These days it is impossible to wade onto the internet without tripping over studies touting their findings that a majority of businesses are adding social media to their marketing mix. As ubiquitous as those are, it is even more common to find social media (insert cheeky term here to avoid saying “experts”) shouting that every business must join social media and engage with their customers for fear of being out of business in five years.

And don’t forget the rulemakers telling you that you must Tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plus, Pin, Tumble, post, update in a certain ratio at a certain frequency every day. Including weekends.

As an early social media adopter and someone who advises companies about their social media strategy, I am also guilty of some of these transgressions. But guess who knows best what’s right for your business? YOU!

Understand the Company Culture

It’s too easy to take the word of experienced social media experts as the be-all and end-all of social media and do what they say. You are the one who understands your company culture and what social media adoption would look like in your C-suite. You are the one who knows the products and services you offer and which ones would benefit by a greater social presence. And who do you think is the industry expert in your specific industry? Not the social media consultant or blogger.

Dive into Social Media Learning

So what is a marketer, communicator or other business leader to do when looking at implementing social media for their company? Start by reading all you can about social media. I will assume that you are good at your job and you just need to understand how social media can fit into your efforts. And don’t think of it as a bolt-on component to your marketing or customer service. It is a revolutionary way of doing business. We offer lots of resources to help you start thinking as a social media marketer, as do many other companies and bloggers.

This is not something to take lightly, but you really are a better resource for how to implement social media in your organization. This can be a big effort (usually) or a small effort, but only you know what it means if your customers suddenly had an active channel to provide feedback to your company.

Listen and Share with Prospects

And who is better at convincing the VP of Sales that Twitter is about more than what people had for lunch. Sales people can listen for prospects at the point of need. They can answer questions with relevant ebooks or blog posts. They can even determine better times to contact someone based a prospect’s social profile.

Gather Competitive Intelligence

And your competitors? You are going to know what they are doing in social media in greater depth than someone from the outside. Although in a recent study 14% percent of marketers admitted to having no idea about their competitors social media activities.

Do this mean you should reject all overtures from agencies and social media consultants? Of course not. There is plenty of expertise and experience they can bring to the table, but there is plenty that you can do before that first meeting to improve the process.

5 Ways to Be a Social Media Expert Before Seeking Outside Help

• Learn about the basics of social media
• Document your company culture, including the obstacles to social media adoption
• Determine how social are your customers and prospects
• Understand what your competitors and your industry leaders are doing with social media
• Identify company created content (whitepapers, articles, FAQs) that can be re-worked as social media content

How much of the internal social media prep work have you done before working with an outside resource? Here’s a social media planning ebook that provides some more tips to get you heading down the right path.

Tags: social media resources, social media strategy, social selling