It’s beneficial to think of social media marketing as a process. Like any business process you plan, document, measure and get more efficient all the time. Seeing social marketing from this point of view makes it much easier to think and plan for the long-term. Taking the long-view also allows you to take advantage of the continual feedback loops that exist as your market lets you know what they think about your activity. As your understanding of your market develops, you will no longer see comments as a threat, but as an opportunity to continually improve your approach until you have it right – and create a significant competitive advantage in doing so.

As a practical step I recommend developing a rolling 12 month plan. It should detail the content that will be created, who will be doing it and what actions need to be taken to get it distributed online. Planning this far in advance allows your company to recognise the long term investment timeframe. It will also allow you to set appropriate KPIs. It is vital to realise that the plan is a tool. You will still need to be flexible and responsive to customer behaviour. It should form the foundation that drives the changes necessary to succeed, and so will necessarily take some time to develop .

Every phase in your social media communications process should build on the preceding one. This means documenting and reviewing what works and what doesn’t. This then becomes a cycle: plan your next communication, execute the program, check how effective it is, act on the data and then back to the planning stage. This continual improvement approach will allow you to gather data while also ensuring you are picking up “quick-wins” along the way.

Communicating with your market will always bea fundamental part of doing business. Social media has made this quicker and easier, but also turned it into a public conversation. You may be planning on using social media as straight forward marketing channel, a customer service channel, or a channel to reward loyal and influential customers. It really doesn’t matter what the communications strategy is as long as you treat it as a process. This is  your key to success.

Social media can seem like a chaotic environment full of risks and uncertainties, especially as you are starting out. Collecting and analysing the data you collect over time will see those risks fade. And then you are just managing a process, like any other in your organisation.

It is important to understand when thinking of social media marketing that it is possible to collect data at every touch point. Social media allows you to nurture and leverage long term relationships. In these relationships the more you know about who you are communicating with the better you can customise the message. This is why collecting data is an imperative. It’s about who you know AND what you know about them.

The data you can collect can range from email addresses, age, name and other demographic and contact information to what your audience has “liked” previously – meaning that with a bit of analysis you can generate high quality psychometric information. All of this allows you to tailor the message to suit the audience, and they will be more receptive to what you have to say. You can then work at refining the process to become as efficient as possible.

All of this may sound a little “big brother-ish”, and of course there is scope for abuse when you collect data. So it is important to be transparent about what you are doing and even more important that you do not abuse the trust that your market has placed on you by on-selling that data or spamming them with too many messages. Spend the time to generate value for the end user and you will be rewarded with customers who also become advocates.

So where can this data be collected and is it expensive? The data is available everywhere. Facebook has huge amounts of data on individuals available, and all you need to do is get help in devising a strategy that extracts that data via an app of some sort. There is also data available through social media monitoring tools, site analytics and other social platforms. It easy to start to drown in this data so my advice is make a plan and start small. This will also keep the costs down. You can spend huge amounts of money on data collections and analysis tools and methods – but knowing what you are dealing with and where you are heading means you can keep costs directly in proportion with the returns on investment.

What all of this is telling us is that the battle for data wealth has now spread from technology businesses to all businesses. Every business is increasingly starting to to be valued not just on revenue and profit but also on what they know about the market they compete in. The global financial meltdown that we are currently recovering from showed us that the businesses that can change direction quickly to respond to an ever-evolving market are the business worth backing. Social media and online data allows you to do that and measure your progress very accurately.

So make sure you are not wasting valuable resources – and become friends with your customers.

One things that separates a good company from a great company is how much they focus on the customer. Great companies are relentless in their quest to give the customer what they want. If “the customer is always right” then the fact that 65% of the Australian population is on Facebook might tell you something about what the customer wants. The innovative brands know this and are rethinking how they communicate with their customers. It’s not just about doing media differently – it’s about being social and open.

These businesses are thinking carefully about building “sharing” into every communication their brand has. They see their role now as being part of a conversation, enabling an eco-system of communication around their brand. They are thinking carefully about how to build ‘social design’ into their digital assets to ensure these conversations have the best chance for viral spread.

Social businesses are also embedding social media tools inside the business. Communication platforms like Yammer are enabling teams and individuals business-wide to communicate and collaborate. This is driving innovation by breaking down the traditional approach to internal communications. It allows innovative businesses to develop new KPIs and rewards for highly active and engaged staff members. Having an internal social strategy is not so much about changing the way your staff work, but using technology to increase productivity.

The next frontier in businesses going social is how they communicate with shareholders. This is more relevant for listed companies, but private companies would do well to think through the issues. Shareholders are increasingly communicating online about the strategy of the companies they have invested in. Social businesses are not only encouraging this but trying to enable it. The logic to this is if you can’t stop conversations, which no business can do, then you can participate to reduce risk or even better create the platform for the conversations to extract even more intelligence.

