Its not a new thing that social media is on the rise having widespread avenues. But before plunging into the huge pool of social media there are a few things that each brand should know-
1. Clarity of purpose
A brand should be very clear and specific about its demands from social media. It should also be very clear with its own strengths and weaknesses as a brand.
2. Potential Business Impact Points
It is necessary to discuss social media in context of where it could affect or impact the organization, either directly – through interaction, dialogue, response – or indirectly, through intelligence, new expectations, community feedback, or industry momentum.
3.Common Denominators
Agreed that many things are different but you must try hard to establish the common things that bound you to social media.
4. Managing Collaboratively
It’s time we move into more distributed leadership that has accountability in many places, and several people that manage a strategy based on its needs. Social media is not a single purpose thing, so it needs stewardship in many areas, by different people, with different perspectives.
5. Understanding Adoption & Use
Social media use and adoption varies dramatically by profile of the customer, and understanding who you’re talking to is critical. Things like the Forrester Technographics Ladder can help get you started.
6. What “Listening” Really Means
Listening is an often misunderstood term today. Rather, we think that merely listening is enough, but what we really mean is that we have to be paying close attention to what’s being said, and then interpret that information in context of our business.
7. How existing roles will need to adapt
As we seek to apply social media in the reality of day to day operations, it becomes abundantly clear that it’s changing the way people work. It’s also important to discuss the idea of cultivating individual “faces” of a company that are representative of social media presence, or whether a team approach with many faces in an organization is a more sustainable and scalable strategy for the long term.
8. What Good Guidelines Look Like
It’s no longer a matter of if you need social media guidelines, but rather what they should look like and cover. Preventing it from happening – whether sanctioned or not – is futile, so planning for it and communicating expectations clearly is much smarter.
9. The Culture of Participation
Most folks new to social media simply need some understanding of the “ground rules” and the culture of participating on the social web. Your own corporate guidelines are one thing, but it’s also valuable to help those new to social media understand the conversational nature of the media.
10. Risk Management
The best way to plan for the worst case scenario is to imagine it in gory detail. So often companies shy away from social media because they’re stuck lamenting the possible negative outcomes, but ignoring them doesn’t make them irrelevant. One way to move past that obstacle is to put them right out there, and talk them through.
11. Calcluating Costs, Returns, and Results
We all know measurement is one of the sticky ones, but it just doesn’t have to be. Methodical discussion, planning, testing, and patience employed well will yield results, and insights. We also have some preconceived ideas that need to be worked through.
