Yesterday, Genevieve presented some ideas on how to find your social media influencers in real life. Once you’ve found your influencers, the next question becomes, “how do you connect with them?” To give you a starting point, here are 30 ways to engage your social media influencers:

1. Ask your influencers questions

2. Ask them to guest blog

3. Comment on your influencers’ blog posts

4. Share their content with your social networks

5. +1 and like influencer posts

6. Link to their content in your blog posts

7. Ask to cross-post influencer content on your corporate blog

8. Make introductions

9. Ask for introductions

10. Give your influencers a shout out on your social networks

11. Invite your influencers to a Tweetup

12. Invite them to participate in a Google+ hangout or webinar

13. Ask them to provide feedback on your brand or product

14. Make changes based on your influencer feedback

15. Provide feedback on influencer content

16. Reward them with exclusive content or offers

17. Host an event to show them your appreciation

18. Give them a sneak peak of a new product or service

19. Thank them

20. Connect with your influencers on other networks

21. Ask an influencer to be your brand’s spokesperson

22. Invite them to collaborate on campaigns

23. Offer to work together to author or co-author an ebook

24. Ask your influencers to host a Twitter Chat

25. Host an event panel and invite your influencers to participate

26. Do a blog or video interview with an influencer

27. Engage with your influencers as people, not prospects

28. Ask them for advice on brand or industry topics

29. Add your influencers to a Google+ circle and share it with your community

30. Create a Pinterest board with your favorite influencer content

These are a few ways to reach out to and engage with your influencers that can easily be incorporated into your existing social media strategy. Start with one or two and go from there to find the approach that fits best with your brand and your community.

How are you currently engaging with your social media influencers? What suggestions can you add to the above list? For more tips on engaging your influencers, be sure to check out chapter 3 of our latest ebook, Win Over Your Industry’s Social Media Influencers.

Note under Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, any relationship where payment or other compensation is received for an endorsement or testimonial must be fully disclosed. You can read more about full disclosure and what it means here.

This month’s ebook, Win Over Your Industry’s Social Media Influencers, will help you build a strategy for connecting with those who are influential in your industry. It will also guide you to becoming influential yourself! Here’s a snippet from the ebook.

How to Win Over Your Influencers

Reciprocation – If you give first, it’s easier to take. Giving can come in many forms. Offer freebies, insider information or exposure in exchange for a mention, feedback, participation, etc. Blog, link to or tweet about an influencer before you solicit their involvement in your endeavor. Tweet

Commitment and Consistency – Try to find a quote the influencer has already published indicating their love for your brand or support for your cause. Since they’ve publicly stated their opinion, their conscience will encourage them to remain consistent with their words, increasing the likelihood of following through with your request. Tweet

Social Proof – We learn the norm from the actions of others around us. If any of your influencers’ connections or other industry players have participated in your effort, call it out. Another way to provide social proof is with numbers; for example: “18 others are participating. We need 7 more and were hoping you’d be one.” Tweet

Liking – People do business with those they know, like and trust. Make communications personal. Be enthusiastic. The closer you can draw a personal connection to your target, the more willing they might be to take part. Tweet

Authority – In order to recruit authoritative supporters, you have to be authoritative yourself. Establish credibility as an organization or individual by using proper spelling and grammar, professional language, linking to success stories, etc. Tweet

Scarcity – The thought of missing out incites action. Offer a limited-time sneak preview, limited-edition product or service, or limited quantity. Tweet

This list is inspired by the six weapons of influence discussed in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, authored by renowned professor, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini.

Do you have an influencer strategy? How do you engage with influencers? Would you consider yourself influential? Check out the ebook.

In the same way a novel or memoir draws a reader in, there are certain qualities about social media that make it memorable and engaging. This inspired me to come up with 25 ways social media is like a good book:

1. They offer an escape

2. Both tell a story

3. Both have a cast of characters

4. They can cause sleepless nights

5. They can be enjoyed repeatedly

6. They are easily shared

7. They inspire conversation

8. They are open to interpretation

9. Both evoke emotion

10. Both can be controversial

11. They bring people together

12. They influence change

13. They can make us feel less alone

14. They are archived

15. They can be translated into any language

16. They can be long-winded or short and sweet

17. Both benefit from a good title

18. Both can have multiple authors

19. They should be reviewed before publishing

20. They should be well researched

21. They can be educational

22. They are portable

23. They encourage word of mouth

24. They can cover any topic

25. They can leave you wanting more

While books and social media can speak to each of us for different reasons, the above qualities are universally shared. Use these points as inspiration when approaching your own social media strategy and you might find yourself with a best seller!

What other similarities can you add to this list? Feel free to share your thoughts. While you’re at it, see our latest ebook for great ways to use social media in 2012.

Pin It

Social networking site Pinterest has exploded in popularity over the past year. Despite being an invite-only social media community, Pinterest saw a 4,000% increase in site visits in just six months and reached over 4 million active users in the latter half of 2011, according to The Next Web. While Pinterest began as a community for individual users, retailers are beginning to recognize its potential. Etsy, the popular online marketplace for small businesses, recently made headlines by incorporating the “Pin It” button on its listings pages.

If you’re a retailer looking for inspiration, here are 5 ways you can leverage Pinterest:

1. Button It

Even if your brand isn’t currently on Pinterest, you can make it easy for your community to share your content. Take a page from Etsy and add the “Pin It” button to your website and blog, alongside your other social sharing buttons. You can also include a custom image to make your content more Pinterest-friendly, like we did above!

2. Search for Mentions

As with any other social media site, your content is probably already being shared. Do a quick search of your brand to see what types of pins show up. You can also find out what content people have pinned from your website by adding, “/source/” and your website address to the Pinterest homepage URL. For example, if we want to look at what content people have shared from Mashable, we can enter http://pinterest.com/source/mashable.com.

3. Find Trends

Pinterest is the perfect place to see a real time visual representation of what’s trending. The site allows you to sort pins by category, including Design, Food & Drink, Apparel, and Technology. Depending on what kind of retailer you are, you can easily identify what products in your category seem to be most popular and use it to your advantage.

4. Start Pinning

If you are new to Pinterest, start by thinking about what inspires you as a brand. Bergdorf Goodman has some creative boards that showcase the brand’s personality, such as “The Books on our Shelves.” They also do a great job of presenting their own products in a helpful way, with boards themed around clothing trends and holiday gifts. Just keep in mind that blatant self-promotion is frowned upon, so be sure to share a healthy mix of content.

You can also add other users as contributors to your boards. For example, allow employees to add pins to your boards to make them more engaging and personable.

5. Campaigns

Once you become more comfortable, find creative ways to leverage Pinterest for your campaigns. For its “Pin It to Win It” contest, Lands’ End asked fans to create boards with their favorite Land’s End products for the chance to win a $250 gift card. As mentioned above, Pinterest discourages self-promotion, so the key is encouraging your community to promote your brand for you.

These are a few tips for how you can leverage Pinterest for your retail brand, but the possibilities are endless. As Pinterest continues to grow in popularity with brands and consumers alike, we can expect to see more creative uses of this social sharing platform.

