10 rules for a successful social media plan

1. Contribute to blogs, forums, wikis; everything that is of relevance to your field.
2. Comment regularly and start dialogue.
3. Create a blog and add posts three times per week.
4. Comment on other blogs, and link to blogs at least once per day.
5. Create a Twitter account and link to your blog and advertise each with the one message.
6. Tweet often and regularly - not in flashes.
7. Create a Facebook account that represents the image you want to portray.
8. Create a YouTube channel and upload videos of what you do and link to your blog and Twitter accounts.
9. Give more information than is available anywhere else.
10. Stick to your plan and do not deviate from your corporate goals.

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10 Commandments of Social Media

1
Thou shalt acknowledge your organisation can benefit from an on-line presence

2
Thou shalt survey the social media tools available to create, manage and maintain a good online brand

3
Thou shalt understand the conversation and be aware of brand sentiment and awareness

4
Thou shalt create and mature a ‘Voice’, an online style/tone that you will stick with/ create an 'online personality'

5
Thou shalt trust your staff with implemented guidelines on how to and what to contribute

6
Thou shalt not put restrictions or rules on your new community for they will fragment and go elsewhere

8
Thou shalt find your audience and engage with them, conversation shall flow and your network shall enlarge

9
Thou shalt find the strong and weak connections in your group and actively try and link the two into a stronger network

10
Thou shalt generate spokespeople for your brand by responding on blogs, forums, wiki, tweets in a quick and informing nay entertaining manner

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Image is paramount - managing your online brand

How you appear online is the key to your success. Building credibility starts with you and your personal 2.0 accounts. What does your Facebook account say about you? what do your friends accounts say about your account and in turn what does that say about your business account? Maybe you think this is slighlty going overboard on the fussy scale but attention to detail at this step will make sure your brand gets off on the right foot.

Scan Google with your name and see what comes up? Is it a picture of you drunk or sleeping rough? Was your face tagged in a friend of a friends facebook photo! If sp make sure you sort this out pronto; make yourself familiar with the security settings on Facebook. What type of posts are on your Facebook accounts? Are they rude or vulgar? Are your friends hell bent on refusing to believe that they left university 10 years ago and giving your personal brand a kicking? If so ged rid of them, you can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep and their email addresses (thehornytoad@yahoo.com) - especially when readers dont know you personally and will be getting their cues from the content of your social media sites.

Understand how to use the settings on your Twitter account. If some nut is sending you crazy or offensive tweets learn how to block them. Watch your language and tone as well. Comments are never truely deleted in the internet age. Always portray a positive and inclusive image adding value to the conversation.

Make sure that you send quality posts and blogs. Little and often is the key, but make sure its of value, and dont repeat the same message, it will become tiresome and end up as unwanted spam after a short while!

You should set up a YouTube channel with a distict, clear and crisp presentation. If you are a good presenter why not upload a presentation of the work that you do and videos that interested viewers may find value in? Check to see what videos are available and see how you can tweek them to make them more interesting to your audience. 3000 viewers on how to put on a pair of socks - i rest my case! Make sure you link to your blogs and your other social media platforms. Link everything up!

AND FINALLY
Listen to your audience. What do they want from you? What can you give them? In social media you have to listen to what the conversation is before you can converse back.

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Listen before you leap

Want to get out there and bombard your audience with how great you are and how brilliant your products and services are? Or show off how much you know about a particular subject? hold it - hold it, reverse back and put the megaphone back in the box...you have to listen to the conversation before you jump in.

Analyse what people are saying about you before you comment. What is the trend, positive or negative? What age group are these people? Is it possible to find out? How are your competitors fairing out in the discussion. Plan what you want to say and make sure it is targeted at the right audience.

Different age groups respond to different messages. Younger audiences are naturally more competitive and will respond to online competitions whereas older audiences are looking for afformation that their opinion is important and that it adds to the dialogue.

Whatever your message is, make sure it is interesting and newsworthy, and of sufficient interest to others so that it will be passed on to other audiences through re-tweets etc. Remember, nobody likes a show-off, be friendly with a positive tone and interact with your audience. In order to be part of the conversation you must understand what the conversation is.

Social media and smartphones - location; location, location

With the report from ABI Research that 1.7 billion smartphones will be in circulation by 2016, location-based applications for social networking sites are set to rocket. What does this mean for your social media plan? Location-based social networking offers an opportunity to advertise and promote your business.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Location-based applications allow users to add their location to their tweets, messages or photos due to "location aware" software. Users can send photos with exact coordinates of where they are, or "check-in" to a business or location which sends alerts to their network of contacts. Mashups allow for your location to be viewable on map applications such as google maps.

SO?
The opportunity starts with making sure that your business is listed in your geolocation area. Facebook Places allows you to claim your business location free of charge. You can manage your place’s address, contact information, business hours, profile picture, admins and other settings. Users can now "check in" to your location, transmitting this message to their network - 'John has checked in at Benetton, La Muette".

WHY WOULD THEY BOTHER?
This is where your markeing nouce comes in! Give them a reason to come to your branch and to check-in! For example, "1/2 price jeans at Benetton this afternoon only" - this is the type of incentive that will give users credibility with their network and they will be more than happy to share their location details with their social network peers. For the business it is a great way of building a rapport with customers. You can organise special deals and save these to your location. The beauty with this form of marketing is the viral nature of the message. Your network becomes stronger as you reach other users who will bring their networks along to yours.

Be visible, searchable and make your location known!