A Marketer's Guide to Social Media - 8 Keys to Success

I participated in an amazing social media webinar today from MENG. The expert roundtable included members of the newly formed MENG Social Media Council (Mack Collier, Paul Dunay, Beth Harte, Drew McLellan, Amber Naslund and myself).

Here are eight key social media points from the session:

1. Start with a clear strategy, just like any other marketing initiative. Social media is both a concept and a set of tools. Before you can begin using the tools, you need to set clear goals and objectives as to what you hope to accomplish.
2. Social media does not sit outside your traditional marketing efforts. It must be integrated into your entire marketing process.
3. Yes, social media can help you increase your sales, but your goals may be different from just revenue goals.  Look at human resources goals (recruiting), customer service (call center savings), lower training costs, lower conversion costs, reputation goals and more.  Thinking sales growth is always the bright, shiny object, but other goals may be more attainable.
4. Understand where you belong in social media in your market. Is your role to observe (listen), to engage with customers, to develop conversations and relationships with customers?
5. Educate yourself. Read books such as Groundswell, The Digital Handshake or Get Content Get Customers. Start experimenting personally.
6. Look at companies that are doing it well, like Cisco, Intel, Breaking Point, IBM and SAP.
7. Focusing on the key social media sites (i.e., Twitter and Facebook) may not be the best strategy for your brand.  Find out where your customers are hanging out at, and develop strategies for those channels (niche blogs, industry forum sites, Google groups, etc.) that deliver on your overall goals.
8. The core of your social media strategy must be your content strategy.  What is your brand's story? What are the stories that are happening in and around your brand that will make you interesting to your customers and prospects? Why would anyone share your content through social media if you don't have anything valuable or relevant to say?

Also introduced during the session was this extremely helpful social media guide from CMO.com. Download the PDF version here. This is an excellent primer to review once your social media strategy is in place.

Other helpful stories include:

• 100 Social Media Predictions for 2010
• 42 Social Media Marketing Tools 

Comments

[Michael Thomas]

Hey, Great post!

In this day and age taking advantage of SEO and social network websites as effective marketing tools for your business is essential! Most businesses don’t fully understand the capabilities of these tools to improve traffic and exposure! I was searching for a company to ship one of my vehicles overseas and ran into Auto Shipping Network; I was amazed at how they implemented these tools so well into their company website. Check it out for yourselves at http://www.autoshippingnetwork.com/ .

[Bret Simmons]

Excellent, Joe. I would add to that to be personally active and involved in social media. You can't keep it at arms length and really understand the what, how, and most importantly why of what people are doing in SM. It is a strategic imperative to get involved. Bret

[Chris W.]

This is a highly valuable post for people looking to make the most of social media in business. Without #1 you'll just flail around in the social sphere without direction. 3 & 4 show you where to focus your time (and thus avoid getting sucked in all day long). And #8 gives a good idea just how valuable good content is (I always like seeing that). Excellent work Joe.

[John Bottom]

Great summary Joe, thank you. And the chart at the end is the perfect thing to pass around a few newbies at the office who want to get their head around some of the different sites. It's amazing how much clarity comes from a well-designed chart.

[Mack Collier]

Joe thanks so much for an excellent recap of the MENG Webinar! I was honored to be involved with you and everyone else, and you really did a great job here of pulling out many of the key points we addressed!

[Lisa Petrilli]

Joe,

It's an honor to have you as part of the new MENG Social Media Council of Advisors. You bring an anchor to the group and to your advisement in that you keep it grounded in the reality of having meaningful stories to tell and being relevant in your customers' lives. I admired how you worked to ensure this message was getting across to MENG executives, who admittedly may want to 'jump in' to the action before they fully embrace that understanding.

Thank you for all the insights you brought to the webinar! I am eagerly awaiting the next one...

@LisaPetrilli