Do you have any other suggestions on how retailers can use Pinterest? Have you seen other campaigns from brands that incorporate Pinterest? Feel free to share your thoughts below!

Click here for a great beginner’s guide to Pinterest from the folks at Mashable.

Your mother used to remind you that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Being a good social media listener will help you immensely in a crisis, allowing you to preserve — and even improve — your brand’s reputation.

Listen Before the Crisis

Emergencies are no time to develop basic listening skills. Start now. If your brand earns the reputation of being a good listener who takes care of its customers, you’ll have a backup reservoir of trust to tap into when the crisis hits.

Beforehand, look for channels to use for crisis outreach. Where does your community hang out: Twitter, Facebook, or on industry forums? Also identify and build relationships with key influencers who can amplify your response.

Social media can alert you to potential issues before they escalate. For example, community news sites around your facilities could help you prepare for the windstorm that could knock out a server farm. You’d be able to warn your customers of impending downtime.

Monitoring social media can shut down many crises before they get off the ground. You can deal promptly with an upset customer or rogue employee before the issue gets posted on The Consumerist.

Listen During the Crisis

During a crisis, monitor relevant conversations. What kind of volume and sentiment are you dealing with? Which people and which sites are critical of your brand? Knowing about the 5,000 angry posts on your Facebook wall will help you respond quickly and sensitively.

Last July 13, a massive hailstorm hit Denver, taking 22 of Frontier Airline’s planes out of commission. Our case study described how frustrated customers idled in long lines at the Frontier counters and even longer wait times on their toll-free reservation lines.

Marco Toscano, Frontier Senior Manager of Social Media, saw this as the perfect chance for his department to assist the reservations group by providing information and flight re-accommodations.

The team tracked down mentions of Frontier across the social web and reached out to re-book flights, spread updates, and let their customers know they were there to help.

One of the 4,000 thankful customers they helped tweeted, “Another reason to fly @flyfrontier their @FrontierCare booked me a new ticket in 10 min rather than the insane line at airport. Awesome!”

Monitoring social media will help you see the crisis from your customers’ perspective, shaping your language and adjusting your priorities.

Listen After the Crisis

Don’t stop listening just because the latest crisis has passed. You need to be aware of unresolved issues and lingering frustrations that need to be fixed. Don’t just passively listen: ask.

Monitor social media for sentiment around your brand, comparing levels before, during and after the crisis. Is your stock beginning to rise again? If not, why not?

You’ll find your community will be very understanding about your brand, and even make excuses for you, if you’re apologetic and transparent throughout. Tell your community what you’ve learned from the crisis and what you’re changing in response to it.

Finally, open up and ask your fans for their ideas. Listen for their insights into how your brand can make them happy again.

The Result: A Bonding Opportunity

Listening can turn a crisis into a bonding experience with your community. If you bring your community into the circle, they’ll feel like this is “our crisis” instead of just your crisis (or worse: just theirs.) After all, what better way to build lifelong trust than spending some time in the trenches together?

What crisis communications pointers would you give others? What works well for your brand? Learn more about crisis management in this month’s ebook, 30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan.

You’ve read social media comparisons before but when it comes to strategy, have you ever stopped to think about social networks are like your crazy ex? Both had you enamored at first, and then you realized how much time and effort it was going to take to keep things going. Thrilling, exhilarating and sometimes a little scary, here are 20 ways social media is like your crazy ex:

1. Neither should be left unattended
2. Both require plenty of attention
3. Ignoring them can be a really bad idea
4. You don’t want to mess with them when you’re drunk
5. You probably shouldn’t leave your kids alone with them
6. They can be totally addicting
7. They can feed your ego
8. They can build you up
9. They can tear you down
10. They can be fickle
11. They can give you a false sense of security
12. They can make you fall in love with them
13. They can drive you a little crazy
14. Both can be exciting
15. They’re accessible 24/7
16. You remember exactly what drew you to them in the first place
17. They can surprise you in unexpected ways
18. You should have a plan before you approach them
19. Both should be monitored
20. Much like your crazy ex, you shouldn’t rely on social media for all your needs

Though this post was meant to poke fun, social media for business is no joke. Like any relationship, the ones you have cultivated through social networks and new media require nurturing in order to be successful and stand the test of time.

What made you fall in love with social media? Has your relationship with social media grown and gotten better over time or are you frustrated and leaning toward a break-up? What would you add to this list?

After attending some great events in 2011 and talking to thought leaders in social media for the financial industry, I’ve put together five of the highest regarded social media events for financial services of 2012. Besides, you’ll likely see Radian6 at nearly all of these!

1. The 10th annual Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference, The New Landscape: Social Business, Mobile, Analytics, Modern Technology, gets you started on your social media journey. From IT to marketing, this event is worth penciling into your busy schedule. Take in tons of informative sessions covering all of the latest technology trends for insurance providers. Learn how social communications is changing the insurance industry, and the best practices and best tools to excel in social media, and understand how the next level of analytics tools can help leverage your data. The conference will be held March 5 at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto, Ontario.

2. If you’re a member of the banking community who wants to build a better banking industry with the future of social media in mind, you’ll definitely want to attend Bank Innovation 2012. This is an elite, invitation-only gathering of financial services providers banking ovation today. The event will explore new ideas, products and strategies that will shape the future of banking. The two-day conference, presented by the Bank Innovation blog and social network, is held March 28-29, 2012 at the W Hotel in San Francisco. 

3.The Financial Blogger Conference (FinCon) is a three-day conference designed to bring together the best of the financial blogging community. Over 25% of the personal finance blog-o-sphere will be attending Financial Blogger Conference in Denver Sept 6-9, 2012 for networking and sharing ideas.

4.FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Conference is bustling with securities representatives, compliance officers, lawyers and marketing folks from brokerage firms and branch offices all over the United States. The two-day event will be jam packed with concurrent sessions covering advertising, compliance, sales practices and social media. The conference is held at the trendy Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington D.C., Oct. 25-26.

5.The Business Development Institute’sFinancial Services Social Communications 2012: Case Studies and Roundtables, will once again house some excellent presentations by industry thought leaders for financial services marketing and communications professionals looking to embark on social media. The conference will be held at the City University of New York on November 15.

It’s going to be an exciting, innovative year for the financial services industry! Hope to see you there.

Do you know any must-attend social media events for financial services to add to our list?

This week we’ve shared the crowdsourced results of the question, “What is the biggest social media disrupter of 2011?” Here’s the final installment with more great opinions, ideas and even insights for 2012.

Tom Webster, VP of Strategy, Edison Research

I haven’t written about this much, but I think Google+ will eventually be a big disrupter. For what it’s worth, I’ve posted 15,000 times on Twitter and have 6,500 followers. I’ve posted about 50 times on Google+, yet I seem to have over 3,000 followers, and not as much Twitter duplication as I would have thought. So, something is bubbling up there. Yes, it’s about as much fun as a spreadsheet, but you can’t ignore its tight integration with the rest of the Google suite of apps. It’s also a much more natural place for businesses to stake out a social space (I don’t want a lot of brands and products mucking up my Facebook page) and Google is but an algorithm tweak away from making the +1 a more integral component to social scoring and its importance to search rankings. If that happens, there might just be a Google+ “lock-in” for businesses, or a DOJ case, or both.

