Although change is something that most people fear, it’s also something that can be used to its advantage when applied in the right situations. Before diving into the social enterprise journey, take some time and think about the theory and philosophy that needs to go into shifting how your business thinks. And not just the executives or senior management of your company. Taking on the project of being a social enterprise means that everyone needs to work together as a team in order accomplish the common goals you’ve laid out. Here’s a few ideas to keep in mind.

Gen Coates is a Community Manager at Radian6. Find her @genevievecoates.

comScore research has shown that more than 90% of business purchase processes begin with someone typing some keywords into their favorite search engine. In the US, 65% of the time that is Google, but increasing, Microsoft is responsible for serving those results through both Bing and Yahoo, with 31% of US search volume.

So back to the question at hand. How do your connections influence your search results? That depends who you ask. Let’s start with Google.

What happens if you Google the phrase “How do my social connections affect my search results?”

The first result is a Rand Fiskin article on SEOmoz, one of the leading SEO resource sites on the web, called Social Annotations in Search: Now Your Social Network = Rankings. The article shows several examples of search results and what appears at the top of the results based on connections. Not only does he look at the serious and competitive category of web analytics, but also cupcakes.

The second result is from Google+ Webmaster FAQs and, among many other things, it describes how the Google +1 button affects search results. Since this is an FAQ page for site publishers, it answers the question of what happens when people click the +1 button on your site. That page is more likely to show up in the search results of their connections. And the search results indicate who in your network clicked +1.

Now that Google+ is open to everyone, more people will be connecting their social networks, and their entire social graph, to their Google account. Social influencing search just got bigger.

How about asking the same question on Bing? “How do my social connections affect my search results?”

The first result is from a New Delhi SEO blog. Without knowing much about this firm, I would guess they have cracked the code on Bing search results, because this is not a site that normally tops the list of SEO experts. The second and third results are the same as Google: the SEOmoz article and the +1 FAQs. I was surprised that I didn’t get any results describing Bing’s integration with the Facebook social graph.

It turns out that you have to connect Facebook to Bing for the social connections to work, but I didn’t see much difference in my search results after doing that. The top results didn’t change. In this instance, social search did not provide much value on Bing, but it is coming.

Two Business Takeaways

• First, if you are responsible for making business purchases, it makes sense to connect online with industry colleagues, so their online endorsements can provide better recommendations within your search results.
• Second, if you are looking to spread your company message, again connect with industry colleagues to increase the likelihood that these connections will see what you have shared and liked.

Have you seen your social connections appearing in your search results? Have your search results gotten more relevant as social search grows?

1.) Conferences

Conferences across the world – large or small, packed or more reserved, advanced or fundamental – are the perfect spots for connecting. You’ll meet new, like-minded people enjoying the educational purpose of your industry event. And while exchanging business cards is still mainstream, bumping with your iPhone and sharing Twitter handles are quickly becoming commonplace.

Consider the next step of your relationship with your new connection. Will you email? Tweet? Connect on LinkedIn? Nevertheless, the sooner you establish your next connection the better in order to be remembered and grow the new relationship.

2.) QR Codes

Mobile technology is booming and QR Codes (image above) are a great way to take the offline experience online. With QR codes, you scan the unique code on packaging or an advertisement and get access to more information online. It enables you to gather insights and engage with consumers on their terms. From a peer-to-peer perspective, a personal QR code serves as the new business card. More and more conferences are including QR codes on event badges and even wristbands.

Hubspot has some additional recommendations in their blog post about ways to bring the offline consumer online.

3.) Multifaceted

A great way to establish and grow connections is to be convenient. No matter how your new contact wants to connect – phone, email, Google Plus, Twitter, Skype, etc. – you’re readily available with a username, handle, address or number to share. Make it easy for the person to connect with you. If you have a preferred method and have the opportunity to reach out first, consider using that platform initially to establish the relationship. Another option is to ask your new contact how they like to connect and use that method to reach out next.

What ways to do connect online and off? What tactics have worked for you? Do you see the world going more online than offline in the future?

When we say that your employees are your brand, we mean in it in every angle possible. It’s not just about encouraging the relationship between customers or prospective customers, but with possible new hires. Why is this? Because your employees know your internal culture. They are in the office doing the jobs day in and day out and are going to be the people that understand many of the roles within your organization. So use it to your advantage.

