http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/lee-clow-connects-passionate-tangent-139263

This time every year we see social strategists and gurus come put with their take on what the next year will bring. Top 10 Trends… or 5 Things to Watch…. Many of the predictions will come true and some brands will catch the wave and ride it. But what about those companies who haven’t adopted last year’s trends? Or the year before? What’s to come of them?

It’s an uphill battle for the laggards when it comes to social media. It moves at such a fast pace, to capture this year’s trends they would need to play catch up, quickly. I say start where you are and grow from there. If you try and ride the new trends you will most likely fail. Hedge your bets and start. Who cares what’s happening with “big data” if your Twitter account is still locked with no tweets. You shouldn’t jump onto the “gamification” bandwagon if you’ve never attempted a Foursquare deal. Start where you are and grow.

If you don’t value relationships.

If you want to “sell”.

If “scale” is a key metric.

If you don’t want to talk to your consumers.

If you are afraid to say something wrong.

If you’re afraid to say something.

If you don’t have anything to say.

If you think “since everyone else is on it, so should we.”

If you don’t value consumer feedback.

If you have “skeletons in the closet” you don’t want to discuss. (anything from product sourcing to product efficacy)

If you don’t have the capacity to manage relationships.

If you don’t have a strategy.

If you’re not open to change.

If you expect to measure based on “universe.”

Most importantly, if you’re not passionate about its opportunities.

…but if you are… Good luck!

As I continue on in my new venture, I have to continually take a step back in what I’ve been brainwashed into thinking when it comes to Social Media. As companies continue to quickly run into the space to play catch up with the Starbucks of the world for sheer size of community and thinking of individuals within that community as a media measurement, they are missing out and passing by some amazing opportunities. Real life relationships with customers, real life engagement with individuals, a chance to change minds, an opportunity to support or celebrate, to laugh and cry… That’s what companies are missing. On the quest to 1 million fans on Facebook, the real value has been shot out the window. I’m taking a pledge here to never forget what “Social” media is all about… relationships.

Here’s a list of things that I’m finding again:

• Plan for value – Foundational strategies are great, but the true essence is the value you exchange with the community
• Engage - I mean truly engage… have your community manager really make an effort to meet and greet any new members in the community and try to understand what they want out the relationship.
• Deliver - Make promises that you over deliver on. If someone comes on board to learn, give them something to learn. If you tout your community as a thought leader, make sure you’re a thought leader.
• Take a deep breath – A past co worker had a great picture of a marathoner crossing the finish line to epitomize social media. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. Slow down. Value the people you have in your community. Add value every step of the way. They are your key to social media success.

I challenge you, social marketing ninja/guru/honcho/etc to take a step back and identify what it is you truly are doing? Are you social or are you just another metric on a scorecard? Do you truly engage or are you pushing message and praying for a “Like?” Now is a great time to reexamine what we’re doing.

What could you do different?

Earlier this week I had the pleasure meeting a lot of interesting people, sit in on a lot of interesting conversations, and watch a lot of interesting “forward thinking” happen right before my eyes at the Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies conference. Of course listening to everything with the filter of my own mind, with my own thoughts of what was coming… The slow collision of our physical and digital realities. But something struck a chord this week… Something a bit groundbreaking…

Not only is our digital and physical worlds colliding, but our entire world as we know it is converging in on itself. With uprisings in the Middle East being spawned and coordinated by the use of Facebook, to the massive response during this devastating time in Japan, to the amazing support Best Buy provides using Twitter, to the shift in product development using insights garnered through real time conversations and engagements, the use of technology is becoming a driving force towards an integrated, interconnected world.

The world economy is slowly shifting towards a converged infrastructure of passion, transparency, and empowerment through the use of technology. This shift, affecting everything from education, government, business, philanthropy, personal lives, etc, will prove to be the biggest opportunity for greatness or decline to complete and utter failure in society as we know it.

Each use of technology needs to add value and support the various ecosystems in which we live. The education ecosystem must support business to ensure our society is creating a workforce that will continue to grow and prosper in the future. The business ecosystem must support the transparency of our social lives and values regarding sourcing, labor, wages, and propel the activation of the philanthropic ecosystem, which in turn provides the support to the world issues and matters needing the most attention. Using technology, we, together, can accomplish great feats.

Deciding to do so is the hardest step.

Social media is a strong force in the marketing world today. By utilizing the power of trust, sharing and interaction, brands can build personal relationships with individuals within a community to help meet business objectives (increased brand awareness, enhanced conversions, amplified customer service, etc). However, social media takes time and diligence to not only engage a community, but acquire and invite individuals to a value-added community.

The first step to a strong social media strategy and presence is the foundational community. Below are tactical activities a brand can perform to develop an acquisition strategy to build the most targeted, highly engaged community base and foundation. Working with a combination of Paid, Owned and Earned Media strategies, a brand will enhance its digital footprint and build the social credibility necessary to acquire the best community members.

