I’ve had count­less con­ver­sa­tions with com­pa­nies and inter­ac­tive agen­cies on the sig­nif­i­cance of social media and the impact it will have on busi­nesses’ mar­ket­ing, PR and prod­uct devel­op­ment activ­i­ties and processes. From these con­ver­sa­tions and from my own expe­ri­ence using, teach­ing, con­sult­ing and work­ing with com­pa­nies and non-profits on social media ini­tia­tives and pro­grams, I’ve devel­oped an approach to frame the con­ver­sa­tion, as described below. Please see foot­notes for credit to Tara Hunt and Yvette Ferry. [1. Credit is due to Tara Hunt, who seeded my think­ing on this, although this post is not nec­es­sar­ily reflec­tive of her views. Please read her excel­lent blog for more on Social Media Strat­egy and com­mu­nity man­age­ment.] [2. Yvette Ferry deserves credit for help­ing me orga­nize these thoughts and moti­vat­ing me to put pen to paper. She is a free­lance writer you should con­sider hir­ing for your projects.]

The Premise for Social Media

An increas­ing num­ber of com­pa­nies are now dip­ping their toes into social media, but many are still unsure what it is and how to imple­ment it for their cus­tomer base and profitability.

Social media sets itself apart from pre­vi­ous types of media in terms of the engage­ment and com­mit­ment of peo­ple. In main­stream media and adver­tis­ing, peo­ple were rel­e­gated to the role of an anony­mous and pas­sive audi­ence. This par­a­digm is no longer work­ing. Today, the com­mu­nity is every­thing, and more and more com­pa­nies are rec­og­niz­ing their need to change with the times.

In a social media set­ting, peo­ple become active and inter­ac­tive by express­ing their opin­ion on what they’re view­ing, by hav­ing the abil­ity to alter con­tent, and by cre­at­ing their own con­tent to be viewed by oth­ers. The means of pro­duc­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and story-telling are mul­ti­plied while costs are low­ered, grant­ing mil­lions of peo­ple the pos­si­bil­ity to pro­duce their own indi­vid­u­al­is­tic con­tent. The result is a new, more engaged type of user. This engage­ment is fur­ther increased when the user may cre­ate an iden­tity and make explicit their social con­nec­tions. All of this trans­lates into increased effi­ciency, use and, ulti­mately, vol­ume of busi­ness for appro­pri­ately engaged companies.

A Frame­work for Social Media Integration

Inte­grat­ing new media into com­pa­nies’ busi­ness prac­tices and cul­ture involves con­cen­trat­ing on three areas: com­mu­ni­ca­tion, user expe­ri­ence, and prod­uct devel­op­ment. In large part, each area depends upon the oth­ers for res­o­nance, coher­ence and rein­force­ment. You can increase con­ver­sion and reten­tion from adver­tis­ing and mar­ket­ing (and viral) cam­paigns by devel­op­ing and enhanc­ing your com­mu­ni­ca­tions, web­site usabil­ity, and prod­uct fea­tures, by select­ing and inte­grat­ing the appro­pri­ate social media for your mar­kets and by opti­miz­ing the use of these media.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

Effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion entails devel­op­ing a holis­tic mar­ket­ing approach that works with and not against community-building efforts. Suc­cess­ful online com­pa­nies are gen­er­ally those that lis­ten and respond to their cus­tomers, a sim­ple premise that can be remark­ably dif­fi­cult to exe­cute. Most com­pa­nies strug­gle to lis­ten to and “hear” what their cus­tomers are say­ing, and this unin­ten­tional deaf­ness affects their bot­tom lines. You can cre­ate com­mu­ni­ca­tion strate­gies for user engage­ment, as well as inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion and imple­men­ta­tion processes that both reflect and impact com­mu­nity and prod­uct devel­op­ment. In addi­tion, you can develop social-network out­reach strate­gies, inte­grate new media into cor­po­rate out­reach efforts and opti­mize search-engine results in order to be more find­able by your cus­tomer base. This effort involves devel­op­ing an out­reach strat­egy to iden­tify and estab­lish rela­tion­ships with your users and also to cre­ate spaces in which your com­mu­ni­ties may inter­act, using new media.

User Expe­ri­ence

The ways in which your com­pany inter­acts with your web­site users is crit­i­cal to their expe­ri­ence. The cohe­sive­ness of the com­mu­nity you build is largely depen­dent on the qual­ity of the inter­ac­tion your users have at your web­sites, and the com­mu­nity man­age­ment resources you make avail­able. This means cre­at­ing web­sites with social attrib­utes and affor­dances that encour­age users to come back, because they can inter­act with your com­pany and also with each other. It also implies cre­at­ing dash­boards, busi­ness processes and empow­er­ing (or hir­ing) employ­ees to per­form com­mu­nity man­age­ment, ombuds­man and relationship-building activ­i­ties. You can lay the foun­da­tion for growth and opti­mize the results from adver­tis­ing, direct mar­ket­ing, and viral cam­paigns by devel­op­ing opti­mized user expe­ri­ences, using new media and social networks.

Prod­uct Development

Prod­uct devel­op­ment entails cre­at­ing ser­vices and prod­ucts based on the use and desires of users and cus­tomers. Using spe­cific met­rics and base­lines for mea­sur­ing user engage­ment and growth, you can hear what your cus­tomers are say­ing and assess the ways in which they are using your prod­ucts, ser­vices and web­sites. You can use data and develop inter­nal busi­ness processes to pro­to­type, test and cre­ate prod­ucts and ser­vices that are respon­sive to the stated and implicit needs of your cus­tomers and user bases.

Finally, mon­i­tor­ing your prod­ucts, brands and rep­u­ta­tions is impor­tant to your own ongo­ing suc­cess and you can track and man­age the rep­u­ta­tion of com­pa­nies, brands, and prod­ucts, using new media.

Over­all, you may find that social media is more timely, effi­cient, and cost-effective than other approaches.

What do you think? How do you approach social media issues with your com­pany or clients? What frame­works do you use for discussion?