TheWayoftheWeb

Well, it appears I’ve been tagged by Neil Perkin for the ‘Best Practices in Social Media Marketing meme, originally started by Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation.

It was started on August 27th, and I’ve seen it popping up in my RSS feeds on occasion, but thought I’d probably escape – but now I’ve got to try and add to the insights already offered by a worldwide group of very smart social media people. So to recap on most of the ones I’ve seen (apologies if I miss anyone):

Consistency (Mitch Joel)

Embrace your audience (Jason Falls)

Listen and add value (Kipp Bodnar)

Listen (Chris Brogan)

Be human (Kristie Wells)

Reach out to others (Morriss Partee)

Honesty and respect (Paisano)

Watch what people actually do (Liz Strauss)

Provide a platform (Beth Harte)

Tell a story (servant of chaos)

Permission to play (Eaon Pritchard)

Be human (Neil Perkin)

Distilling everything down to the main principles is great for clarity – less so if you receive a meme after everyone else has had a go! So what can I add?

Be Dedicated and Stay Motivated:

Image from Infomatique on Flickr (used under Creative Commons)

Social Media Marketing is not a ‘quick win’ to pick the ‘low hanging fruit’. It’s not something you can switch on for guaranteed overnight success, despite what you may have heard about the wonders of Digg and Stumbleupon. And you can start as many Facebook groups and pages as you like, but there’s no guarantee anyone will come along.

That’s why you need to Be Dedicated and Stay Motivated.

Some companies will need to fundamentally change to make best use of social media marketing. In a strategic sense, it has to permeate almost every facet of a company, and in a tactical sense it has to at least reach enough that your efforts don’t get destroyed by a disinterested colleague who really doesn’t give a monkeys!

Now add the fact that many traditional marketing and business people are wary or sceptical of the need for Social Media Marketing.

And that it’s much harder to prove a direct return on investment that is readily accepted.

For years people have chosen to believe that a TV advert will actually reach all the people who are claimed to be watching a programme, ignoring the power surge from kettles and lavatorial urges of anyone watching a major event.

Yet it’s seemingly harder to realise the value of positive comments around a brand made on the internet as being a indirect return.

But there are rewards for dedication and motivation:

But you can power your way through ‘the dip‘. You can look at the aims of your company in the short, mid and longterm, and talk to the right people to get an idea of what will make a big, demonstrable difference. And use that to decide which tools you might start to use.

You can start compiling case studies to help you to show what’s possible, and start evangelising to people about the possibility. But make it real, not abstract.

You can start to use the tools for yourself to see how ‘normal’ people are using them, and think about how much your company is realistically able to fulfill on, so you’re not building your Social Media Marketing on empty promises.

And once you’ve done that, you’ve got a solid setting for the hard bit – keeping going. And going. And going.

You’ll face issues with budgets, resources, technology, usability, comprehension, changing goalposts, targetting, measurement, fulfillment, and more. You’ll discover how unpredictable those humans formerly known as ‘the audience’ can be. You’ll face skepticism and sarcasm from people who don’t understand, or choose to ignore, the concepts of community, conversation, loyalty, and engagement.

But you need to keep pushing through. Because once you’ve started this stuff, you need to keep going.

If you give up, you’re risking dormant brand presence, annoyed early adopters, and the fact your company won’t adapt. And if it doesn’t adapt, it’ll keep repeating the same mistakes. And in the current economic climate, that just isn’t healthy.

There’s a great quote from Randy Pausch’s last lecture which I’ve started using to keep myself motivated. ‘Brick walls aren’t there to stop you. They’re there to stop the other people who don’t want it as much’. And if you look at the success of almost any individual or project, you can see it in action.

And the payoff comes at the end. If you stay Dedicated and Motivated, you’ll be the person who understands how best to serve the needs of the consumers and individuals who power your company. That puts you in a hugely powerful position, because even if you leave the company, you’ll find plenty of people will move with you, even if it’s in an apparently unrelated market. I’ve seen business consumers follow individuals through 3 or 4 different companies because they believed in the individual’s dedication and service. Now go do that with thousands of online evangelists!

Now to tag some people who I think will offer some intriguing responses. Let’s go for Amanda,  Simon, Mark, Julius, and Mark. Covering a few countries, nationalities and specialisms, there!

And if you want to continue it:

1. Blog it.
2. Link to Mitch’s blog
3. Tag it “social media marketing best practices”
4. And then tag someone else with the meme.