Small businesses are working hard to implement a social media marketing strategy into their overall marketing strategy. It is a difficult tool to use unless you understand it well, and know how to focus on the most important aspects of social media, and how it applies to the business. 

First, see what media is already being used. If you're already using social media, but not getting any results, then there is a chance that social media needs to seriously retooled to be more effective. Retooling is usually easier than training a new person to handle this. Look at frequency of posts, and more importantly, quality of posts. 

Second, focus on the social media trinity. Don't necessarily rush off to foursquare or something else. Build your publishing platform, like Wordpress or Bloggr, your communication tool (Twitter), and your network, which is either Facebook or LinkedIn.  Learn to use these well by putting really good content on your blog, and then distributing via Twitter and Facebook. It is absolutely vital to have good content on your blog. 

Next, integrate social with traditional media. Using coupons and other specials are great for getting people to come to your business. Groupon and Livingsocial are helping businesses build their client base by offering great discounts. Once you have your customers in, use social media to stay in touch with them. QR codes are a great way to harvest information, and drive people to you social platforms. 

See what kind of talent you have in-house before hiring outside consultants or people to manage all social media. You may have some good resources available in your business now.

Finally, once you begin implementing your new strategy, analyze it. Pay attention to the data, the ROI, and the conversion rate. More important than hits on a site or followers on Facebook is tracking how much was actually sold using social media.

Social tech is a gamechanger, and the game is in the middle of changing right now. Those that adapt to this soonest will be the winners in this revolution.