The secret of social media is this: It’s a tremendously complex medium that takes strategy, sensitivity, time, creativity and trust. (Sorry, I know you wanted a shortcut)

It needs to be said (likely a few times).  You see, due to low barriers—“Sign up through platform XYZ.com and you can launch a really pretty blog within an hour!”-- social media is far and away the easiest medium to enter.

But it’s the hardest medium to understand.

Why is it so complex? Because it changes a lot of what we've learned up 'til now--and that requires a lot of change from marketers. What all has changed? Well, lots.

*No clear boundaries. With other media come easy-to-understand “boundaries.” Not so much here. For example, if you want to advertise on TV or Radio you’re pretty much confined to the boundaries of “What creative content/message/offer/campaign can I unleash across a slew of 15, 30 or 60-second spots?” And with print? There again, you’re looking at the confines of display ads of a certain size, so the boundaries are whether you want to place a full-page, half-page or quarter-page ad—or sponsor content for the ‘advetorial’ section.

But with social media, you’re not assessing “boundaries” so much as you’re assessing your many options (i.e. which tools you want to use, and how to use them to create a robust program). And while options are a blessed thing for any marketer, they're more challenging since you're building something from scratch... rather than working within a set of well-defined guidelines.

*No cookie cutters, either. There’s a saying in health care technology that goes like so, “If you’ve seen one hospital, you’ve seen ONE hospital.” What it's explaining is that the tech solutions for one hospital don’t necessarily translate to others.. even though we're still talking hospitals. Sure, there are best practices across the board but, truly, each facility is its own animal with its own set of challenges, competencies, audiences, and so on. Thus, tech solutions need to be customized to each and every hospital environment. Same thing with social media.

Just because one company in your sector had great luck with a program that engaged a lot of evangelists by way of a contest, it might not work for yours. Rather, you might have greater success in building a program that helps to solve problems, rather than one that extends benefits (though solving a problem is indeed beneficial). You can leverage the successes of other programs but you won't always have success in replicating them. So you'll be pushed to be creative. Go forth and blaze your own 2.0 trail.

*One must get past thinking “technology” and, instead, think “humans.” I often tell clients that much of my role, when it comes to social media, is not to teach them how to leverage technology; but to teach them how to become more human (it’s just that technology facilitates the process). Let’s face it, when knocking around such terms as “blog”, "microblogs," “wiki”, “widgets” and “podcasts” we really do sound more alien than human.

But I am not a borg selling a blog; I'm a marketer tasked with engaging my audience. As I assure them, humans are on the other side of those comments and content. And our job is to build programs that build relationships that, above all else, build trust. Thus, technology is playing a supporting role.

*The little guy is king. With other mediums, the business calls the shots. Said another way, there would be no newspapers, magazines or PennySavers, if it weren’t for the publishing companies that operate those outlets. Same thing with radio broadcasters and cable TV networks.

But with social media, this medium will be here (and remain here) due to consumers, not CEOs. Those little guys ensure the viability of the medium by sharing their ideas, opinions, preferences, passions, likes, dislikes and beliefs. This is as true in B2B as in B2C. And while the famous adage is that "The customer is always right," it's best to remember that the little guy now rules the kingdom. Learn to love this new principle... or at least try really hard not be threatened by it.

*Guidelines are funny and somewhat fuzzy. While areas like transparency are pretty well defined, many others are not. Some audiences are far more sensitive to seeing ads next to, or within, content than others. It's case-specific and marketers will have to be mindful of their audience's sensitivity levels and respect them. Because we're dealing with humans (see above) and because those humans are king (see above).

*It takes time to build momentum--and even more time to maintain it. I know well the equal feelings of accomplishment and relief when an initiative—be it an ad campaign, a corporate event or a position paper—is "all set." You feel drained from all the energy you've expended, excited about how well it came together and relieved that it won’t have to be the first thing you have to think about for the next 2 weeks as it has been consuming your life for the last 2 months.

But social media doesn't have a stop date. You have to nurture the relationships you've built, continue to offer your audience value so that they continue to invest time (and money) in your company and stay on top of their feedback--whether they're giving that feedback to you directly or within other conversations they're holding on the Web. You're in it for the long-haul now.

All told, social media will test the brains, brawn and malleability of your company’s marketers. Hey, I may be hip to the whole 2.0 deal, but I well understand how tough the transition can be. But change we must. Because as marketers, change is our game. And our successes are largely a function of how well we adapt to changing customers, needs, demands, sectors, business models and technologies.

So, why should a company go to the 2.0 trouble? Because of the tremendous benefits.

Social media lets you get closer to more of your customers (and prospects) than any other medium, because through these tools you can interact with them. And if treated well, those customers will not only continue to buy from you, but they'll tell others to buy from you. What's more, they'll tell you... for free!... how to better your product. So you can win in the present day and win in future days, too. Plus, in exercising strategy, sensitivity, time, creativity and trust, the world (wide web) can truly be your oyster.

Sorry if you were looking for a shortcut (or a short post).

PS: I have an entire section devoted to "all things 2.0" that includes several articles and posts with some tips, benefits and pointers that might be helpful to you, they're right here.

Comments

[Nancy Marmolejo]

Thanks for a great post. Moving from a quantitative approach to a qualitative one is a big shift for many marketers. Taking the time to develop relationships is the best investment to be made right now.

[Vijay Rayapati]

Ground realities of the social media marketing are unravelled here. Thanks. I pity when people say Social Media Marketing is all about having a fan page in FB or Twitter account or a blog.

One need to understand that social media isn't about tools (FB,Twitter,Blog or LinikedIn) but instead it is about people and engagement in conversations.