Many brands are investing a lot of time and money into social networks, almost to the point of ceding control to another entity. It’s time to rethink this.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t participate on platforms like Facebook and Google +. I am just issuing a warning that it is not a good idea to become too intertwined in something controlled by someone else. Facebook and Google + are free platforms, and as such they can make the rules. Therein lies the problem.

Take for instance Facebook’s decision to remove the discussion tab from pages. Says Inside Facebook,

The in-house app, also known as Discussion Boards, allows Pages to host simple forums. However, Facebook says “The best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your wall”. It will therefore eliminate the Discussions app, despite AppData showing that it has 22 million monthly active users.

Well, there are a lot of Facebook page administrators who have spent literally years using this application. Some have used it for its threaded discussion ability. What happens to the archives? Our friends at SocialFish don’t like this much either.

It doesn’t matter to Facebook that it’s much easier for people interested in ongoing discussions to follow an archived, threaded discussion format. Or that it’s much easier to have an actual discussion format, not Facebook’s ever-changing, secretly-algorithmed wall post format. What’s easy or useful for users is not Facebook’s concern; Facebook cares about Facebook. Period.

All brands are in danger here, but particularly smaller ones. For months, I have warned friends who own small businesses that they need a digital home besides Facebook. I encourage them to at least set up a free WordPress blog if they can’t afford to have someone build them a website. Your site should be the hub – not a spoke – of your content marketing. You should use social networks as a sidewalk back home, not the other way around. Or, someday, your brand could be homeless.

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Social media has come a long way in the last five years. Once used to kill time and stay entertained, the social web is now deeply ingrained in the day-to-day operations of businesses large and small. Communications is no exception – in fact, it’s one of the premier uses of social media in the corporate environment. Instead of relying on outdated bulletin boards and impersonal memos, tech-savvy executives are now using online tools to communicate more quickly, more personally and more effectively.

Here are seven strategies for implementing social media communication in your company:

Establish Clear Ownership

(source)

One of the biggest problems companies have when implementing social media at the corporate level is that no one department has clear ownership of it. Who’s responsible? Is it marketing, HR, senior management, or perhaps a newly anointed person/department? There is no one “right” answer, but the old saying applies: when it’s everyone’s responsibility, it’s no one’s responsibility.

When a company’s social presence is run by different departments, it invariably falls short of its full potential. Each week sees the birth of new “initiatives” and experiments, rather than the continuation of one solid direction or approach. As a result, social media fails to become the rich communication channel it has the potential to be. Pick one person (or department) to be in charge and give them authority over the channel.

Protected Twitter Accounts

(source)

One of the quickest ways to immediately leverage social media for corporate communications is Twitter. But there’s a twist: established businesses shouldn’t sign up for the same public Twitter accounts that individuals use. Rather, executives will want to use what’s known as a “protected” Twitter account (explained here.)

Basically, a protected Twitter account is one where only approved followers (employees and colleagues in this case) can see your Tweets. Once established, your protected Twitter account can be used to share anything of company importance: memos, reminders, event invitations, etc. You can even go a step further and establish protected Twitter accounts for each department. This way, everyone gets tweets that are very pointed and relevant to their job duties without getting overwhelmed by things outside of their purview.

Corporate RSS Feeds

(source)

RSS feeds offer another way to rapidly disseminate information across the company. RSS (which literally stands for “really simple syndication”) enables executives to create “feeds” that employees and co-workers subscribe to via tools like Google Reader. What can you syndicate using RSS? Actually, just about anything you wish.

Today’s RSS technologies permit you to syndicate text, videos, audio files and virtually anything else you can send along in an e-mail or instant message. The benefit of using RSS instead is that you can create the content once (say, a reminder or memo) and effortlessly blast it out to everyone in a completely streamlined and trackable format.

Internal Company Blog

(source)

If you aren’t ready to experiment with Twitter and RSS yet (or even if you are) a much simpler way to bring social media into your communications program is just to set up an internal company blog. This is distinct from any customer-facing blog you might have. Rather than publishing PR stories about the company, your internal blog is meant to convey information that’s meaningful to employees and executives.

A major plus of having an internal blog is allowing employees to comment on each post and paying attention to what they say. This is a priceless form of feedback – encourage people to freely and candidly share their thoughts on company blog posts. Furthermore, use these responses to drive new initiatives or employee programs based on what you learned.

More strategies in Part 2. Stay tuned.

Editor’s Note: today’s post is from guest author, Bryan Cochand, a freelance writer for Adobe. Adobe’s Online Marketing Suite helps businesses with their search marketing efforts.

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I just did a session called Market Successfully In Today’s Interactive Environment for the Bank of Commerce’s School of Commerce (SOC). The SOC is designed to help independently owned businesses with the key challenges they have, ranging from financing to marketing.

The presentation covered how to develop your social media plan with key discussion centering on research, audience definition, goal-setting and measurement.

I developed a special report to go with the presentation and you can download it here if you are interested. Do you agree with my approach? Did I leave anything out? Please let me know.