Let’s think about it this way. If you have a small business of 40 employees and you are looking to hire 5 new people, you could go through all the normal channels (which is always a good idea) but you could also encourage your employees to help identify candidates. Even if your employees have just 200 social connections and only half of them pass it on to their networks, your 5 job postings will already be off to a good start with 4,000 possible views.

The other bonus? If your employees share these postings on their social channels, chances are they’re reaching active participants in the social community. If you have started your social enterprise journey, these candidates could have some great familiarity with these channels to make them strong candidates for roles that emphasize growth, sharing and networking.

So what things can you keep in mind to help your employees spread the word? Here are a few:

Create a hub
A job listing page with all the pertinent information is a informal call to action and a place of reference for the posting.

Encourage sharing
Highlight the new job postings via email updates or by using your internal communication software so your employees are always in the know.

Consider a reward
Maybe it’s not monetary, but even a simple “thank you” or recognition for helping the company grow can encourage employees to help in the hiring process.

What ways are you using your current employees to share your company’s growth? What road blocks have you hit along the way and how have you overcome them?

Should you empower existing employees to tackle social media or should you hire outside expertise? And when picking outside talent, does it make sense to bring in a social media rockstar to jumpstart your program and share their influence? There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these scenarios.

Promote from Within (or the Build Model)

Many marketing and communications professionals have already been dabbling in social media either on their own time or on an experimental basis for their companies. Frequently these are the employees who volunteer, or are selected in a random drawing, to become the first social media employee. Whether they get a title change, job description change, or just added social responsibilities, this is the most common first foray into an expanding social media presence.

1. Already has product knowledge
The biggest advantage of building your social media team from within is that your new team member is already up to speed on product knowledge, industry information, and top customer needs. This goes a long way towards creating remarkable content that provides value to followers, prospects, and customers.

2. Understands internal organization
New employees struggle to find internal information, because even if they can figure out the right questions, they don’t know who to ask. If the new social media person wants to shoot a video with a product manager, they already know who they are, where they sit and if they will participate in the video.

3. Already represents company
Many employees have an online profile that ties them to their company, whether it is a LinkedIn profile or a Twitter handle. People represent their companies both online and offline, so it is an easy transition for someone to begin to officially represent the company in the company’s online presence.

Why not build?
A long-time employee with product knowledge and an understanding of how things are done can get caught up in the “how we’ve always done things” mindset and not approach social media with a fresh perspective. Starting a social media program requires doing things differently and thinking about things differently when communicating with customers and prospects. Whether it is listening online, engaging in conversations, or creating and sharing content, the old ways of product and company-focused communications don’t cut it.

Hire the Rockstar (or the Buy Model)
The social media rockstar brings instant credibility to a company when they move into the social space. This is frequently someone who has been practicing social media on their own, or for a high profile company, and yielded successful and public results. They blog, speak at conferences, and might even have written a book.

1. Big announcement of new team member or leader
It is with great fanfare that the social media rockstar’s new position is announced. No matter if they are the first social media position, or brought in as a team leader, there is plenty of online chatter after they update their blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook with their new job. The company gets some attention as they are mentioned in those updates.

2. Leverage their connections
Two key elements required in the success of social media are a large network and connections with influencers. Hire an A-List blogger and suddenly their following is following you and your company has access to other A-List bloggers. Some social media rockstars are comfortable leveraging their networks and their connections for their new company, but not all are. They are more willing to do so if their network is related to your industry.

3. Build upon their expertise
Social media rockstars should know what they are doing and that’s why you hired them. Look to take advantage of programs they have successfully implemented to reduce the learning curve. They might have to learn everything about the products, your company and your industry, so make sure you can build on their previous work and experience.

Why not buy?
Someone who has spent time building a personal brand as an expert may have a hard time coming into an organization as just another employee. They need to feel that their expertise can really be used and appreciated. Different people are motivated by different things, so it is good to understand why your rockstar wants to join your team. Don’t expect your rockstar to stay with you long term. There is always another bigger opportunity waiting for them.

The decision to go with an internal candidate or an external rockstar may depend on your company culture or your industry. Are you looking to ramp up immediately to create some first mover advantage, or do you have the time to leisurely grow your online presence? Will it take longer for your rockstar to learn the product or for your communicator to learn social media? The answers to these and other questions, you help can determine which approach is right for your company.

If you have recently started or expanded a social media team, or are in the planning process, which approach did you take?

This was a brand’s journey to the social enterprise.

A brand is made up of a team of people, and success can stem from strong employees. They are your faces – including your eyes, ears and voice – especially when it comes to the social web. They can help your company evolve and they can tell your company’s story. While there are many attributes of strong social talent, storytelling is a unique trait that can break through the sea of sameness and leave your audience with a memorable experience. By having strong storytellers, you can elevate your brand.

Social media starts and ends with people.

The social web is a place where people share with other people and conversation is king. This is the perfect setting for storytelling. As your brand engages, consider sharing customer or business stories and frame it in a way that’s inviting and interesting.  Olivia Coleman’s recent blog post on storytelling in social media notes, “Social media is about people, and people crave personal stories that aren’t necessarily wholly focused on the product, but rather on the people behind the product and their desire to create value together with their customers.”

Social media is about transparency.

The idea of storytelling can be contrived as fairytale. The concept is to be honest. In a post by Dave Thomas about social media etiquette fails, the underlying theme was honesty. Be honest about the people behind your social media presence, the community members you engage with and the promises you make. From the start, you can share honest stories about your brand that bring an intimate and personable side to your company. How did you start out? What have you done to get here? Relate to your listeners.

Social media is about sharing.

Content on social media is more rampant than the love for vampires when the Twilight series came out. The good news is, much like the love of vampires in tweens and teens, content is shared amongst many. As you tell stories in unique ways that connect on an emotional or educational level, your content will become more sharable. That equals more exposure for your brand. “Stories are meant to be shared. If we like a story, we share it with others, instinctively,” notes Gaurav Mishra on his post, Three Reasons why Storytelling is Key to Social Media Success.

Storytelling is not just the fluff. Don’t be afraid to tie business goals and sales into your stories. While not all should be driven by those conductors, there are certain audiences and social platforms, such as LinkedIn, that have more of a business focus and would welcome such content.

As our final chapter concludes, the social enterprise approaches as you grasp your new social plan – storytelling. Continue to take on the adventure. You’re ready for it!

How do you incorporate storytelling into your brand content? Does your social talent own those storytelling skills? Share your thoughts!

Ever wonder about the faces on the Radian6 materials and website? Who are they? Are they modeled after real people? Do they bear a striking resemblance to someone you know? Well, pretty soon you will get to know them. We’re starting a series that looks into their lives, experiences and challenges on the social web. They will share their personal insights on what works (and doesn’t work) when it comes to the social world. So without further adieu, we introduce Karen.

Hi, I’m Karen, I’m a mother, wife and heavy duty multi-tasker. While my family does come first, I’m incredibly passionate about my work. I’m a Communication Manager by day and at night, I spend time with my family. In the late hours, I catch up on some of my favourite blogs. I love reading posts from other moms and hearing how they tackle sticky parenting situations. When I have any free time, I go for a run to clear my mind and get refreshed.

Right now, I work at a company called Yummy Yummy Treats which sells 72 varieties of chocolates at 30 individual stores. I love working here because I love chocolate and the people are pretty great too. While the stores span the country, each one has its own unique feel and has become a part of their local communities.

As Community Manager, I recently decided we needed to start working on social media engagement. We have decided to create a company blog where our various bakers can provide tips, share recipe ideas, discuss nutritional information and engage with our communities. We decided to start with a blog because the work can be easily shared by all the locations. I am able to spend the time responding to comments and getting the posts up and it is a platform that our employees feel most comfortable engaging in. We will hopefully roll our engagement out to other social media platforms as we go.

We want to come up with a way to measure and track the success of the blog based not only on what we think our goals should be, but in a way that will allow us to compare to our competitors and other similar industry blogs.

I started with the accepted metrics used when doing analysis on a blog.

• Post views
• Post comments
• Post shares
• Subscribers
• Relationships

Before we even dive into all the measurement we want to do on our own blog, we want to set a benchmark for comparison.  We’ve selected 5 blogs that are similar to the one we would like to create. The big thing we want to tackle is how to set that benchmark. Here are metrics to gauge when looking at these other blogs.

• Review the number of follower and see how that number grows.
• Track the number of comments.
• Try to determine how much is shared on various social outlets either through a monitoring platform or by looking for a trackback count on the blog itself.
• Look back to the first two months of posts to determine potential comments and engagement at the outset.