Jim Tobin, President, Ignite Social Media

My biggest disrupter of 2011 is the decline of GroupOn and the clones. It seemed at one point that GroupOn, LivingSocial and the like would take over the world, but social media is much more than social coupons, and building a business is much more than 50% off promotions. Plus the barrier to entry is relatively low (sales force + email list). Social commerce, when it’s mature, will be about group purchasing of real products at very good, but reasonable discounts. And social media marketing will continue to be about finding ways to help your fans market for you.

Christopher S. Penn, Director of Inbound Marketing at WhatCounts

Here’s the disrupter that isn’t a disrupter on the surface: social media ROI. We’ve gone from almost no discussion and search of it to it reaching a fever pitch this year. The increased discussion on the topic means that we’ve left the niche audience crowd and now even the most insulated of executives is demanding not only social participation, but real results.

Michael Brito, SVP, Social Business Planning, Edelman Digital

The social customer has certainly disrupted business. The recent issue with Netflix and Bank Of America proves that the social customer has not only gained influence, but they are forcing business to change the way they operate, communicate and innovate. The difference between Netflix and BofA is pretty simple. BofA listened to the community and decided NOT to increase their prices for debit card usage. Netflix is sticking to their guns despite losing over 800,000 customers and their stock price declining and declining and declining…

Kipp Bodnar, Inbound Marketing, HubSpot

In 2011 Netflix was the ultimate distrupter. Not for the mistakes they made, but instead for making the hard choice to double down on video stream at the expense of alienating customers in the short-term. Netflix still hasn’t recovered, but they would have died an even slower and more painful death without the risk of disrupting the entire video content market.

Matthew T. Grant, Managing Editor, Marketing Profs

For me, the biggest social disrupter of 2011 was subscription music services like Spotify and MOG (the service I use). As someone who, at one point, was buying several CDs a week and then, later, continuously scouring the web for obscure mp3s, a service that allows me to listen to (almost) anything I want, whenever I want, and even download it to my phone for offline listening was a dream come true. It makes buying CDs, or even tracks from iTunes, seem primitive. When my 12-year old told me the other day he wanted to buy a CD, my first response was, “Why?” The fact that I can give friends immediate access to my playlists and preferences is a social bonus.

Bob Knorpp, host of The BeanCast

Instagram burst onto the scene in October 2010, and over the course of the next twelve months it redefined much of the way that we understand social content sharing. It provided not just a vivid glimpse into the lives of participants, but also an outlet for true artistic expression in which everyone, from novice to expert, could easily grasp and participate. It’s a model to which all social content efforts should pay attention, because it shows us that when we make it easy to express yourself, the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder is turned upside down and we can get widespread participation, rather than just inspiring an elite few.

Lauren Vargas, Community Management Strategist, Aetna

Forget Twitter and Facebook, this year we saw how BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) enabled members of a crowd to separate and come together like a school of fish without becoming disconnected. Influence is a hot topic for social media tool and measurement pundits, but we are only now rediscovering crowd influence and what it means to start and maintain a revolution in this digital world. We have to step up our game to listen across all channels online and offline and map these conversations to our organizations and the right responder.

Thanks to all our contributors! We’ve also received some great disrupters from our community. Keep it coming and share your ideas here.

As I shared in yesterday’s post, I asked a bunch of smart folks what they thought were the biggest social media disrupters of 2011. Here are more answers, still all over the map, and still helping to define the social media zeitgeist of 2011. Consider these answers as hints of where we’re going in 2012. Away we go to installment number two.

Tim Hayden, CMO, 44Doors

2012 will bring us the tipping point for a more ‘human’ way of communicating. Instant Voice Recognition (IVR) tools such as Apple’s Siri, and visual storytelling apps such as Instagram and Path, will all bring change to the way brands and consumers use social media. As mobile becomes more actionable and utilitarian, we will see text-based communication give way to technologies such as these.

David Alston, CMO, Radian6

To me the social disrupter of the year is “+1million.” Two years ago I remember commenting on a year end post about how amazing it was to see the growth in the number of people mentioning ‘social media’ in their Linkedin profile. I think the number had gotten up to 35,000 or so at that point. I just checked it again and it looks like it’s now over 1 million. It truly warms my heart to see this level of awareness and to see the term used in the context of a role within so many enterprises. Because amazingly, it was only four short years ago that if you asked to speak to the person in charge of social media that they would have no idea where to send you or even what you were talking about.

Tim Washer, Actor, Writer, Presbyterian

One of the most sound decisions I made this year was mitigating my losses to only $1.20 to watch “Friends with Benefits.” Yes, my nomination for 2011 disrupter is a vending machine.  But a vending machine that provides me with a more friendly customer experience than I ever received from my neighborhood Blockbuster (which, btw, is now a Supercuts). Redbox excels on two of my favorite of the four P’s – price and place. In the last two years, it has more than doubled the number of kiosks to 33,300, and will soon offer streaming. Blockbuster has dropped from 3,300 locations to 1,500. Never underestimate a strategy based on low price, convenience and robots.

Sean McDonald, SVP and Colony Master, Ant’s Eye View

My #1 social behavior faux pas was Reed Hastings (Netflix) business model communications. A few errors make this my #1: First, bad decision to change the business model that 23 million U.S. Subscribers love and use. I understand the internal business reasons and vision that Reed has shared in past about Netflix does not equal DVDs, but instead entertainment delivered via the net. Second, not reading the tea leaves when first announcing price increases and breaking business into two pieces (no excuse for not monitoring web mentions, comments, sentiment). The web is your immediate market research. Third, an apology that is hollow is not much of an apology. I remain a Netflix subscriber because the company did not split into two services, but I still am raw about Netflix. Does a company have a right to change its business model? Yes, but they also have to live with the consequences: 800,000 subscribers jumped ship and believe it will be harder to grow business when their market cap dropped 77% (2011: high of $305/share to $71/share Dec 20 close). What can Netflix learn for future; consider grandfathering existing customers that enjoy and pay for your services. Remember apologizing is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of humanity. We like to spend our money with humans: people who are real, like me. Only by apologizing can you expect forgiveness.

How do these disrupters affect you and your brand? How do you forsee them playing out in 2012? Share your thoughts and disrupters here and stay tuned for installment number three this week!

Every year is a big year in social media. Upheaval is the status quo. I thought it would be fun to ask a bunch of smart folks what they thought were the biggest social media “disrupters” of 2011. I intentionally kept the question vague. As you’ll see, I got answers that are all over the map, but all help define the social media zeitgeist of 2011 and contain hints of where we’re going in 2012. Here’s the first installment (of three to be shared throughout the week), in no particular order.

(Note: Some of these folks wear ten different hats and have five different jobs and wrote a book and host a podcast and speak and consult, and one may or may not hold the record for consuming the world’s largest pancake. I’ve gone with the simplest descriptor that makes sense.)

