Zappos is one of the top retailers on the web, selling loads of shoes and building a stellar reputation for customer support. Great support has been a mantra of the organization since inception, and recent changes to the company marketing strategy simply reinforce this. Zappos is successful, because they embraced the web early and didn’t try to force it into old business paradigms.

Zappos success, and the success of Barack Obama (democratic political candidate for President) have something in common. They understand the difference between using the internet to drive traffic - and harnessing the network effects of communicating online. Both are heavily invested in social networking - many, if not most Zappos employees have a Twitter account. Obama and his team created groups and profiles on every major and minor social network, and leveraged Youtube extensively to spread the message. One of the most successful viral campaigns of the last few years, Will.i.am’s “Yes we can” video may go down in history due to it’s viral success.

What this company and this candidate understand, and what you can take away from their experience is that being visible on the web through SEO/SEM is very different from this all inclusive web strategy that includes blogs, blog outreach, social media, video and personal networking. When you wonder if all this Web 2.0 “stuff” is for real, think about the first term Senator from Illinois who defeated the Clintons on his way to running for President.

Social media marketing gurus can be lumped into bunches - those that understand personal branding using social media, and those that understand how to translate that to business branding. If you are currently interested in social media marketing, or are researching for business purposes, you likely know that there are tons of self-proclaimed social media marketing “experts” who seem to talk a good game.

How do you tell who can help you and who can’t?

Good question, because in many cases these people will be using the same websites and some of the same methods to distribute their message. Some of them (not all, be careful) actually have been successful at branding themselves using social media - which is probably how you found them. The problem is, while someone might be really good at talking about themselves on social networks, they don’t always understand how companies must carefully craft their brands online - and how to combine these two efforts to achieve the goal of using social media marketing for business success.

Here’s what you look for…

1. Do they have a personal blog?

2. On this personal blog is it obvious who they work for in at least 3 posts?

3. Do the posts on the blog seem to be about the author, or the subject?

4. Are they leveraging social media effectively from their blog?

5. Do they list businesses as references, or other people?

6. Can they articulate a difference between using social media for personal gain versus business branding?

You may also ask, does it matter? Isn’t using social media beneficial either way? Won’t the sites be the same and thus, the processes be the same?

Yes and no. Using social media can be beneficial, but it’s about ROI. If your time is valuable, then it matters because while the sites may be the same the processes will differ somewhat. In both types of branding you are building your network based on your value to the greater “conversation”, but you don’t want to give away too much of that “value” as a business because you are supposed to be charging for it.

Keep in mind that some people are just trying to cash in on the emerging economy around social media marketing and look for help from people who can show you experience rather than a big ego.