Last time we looked at the Big 5 environments that most companies participate in: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, and blogs. Now here are some of the “Rules of Engagement” you need to think about before you take the leap of faith in the social media world!

The 5 Basics

1. Don’t be a Narcissist! Don’t only talk about you and your company, talk about the benefits to the reader they would gain by using your product or service.
2. Make the Time commitment. If you are going to dive into the social media world, have someone dedicated to managing its information daily! This is where companies make the biggest mistake. Your company starts a Facebook page but never updates it. Then someone with a personal ax to grind posts a negative statement and- BOOM, there goes your whole social media campaign. Now you’re in catch up mode trying to over-compensate when a potential client brings up the negative post in your next conversation. In the social media world, you can never be too proactive! That’s why you’ve got to have a steady diet of educational blogs, proactive posts and several customer referrals and letters of satisfied clients … along with tweets steering them to read all of the great news.
3. Ask questions before you make the commitment. You need to not only ask your internal company these questions, but you also need to ask some of your clients what information they would like to have.
4. Find your Niche. You can’t be all things to all people, find what you do best and “Just do it.”
5. Educate, educate, educate. You need the social media engine to educate your clients. The best client is an educated client. The true beauty comes when you are able to educate your clients on how you’re the best and most logical choice to solve their problems and sell more work!

This is the only media I know of where you can have a 2-way conversation with your clients.

Here’s the goal:
turning people you don’t know into friends,
friends into long term customers,
and customers into evangelists,
about your product or service.

Because at the end of the day….

If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards!