I know what you’re thinking, “not another list from someone claiming to know everything about social media”. Well, I’m sorry, but it is another list.  It’s not a definitive set of rules, but these are 10 points that help guide me in developing and implementing social strategies for brands. I hope you find it useful:

1. Don’t ‘do’ social media because everyone else is

You know the drill, a boss, planner, client etc comes to you asking you why you’re not doing anything in social media. A competitor has got themselves some fans on Facebook and now the finger is being pointed at you because you haven’t got any.

This doesn’t mean that you need to hastily create a page/account and spend a load of ad money driving people to your page. The best course of action is to plan an appropriate strategy and define a role for social platforms for your organisation. A long-term vision is required, not a quick Band-Aid to appease your colleagues. Due consideration needs to be given to the content you’re going to give to people as well as the tone of voice that you’ll speak with.

None of the above need be complicated, but careful, robust planning will lead to a far better end result.

2. Don’t spam people

A classic mistake. You set up a Facebook, Twitter or other social media account and start firing off messages to your newly acquired fan base. The major problem here is that your fan base is also someone else’s fan base and is receiving umpteen messages from other brands too. Oh yeah, and they have friends who are also messaging them. A way to avoid spamming and upsetting people is to work out a content calendar that plans your scheduled updates. The size and engagement levels of your audience will dictate the appropriate volume of updates and tweets. Make sure you’re monitoring your analytics (FB Insights, twittercounter, bit.ly etc…) for any signs of uplift or downturn in fan levels and response rates and adjust your activity accordingly.

3. Don’t automate everything

There’s a lot of handy technology out there to help you run your page and respond to people.  A pitfall to avoid is automating everything. For example, don’t schedule all updates to go out at the same time every day or rely solely on auto DM messages on Twitter. Your brand needs a personality. Engagement with users must feel genuine and people will only invest their time in your page/account if you invest time in them.

4. Don’t assume everyone will like you

Social media’s phenomenal growth has largely been down to the fact it gives power to people, both as individuals and as groups due to common interests. People have their own opinions and social media gives them the opportunity to communicate this. As a result, if people have a negative opinion of you, or you do something to upset/annoy them then you have to be prepared to handle such issues in the correct manner. Google a generic term like “social media mistakes” and you’ll soon find examples of brands who have handled customers badly. From Habitat to Nestle, the list of case studies is growing.  Brands need to define how they handle negative feedback. Moderation needs to be defined and scenarios scoped to provide guidance to practitioners. This needs to be agreed upfront and reviewed on an ongoing basis.

5. Don’t pass other people’s work off as your own

Social media enables the rapid dissemination of information. A result of this is that it is now very easy to find info on almost any subject.  The danger that exists is that in the desire to appear knowledgeable and trustworthy, a brand will hijack someone’s previous work (from a news article, to research, to a status update) and pretend it’s theirs. If you’re doing this at the moment, make sure you stop! In the majority of cases, nobody will mind you posting their work, just make sure you give them credit and if you’re in any doubt then ask them. You might even make a connection and establish a meaningful relationship.

6. Don’t forget your brand identity in other channels

Just because you’re on Twitter doesn’t mean you should call everyone “Tweeps” or “Tweeple”! Language should be based on your brand identity with any changes discussed in the context of wider strategy.

7. Don’t run social media away from the rest of the business

The temptation for businesses is to appoint a “Social Media Guru” and let them ‘get on with it’, or hire in a grad and hope that they have it covered. Social media needs to be integrated with the rest of the business. All functions of an organisation must buy into a social media strategy and offer support when required. For example, customer service departments must build in flexibility to deal with social media requests, sales teams need to be tuned in to recognise leads and HR should recognise the potential that social media offers.

8. Don’t think it’s just about Facebook

Yes Facebook is enormous, but social media is even bigger. On top of Facebook you need to consider micro-blogging (Twitter, Yammer etc..), blogs (wordpress, blogspot etc…), video sites (YouTube, Daily Motion etc…) and photo sharing. That’s before you start to address  new platforms and emerging technologies. Oh and you should be monitoring your brand in social media with tools such as Brandwatch and Radian6. There’s a lot to consider but you shouldn’t be daunted by it. Essentially, you have to plan a role for your brand in each of the above. Your agency or internal colleagues should be able to help to simplify, if they can’t, then MBA can!

9. Don’t over-promise!

Getting buy in from senior colleagues often (quite rightly) requires predictions of success. You need to be fully aware of what social can and cannot do for your business.  A suitable measurement framework should be in place, with realistic and achievable goals. As a practitioner is social media, I find it really important to not over-promise. If it’s your brand’s first step into social media then it is crucial that you don’t promise your FD too much in incremental sales/revenue. If you don’t achieve it then you’re damaging your long-term hopes of placing social at the heart of the business. Social media is a discipline for successful, ambitious people but we need to ensure that we make predictions based on available data (such as known conversion rates, industry data etc) and not finger in the air predictions to gain bosses attention.

10. Don’t be afraid!

Yes there are things to avoid, but there are in every aspect of marketing. Social media offers brands opportunities for engagement that haven’t previously been possible, and a chance to understand our customers better. As always, the golden rule is planning. A well planned campaign will stand up in front of the decision-makers in your organisation, achieve buy in from all functions and (hopefully) engage your target audience in a meaningful way.