The emergence of social media as an effective branding and sales tool is a relatively new one compared with mainstays in traditional advertising, such as print ads and billboards. Moreover, the landscape of digital is constantly changing. As a result, older brands that have been deeply entrenched in conventional marketing plans for years, sometimes decades, often have difficulty wrapping their heads around how to begin crafting a powerful online strategy.

Here are a few valuable steps that will make diving into digital more fluid.

Develop a social media platform strategy

Just because a new social media platform pops up in the news doesn't mean a brand immediately needs to jump on the bandwagon. Instead, brands should identify which platforms their target audiences frequent most. For example, Pinterest has a predominantly female user base; if a brand is trying to attract male consumers, then a different platform should probably be its priority.

Perform due diligence and carefully research each social platform you are interested in so you can clearly see which are priorities for your brand and why. Then lay out a game plan for how you are going to populate each with content, including frequency of posts and content topics, and how you will handle community management (e.g., customer service questions, and complaints).

Figure out how much of your budget is going toward paid media, how much is going toward influencer campaigns, and whether you need to hire an agency or use an in-house person to focus on managing all of your platforms and continuing to evolve the strategy. In social, a good strategy is an ever-evolving one.

Create captivating content with high share value

With so much competition out there, it's important that brands create attention-grabbing content that users will be excited to share. Content with high share value is more likely to create a viral effect, exposing brands to wider audiences.

Users tend to share content that is less promotional and more personal. Therefore, brands need to look for content inspiration beyond the products they're selling, and should create or curate content that is inspiring, beautiful, and useful.

Sharing photos on platforms is one of the most common ways for users to communicate their interests and ideas, making it crucial for brands to participate in an effective way that portrays their brand identity. Users are more likely to engage with posts that showcase striking imagery. As an example, Twitter recently incorporated images into users' timelines, and as a result Tweets that include images now receive 18% more clicks.

Also, YouTube has one of the fastest growing user bases and reaches more US based adults age 18-34 than any cable network. It's a great story-telling platform for brands, and it can be used to reach large audiences. Instagram is another rapidly growing platform that has embraced video content by allowing users to create 15-second videos.