So you’ve looked at social media, you know there’s value, and now you want to get your business involved. Where do you start and how do you do it?

Listen – Engage – Measure

If you’re thinking of getting your business involved in social media make sure you have a plan. In most cases your plan will include three key dimensions; Listening, Engaging and Measuring.

In the first instance your initial listening or buzz monitoring initiatives will be pivotal in clarifying how your business will benefit and what value you will add when engaging. In addition to this, having an understanding of current conversations will help you to create clear-cut goals which will ultimately feed into how and why you engage online as well as how you will go about measuring your success.

Listening 2.0

There is always a lot of chatter surrounding why companies should listen, but how does it actually create value. This is where engagement comes in and where listening goes beyond simply tracking a campaign, sentiment or ReTweets. Make engagement a natural part of the process as it will allow you to:

1. Understand industry discussion and be a leader in your space.

Knowing how your competitors are engaging and what your customers, prospects or supporters want will help you reach out online to the right person at the right time and in the right place. Beyond the online space, managing buzz effectively can not only help feed into your social media strategy, but can also have enterprise-wide repercussions, helping you to understand your product, your customers needs and the way your brand is received, with much more clarity

2. Engage at a point where you can create value.

This might mean helping your customers with problems, being a thought leader and contributing to the industry discussion while sharing content from others that might be of value. Demonstrate the fact that you are listening and paying attention but be more than just reactive and stay ahead of the curve.

Trial and Error

If you listen first you’re already a step ahead. However, you’re not always going to get it right. As with any new idea, product or initiative you will learn from your mistakes and develop your social media strategy on an on-going basis. Social media is constantly evolving, at a fast pace, so cut yourself some slack and do it better next time.

Shout About Your Achievements

Ensuring that your social media presence is paying off is much more than just getting the reporting right for your superiors. The metrics will help but it’s really about company buy-in, from the new intern to the COO but this is only going to happen if you’ve got a story to tell. Make sure that you shout about your achievements across the organisation, differentiate yourself from your competitors and be an ambassador for your team, your business or your industry. By using the numbers and KPIs to your advantage you will make the most out your social media engagement and even eventually find your niche within this space.

Tags: 6consulting, Corporate social media, engagement, Enterprise wide social media, Listening, Social Media, social media strategy