By M. Isi Eromosele

Today’s interactive social web and related innovations make for exciting challenges and great opportunities.

The web continues to reshape the world in many ways, such as how we do business, how we connect and how we market at an incredibly faster pace. Its impact on all organizations globally is massive and pervasive. Organizations whose leaders hold back will be lost.

Embracing the social web paradigm is an imperative. Businesses need to make a plan that is rooted in the understanding that the social web is a mechanism to connect and engage with customers.

This is more than a social media campaign. Basing a plan on the fundamentals of the social web ensures that your business begins to incorporate it in a systematic way rather than ad hoc, which is vital to a successful implementation.

The following are some unique features of social media marketing that can be used to the benefit of your organization:

Best Practices For A Focused Social Media Strategy

Your adoption of social media marketing will depend on your products and services, your market’s readiness and your corporate culture. Rather than taking it on all at once, you might want to find one or two avenues to test out.

Research Your Potential Market On Their Turf

Perform a keyword search to discover which online channels and what messages are influencing your prospective customers. Get to know how/where they communicate online. What are the hot topics and pain points? What are people saying about your organization or the competition?

Scan conversations on relevant blogs, review white papers and articles posted on sites or look into media monitoring services like Google Alerts. Once you have a better idea of what you’re up against, you can come up with a more targeted method of reaching the audiences that are the most valuable to your industry.

Consider Including Social And Interactive Marketing In Your Media Budget

According to Forrester Research, it’s estimated that marketers will spend more than $55 billion on social media involvement by 2014, not including paid advertisements. With the advancements in search engine optimization, real time social media updates are now incorporated into results. This only bolsters incentives to earmark social media in your marketing budget.

Humanize Your Brand

If you host a blog, do it well. Blogs provide an opportunity for you to put a human touch to your corporate persona. Postings should be well-written and signed by employees. Allowing bloggers’ personalities to shine through help reflect your unique brand culture and introduces corporate leaders and generates sales leads.

The tone and goal should be significantly different from your corporate website - omit press releases, sell copy and financials. Focus instead on your audience and the messages they want to hear. Blogs rely on up-to-date content, so don’t venture in unless you can guarantee a fresh blog post at least every few days.

Focus On The Relationship Before The Technology

The first step is to learn the social technology profile of your target online audience. That profile can range from inactive (those who are untouched by social technologies) to creator (people who write blogs, upload videos, etc.).

Only then can you proceed to the next important steps, such as determining your objective (Create a community for market research? Member support? Word-of-mouth promotion?) and strategy (How do you want to change your relationship with members?).

If you’re still unsure or uneasy about your role in tricky social media situations, create a Social Media Engagement Model. It’s important to remember that negative feedback on your social media channels isn’t necessarily a crisis (though it can be, so have a plan in

place for managing it).

Use Negative PR As A Teachable Moment

The knee-jerk reaction to negative user-generated content is to remove it. However, if you have a negative media issue to tackle this may be just the venue for it. Transparency builds trust with your audiences, so the more authentic you can be the better.

If you’ve decided to approve/keep any negative user-generated content, chances are the public is already blogging about it, which may be more detrimental if left unaddressed. If in doubt about an issue’s impact on your brand reputation, do some internal public relations triage. Your colleagues are your greatest resource, and may be able to provide some insight into the issue, and a possible solution or response.

Then, instead of avoiding the issue, post the concern with your thoughtful explanation or apology. On the other hand, you’re ultimately in control. There’s no need to post every unfavorable remark. To create transparency and trust for your brand, respond to only the negative comments/interactions that are relevant or appropriate.

To Help Grow Your Audience, Incorporate Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tactics

Examples can include referral programs, new mover incentives and other viral marketing promotions. Consider bolstering your word-of-mouth vocabulary by joining the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. True word-of- mouth marketing is based on an honest, open philosophy that works to create customer enthusiasm instead of pushing marketing messages.

There is a difference between basic organic word of mouth, which can include open dialogue with the public and responding to member concerns from the amplified version, developing strategic uses for social media platforms and feedback tools. This can include creating blogs and targeting more influential prospects that can spread your message exponentially.

Optimize Lead Generation

Your social media campaign needs the following elements to successfully generate leads:

Cross-Promote Through Various Channels

Appreciate the fluid interplay among industry blogs, sites and microsites. Get your organization’s name on the Web in as many places as possible to raise your search engine ranking as well as your perceived authority.

Start backlinking by posting articles written by your experts on relevant sites, blogs and forums and include numerous links back to your site. Promote your blog and site URLs in your quarterly publications.

Track Your Social Media’s ROI

How do you know if your social media efforts are producing results? One way is to determine if site traffic has increased as a result by using what are now traditional Web analytics. This can be as basic as tracking the referring domains and seeing if your blog, viral video or other social platforms are among the top performers.

Or populate your calls to action with toll-free numbers that are unique to each campaign or media platform. A high percentage of users research products and services online, but make the actual purchase over the phone. Well-placed online polls though tools like SurveyMonkey may also be helpful in evaluating your results.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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