Jason Keath, President of SocialFresh

Spotify launched with as much fanfare as a new tech product can in the US. And it showed us what Facebook’s actions could really do. Want the world to know you are listening to the Pokemon soundtrack? No problem. Want to show your boss how much work you are doing by creating and publishing a new music playlist while at work? They’ve got you covered. And if you really hated forgetting about all those amazing 80′s songs you never listen to anymore, don’t worry; if your friends are anything like mine, they will flood your Facebook stream with these wonderful tunes.

Chris Brogan, President, Human Business Works

The biggest disrupter of 2011 has been the Occupy movement, and specifically UC Davis and the pepper spray. A jarring realization that the US as a police state appears to be on the rise, and that social has played a huge part in communicating the experiences people are having during this time.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

The biggest social “disrupter” in 2011 for me is Instagram. (Insta-rupt?) Why: You’ve no doubt seen the news that Instagram is the fastest-growing mobile-social network in… well, the history of mobile-social networks!  But what’s most interesting to me (and a key reason for its appeal and growth, I’m convinced) is less about its mobile-first Social-Location-Mobile (SoLoMo) characteristics, but because of the way that stories are part of the fabric of Instagram. In other words, it’s not about SoLoMo… it’s about SoLoMo-Sto’.

Instagram, at its core, allows you to tell stories visually, with a simplicity and immediacy mobile users expect. But at the same time, it adds another layer of elegance and artfulness, and that’s what makes its stories so appealing, and (for me) why it breaks new ground.

Paul Greenberg, CRM and SCRM author, consultant and speaker

The number one social disrupter in 2011 was the use of social channels, particularly Facebook, to propagate the revolutionary activity of Arab Spring. But make no mistake about one thing. The hype around this was ridiculous, crediting Facebook for its success. That is NOT the case. The value of Facebook was that it was able to provide the means to communicate to not only others in the struggles but also the world and was able to capture the support of the world. But it was the people of the varying Arab nations who were responsible for the government changes. Not Facebook. Too many people credited Facebook for it. Again, a channel used to support social change, not to create it.

Shel Holtz, Principal, Holtz Communication + Technology

You can’t talk about disrupters over the past year without looking at the train disaster in China and the impact citizen outrage, expressed over Chinese microblogging site Weibo, had on the government’s response. Officials figured they’d effectively inhibited any backlash by burying the train — reportedly with bodies still aboard. But this and other dimensions of the crisis were openly discussed by an angry public, leading authorities to address the crash more openly than they normally would. Now, China is going to require real names for Weibo accounts, but how long will it take for people to figure out a way around that — or a different system to use? Organizations can take a lesson from this: social media has intensified the notion that information routes around obstacles, and deliberate opacity in the face of a public event just isn’t an option any more.

What do you see as some of the top social media disrupters of 2011? Keep an eye on our blog for more opinions and thoughts throughout the week.

This month, we’ve provided you with lots of content around social media campaigns, from how-to’s on exceeding your campaign goals to connecting with the social consumer. With 2011 almost at a close, we wanted to end things on a reflective note. Here are four lessons for brands when it comes to social media campaigns, inspired by some real world examples from the past year.

1. If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Brands are always trying to push boundaries when it comes to their social media campaigns, but if your fans like what you’re doing, don’t feel like you need to change it up for the sake of doing something new. Old Spice first hit gold in 2010 with its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, featuring Isaiah Mustafa aka The Old Spice Guy, which inspired this series of personalized video responses to fan tweets. Fast forward to 2011 and we saw The Old Spice Guy and Fabio duke it out in the Mano a Mano campaign. While the premise was different, the format was the same, and fans loved it.

2. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

We tend to like those who can take a joke and poke fun at themselves, and brands can apply that same personality in their social media efforts. Miracle Whip is showing it has a sense of humour with its ongoing “Are You Miracle Whip?” campaign on YouTube in which celebrities and everyday people alike proclaim their love or hate of the famous sandwich spread. Viewers can have their say by clicking to love or hate Miracle Whip and leave their own comments, with the vote tallies displayed directly on the brand’s YouTube page. By keeping the campaign tongue-in-cheek, Miracle Whip strikes the right tone with both its fans and detractors.

3. Leverage Your Fans’ Creativity

Consumers are creating branded content all the time, giving brands an opportunity to leverage this creativity for their social media campaigns. Two fans of Natural Light were inspired to make it the first beer in space, and when the brand found out, it threw its support behind their endeavour, even polling its Facebook fans to name the spacecraft. Natty Light also asked if it could film the project, resulting in this YouTube video. The campaign created a lot of buzz for the brand and provided them with some great content, all a result of the ingenuity and efforts of two of its fans.

4. Champion a Cause

People feel good supporting a worthy cause, and social media campaigns that incorporate the issues brands are passionate about are a great way to catch the attention of fans. One example is Pizza Hut’s recent partnership with Zynga for the World Hunger Relief Campaign. The campaign drew on the existing popularity of games such FarmVille and CityVille by introducing exclusive items players could purchase for $5, with the proceeds going toward the World Food Programme. The reward gave players extra incentive to participate, raising awareness of word hunger and encouraging positive word of mouth about Pizza Hut and Zynga.

We hope the above examples have provided you with ample inspiration for your social media campaigns in 2012. If you need more ideas on creating a successful campaign strategy, be sure to check out our December eBook.

Do you have any other words of advice for brands looking to create a successful social media campaign? What other social media campaigns stood out for you in 2011 and why? Feel free to share your thoughts below!

Zoë Geddes-Soltess is a Community Engagement Specialist at Radian6, with a focus on Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail. You can follow her on Twitter at @zodot. Check out some of her other Radian6 posts here.

Consumers use social media to get the information they need quickly and efficiently. A quick scan of Facebook notifications. Skimming a Twitter feed. A two-minute LinkedIn group visit. Done, done and done.

In order to meet the needs of the fast-moving social consumer, your content – whether it’s an eBook, presentation, blog or something else – needs to be just as quick and efficient. But with all your great insights and educational information to share, how can you make it snappy? Here are some helpful (and quick) tips. And they’re all individually tweetable.

Grab their Attention

• Headlines: short, sweet and smart Tweet
• Tips, tricks and how-tos: write how users search Tweet
• Ready, set, GO! Summarize your purpose from the start Tweet

Get to the Point

• Share insights ASAP Tweet
• Put essential elements first Tweet
• Be clear and definitive Tweet

Support your Story

• Supporting information should follow in order of diminishing importance Tweet
• Ensure readers can stop anytime and still come away with the essence of a story Tweet
• Prove your points with internal and/or external expert links or quotes Tweet

By understanding the mentality and needs of your audience, you can effectively and successfully deliver content. Not only will your consumers enjoy reading it, but you’ll smile at the exposure and feedback that your content receives. And those are some tweetable results.

Learn more about social consumers in this month’s eBook and how to write effective content in this eBook. What other tips help make your content sing? How is your community responding to what you write?

Traditional media still has an important role to play. You’ll continue to see those Times Square billboards flashing day and night. But with social media as a growing medium, marketing and PR should consider the different ways to blend the online and offline space. Can billboards work with Facebook? How does television and Twitter work together?

Here are 10 simple ways to integrate social media into your traditional media efforts.

1. Use traditional media as a social driver. Use print, outdoor, radio and other traditional media to promote your social channels. Take it beyond including the Twitter and Facebook icons and add some information as to why consumers should join the social conversation. Do you have special offers? Contests? Helpful tips?
2. Converse in the traditional space. Could a customer’s pleasant comment on Facebook be your next headline? Use these positive mentions and comments as testimonials on your website, headlines, body copy, etc. It will excite the customers that wrote the message (ensure you get their permission) and demonstrate your great brand in a peer-to-peer format.
3. Use traditional media as the prize. Develop a contest on your social media channels. It could be photos, videos, telling a joke on the Facebook wall, etc. Showcase the winner in a TV spot, print ad or on your website. It will generate buzz in both the online and offline space.
4. Continue the story on social media. Traditional media may reach the masses, but you’re often limited in your print and billboard space or your television and radio running time. Capture the audience with your story using traditional media, but continue it online. Maybe it’s a web series or a series of blog posts. Intrigue consumers to find out more.
5. Be open for feedback. With social media, communication is two-way. Your audience can provide thoughts and opinions about your campaigns. Welcome them! Let traditional media spread your message while social media captures the feedback. Make sure to take those opinions into consideration as you modify your campaign efforts.
6. Promote online content. As experts in your industry, you likely have a lot of great content to share. Use blogs, eBooks, webinars and other online avenues to share this helpful content with your audience. Then, set aside part of your traditional media budget to promote the content. Paid search and online display advertising are perfect for this effort.
7. Redefine the landing page. Oftentimes your traditional media efforts use your website as the call-to-action. Much like point #1 above, that doesn’t have to be the case. If your campaign is about creating a conversation, welcoming feedback, encouraging the story to continue, etc., Facebook, Twitter or your blog might be a better landing page option.
8. Respond with traditional media. If you’re listening on the social web and you’re discovering some repeating complaints, engaging in social media is a great way to learn more and dispel any rumors. However, you can make your message louder by using traditional media. For instance, if you’re getting negative feedback on your customer service, use traditional media to talk about it. How are you solving the problem? This approach shows that you’re taking these complaints seriously.
9. Organize offline events with online media. Traditional media can also include conferences and events. Hold meetups, tweetups and presentations at your offices or conferences and promote them via your social channels.
10. Test with social media.  If you have a new product, campaign idea or service to share, consider tapping into social media. Use offline channels to promote it and gather feedback and insights from your fans on the social web. Let them know from the beginning that you’re looking for feedback so the conversation can start right away.

No matter which way you chose to integrate traditional with new media, make sure to continually engage with your social following. They are talking about your campaigns and would love to hear from you.

What other ways are you integrating social media into your traditional media efforts? How has social media changed the way you communicate with your audience? Learn more about integrating social media into successful campaigns with this month’s eBook.

Side note: Social media can fly solo with smart social strategies that have tremendous results. Even $500,000 worth! Let’s Get Ready! won second place in the Chase Giving Awards and took home $500,000, to help students obtain post secondary education. This was purely a social media effort by Viral Technologies and Let’s Get Ready! (See the case study.) Share your story with us on Twitter at @radian6.

The numbers are in. Techcrunch shared that the sales from yesterday’s Cyber Monday are up 30% from last year. While the increase could be due to consumers finding smart tips and tricks to hide the shopping from the boss, it’s more likely that businesses are seeing the value of this day and taking advantage of the opportunity. In fact, many brands use social media marketing and monitoring to promote their online sales, even non-retailers.

Big Brands, Small Businesses and Non-Retailers Use Social Media Strategy for Cyber Monday

• Pizza Hut shared a 20% off promotion via social media as a way to take advantage of the increase in online traffic. Learn more in this case study.
• Small business, Furniture and Appliance Mart in Wisconsin, offered a 25% off gift card exclusively to Facebook fans and email recipients, according to central Wisconsin’s WSAW.
• Puma used Twitter to offer 30% off in-store and online purchases plus 50% off outlet locations.

This is not the first year that social media has entered the Cyber Monday arena. In 2010, some of the top retail brands used social media marketing to support their efforts for this ecommerce holiday. Just look at their Facebook pages and Twitter feed and you can see they’re doing it again.

As we saw with Relish Gourmet Burgers, small businesses are cooking up success with social media. And Mabel’s Labels Inc., a small, innovative label-making business out of Canada, has a successful social media recipe of their own.

Julie Cole is co-founder of Mabel’s Labels. She started the company over eight years ago with her three business partners. All were Moms that felt that the market was lacking personalized, durable and cute labels for the stuff kids lose. So where does social media come into play? Today, Julie shares her insights on creating a small business social media strategy that’s as sticky as the labels she produces.

Thanks so much for your time today, Julie. We’re excited to learn about your approach to social. How do you use social media for your small business? Customer service? Brand awareness? Relationship and community building?

All of the above. In the early days of social media, we did a lot of blogger outreach. Very few companies understood the power of bloggers the way we did. We recognized that by reaching the blogging community with our products, they would then reach out to their communities. Word of mouth has always been our most powerful marketing tool at Mabel’s Labels, and social media brought WOM online, allowing us to expand our reach. Now social media allows us to interact with our 33, 000+ Facebook Fans regularly, respond to a customer on Twitter and share information through our WOM brand ambassador program, Buzzmamas™. We are proud of our customer experience at Mabel’s Labels and where our customers choose to seek assistance is where we will help them out. If we can help our busy customer in 140 characters and eliminate the need for them to take the time to call or write an email, we will and often do.

From blogger outreach to customer service. You certainly find an array of ways to tap into the social web. But how is it helping enhance your business?

Our market demographic is online – they are there to shop, to work and to access social networks. It makes sense for us to be in that space. Social media has broken down any barriers between customer and business owner. Most of our customers feel as though they know us, and people are more likely to support the brands they feel connected to.  Our customers shape what products we come out with next so the feedback we receive by listening and asking questions on Facebook or Twitter is invaluable. Every tidbit we receive is written down and put into our “Great Idea Box” at the office and the process is photographed then uploaded to Twitter (when applicable and time permitting)! Blogging about my life raising six kids and running a business opens up the doors of my life to our customers, which leads to them opening their doors, and friendships and sales being made.

Adding that human element and personality can enable consumers to relate to your brand. Do you have examples of how you relate to consumers?

Julie Cole, Co-Founder of Mabel's Labels

Last year the television show “Glee”, ran an episode all about Madonna and the cast were wearing “WWMD” – “What Would Madonna Do” wristbands. Of course everyone was on Twitter loving the wristbands and wishing they were available for sale. Before the episode was over we had limited edition “WWMD” labels designed, and spread the word that evening to our social networks that if you placed an order with “WWMD” in the comments you would receive a set of the limited edition labels for free.  From a branding point, many people who received the labels now think of “What Would Mabel Do” as opposed to the original intent of “What Would Madonna Do”.  Our ability to act and deliver within the hour the show aired is what really drove the promotion and impressed our Gleek customers. It was light-hearted, simple and we still receive the odd request for “WWMD” labels a year and a half later! In fact, we shipped out a set to a customer who wanted them for her new computer last week!

