You have seen the writing on the wall, and you know it is time to join the social media revolution.  It is easy to jump into the social media, however, it is an entirely different task to do so without drowning in the sea of social media.  Perform has written 12 Essential Tips for Success in Social Media.

BEFORE YOU START

1. Establish Clear Business Objectives and Metrics
2. Reframe Your Notion of Marketing Communications
3. Clarify Your Positioning

RAMPING UP

4. Identify the Influencers
5. Listen Before You Launch
6. Integrate Social Media With SEO

DIVING INTO SOCIAL MEDIA

7. Engage Your Audience
8. Engage Your Employees
9. Engage Your Customers
10. Be Honest and Authentic
11. Define Metrics According to Business Objectives
12. Fail Quickly. Fail Cheaply.

For each of the 12 tips, there is a detailed explanation.  If you’re serious about jumping into the social conversation without drowning, the paper is a must read!

Key ideas that I took away from the paper include:

Marketers need to see themselves not as owners of market share but as members of a market community, and their communications not so much campaigns as conversations with the market.  Whereas the typical marketing program begins wrapping up when a campaign is pushed out the door, that’s where a social media program begins. It’s all about authentic engagement with the market community at every stage of the customer life cycle, not just during lead-gen and loyalty campaigns.

How very true.  In the past it was sufficient to push out a marketing campaign and wait for the market to react.  Now it’s become important to take the campaigns to the next level and engage with our community.  It is as simple as “authentic engagement” and networking with all members of our community.  It’s about being transparent in all our dealings.

It’s important to recognize that influencers are not always your customers, but their impact on your revenue stream can be significant. They may be former customers who have become disaffected; they may be champions of a competing product; or they may simply be agnostics with a strong market perspective that challenges your own. Being able to see beyond the scope of your own customer base to understand how your market is influenced is one of the most important advantages of a social media program.

How very true.  The conversation is not always influenced by our customers, and those “other influencers” have incredible impact on our revenues.  We need to look beyond the trees (our customers), and see the forest (the influencers of our market), to provide a revolutionary product or experience that will positively impact our revenue stream.

The combination of continually fresh content, extensive page inventory from individual blog posts, content expansion through comments and trackbacks, and incoming links from other blogs far surpasses the optimization potential of almost any static website.

The days of static webpages dominating are over.  In order for our company to flourish, we must push beyond the static model of other companies, and embrace the dynamic “continually fresh content” approach to websites.  Not only will it drive traffic to the website, but it will engage the community, and enable us to join the ranks of influencers.

One of the most promising areas of social media is the opportunity to bring your customers into the marketing process by allowing them to provide their own ideas and feedback about your products and programs…. [I]t’s important to recognize that your customers are a fertile source of new ideas and innovations, and social media makes that source more accessible than ever.

The trick is to engage the customers into the process.  The scary part is the engagement, and fear of rejection.  When I initially designed our website, I considered allowing comments on all auctions, real estate listings, and updates.  This idea was brushed under the table.  However, the more and more I think about the matter, I think it has great merit.  Think about going to a real estate/auction website and being able to leave comments on the listings and auctions.  As auctioneers and real estate agents, we’d be getting instant feedback on properties, and while we may not agree with the feedback, it’d be real and honest.  I think it may even give us credibility within the community - I know the comments are being made, it’s just I’m not there to hear the comments or respond to the comments.  I think this has real merit.

Social media is here to stay.  In fact, it will and is reshaping how businesses interact with their communities.  The key is to be an early and savvy adopter of the technology, and engage the customers.  In my industry (auction), there are few companies that are pushing the envelope and exploring social media, and its impact on their revenues.  However, one must push forward in hopes of creating an open dialogue with our clients, and in return reap the rewards of engaged customers.

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