Anything we could add? What else should we look at? Is this information enough for us to set goals for our blog? Do you think what we have here will cover everything? I’m excited to share ideas and get feedback. Until next time!

Note: Characters are in fact fictional; any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental. Yummy Yummy Chocolates, unfortunately, does not exist.

A recent National Public Radio story highlighted the value of innovation in driving business success in a down economy. In the post, Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School shared her concerns that companies and investors are worried about the economy and have become even more risk averse than usual in these difficult economic times.

“Companies, for example, claim they want innovation,” Kanter said. “I sometimes talk to them and they say, ‘We want more innovation, just not that idea or that idea, not that idea.’ To have high levels of innovation, you need more people trying more things even if they fail.”

I’ve had quite a few conversations with corporate managers and executives about integrating social media into the enterprise. It’s not uncommon for them to ask, ‘How will we know if our efforts are having an impact?’ This gets us back to the perennial ROI issue I’ve discussed before. It’s crucial to tie your social media efforts to your bottom-line business objectives and do the hard work to understand how they are working for you. But there are no guarantees, and no fast track to instant success.

You have to be willing to accept some risk.

I’ve had several execs ask me up front to guarantee that their social media efforts would be successful, and by successful, they meant ‘money making from day one.’ No ramp up, just straight to ROI. What else works like that in business? By all means, develop an ROI focus. Do the hard work of linking your social media activities to business objectives. Develop an internal culture of rigorous analysis, testing and continuous improvement. But to get to ROI, you need to experiment:

• Try different approaches, different channels and networks, different value propositions.
• Find where your target audience is engaging and find the content and approach that they want to hear from you.
  
• Track your efforts to see how they convert.
  
• Be willing to make mistakes. Just like in life, that’s how you learn.

You can start small.

In these difficult economic times, no company has resources to burn, or underutilized people sitting around looking for something to do. You don’t have to hire a social media team, or even a social media manager. Find that one marketing or communications person inside your company who is champing at the bit to do more with social, and talk to her about adding one social media campaign to the next marketing initiative. Then see how it goes. Companies that fear innovation stagnate, and eventually die. Social media provides an opportunity to innovate with a minimal investment and a possibility for significant return. In these difficult economic times, it can be one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to innovate.

How does innovation affect your bottom line? As with this month’s theme, consider the metrics you use to gauge innovation and share. This post is also featured on our Facebook page.

So what is DR4WARD’s school of thought about social media etiquette? Open your books and read on.

As a devoted professor of social media practice, what inspired you to get where you are today?
I’ve always enjoyed learning, sharing, and discovering what’s next. I started my first business selling night crawlers at nine so I used this experience and my 4Ward Philosophy of looking ahead when I first got into Social Media out of necessity.

I took the first student delegates to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2007 as part of a Study Abroad Program I developed. I helped several students to receive scholarships to attend. One of the requirements to receive the scholarships was that the students needed to share their experience daily during the conference by posting to a blog. I had to learn to blog to teach the students.

While attending Cannes Lions in 2008 we needed a way to stay in touch with each other during the conference in real time. There are many great seminars and workshops at Cannes Lions occurring simultaneously and we needed a way to share what we were learning. I thought Twitter was a great way to accomplish this so we became one of the first to live Tweet from Cannes Lions.

It seems like teaching and engaging with your students enabled you to see the value to social media. What does social media practice mean to you today?
Using Social Media, we were able to share with each other as we learned from the best industry pros in the world. Social Media enabled us to share with students, colleagues and alumni back in the U.S. The students and I experienced the potential of Social Media to become part of a teaching and learning paradigm shift as the world literally became our classroom.

I see Social Media practice as continuous learning and collaboration. To have credibility I need to practice what I preach so I have open, transparent, socially interactive classes in real time. Social Media continues to help my students learn and collaborate with each other and with the best thinkers from around the world.

You created a great presentation on social etiquette (thanks for letting us share it!). Why do you feel social media etiquette is important?
Social Media Etiquette is a requirement for 21st century digital literacy and a necessary part of being connected in the global marketplace. Social Media Etiquette is crucial to getting and keeping a job today. Using Social Media incorrectly can get you fired and not using it can ensure you do not get hired in the first place.