Another recent example would be our BlogHer ’11 Contest, or more accurately “non-contest” where we had well over 1200 entries, largely through online word of mouth. We knew exactly what sort of entry process would appeal to bloggers, most of whom are busy moms like ourselves, because we have more than a superficial or token involvement in the blogosphere.

Many small businesses want to get started in social media but don’t know how. What advice do you have for them?

I often tell people that this is no time for toe-dipping – people are out there talking about your product, industry, or profession and if you want to be a part of that conversation, you need to get on board with social media. Although it can seem daunting at first, explore one social media avenue at a time. Start with Facebook, then go on to Twitter, etc. If you are feeling shy out there in the social media world, start off just by reading and lurking. Soon you’ll feel comfortable enough to jump in. The only other advice would be to make sure you use the social media tools if you put yourself in that space. There is no point in being there and not responding or engaging with the people in the space with you.

What’s next for Mabel’s Labels in the world of social media?

At Mabel’s Labels we always have our finger on the pulse. Our Social Media Coordinator has a clear understanding of what is happening and how things are evolving. We continue to discover new ways to engage in social media in meaningful ways that create community and foster good business practices.

Thanks so much for your time, Julie. You have a great story and we appreciate you sharing it with our community!

How does your small business utilize social media? How has social benefited you? Share your thoughts here, ask questions and perhaps Julie will jump in and respond! Also, follow Mabel’s Labels on Twitter for their latest social media programs.

Amanda Nelson is a Community Content Manager at Radian6. She is an avid blogger, content curator and border collie fanatic. Find her on Twitter at @mileigh13.

You’re smart and savvy and you know your business, but do you know your social customer? We’ve discussed who your social customers are not; now let’s think about who your social customers are.

Your social customers are smart, and savvy too. You can’t fool them. They know when you’re pitching them. Stop pitching and start focusing on getting to know them.

It’s all about relationships. If you think you don’t have the time to spend on building relationships with your social customers then consider how much it might cost you if you don’t. Take some time to read their stories, visit their websites and comment on their blogs – and have fun getting to know them along the way.

Your social customers are communicators. They want to talk to you, and they want you to talk to them. They also want you to listen. Not just listen quietly but acknowledge that you’ve heard them and care enough to discuss their suggestions, comments and questions further with them.  If you’re invested in your social customers, they’ll be invested in your brand.

Your social customers are frugal. They’re on FourSquare, Groupon, Facebook and Twitter – and they want discounts and perks. They want to feel like VIPs without having to spend the big bucks. Show them they’re valued by giving them something they’ll value. Don’t just roll out random discounts and perks either, but perks based on their interests and discounts on the things that would be useful to them.

Your social customers are busy. They don’t always have time to sit on hold for customer service when it might be faster to send a tweet. They can’t always wait until they get home to call about that issue they’re having. They need to deal with it now while they’re stuck in the waiting room at the dentist’s office. Be ready for your social customers to reach out to you across social networks and make it easy for them to do so.

Your social customers are on the move. They go from home to work and travel the globe. They want to be able to bring up your site wherever they go and they want to do it on a variety of different devices. They want access to your brand on their tablets, on their mobile phones and on their laptops. Make sure your social customers can get the information they need from you while they’re on the go.

Your social customers aren’t all that different from the customers who walk into your brick and mortar storefront. They come in all shapes, sizes and financial flavors and each has the ability to help make or break your brand. Each one is unique and each is an influencer in their own word-of-mouth network and therefore should be treated as such. Value them, get to know them and build relationships with them and you’ll be well on your way to having social customers for life.

Do you know who your social customers are? Do you think they differ from your customers who aren’t engaging on social networks?

Trish Forant is a Community Manager at Radian6. She blogs about social media, life in South Florida and has a Yorkshire Terrier named Sebastian Bark. Connect with her on Twitter at @Dayngr.

The mindset of customers is changing. No longer are they listening to what brands are telling them. They are taking control and actively researching before making decisions. They recognize that social media is the new library for insights into products and services, and are using it to verify and make purchasing decisions. These “social customers” are playing a stronger role in the destiny of the sales funnel. What can brands do about it?

First, we must get a better understanding of this customer. What are they all about? Painting a picture of their mindset enables us to learn who they are and how to please them. So let’s think about this: What are they not?

A social customer is not just on Facebook. Social customers are using multiple outlets to research, share and shout. Some have their own blogs, favorite forums and Twitter chats. Using a social listening tool enables you to get a handle on the overall chatter, no matter where it’s coming from.

A social customer is not emotionless. As Michael Brito shares in his blog, they can be happy with your brand one moment and competitive the next. While factors such as mood and what they’re reading can influence the social customers’ emotional state, providing good customer service will help keep them positive.

A social customer is not uneducated. These customers are listening and learning. They research information online and engage on social media to gather information. At the same time, they are not scholars either. Brands can join them in their journey to make the right purchasing decisions together.

A social customer is not talking to themselves. Their voice, research-filled mind and passion can surely influence others. This applies to both customers who are brand ambassadors and detractors. Get to know these customers. Reward ambassadors and change the mind of detractors.

A social customer is not a spectator. Social media is a place for active participation and engagement. These customers are joining conversations, sharing their stories and contributing to help others. That’s why it’s important to have brand ambassadors to spread your positive message in this environment.

A social customer is not owned. While we’d like to get to know and potentially steer the mind of our social customers, they are free spirits. They have minds of their own and emotions to share. At best, we can help them when they need it, engage where they are, and show them your POV. At the end of the day, the customer will make the call.

A social customer is not solely online. As you engage with these customers on the social web, you can start to develop relationships and eventually take the conversation to a more private environment such as email or a phone call. This gets them further down the sales funnel. Just be patient and let them lead.

There are plenty more “a social customer is not…” scenarios and as we look at them, we start to create a persona of this new customer mindset. It’s always morphing and changing but that doesn’t mean you can’t get acquainted. After all, a social customer is not unfriendly.

What other traits of a social customer, i.e. “a social customer is not..” can you think of? How do you foresee them changing in the future? Share your statement here!

Amanda Nelson is a Community Content Manager at Radian6. She is an avid writer, content curator and border collie fanatic. Find her on Twitter at @mileigh13.

A few weeks ago, I came across a blog post by Fast Company that caught my interest. It was an excerpt from The Method Method, a book by the cofounders of Method, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. Method, a popular brand of household and personal care products, has a large social media presence and a loyal fan following, with over 52,000 Facebook fans and over 11,000 Twitter followers at last count. The Fast Company post talked about the ways Eric, Adam and their team have built Method into a successful belief brand by generating a story and philosophy around their company that relates to their customers. Their success story counters the assumption that consumers don’t want to engage in social media with brands selling products considered to be low-interest (such as laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaner) and proves that any company can build a strong social media community around their brand, provided they go about it the right way.