Paid Media

Paid media is the easiest and most efficient way to generate a large number of Fans quickly. By using a combination of current traditional advertising and strategic social advertising, we can acquire and build a strong foundation of highly targeted, highly engaged individuals to our community. Below are some steps brands should take to begin integrating paid media into their acquisition strategy.

Facebook
Engagement Ads. Drive awareness and engagement through the various types of ads that Facebook has available. The more engaging and relevant the ad, the more likely the user is to click and interact with it. Be sure to target the audience accordingly and align ad content with the interests of the user.

Twitter
Promoted Tweets. Promote keywords or hashtags within tweets to drive awareness of an idea, theme or account. Aligning keywords with the brand message will ensure connection with the message.

Promoted Accounts. Twitter allows for accounts to be promoted on the “Logged in” Twitter home page. The promoted accounts will align with the content that the user has posted or has within his/her profile. Build the best following base by aligning content with brand messaging.

Traditional
Use all paid and offline activities to increase awareness of the social platforms through traditional efforts. Examples could include tags on TV spots, print collateral, callouts on digital banners, in-store signage, etc.

Owned Media

As a brand, we own a lot of assets — website, micro sites, emails, other social platforms, etc. Through strategic placement and use of these assets, we can deliver a high level of community activation through owned media. Below are strategic examples of how to deliver results to community activation.

On site. Promote the social platforms on all websites with relevant and prominent calls to action on the page. For Facebook, a brand can use the “Like Box” plug-in to allow the visitor to “Like” the brand’s Facebook Fan page directly from the brand sites.

Email database. As with all websites, all email newsletters can have a callout and a link to the social platforms. When launching a new social platform, sending an email specifically announcing the launch will provide a great response and community growth.

Email signatures. Promoting all social platforms within company email signatures is a passive approach to drive awareness and acquisition to the social communities.

Cross-promote. When possible, cross-promoting the various social platforms on the other platforms in the community could be very beneficial. Promoting the content that is provided on the other social platforms could enhance this cross engagement and acquisition.

Incent community. Engaging and incenting the community that we acquire during activation or content activities can enhance reach and social credibility. Creating contests or sweepstakes that ask community members to upload content, share content or reach a certain number of fans has proven to be highly successful during acquisition campaigns.

Earned Media

Use the power of influential voices and social credibility to drive awareness, traffic and activation to a brand’s social community. Below are some activities a brand can perform to build a strong earned media acquisition strategy and ongoing stream of activation.

Influencer outreach. Use the power of influential voices by reaching out and building relationships with key influencers across channels. Develop a strategy to incent the influencers to discuss the brand efforts and drive traffic to the social platforms.

Content. Content is a strong driver for enhancing engagement and sharing, which in turn increases message reach, traffic to social sites and acquisition of new community members. The social credibility that the content interactions create builds stronger relationships with influential people in the community.

Enhance sharing. Engaging content is the first step to sharing. The second is to simply ask for it. With a strong relationship with our community members, we have enough trust to ask them to share content if they like it, which leads to reach, social credibility and community acquisition.

Third-party content creation. While building relationships with key influencers (both on and off of our social platforms) we can ask them to produce content for our social communities. This strategy will continue to enhance social credibility and increased reach through the influencer’s community and network.

Third-party content distribution. Vice versa. Influencers are continuously looking for valuable content for their network. With relationships built with key influencers, we can ask what type of content they are looking to create for their community and provide that content for them to distribute through their network. Delivering messages in this way will enhance our social credibility and will drive traffic and acquisition to our social communities.

Conclusion

Building a strong community is a strategic combination of advertising, relationship building and adding value every day for the social media strategy. Brands should ensure their digital and physical footprint is connected and cross-promoted to allow the most effective sharing of content and passing of information —all of which continues the acquisition of a community and adds value for its members.

Download the PDF:  How to: Grow a Social Community

When do you want the right answer, the best information, or the coolest new experience? The answer is more than likely, “NOW.” As we sit in front of our computers and phones, day in and day out, we are continually (innately) looking for a more streamlined approach to get the most relevant content to fulfill each particular need. What if we can preempt that quest and serve up the most relevant content at the time of need?

The semantic, social, mobile and CRM technology is there, it’s simply a combination to build a strong enough relationship to provide this preemptive-ness coupled with the commitment to empower a particular individual to take the allow pro-activity.

Tomorrow, I have the honor of being on a Panel @ NYU discussing this very topic. I’m excited to hear some of the greatest thought leaders in our world discussing this and opening it up to eager, excited minds to interact.

So, if you’ve been here before and are wondering where all my content has disappeared to you can stop wondering. I’m looking for it too. I reckon I get to start over from the beginning… both a curse and liberation. It’s amazing to start with a clean slate with no expectations or preconceptions. I hope you continue to visit and engage with and challenge my thoughts.