Top 21 Rules

for Social Media Engagement

1: Discover all relevant communities of interest and observe the choices, challenges, impressions, and wants of the people within each network

2: Participate where your presence is advantageous and mandatory, don't just participate anywhere and everywhere or solely in your own domains (Facebook Brand Page, Twitter conversations related to your brand, etc.)

3: Determine the identity, character, and personality of the brand and match it to the persona of the individuals representing it online

4: Establish a point of contact who is ultimately responsible for identifying, trafficking, or responding to all things that can affect brand perception

5: As in customer service, representatives require training to learn how to proactively and reactively respond across multiple scenarios - don't just put the person familiar with social networking in front of the brand

6: Embody the attributes you wish to portray and instill - operate by a code of conduct

7: Observe the behavioral cultures within each network and adjust your outreach accordingly

8: Assess pain points, frustrations and also those of contentment in order to establish meaningful connections

9: Become a true participant in each community you wish to activate, move beyond marketing and sales

10: Don't speak at audiences through canned messages, introduce value, insight and direction through each engagement

11: Empower your representatives to offer rewards and resolution in times of need

12: Act, don't just listen and placate - do something

13: Ensure that any external activities are supported by a comprehensive infrastructure to address situations and adapt to market conditions and demands

14: Learn from each engagement and provide a path within the company to adapt and improve products and services

15: Consistently create, contribute, and reinforce service and value

16: Earn connections through collaboration and empower advocacy

17: Don't get lost in translation, ensure your communication and intent is clear and that your involvement maps to objectives created for the social web

18: Establish and nurture beneficial relationships online and in the real world as long as doing so is important to your business

19: "un" campaign and create ongoing programs that keep you part of day-to-day engagement

20: "un" market by becoming a resource to your communities

21: Give back, reciprocate and recognize notable contributions from participants in your communities

Source: Brian Solis, FutureWorks 6/7/10