Let Your Customers Know Who You Are

Be open and honest when it comes to who you are and what you stand for as a brand. Method shares the story behind their brand and their mission statement on their website and front and center on their Facebook and Twitter pages. They also have a blog dedicated to topics around social responsibility, sustainability, green living, tips and ideas, Method products, and events, as well as the lighter side of life at Method. Being upfront about their identity and beliefs provides common ground for their customers to relate to the Method brand and creates a connection on a deeper level.

Provide Your Customers with Engaging Content

Once you’ve captured the interest of your customers by sharing your story, you need to provide quality content to keep them engaged. Method has a community devoted to People Against Dirty, where people can sign up to proclaim their love of clean and connect with like-minded individuals. Members are also rewarded with extra perks, such as discounts and product previews. The unique and brilliant aspect is, the community isn’t only about Method products and you don’t have to be a Method customer to join. This approach is a great way for brands to engage with current customers while connecting with others who might become customers down the road.

Method also does a fantastic job of posting content on their Facebook page and responding to questions and comments. They leave their wall open for anyone to post or tag them in mentions instead of locking it down, and as a result, their Facebook stream is filled with posts from Method fans, which makes it even more interesting to read and engage with.

Think Outside the Box

Method’s story shows us that brand engagement is about more than selling products – it is about establishing connections and building a passionate community that connects you with your consumers on a personal level. Having an excellent product that your customers are interested in is an important first step, but you need to think outside the proverbial box when it comes to brand engagement.

First, tell your story. What inspires you as a company? Who are the people behind your brand? What are your goals and aspirations? Then listen to your customers and get to know them. What are they interested in? What are their values and priorities? And how can you use that insight to provide your community with content that they will engage with?

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some other notable examples of belief brands who have built up successful online communities:

• Honest Tea
• Life is Good
• Three Avocados
• TOMS

Now we’d love to hear from you. Do you currently engage with any brands that are traditionally considered low-interest? Why or why not?

Zoë Geddes-Soltess is a Community Engagement Specialist at Radian6, with a focus on Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail. You can follow her on Twitter at @zodot.

It’s my favorite day of the week again! It’s #traveltuesday. The day where I get to partake in yummy travel conversations, and daydream of my next destination.

Regarding destinations, I’ve been traveling so much as of late that I’m barely at my desk or in the office. My most recent trip was for pleasure, and I put a lot of miles on my car as I trekked from New Brunswick to Ontario and then to Nova Scotia (with a stop in Montreal for smoked meat and poutine, of course!).

Traveling is fun, but so is returning home. That wonderful feeling of returning ‘home’ of course had me considering how travel brands create a home away from home that entice us to return to them time and time again.

For some of you, returning to the remarkable memory of divine pillows is just like going home. (I’m sure Shashank Nigam of Simpliflying would agree based on his latest entry about Citizen M Hotel in Amsterdam.)

But just how does one come to consider ‘home’ to that little island or that fancy boutique hotel? Consider the ‘chicken and egg’ theory of liking a travel brand on Facebook. Some may argue that you already ‘liked’ that hotel or airline before ever clicking on the magic button. Others believe that the lure to show a little love to a brand will just encourage you to be a customer in the future. Regardless of which comes first for you, there are usually several factors involved in your decision making.

Travelers are looking for advice from their friends, family and the travel-happy community at large. And increasingly, travel-seekers are booking online. Despite the urge to book online,  Mark Simpson of Maxymiser shared at #eftAmerica that one in five people booking travel online will fail and give up. There is plenty of opportunity for travel brands to zero in and be more strategic in the placement of their social media efforts.

If most travelers are anything at all like me, they look at an offer and ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ At the end of the day, isn’t it all about ME, after all? Clever travel brands with a strategic social media plan are gaining the trust and love of their customers and influencers by first listening to traveler conversations. Listening leads to better understanding of just how to WOW your target and present a pretty picture of what’s in it for them.

Because we have fun with conversations, I want to know your thoughts surrounding how you determine if a destination has your attention. A few questions to get the party started:

Just what is it exactly that causes you to listen when a cruiseline, airline, hotel or other travel industry brand is reaching out to you via social media? What gets your attention? And better still, what KEEPS your attention? Is there a time when you were captivated by a travel brand’s social media campaign and jumped on board, so to speak?

Jenn Seeley dreams of waterslides on cruise ships followed by yummy food and warm beaches. She can be found engaging in #traveltuesdays on Twitter as @jenn_seeley.

Have you ever peeled an onion? Oh, we’ve all chopped many an onion in our day, leaving us red eyed and weepy. But have you ever peeled an onion? Onions are intricate, multi layered creations, and peeling the onion is often used as an analogy for problem solving. But let’s look at them in a different way. Instead of peeling away layers to get to the core of a problem, let’s look at those layers as what they actually are. Stages of growth.

Your social media strategy will grow a bit like the onion. You’ve already planted the seed of change by embracing social media, and working hard on setting up a training program such as the one our recent ebook “Training Your Company for Social Media” outlined for you. And training should be the core – the heart – of your social media adoption. But after the training, then what? This is where the layers start developing.

The growth of social media has been so huge that to many new initiates it can seem overwhelming. In an upcoming post, we are going to explore information overload, and give you some tips on how to cut through the chaos and determine which social media platforms are right for you. But for now, let’s stay within the organization, and expand on that initial training with a few ‘next steps’.

Legal Is Your Friend

At this stage, you’ve worked hard to develop a comprehensive set of policies and guidelines for your employees to follow while they are engaging in social media. You’ve signed off on it, and made it easily accessible to departments and staff should any emergencies arise. But have you ran it through legal yet? Depending on where you are based, and whether your employees are part of a union or not, there may be laws and/or compliance issues that may affect your approach to social media. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia recently released their social media policy, only to experience an immediate and angry backlash from employees and their unions reacting to what they felt was an unfair intrusion into their private online lives. The transparency and immediacy of social media is a massive change in how we all live and work. Treat your social media policy as you would any other major shift in the day to day operations of your business. Nip potential problems in the bud, and run it through your legal department just to be sure.

Define Your Social Brand

The Who’s Pete Townshend may have written “Who Are You” after a hard night of drinking and an irritating encounter with members of the Sex Pistols, but the refrain remains as important today as it was in 1978 – who ARE you? You might have spent millions building a brand, defining who you are in comprehensive marketing and communications strategies, making sure that your teams consistently stay on message, and ensuring that staff know exactly how to walk the company and/or brand walk. But have you defined your social brand? What do you want your social identity to be? Will it align perfectly with your traditional media campaigns? Or will your social brand be altogether different? Will you use social to ‘rock the boat’ a little, to be controversial and take a few risks? Knowing – and making sure your employees also know – exactly what your social brand is and how it relates to your traditional marketing and communications strategies will help everybody understand and follow your rules of online behaviour. It will provide a strong reference point for employees as they learn how to interact and have two way conversations with your community.