The concept of the social business is now mature enough to draw from the successes and failures of other businesses when developing your strategy. The tools and techniques are now well tested and developed. Creating measurable return on investment models is easily manageable. “Going social” is now less about experimentation and more about developing a competitive advantage. We have seen what happens when industries are slow to respond to the developing digital market. Make sure your business is not struggling to catch up by starting your social business plan now.

The new format for Facebook brand pages is called the Facebook “Timeline”. It fundamentally changes the way your brand page works. To date, the content on a brand page has been ordered chronologically. The new format takes this a big step further. It makes it possible to create a complete visual and interactive history of your brand – from the time it started out until now.

Above this new timeline organisations can now add the main visual representation of the page. It is referred to as a cover image. This is a large image that can be used to create a story or brand the page. To see what can be done with the cover image have a look at Nike’s livestrong page or check out the Fanta page.

The new format now provides ways to construct a time-based narrative for your brand. You can choose to highlight key milestones and events such as new product launches and expansion events. Pictures and videos have always attracted more attention on Facebook than other forms of content. This will only increase with the roll out of Timeline. The combination of highlighting milestones and images gives you an opportunity to create ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories and generate a new type of connection with your audience.

If you have apps embedded on your Facebook page you may need to review these as well. The old tabs on the left hand side of the page are now gone. They will still be visible but will be displayed differently. This means marketers need to spend time thinking carefully about how to use and display apps. Gathering data on page analytics will help determine what work and what doesn’t.

The new formant ushers in a major change for stakeholder engagement. Brands can now send and receive messages to and from fans. This means that conversations can be taken off the visual timeline. This will reduce clutter and allow conversations to be ‘private’ – if you wish them to be.

You will now also have analytics embedded on the page once you log in as an
administrator. The analytic tools can help you construct and manage your page. They can also help organisations analyse the ‘return on investment’ from activity on your Facebook page.

Facebook’s influence and reach in the world of consumers and brands will continue to grow – and be boosted by the forthcoming IPO. Staying across the changes and opportunities in the ‘platform’ is the best way for organisations to remain relevant.

There are really four broad online business models for newspapers. Understanding how they work has a good chance of help other business formulate a digital strategy so let’s explore them. The first strategy is replicating the newspaper experience online and sell display advertising and classifieds. This is what many newspapers tried first. They had the systems and processes in place to do and it was what they were used to so it made sense. The problem is that it simply does’t work. Online is a very different medium to print and the way information is consumed is drastically different. The advertiser is looking for results and thinking about online in print terms will not work.

Strategy number two is the paywall. This strategy is very much focused on the idea that the newspapers are creating valuable content, which in most cases they are, and that the general public will be willing to pay to access this content. People have been doing this for years as far as pay TV goes so why not written news content? Paywalls have been experimented with over the last few years. The only real success has been in highly specialised publications. Even then the model struggles. Again, this points to the media outlets thinking of the online channel as an extension of print. Simply adding a bit of interactivity and replacing some images with video is not usually enough for most people to part with their money.

The third strategy, and the one the Herald Sun is currently employing, is the Freemium model. This is a common online software model where the user is given limited access to the sites features and asked to pay to gain further access. Start them off with something free & get them hooked. This model has a chance of working, but only if the media companies quickly learn what is important to the end user and what is not. The event I attended in early March focused on crime and sport as the driving factors getting people to pay. I’m not convinced that this is going to convince enough people for this to be a viable option long term. People read slower on screen than they do reading printed material. Without getting into details it all to do with the light so it’s not something that is likely to change while we use screen as our access point to the internet. This means that information online is skimmed more frequently. I’m not sure what the long term appetite for ‘more in depth’ content will be.

The fourth model, and the one that I would put my money on long term, is to reinvent advertising. Advertisers want results and access to a wide audience. Newspapers have access to that audience but simply don’t know enough about who that audience is to create the results the advertisers are looking for. If the newspapers collected data on every user, demographic and psycometric, and the types of content they interacted with they could use this information to provide the insights and tools necessary to create very successful advertising campaigns. This is what Google, and now Facebook realised and why they are beating newspapers in the “information advertising” space. Give the advertisers access to an large audience, let them target the audience they want to communicate with, then give them the tools they need to do that successfully. And not just for big advertisers but for the small guys too.

Mainstream news organisations are having to face up to the fact that their content is transient. It’s not something the public wants to ‘own’ but read and discard. The news outlets themselves need to face the fact that the public simply doesn’t put the same value on the content as the creators do. However, people are prepared to give up information for access to content. The more information they give up the more they become embedded into the company they are giving it to. Think of it this way, most people will never leave Facebook for another social network, not because they love it but because a record of everything they have done for years is there – all their images, interactions, and thoughts. Newspapers need to become this ‘sticky’, and they need to start putting a much higher value the user data they can generate.

