Social Media is not just about “spreading the word” about your brand. Engagement with consumers in real time is much more important and this is what adds value to your business. Going into Social Media is much like having a “love affair” with your public. They need to feel well when being around your brand. Which are the 5 main rules for establishing “loving and lasting” relationship with your consumers through social media. –

Research and plan

Researching on what your public is interested, and planning your social media campaign around that, is probably “half a battle won”. Research for where your customers go, which websites, forums, social media… and be there! Don’t waste your time on sites where your target audience would never go – like gaming space if you are targeting mums with babies and toddlers (do you think they would have time for games). If you are in the beauty industry, for instance, see if your consumers are interested in things like any potential side effects of your products on the skin, impact on environment and animal testing. If there are any concerns about is, explain your point of view in a friendly conversation. But it is important not to lie! Always…

Be Honest

Telling people the truth (in this case about your company, services or products) is the essential for building your reputation and positive image. People will trust you that way. And what is more important – if you ever make a mistake, they would be more prone to “forgive” you.

Engage

Have something to say? – Then say it in an interesting and engaging way. Don’t just throw random messages in the social media space. Every post in your blog, Tweeter message or LinkedIn discussion should be planned around your social media strategy (yes, you need to have one). Respond to question and comments from people visiting your social media networking sites, commend other posts in competitors’ blogs, re-tweet and share. Use tools and widgets to spread the word as fast and wide as possible like having a “share” button next to your posts, or connecting your tweeter, facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so that your say will reach everyone at once.

Listen, listen, listen

Well, talking and sharing ideas is important, but it is now time to start listening to your public, too. Unhappy customer? – see why, think about the reasons and answer immediately. Show respect and understanding – everyone would appreciate it and would feel flattered by your attention.

Be One Step Ahead of Competitors

Monitoring what competitors do, track your reputation by using online tools or software. Trackur, twitrrart, trendpedia, socialmention, buzzlogic insights, xefer, streamwall, socialminder, blogpulse, or even simple google alerts could be of great help in that. See what the trends are, what consumers in your industry are interested in, and what competitors are already doing, and be “one step ahead”. Provide more information, interact, proved an extra attention. This “extra” effort might do the job and make you the winner.

Sounds much like being in a relationship, doesn’t it?

Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle, claims recent post from Mashable. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation. This problem is compounded by the recent budget cuts that have squeezed ever more students into each room.

Fortunately, educators (including myself) have found that Twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture. Additionally, the ubiquity of laptops and smartphones have made the integration of Twitter a virtually bureaucracy-free endeavor. This post describes the two main benefits professors find when using Twitter in lecture.

Classroom shyness is like a blackhole: Once silence takes over, it never lets go. In my own experience, in a class of hundreds, the fraction of students who speak up is small, and a still tinier fraction contribute regularly.

That’s why, Dr. Monica Rankin of the University of Texas at Dallas was pleasantly surprised when her experiment with Twitter began pulling more students into discussion. “It’s been really exciting because, in classes like this, you’ll have three people who talk about the discussion material, and so to actually have 30 or 40 people at the same time talking about it is really interesting,” said Megan Malone, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Monica Rankin’s United States history course, in the video below.

During lecture, students tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone, while the TA and Dr. Rankin respond to a real-time feed displayed prominently in front of the room. Students who manage to live off the grid for 50 minutes can still pass in hand-written notes for the TA to tweet after class.

“The first thing I noticed when the class started using Twitter was how conversations continued inside and outside of class,” Parry wrote. “Once students started Twittering I think they developed a sense of each other as people beyond the classroom space, rather than just students they saw twice a week for an hour and a half.” As a result, classroom conversation became more productive as “people were more willing to talk, and [be] more respectful of others.”

Parry’s experience is in line with results of one of the first education studies of Twitter, which found that students do indeed carry on discussion outside of the classroom.

No doubt 2009 was the year of Social Media, when lots of companies recognised the need of participating in the online conversation. The importance of this marketing discipline brought the role of Social Media/ Community Manager to the agency or company team structure. Some agencies preferred to transform their digital or online PR staff into a social media strategists, however there is more than digital and PR experience a social media guru would need. If you are a marketing specialist, wondering if your skills and experience would qualify for that juicy and probably 2010’s most wanted marketing job, or if you are an employer looking to hire someone to be responsible about the company social media strategy, here is the job description.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Research

• Constantly monitor and be aware of current trends in social media, networking and monitoring tools.
• Be on top of industry trends; monitor most engaging topics – most re-tweeted, most downloaded, most shared, etc. by industry.
• Research on key competitors for every new client – where are they active, what social media tactics do they use, how do they engage.
• Research on best practices – what works best and what- doesn’t.
• Identify key/targeted networking platforms, forums and blogs by industry and solution area.

• Research on target audience – what are their interests, where the target public is: online spaces/ networks/ communities; how many hours on average they spend online and where

Implement

• Be the eyes and ears of the brand as if your own reputation depended on it
• Minute by minute participate in conversations that surround the brand content, answer comments, be a mediator.
• Identify threats and opportunities in user generated content surrounding the brand.

• Establish and cultivate positive relationships with key/targeted bloggers, and/or identify brand marketers and PR managers who should be monitoring and influencing these relationships.
• Develop and manage pages on popular consumer social networking websites such as Linkedin, Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, MySpace, etc. (depending on targeted channels) as well as popular technology sites intended to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to the site.
• Coordinate social media activities by actively engaging in consumer and industry conferences, blogs, video sharing, online chats, wikis, etc., to promote brand messaging and increase brand awareness resulting in driving brand traffic to the site.
• Engage in regular participation within the customer community, including the review of user blogs, wikis and communities such as sascommunity.org.
• Recruit, develop and coach new bloggers and blog editors.
• Manage the day-to-day blogger activities; proactively identifying and developing blog posts, recruiting bloggers and assigning blog ideas to others.

• Create content for feeds and snippets in various social media sites.
• Help with making corporate website social media and search-engine friendly – from fan badges, share/save buttons, to optimising tags, page descriptions, RSS feeds

Monitor and Report

• Track and monitor the success of online initiatives both qualitative and quantitative resuls (i.e. impressions, reach and influence)
• Prepare case studies and campaign results presentations
• Create and update daily, weekly and monthly reports

• Analyze campaigns and translate anecdotal or qualitative data into recommendations and plans for revising the social media campaigns.

Internal relations

• Develop company social media policy, as a part of the employee guidelines.
• Educate staff on the implementation and use of new technologies.
• Promote social media activities internally.

Skills

• Demonstrated experience with Web 2.0 channels & great affinity for learning new technologies.
• Strong relationship building skills, including negotiation & executive interaction, ability to coach others.
• Have excellent project management skills.
• Ability to develop a business vision for social media, including goals & results
• Leadership/decision-making: skilled at articulating to executives and internal teams the importance of social applications and is able to make calm recommendations during crises. Be able to exercise good judgment with quick response time.
• Flexible communication skills: Strong editorial writer. Able to present needs and plans and communicate internally, has a distinct, personable voice for external engagement. Manage negative situations toward positive outcomes.
• Be a team-player and a positive-thinker.
• Be budget-savvy: manage budget while hitting performance goals.