Scrap The Script

Positive word of mouth has been an important marketing tool since salesmen started selling, but it lost its power a bit when people started moving into the suburbs and half their lives in a car commuting to and from work. People just didn’t talk to each other much anymore. Today, people communicate with thousands of others with just the click of a mouse, and word of mouth marketing has regained its power. And while social media adoption will allow you to engage with customers and fans, and share your products and ideas, in order to communicate successfully you need to find your voice. We’ve written about voice in depth before, but let’s break it down again – ‘voice’ usually means written or spoken expression, feeling, or opinion and the power or right to have an opinion heard and considered. Your employees should be encouraged to express themselves online. But scrap the script. Employees despise scripts. And let’s face it, so do consumers. They are robotic, unfeeling, and unnatural. And it makes those “talking” the script sound phony and fake. And phony and fake are the last things you want your community associating with you – or your brand. Allowing your employees ‘off the script’ empowers them, and shows them that you respect their abilities. But, before opening the social media floodgates, it’s imperative that they know exactly what your company’s voice – and their voice – is supposed to be. How far can they go? How opinionated can they be? And what exactly are they allowed to say?

Just as peeling an onion requires a layer by layer approach, so does developing an effective social media strategy. But you won’t end up crying over the kitchen sink.

What do you think? Should you systematically build a social media strategy or shoot first and aim later? And are you prepared to give your front-line employees some freedom? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

It’s a pretty common question: “What, exactly, am I listening to if no one’s talking about me or my brand?”

Companies that are small, new, or just not as plugged in to the online environment can sometimes feel as though they’ve got nothing to gain by monitoring social media because the mentions of their brand are few and far between.

But the “listening” step of social media is important beyond that. In fact, it illustrates a fundamental principle of a successful social media foundation: thinking and participating around and above your brand.

We’ve Got Company

Unless you’re in a super-niche or groundbreaking industry, you’ve got competition. You’re likely not the only game in town, so if someone isn’t talking about you, they may very well be talking about your competitors, and you can learn a lot about what they’re saying.

From insights about what customers love or don’t love about a competitors offering to who’s engaged in the community on behalf of the competitive brand, conversations can tell you a ton. And understanding your Share of Conversation within the larger industry you represent – especially as compared to those competitors – is an important insight.

One thing to note: trolling for your competitor’s customers and fans in social media is a big no-no. It’s one thing to connect with them and build a genuine relationship (good). It’s another thing entirely to be chasing down your competitors customers or engaged prospects and using these channels as an opportunity to poorly butt in and pitch your stuff (bad). Tread lightly.

Finding The Tribes

A key to understanding where to spend your resources in social media is the basic knowledge of where your potential customers are gathering online. Are they bloggers, or do they favor Twitter to have their conversations? Are they using forums to hold discussions? Or maybe they’re not using these sites much at all?

You can monitor for discussions that swirl around your industry at large instead of about specific brands to understand how those audiences are using (or not using) social sites. For example, if I’m a lawn care company, I’m going to be searching for discussions on lawn maintenance, landscaping, and the weekend warriors out cutting the lawn or sharing lawn care tips among their friends. Where they’re talking is where I want to be participating. Instead of a shotgun plan, I’ve now got a focused idea about where my social media outreach should be aimed.

Problem, Meet Solution

Problems, needs, and wish lists from your potential customers or your competitor’s customers are being tossed out to the social web all the time. From product reviews to casual statements about what’s not working right, customers are giving you loads of intelligence about what problems they need you to solve.

Think bigger than your brand, and tune in to conversations that are about the kinds of issues and challenges that your product or service is aimed at solving. If you’re a virtual assistant, maybe you’re listening to people who are drowning in email and learning how to help them to refine your service offerings. If you’re an accountant, you might be putting together a list of the most commonly asked questions from people setting up a small business and doing a podcast about it.

We call this “listening at the point of need” and it’s about understanding how your business solves problems for people, and then connecting with them in a meaningful, helpful way when they need you most. It’s not about a sales pitch. It’s about creating a solution for someone that they’re asking for. And by listening to the feedback from people who aren’t yet familiar with your brand but know your industry, you can learn how to create better and more relevant offerings that address the pain points these folks have and talk about most.

It’s Bigger Than Your Brand Name

Simply put, conversations in social media aren’t just about finding mentions of your brand. It’s about finding relevant conversations from within the communities you serve and understanding how those impact your business and its growth potential. Listening is a holistic activity with great potential to bring you intelligence, insight, and focus for your social media efforts.

What else would you be paying attention to, and how can you be listening above, around, and nearby you brand to improve your business?

I was eavesdropping on a fascinating conversation last week with some incredibly smart media makers, including Julien Smith, Chris Brogan, Hugh McGuire and Mitch Joel.

[Pause now to go and subscribe to Mitch's podcast and other brilliances over at Six Pixels of Separation. I'll wait.]

They were discussing the future of media and how, in particular, print publication and consumption of the written word is evolving in the face of social communication. Each of them was drawing on examples from their own experience about why they felt reading, writing, and publishing was changing, and how. Do listen to the episode; some amazing insights in there.

At the end of the show, Mitch put a challenge to the crew: stop talking in terms of “I” and start looking at things outside personal perspective. There’s interesting implications in that challenge.

Personal Perspective
That’s what we have to draw from. I can only make statements and observations about things from my perspective because, well, that’s the one I have.

I can *speculate* about what it might be like to look at something from a different point of view. But I’m not sure there’s a way to completely remove the personal lens. True objectivity, by the very nature of human intelligence, is impossible.

You can do everything possible to remove or downplay bias itself, but the fact is that every observation comes from a distinct and singular point of view, regardless of how well we attempt to level that difference. You can only consider what the view might look like through someone else’s eyes. You can never experience it for yourself.

The Value in Shifting Viewpoints
What I realized is that Mitch hit on something that’s been nagging at me for years in terms of the way we were taught to communicate as brands.

We characterize our brands in the terms in which we’d like others to see us. We craft a vision, or an idealized perspective of our brand, hoping that others might be influenced or intrigued by that viewpoint. Maybe see things our way. We even give them things like taglines, or brand attributes, or magic marketing terms.

But social communication and the power that companies now hold to capture the conversations around their brands changes all of that. Brands aren’t viewed from a singular viewpoint (they really never have been), and now that brand is a composite of everything. As David Alston is fond of saying, a brand is now the sum of *all* of the conversations that take place around it. Branding isn’t myopic any longer. And that multi-faceted perspective is searchable, shareable, and visible to the world at large.

So while I still think you can’t necessarily completely immerse yourself in someone else’s perspective, there are massive amounts of information out there today that allow you to at least *observe* and absorb that perspective, in the words of the people that impact and drive your brand.

Another reason listening is so important: hearing how the community is describing you, in their own unedited words, so you can learn from their perspective. As a brand, it’s the ultimate evolution from looking from the inside out, to seeing things from the outside in. Putting the illustration of your brand in the hands of the people that know it best: the people that interact with it every day. What insights that can give.

What say you?

Image credit: S.Su