| The world is submerged in a sea of useless crap. | | | | people in your business will manage what? Who will |
| Messaging of all sorts are streaming constantly to our | | | | determine the message? Who will respond? There |
| desktops, filling our inboxes with junk and distracting us | | | | are many questions to ask yourselves. Social Media |
| from doing what is important. Social Media is now | | | | touches everyone in the business, is your business |
| contributing to this barrage of useless and even useful | | | | communication strategy in place to support your |
| noise online today. Sure you can elect to simply turn | | | | efforts? In short, who owns it! |
| off all these services but did you know hidden deep in | | | | 3. What services - After everything else is in place |
| the shadows are nuggets of knowledge, gems of | | | | then you can determine which services you want to |
| corporate intelligence and scores of ideas your | | | | employ. Do your customers monitor your Twitter |
| business can use right now. Maybe someone is saying | | | | feed? Are they reading a blog? Would they join your |
| something about your business online right now, can | | | | fan page? Many of today's communications occur |
| you hear it? How does the average person filter out | | | | across the five mainstream social media services. |
| the wheat from the chaff? | | | | Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and of course |
| It is no secret, social media is simply full of crap. | | | | blogs. Determining which of these services fits best |
| However mixed in the shameless self promoters, | | | | into your overall corporate communication strategy is |
| status updates, and useless tweets, there is a diamond | | | | the first step. |
| in the rough just waiting for you. What can your small | | | | 4. Monitoring - Who own your social media activity? |
| business professionals, sales executives or even your | | | | We will respond when your business, products or |
| Director of Marketing do to help find that critical white | | | | services are mentioned in the online community? Who |
| paper, sales article or news report that is masked | | | | will react to competitive focuses online? How does |
| amongst all this online noise? Maybe it is even a | | | | your business respond to emergencies? Who is |
| satisfied client leaving a review online even worse, a | | | | responsible for the proactive monitoring? With the right |
| client who just had a bad experience. | | | | team, people and monitoring tools, you will be able to |
| You must start by determining what strategies you | | | | keep on top of your brand and company reputation |
| can employ in your business right now. Strategies | | | | without eating up all your cycles. Can you hear what is |
| which will enable your business to leverage social | | | | said, especially when everyone is speaking through a |
| media and decrease your frustration and confusion | | | | megaphone? |
| because of this unnecessary noise. Strategy is | | | | 5. Time - The last critical component is time. How |
| essential, plus filtering out the noise is crucial. In Chris | | | | much time do you spend online? Looking in from the |
| Anderson's "The Long Tail" he shares insight on the | | | | outside and observing the volume of chatter happening |
| importance of filters when it comes to finding | | | | with social media is enough to scare off the well |
| information in our globally connected world and | | | | seasoned communication professional. Without |
| abundance of products and services available. This | | | | effective strategies in place, you will eat up your entire |
| same filtering strategy will allow your business to | | | | work day and get nothing done. There are tools |
| communicate online using all the social media | | | | available to help manage the volume and help you |
| technologies but where do you start? | | | | hear what you need too. |
| | | | Managing your social media strategy with employing |
| 1. Change your focus - Social Media is not just for your | | | | the most effective services which will allow your |
| Sales and Marketing department nor is it a swear | | | | message to be heard and having the right solutions |
| word in our modern business culture. Social Media | | | | managed by the correct people who understand the |
| effects all parts of your business including public | | | | strategy and can execute is essential. Filtering out the |
| relations, corporate communications, marketing and | | | | crap will a clear mechanism keeping your finger on the |
| sales, business development, product support, technical | | | | pulse of your business, community, clients, competition |
| services and any other area of your business where | | | | and anything else. |
| communications either internally or externally occur. | | | | There is an abundance of intelligence in the social |
| 2. Who is responsible - Who is responsible for your | | | | media world, are you hearing it through all the noise? |
| overall corporate communication strategy? Which | | | | |