Developing a whole new business model for newspapers that actually works can be done. The organisation who get it right first will see financial returns that dwarf what has been seen in the industry so far.

Most business leaders now recognise just how important the social media communication channel has now become. However, constantly creating content can be an operational challenge for some businesses. Having a ‘frequently asked questions’ area on your website is no longer enough, and constantly creating content for a blog can be time consuming.

Fortunately YouTube makes putting a human face to a brand cheap, easy and effective. Even President Obama has been answering questions posed by the American public through YouTube since coming into power. The sensitivity of the subject matter determines the format; either live or prerecorded. This creates a sense of Obama being accessible, open to debate, and concerned about what the public are thinking.

Video blogging or vlogging, as this type of content is called, is very cost effective way of connecting with your customers and stakeholders. Video content is far more engaging than large blocks of text and tends to circulate longer as it is shareable and easily watchable on almost any device.

Video can actually be quicker and easier to manage than writing a blog. It is possible to use Facebook or Twitter to engage with your customers and discover what they would like to know. From there it is simply a matter of jumping in front of a camera and answering these questions simply and directly.

A good example of this type of would be if a company was going through a significant change. A forum to ask questions could easily be set up on Facebook and stakeholders could then ask and vote on questions. Each month the CEO could answer the top 10 questions.

There are companies doing this already. Deloitte Australia is one great example of a company that has developed video as a primary communications channel. A quick search on Google will find many others. Some companies get as many of their senior staff in front of the camera as possible to help develop their ‘thought leadership’ position while others just focus on the leadership team. Some choose make professional looking videos with a consistent brand image while other opt for speed and settle for a more raw look. There is no “right” way to create a video channel for your business but it is worth developing a strategy and being consistent.

So get over being ‘camera shy’, save yourself a lot of time and start thinking about how you could replace hours of writing and editing content for your website by spending a few minutes in front of a video camera. After all, who doesn’t want to be on TV?

Knowing what to ask and how to resource is increadibly important when developing a social strategy, so here are 6 simple steps to get you kicked off.

Define your voice: It is important to approach social media with a defined voice that is aligned to your brand. Online communication works best when you are not pushing a product but are communicating in a more subtle way. The best way to develop a social media ‘voice’ is to start by asking yourself “what does my market really want to know?”.

Segment you audience: Use the information you have to target the right audience. Don’t blindly charge into social media. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and explore what they discuss about your brand, your competition or your category online. Taking this in, you will know where your target audience is active and you can start from there. You save lot of time and effort in doing this, making it easier to connect with them.

Know what success looks like: Your social media marketing strategy needs to be aligned to your business objectives. Collecting “likes” on Facebook and measuring hits to your website might be a good start but there must be a longer term plan in place – a plan that ensures that this activity is being converted into sales or leads.

Give to recieve: Social media works best when you think about it as a platform to build lasting relationships. If your brand is perceived to be proactive and responsive you will gain trust in the market place. Setting up a social media customer service channel will show that you are there to help as well as listen. As apposed to being a risk, it actually allows you to deal with issues quickly before they get out of hand. Helping people with their issues and questions will also help them make a buying decision.

Collect data: Social media is awash with demographic and psychometric data. Get a plan in place to collect and utilise it. Mass messaging does not work online. Personalised and targeted messaging does. It will also help you plan how to use platforms like Google AdWords and Facebook advertising, increasing their effectivity and saving you money.

Plan your content: Building relationships can take time. Planning your content so it flows and tells a coherent story at every touchpoint can reduce the time needed to move your audience through the sales pipeline.

So a social strategy is not about hiring a bunch of teenagers who ‘get social media’. It needs to be about delivering results and driving your business objectives. Get it right and it will deliver benefits throughout your organisation.

Marketing and public relations communications through social media can be complicated. There are a vast number of networks and platforms, all interlinked, allowing messages to spread extremely quickly. For those not used to online communications this can seem like a mysterious and dangerous world governed by technology geniuses and teenagers, and in the most part the people who are building and marketing these networks tend to promote this stereotype. This is big part of the problem. For many brands this creates a sense of fear; the fear creates the desire to control. In the end it is this desire to control a vast and dynamic human network that leads to systemic failures in social media communications. You can control the software but you can’t control the way people use it.

The second, and most important part in the equation is around the messaging itself. What some brands have failed to identify is that the rules have significantly changed. For many demographics social media is how they discover news and messages. It is not through press releases, or TV ads but through peer recommendations and online discussions. Online is now the thin end of the wedge, the mainstream media is increasingly starting to play a supporting role. What this means is that brands no longer get to tell the consumer what to think any more. They need to spend more time developing real relationships with their customers. They need to be responsive. And they must  respect the individual and tell the truth.

