I consider social media marketing to be a critical part of my overall marketing strategy for LandscapeLeadership. I also think it's extremely valuable for marketing a Green Industry service business. I've seen this proven to be true over and over again.

I commit valuable time to social media marketing and I recommend you do the same for your business. But, it's important to have a plan in place that will lead to the results you desire without wasting your valuable time.

I personally spend about one hour per day on social media marketing efforts. Sometimes more, other days none at all.

Based on my experience as well as closely following many other Green Industry professionals, I've recognized common habits and strategies that make social media an effective marketing platform.

I want to share these with you in this article and detail how you can use social media marketing effectively in about one hour per day.

First Action: Monitor comments, responses and messages

The first thing I do to begin my one hour of social media marketing is check to see if anyone has sent me a message, posted a comment or responded to something I posted.

I consider this to be the most important thing I do during this hour. If it takes me the full hour to respond to messages or comments, so be it. Some days there is nothing to respond to. On average, my guess is that I spend ten minutes per hour following up on these things.

I also like to monitor what, if anything, is being said about me and my brand online. This only takes a couple of minutes but is extremely important. I use a combination of Google Alerts and SocialMention for this.

Second Action: Interact with friends, followers and fans

If you want to be successful with social media marketing you have to interact with people. Thus the word "social networking" :-)

Success online ultimately comes down to building authentic relationships with people. Because of this, a majority of your time should be spent simply interacting with your friends, followers and fans.

Many days I spend an entire hour on just these first two actions--and that's okay.

Building relationships online is just like in the real world. You have to show genuine interest in other people and listen more than you speak.

The most effective way for me to do this is by using "lists" in Facebook and Twitter which allows me to filter through to who I really want to keep up with. You have to eventually prioritize who you want to closely follow, otherwise you can't keep up with everybody. Using Facebook and Twitter lists is a great way to do this.

Third Action: Share relevant information and updates

To be successful with social media marketing you have to make a positive contribution to your online communities. How will someone get to know you if you don't share anything?

I like to share interesting articles, videos, music, photos--whatever I think is relevant (usually :-) to my friends and followers. Through my status updates and other shared tidbits I feel like people really get to know who I am on a personal level.

As Green Industry professionals we're blessed with unlimited things we can share with our followers. Just imagine, what if you were an accountant? Not much to share :-)

There are many applications available that allow you to post status updates, pictures and video to multiple social networks at once. I use Sendible which allows me to schedule posts and updates. Posterous is also a favorite service of mine.

Fourth Action: Digging for gold

Notice I haven't mentioned prospecting or selling yet. That's because to be successful with social media marketing, these need to take a back seat to the first three actions.

Sure, we're spending an hour a day on this stuff so we can get more business. But, relationships have to come first to be successful.

When I use the word "prospecting", I simply mean spending time finding and following people who I think are interesting or who may be able to eventually help my business in some way.

I don't do this everyday, perhaps once a week is all, because I spend most of my hour on the first three, most critical actions.

I encourage Green Industry professionals to follow their clients, professionals like architects and builders, their peers, members of the media like writers and editors as well as community leaders. It's all about growing your sphere of influence and building more relationships that will eventually payoff in increased business.

Fifth Action: Marketing and selling your services

The Social Media Pyramid illustrates how you should spend most of your time. Just follow the 80-20 rule.

If you go the other route people will quickly tune you out. And you'll never get them back.

That said, selling is allowed so don't forget the "marketing" in social media marketing.

If you just follow the first four actions consistently for an hour each day the sales will come naturally from the authentic relationships you've built.

But, this takes time! It can take months before your efforts begin to pay off.

Try to offer something of value to your followers when you are promoting your services. Offer special discounts or coupons just to your Facebook fans, or just to your Twitter followers. Offer a contest and giveaway just for your LinkedIn connections. Make it fun and special for your followers.

If you are just getting started with social media marketing, or maybe a bit leery of what it can really do for your business, commit to one hour a day for four or five days a week. Give it a shot for 30 days.

Concentrate on interacting, sharing and meeting new, interesting people. Then let the marketing and sales follow.

You can download my handy Social Media Marketing One Hour a Day Checklist here. This can help you get started.

How much time are you committing to social media marketing? Has it been effective for your business? I'd love to hear your experiences. Share, share, share below :-)