10 tips for your company to have a successful social media/marketing experience
By Steve Outling, Source:  White Paper “Enabling the Social Company”

Steve Outing is a thought leader in the online media industry and on news innovation and digital transformation, having spent the last decade and a half assisting and advising media companies on Internet strategy and being on the bleeding edge of digital-media trends. http://steveouting.com/

1. Today’s consumer wants to express him/herself, but without you (the brand) dictating how. Resist the urge to control and let the consumer have freedom of expression, within the core rules you have set down.
2. Use social media and social networking as a way to listen to consumers. You’ll learn what they want, gain invaluable market intelligence, and be well equipped to improve your product or service -- or create new ones -- knowing exactly what the market wants.
3. Treat your relationships with consumers as long-term conversations. Don’t just devise short term programs that open up the conversation for brief periods. Figure out how to become “friends” with your customers. Friends talk to each other, over the long haul.
4. Bring consumers into your inner circle. Product planning meetings no longer are limited to the ideas of your staff. Use social marketing techniques to identify core enthusiasts, then tap their ideas.
5. Find incentives to encourage participation. While website participation levels are high because technology now encourages active engagement, many consumers will merely sit back and view the content and interactions of others. But using incentives to get those people off the sidelines has distinct advantages to your company. You want greater numbers of engaged customers. They’re the ones who are most loyal to you, and will buy more.
6. Learn to view your customers in a different light. You used to treat them as “dumb” buyers or recipients of what you offered. But they’re smart. (Well, lots of them, anyway.) Recognizing that they have the power, now, to talk back and broadcast their opinions about your brand, you have no choice but to treat them differently -- more carefully, and with more respect than you may have in the past.
7. When things go wrong, don’t try to cover up; don’t make false excuses. Recognize that your audience now has the power to “out” your mistakes. Be open and honest, and own up to mistakes. The alternatives is to pretend that nothing is wrong, then have your audience or customer base turn on you -- using your own website (and the rest of the Internet) to spread the disdain. Don’t try to spin bad news. You’re not a politician!
8. Participate intelligently in the online social community. Bad: Posting a press release about your new product. Good: Share pre-release news of an upcoming product and offer sneak previews to selected enthusiasts within your online community, asking them to be reviewers and offer feedback.
9. What do your customers or brand enthusiasts care most about? That’s what you want to create interactive, participative online communities around. What are your customers or your audience most passionate about? Passion is key to assembling online social communities. Your product or service serves that passion. The opportunity in social media/marketing is in serving it, too.
10. Leverage your people as online community leaders. While social media is all about people talking to people (and people talking to brands), social online communities can benefit from leaders guiding the conversation and encouraging people to participate. So get people within and affiliated with your organization to join the conversation: company executives and employees, as well as company supporters (sponsored athletes, celebrity spokespeople, etc.). Your audience will especially appreciate the opportunity to engage personally with executives and celebrities.

Steve Outing is a thought leader in the online media industry and on news innovation and digital transformation, having spent the last decade and a half assisting and advising media companies on Internet strategy and being on the bleeding edge of digital-media trends. http://steveouting.com/