It is in the arenas of honestly and integrity where almost every social media disaster of the last 12 months played out.  People can sniff out a lie easily – and they will expose it when they find one. As a group they will ask the brand to come clean, and if their demand is not met they will respond. They now have the power and they will exercise it. On the flip side, if a brand that has made a mistake deals with quickly, honestly and bravely the issue can quickly be turned into a positive.

Brands no longer have a choice about whether or not to participate in social media. They must be active or risk becoming irrelevant. What is important to realise is that markets take all interactions through social media as deeply personal experiences. This means that they expect a level of respect – one that does not always exist in the one-way communication world.

To manage and capitalise on this new frontier you must plan well, educate your staff, develop a clear set of communication guidelines and above all, be earnest.

Much has been discussed about return on investment in the social media space. Some commentators say ROI needs to focus on areas like brand perception and customer satisfaction – but these can be hard to measure accurately. While I agree that these areas need to be taken into consideration, not having well defined metrics and ignoring conversion goals simply makes no sense. In short, there needs to be alignment with the business objectives.

The great thing about social media is it allows you to capture vast quantities of demographic and psychometric data. This data can, and should, be used for targeted messaging. The segments you market to will be fairly broad to start with, but will become increasingly granular over time. After testing the waters, it will be possible to economically communicate to individuals with tailored messaging – messaging that understands the individual on a personal level.

You don’t always need a ‘hard sell’ approach to move potential customers down a sales conversion path. Sometimes it’s enough to show them that you know and care, and are prepared to communicate on a personal level. In this ultra-personalised digital world, your market – particularly younger demographics – now expect everything to be personalised. In fact it is often the only way to get noticed.

A research report published in October this year from the Australian Centre of Retail Studies concluded that the more channels in which a consumer encounters a particular brand, the more likely they are to purchase, and the higher their overall spend will be. The lesson here is not rocket science. Once you have used social media to develop your contact list, find out how to communicate with them via email, mobile, social media and your website. Get all the channels working together.

The final step on the conversion journey is the execution. Communicating in a customised way via multiple channels can be expensive if there is not a strong system sitting in the background. What’s more, these interactions in social media mean that you are never sure when someone will take the first step in the conversion cycle. Platforms like ExactTarget allow you to not only automate communications through many different channels, but also provide the necessary tools to refine the sales strategy as additional customer data flows in.

So it is possible to create an effective social media conversion strategy. Just remember to keep things simple, and stay focused on what the customer wants.

But don’t be confused by the apparent meaninglessness of some interactions in the social web. What is happening may seem like a waste of time but the communications can also be profound – and you need to be a part of them.

The social web, and more specifically platforms like Facebook and Twitter, allow brands to develop relationships with their customers in ways that have never existed before. Customer loyalty has always been recognised as incredibly important, but developing metrics that measure things other than swiping a card at the point of purchase has been difficult.

Now it’s not. With a well designed and executed social media strategy, companies can identify and reward the most loyal and vocal customers. The brand evangelists who actively encourage others to purchase from their favourite brand.

The companies doing this the best are the ones who understand that they need to create a relationship with each customer – they need to recognise that each customer is unique, and reward people for interacting with the brand. Customers now have more power to voice an opinion than ever before, and they will do it whether you are participating or not. It is no longer good enough to simply treat customers as something to convert into a sale then move on. ‘Speed dating’ marketing is out, romancing is in.

The brilliant people who work for Facebook understand this better than most. In fact, they have recently changed the way that advertising works within Facebook to incentivise brands to be more active and engaging. Facebook knows that the real value from their platform comes from the engagement that creates longer term relationships. And they are now changing the game within Facebook so everybody else gets that too. It is likely that the recent changes to the Facebook platform will be game-changers for some brands. Others, particularly brands who have been looking at social media as just a broadcast channel, are going to struggle. What is certain is that Facebook’s advertising revenue is set to make another giant leap as brands are incentivised to engage with customers more – and use Facebook even more as a result.

As a marketer you have many choices about how you treat your audience. You can develop techniques that let you know who they are and how they wish to be communicated with and you can engage them in creative interesting ways – creating long term relationships. Or you can look at the customers as numbers to be churned through quickly. We all know that being treated as an individual is more effective – and now it seems there is going to be an additional financial benefit to it.

So you can view the social web as a place where people waste time and generate low value. But it is up to you, as a marketer, to change the way your customers interact with you. Social media is fast paced and there can be a lot of distractions. To really stand out you need to create meaningful experiences – that can turn into happy long term relationships.