I was
lucky to be part of a great panel moderated by Gordon at media140 on brands and
personality. A topic similar to the question I get asked most often by our
clients at H&K — “How should my brand behave in social media?”

So here are my Top 5 Tips for social success. Please add yours in the comments.

1. Listen
first:  People have always talked about the brands and
products they love or loath. The amazing thing is that now we can listen in
real time as these conversation happen in public. So we help our clients
explore the many free online tools, as well as using more sophisticated
listening platforms to track and analyse brand sentiment. For real insights, be open and truly interested in
what people have to say. Even when they are not talking about you.

2. Think
before you speak:  There are many examples of brand faux pas in social
media spaces. Which mirrors human foibles. If you don’t want those student
party pictures on Flickr, don’t post them. Better yet, don’t get drunk. The
brand version of reputation protection is to have clearly written social media
strategy and guidelines.

3. Be
hands-on :  The only way to really understand web 2 tools is to use
them yourself. So I run Digital PR Acceleration training for clients as a
fast-track way to experience social media the way consumers do. We are also big Yammer fans at H&K. An enterprise
microblogging platform, it’s a great way to connect staff across offices,
while organically learning best behaviour in a private community.

4. Share: Try some internal crowd sourcing or fun events to
bring your tribe together. For example, WPP Digital holds the yearly Stream
unconference where everyone must lead a talk or workshop. Brand teams can learn
a lot from new ways of working together that can apply to how their brand can
bring something of value to the social media party.

5. Embrace
beta: Here’s one secret you probably won’t hear from your
agency. There is no such thing as a social media expert. Digital is not a
channel. Better to view it as a river. By the time you think you understand the
Twitter phenomenon, along comes Foursquare and Gowalla. You’re a pro with
Facebook, but have never tried FriendFeed. So my advice is to keep up with the
tech platforms, but with all the enthusiasm of a perpetual student. Party on!

You should follow me, my agency and all the smart
folks from the media140 event on Twitter

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Adapted from an article written for Marketing
Magazine 14 October 2009 Issue13