Imagine for a second you’re on a date. It’s the first one and you’re nervous. You meet in a coffee shop and the conversation begins. Well, sort of. You see, every time you ask your date a question you get a rather generic response, or no response at all. Chalk it up to shyness. So you try again a few days later, and the same thing happens, more generic substance-less answers. Needless to say, the conversation is boring and this relationship isn’t going very far.

So what happened to send this potential match off the rails?

The communication – or lack thereof – is the disconnect. It should come as no surprise to anyone just how crucial dialogue is to make any relationship work. There has to be active involvement to keep people interested and make the relationship worth anything.

Now, in the above example, take out coffee shop dating and replace with social media – the analogy remains the same. I see it all the time, as I am sure you do as well. Company ABC hears about social media. The CEO exclaims, “We must get involved. This is the key to making our business successful!” They source an employee who is computer savvy, and set about setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts.

More often than not, the extent of this involvement typically consists of creating a Facebook fan page, racking up as many followers as possible, signing up a twitter handle and leaving both relatively idle. Or worse yet, tweeting out only press releases and articles, and never logging into Facebook to join the conversation around their posts.

Do you know what this does to your brand? It certainly isn’t adding any real value, that much can be said for sure. And potentially, it could do your brand real harm. Why? Because you’ve become the boring date sitting across the table. Social media should always be about driving meaningful conversations first, and not just being the pretty face in the room. That is why it’s important to understand the image and approach your brand wants to portray, as well as have the proper training program in place before getting your organization and social media team wrapped up in social media engagement.

I heard Mitch Joel for the first time at Social 2011, and I can’t get the mantra, which he quoted from Chris Anderson, out of my head. “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is” (and then he added Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. – if you haven’t already, watch his keynote here). But what if these networks add nothing substantial about your brand? Sure, they might be filled with links back to your social media accounts, or your web site, but if you’ve never once responded to a customer who asked a question about a product, never proactively reached out to your community, or never posted anything beyond a company press release, they simply add no value to your brand. And where is the value in that?

Before getting involved in social media, it’s important that you ask yourself the following:

• Do we have clearly defined engagement goals in place? And if not, then hold it right there. How will you know if you are showing success? How will you track if your audience is responding well to your efforts, ignoring you – or worse, mocking you – because of something you said? You won’t, which is why it would behoove you to take a step back and set real achievable goals before starting anything.

• What resources do we have? Do we have the resources to handle communication? Do we have the funds to hire someone new, train existing employees or invest in technologies? Social media is all about open, transparent, and real-time communication -  so if your current and/or potential customers want conversation, you better be able to provide it for them. They expect – and deserve – to have that level of engagement, and if you nail it, if you develop real relationships, you will also develop some serious and committed brand ambassadors for your company and products. Make sure you have the proper resources in place, so you don’t short-change your customers.

• How committed are we? Right now, who isn’t excited about social media? You look around, and everybody’s doing it – what’s not to love? Well maybe the level of commitment that you will be required to adhere to. Trust that as your community grows, so will the time that is needed to provide top level engagement. So stay committed to your goals and stay committed to your resources. If you are starting a social media training program for your company, that’s absolutely terrific. But make sure it doesn’t fade away. Make sure training is ongoing and make sure you demonstrate to your company your true commitment. They will feed off your excitement and in turn show dedication. And that excitement and dedication will reflect on your social media community.

Focus on these things and you will have a solid starting point for your company’s social media strategy. Start at the bottom, create a good foundation, and start building. The rest will come after, but without a solid foundation, cracks are sure to appear.

And who knows, you might even end up being a better date because of it.

What about you? Have you recently re-evaluated a social media strategy that had gone a little stale? What steps did your company take to freshen it up? Or if you’re just starting out, what are your thoughts on staff time allotment? How will you track your team’s level of engagement? As always we love to hear your comments and feedback.

Aaron Friedman is a member of the Content Solutions team at Resolution Media where he is experienced in SEO ranging from local, Digital Marketing, to National and Global Search Marketing. Aaron specializes in content creation including Social Media Strategy, Image and Video Optimization. He blogs at Digitalhighrise.com. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on Linkedin.

Tags: Guest Blogger, Radian6 Social 2011, Social Media