1 Rule another time.

Rule 6 – Measure your results. It's important to know the results of your efforts. Make a point to check this on a regular basis and make adjustments as needed. There's no reason for staying the course if the course is producing little to no results.

Use these six rules as a way to discipline yourself in mastering social media for business. We will look at more of the dynamics of the Mastery of Social Media for Business in future articles. Visit our Social Media Mastery survey to help choose the next subject to be discussed at http://bit.ly/MasterySurvey.