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Photo: Copyright 2001 Columbia Pictures

When you live in the South you sometimes still see the male hairstyle known as the mullet. As Joe Dirt said in the movie by the same name, a mullet is “business in the front, party in the back.” And that is how social media is like a mullet: it’s both business and personal.

It’s not easy juggling your different accounts, keeping in mind what you should and shouldn’t say using that particular account. I have a personal and a business Twitter account, and assist in tweeting several other business accounts. There’s my Facebook account, the My Creative Team Facebook page, and four other client related accounts. Not to mention LinkedIn, Amplify, and Quora…you get the picture.

I’ve been using Hootsuite to simplify my digital life. And it works pretty well. I just ran across a story in Springwise about Whoopaa,

The new service can integrate with users’ Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, presenting them all on one site. Users can then mark these accounts as associated with either their business or personal Whoopaa profiles. Once Whoopaa has been linked up in this way, users can switch between their business and personal profiles at the click of a single button, instantly viewing all the social network activity attached to the Whoopaa profile selected — neatly arranged in one time-line. Users can send direct messages, invites and wall posts to their separate social network accounts from within the Whoopaa site, as well as sending messages directly to other members’ Whoopaa inboxes. An iPhone app is currently in development.

With the increasing importance attached to online identity, both in personal and business terms, the demand for aggregators has seen no shortage of contenders. However, for social networkers who prefer to keep these profiles separate, Whoopaa set itself apart with a neat headline feature.

I’m thinking about giving it a try. Have you tried Whoopaa, or another utility that gives you more control? How do you keep your business social media and your personal media personas separated? Let us know.

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Have you been seeing funny looking images like the one above popping up in stores? This is called a QR code or Quick Response Code. They are great tools for connecting the real and the digital worlds. Microsoft has a competing technology called tags. My prediction: it loses.

Use your smartphone QR reader app to take a photo of the QR code and you go to a website for more information. (Feel free to follow the above QR code link and give My Creative Team a thumbs up when you get there.) Or, a QR code can spark a number of other actions, ranging from opening a map on your phone, sending a text message, displaying on-screen text, even dialing a phone number.

We just used a QR code for the Lowe’s Gift List Builder project, which we covered in a recent post. We designed in-store signage containing a QR code that linked your smartphone to our mobile site to search for a friend or family member’s gift list.  Once you find the list, you can walk around the store with the images on your screen, picking up the items off the list that you want to buy.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about other ways we might use these in advertising, PR, marketing and business communications. Here are some ideas:

I don’t know how long QR codes will be appropriate for print advertising, but if you drop one of these unusual looking QR codes into a newspaper or magazine sometime soon, it will be the only one there. People will be curious and will want to follow the trail. So, bring them to a beautifully designed landing page for the product or service you are promoting.
How about placing one on a billboard or sidewalk signage? You click on it and up pops a map taking you right to the advertiser’s door.
Magazine and newspaper publishers could use QR codes to take mobile readers to augment content.
Our local Goodwill Industries is using QR codes on its annual fundraising piece, as well as in its stores. The QR code leads back to this thank you video.
Convention and Visitor Bureaus could use QR codes to provide additional information about its attractions. For instance, you visit a historic site, scan a QR code and get an audio tour of the site via smartphone.
Use QR codes in virtual scavenger hunts. This could work very well in tourism.
Another tourism idea, have QR codes printed on table-toppers for local restaurants. Scan one and it dials the local CVB so you can ask questions about other local attractions and events.
Realtors could use QR codes to provide instant information to people who visit one of their listings.
On your business card, place a QR codes that takes people to a page where they can download your vcard contact information, learn more about your organization, read your blog, any number of things could go on this page.
Conferences could cut down on printing cost by handing out only a name badge containing a QR code. This takes you to a web page where you can download or review all the conference papers and presentations.
Get a Google Favorite Places window sticker for your restaurant. Have the QR code take people to your Facebook page.
Musicians could have a QR code at their concert that provides fans with a free download of a song.
Create QR code coupons that give mobile customers special deals.
Develop retail shelf talkers to provide recipes – and ingredient lists – in the grocery store.
I could see Lowe’s having a project area that offers QR codes with links to how-to videos, shopping lists outlining everything you need – from tools to lumber.

OK, those are my top 15 ideas. What ideas do you have for using QR codes?

Update: Just ran across an article from Joan Stewart on the PR uses of QR Codes. Give it a read.

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I was having a discussion last night with a friend who doesn’t get social media. He says he feels like a voyeur when seeing things his friends post. I can understand that to a point because some people do overshare their lives.

Let me admit that I love social media. But perhaps not for the reasons you might think. To me, the promise of social media has always been about improving my real life. I embraced blogging, LinkedIn,  Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and Foursquare fairly early.

These platforms have helped me maintain contact with friends who may have moved away. They also have helped me find new places to dine and party, and allow me to tell my friends where we’re going to be on certain nights. It is surprising how many people will show up when I post that we are going to a local night spot to hear a musician.

