Presentation company Slideshare recently released its list of “5 Social Media Secrets for 2010”. While these secrets certainly sound like great suggestions, we thought we’d connect them to some concrete tactics and resources that you can use to improve your social media strategy.
1. Pay Attention to the Metrics:Slideshare illustrates how CMOs are looking to measure social media conversions for 2010. ReadWriteWeb recently wrote a post about social media ROI in late December. In addition to our suggestions for cash-related ROI, startups can also check out Robin Broitman’s Social Media Metrics Superlist for a look at some great measurement resources.
2. Scale Good Habits: Says Slideshare, “What works with 2 people won’t work with 20 people. Your entire team should be motivated to respond quickly, post consistently and talk like a human.” Some resources for determining your company’s goals and capabilities include the list of social media questions on Museum 2.0, DoshDosh’s article on campaign goal setting and Beth Kanter’s Social Media Strategy Map and Worksheet. In considering your “human voice”, check out the discussion between Echo’s Chris Saad and Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang.
3. Have Rules, But Trust People: According to Slideshare, executives need to “lead by example, rather than managing with a rule book.” We recently wrote a post about how blogging and tweeting leaders build better teams through shared learning, transparency and a culture of openness. Our early article on Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh also exhibits how more leaders are embracing the chaos of brand conversations.
4. Creativity and Personality Trump Big Budget: We’ve published a variety of posts on successful cause-related campaigns including Sloane Berrent’s Kiva fellowship and Beth Kanter’s work with ChipIn. Neither of these efforts were well funded, but both leveraged leaders’ creativity to increase engagement and response.
5. Listen, Listen, Listen: Early last year we wrote an article on how sentiment analysis would heat up in 2009. To track conversations about your company you can try ContextVoice, PostRank and/or Echo. For a look at your overall industry you might want to set up your very own Social Media Cheat Sheet.
And finally, before your run out to tweak your own program, check out Sarah Perez’s “When Not to Use Social Media” article.
If you’ve got social media secrets you’d like to share, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