More and more, students and the general public are exposed only to the negative impact that Social Media has on our culture: scandals in the government, corporate mis-steps, and cultural insensitivity, and too much personal sharing. Students and professionals need to realize that their personal and professional lives are no longer separate with Social Media. I want to teach them how to use Social Media correctly to build trust and professional credibility.

What is the most important takeaway when it comes to social media etiquette?
Just because a reality TV star says something, doesn’t mean that someone who wants a job at a professional organization should be sharing it. The context for a personal comment can be easily misunderstood or harshly judged. When in doubt, don’t post it.

Social Media is not private communication. It is a professional communication and networking tool that requires strategy since it can be seen by everyone around the world instantly.

Social Media Etiquette doesn’t happen overnight, it requires training and thoughtfulness, and a willingness to consider multiple perspectives.

Do you have any advice for businesses regarding social media etiquette?
Overall, businesses (and Higher Educations) do a poor job of Social Media training. There is a talent, training, and social media crisis due to a lack of training. According to a 2010 Manpower Survey only 29% of companies have a formal Social Media Policy. It should not be any great surprise that with a lack of training and no Social Media Policy, we have etiquette problems.

My advice for businesses is to provide Social Media training, have a Social Media policy, create incentives and provide measurement and monitoring. Management needs to lead by example and practice what they preach by using Social Media. They also need to provide incentives and reward employees for using Social Media well. Larry Page, CEO of Google has it correct by tying employee bonuses and compensation to how well Google does with Social Media. I have to monitor students’ use of Social Media, give them detailed instructions, provide feedback, and give them incentives (a grade). It is surprising how many companies don’t do this.

How should etiquette be implemented across integrated marketing communications?
Social Media etiquette needs to be included in cross training across business silos and integrated across all marketing communications. It should be both external facing (B2C and B2B) and part of an internal enterprise tool. Done correctly, it will create a cultural shift to a more dynamic, open, and fully engaged organization.

What’s next for you in the world of social media? A Google Plus study? A book? A trip to Twitter headquarters?
I’m looking forward to my new role as the Social Media Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. I enjoy learning about new tools and technology, but even more, I like to watch the change that a student goes through after making professional connections on Social Media and seeing their hard work pay off. They are often surprised by how quickly they get positive feedback, and I look forward to each semester to see what job offers the students will get through their Social Media connections.

My goal is to help individuals, business, and Higher Education understand and embrace the cultural shift that Social Media makes possible. Classrooms are as big as we allow them to be. Keeping up with change and innovation requires constant hands-on experimentation. I want to create a sense of fun and adventure to help people be fearless in trying new things and by seeing trial and error as part of the learning experience.

-30-

We want to thank DR4WARD for spending time with us. Hopefully you’re inspired by his school of thought. Do you have any social media etiquette thoughts to share? What is your point of view on social media etiquette and Higher Education? Raise your hands!

Byron Gordon from the SES YouTube Conference Channel chatted with Mari Luangrath, owner and head cupcakeologist of Foiled Cupcakes, about their their business model.

As Mari notes in the video, it’s not easy to find the cupcake eater audience (I don’t know about you, but I sparingly sport my “I love cupcakes” t-shirt). Therefore, developing a community upfront creates the opportunity for interest, trust and new customers.

Social media was the hinge Foiled Cupcakes’ virtual doors. The shop utilized social media to research the market and build relationships for months before baking a single cupcake. That way, when their site went live and the ovens blazed, an existing community was there to take the cupcakes from their racks. And it didn’t stop there. A post by 435 Digital noted some socially-staggering numbers about the tasty shop.

• Revenue exceeded 2010 projections by 600 percent
• 93 percent of all sales came from social media
• 30 percent of sales were from Facebook
• At least 50 percent of sales came through Twitter

Besides the cupcakes themselves, for Foiled Cupcakes, their success lies in their research, relationship development and their etiquette with customers to keep relationships strong.

Mari Luangrath shared a few words with us. “I honestly think that social media etiquette is no different from real world etiquette. If someone says something nice to you, would you acknowledge that with a ‘thank you’ or an authentic return compliment, or ignore it? One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten regarding social media etiquette was,  ‘If it’s something you’d feel comfortable saying at a cocktail party among friends, then it’s probably appropriate to say on social media.’”

How has social media etiquette influenced your business? Do you use it on a daily basis? And most importantly, what is your favorite Foiled Cupcake flavor?