For instance, the folks at The Wine Cellar along with my wife arranged a surprise birthday party for me almost entirely through Facebook. The musician on the right in the photo above is of my cousin. They also arranged for him to come – via Facebook – to play for my birthday. We had a huge crowd and I was surprised.

Just last night another social media activity enriched my real life. I had gotten a note a couple of days ago via Yelp from Jeff. He had been eating at Choplin’s, which is within walking distance of The Wine Cellar. Jeff saw my Yelp note about the place and gave it a try. Here is his message to me:

I’m a big Yelp fan. So after dinner at Choplins I looked at my Yelp app and there was the Wine Cellar. Love independent places and it just had a good vibe. Not a lot of people Yelp around here – so when I saw 27 checkins – I had to ask the owner. He said you were one of his best friends. I drank a great bottle of wine and we proceeded to have a great bottle of wine and one of the best conversations I’ve ever had. Thanks for the writeup Duke of the Wine Cellar!

I was happy to receive this note and pleased I could help Jeff to have a great time and also to help my friends who own the Cellar. But that was not the end of it. Last night, I met Jeff at the Cellar. The owner brought him over, introduced him to me and Jeff gave me a bottle of wine to thank me for introducing him to the place.

Now, that’s what social media should be about. Has social media improved your life? How?

UPDATE: Read Amber Naslund’s excellent post on this topic.

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How many social networks is too many to handle? As in every other facet of business, I believe focus is the answer. Pick three to four that make sense for you and your organization and do them right.

If you are spending all of your time blogging, Twittering, adding posts on your company Facebook page, when are you going to have time to keep the business afloat? After all, the first rule of business is to stay in business. To do this, you must make money.

How many networks are you trying to keep afloat? Have you jettisoned any? Which ones? What is working – or not working – for you?

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Now, if you don’t care who knows everything about your online life, then move along, there is nothing for you to see here. But, if you do care about your online privacy, you might want to read on.

Now, I have some problems with the way Facebook plays fast and loose with personal data, but ultimately it is your data. You enter it, you manage it and you control what people can see and how other websites can utilize your data.  Facebook can’t share what you don’t let them share or what you don’t enter in the first place.

If you feel – as I do – that you derive benefit from Facebook’s platform but you are concerned about your online privacy, this article provides a good explanation about what you can do to enhance your data’s security.  Additionally, I recommend running this privacy tool on your Facebook profile.

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Here’s how it happened. Friend Kathy Rowan (@PRQueen) works closely with Thompson and has for a longtime. She asked me to help with the project she had conceived.

First, we recruited  a great group of Charlotte Twitterati to participate and I’d like to recognize them once more.  I hope you will follow these wonderful people:

@CrystalDempsey

@AlexisAcosta

@ScottHepburn

@prettyannoyed

@beccabernstein

@daily_pinch

@lisahoffmann

@brandonuttley

@kateymarie

Next, we decided upon a catchy hashtag – #tweeta20 – to help track the stream.

Then, we:

- rounded up some Wicked tickets for a drawing from the pool of online #tweeta20 donors (oh, by the way, the winner was @ppnc09)

- pre-promoted the May 11 event to friends and followers to try to prime the fundraising pump

- developed Tweet Cheat Sheets for our 10 Twitterati to utilize and to keep us on message

- mounted a media relations effort to garner media interest, and this paid off with pre-event publicity from The Charlotte Observer and Fox News Rising. The momentum continues: WCNC-TV visited the facility the day after the event, spending two hours there filming.

- set up a Twitter account for Thompson and began following Charlotte, NC area people with the account

- set up a Thompson cause page on Facebook to involve our non-Twittering friends

During Thompson’s May 11 annual luncheon, its big fundraiser for the year,  our group sat at the Twitter Table,  twittering like crazy, utilizing two 4G Overdrive hotspots that @Sprint provided.

We’ve learned a lot about how to use social media for nonprofits, and I want to figure out how to translate this knowledge to other charities in our area. I’ll get back to you on that once I’ve figured it out.

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On Tuesday, May 11, nine Charlotte social media folks and I will spend an hour trying to raise money for Thompson Child & Family Focus, an organization that has spent nearly 125 years providing education, treatment and support for children traumatized by sexual abuse, domestic violence or rampant neglect.

During Thompson’s annual meeting at noon May 11, we will sit at a Twitter Table and encourage our followers to Tweet A $20 or more. Each contributor of $20 or more will be entered to win two tickets to WICKED at Charlotte, NC’s Ovens Auditorium.

We’re using the hashtag #Tweeta20 in all of our social media postings  so we can keep up with the social stream, primarily from our Charlotte area social followers.

How can you help? I’m glad you asked.

• Follow Thompson on Twitter @thompsoncff
• Become a Facebook fan of Thompson Child & Family Focus
• Share news on your blog, in your tweets or Facebook status updates about the promotion and use the #Tweeta20 hashtag
• Follow our Tweets from noon to 1 p.m. on May 11 and please RT our #Tweeta20 tweets
• Go ahead and #Tweeta20. We’re taking donations!
• Send any other ideas you have to tweak our #Tweeta20 promotion.

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