Every so often a new technology comes along and fascinates and excites businesses and consumers alike. Previously, e-commerce won our hearts. Then we all fell for search engines, and the world wide web was redefined. Now, that new technology is social networking and it’s an exciting place to be. New technology sprouts each week, creating interesting niche networking opportunities for anything you can think of. The world is becoming connected, and businesses are catching on this time a little earlier than they did with e-commerce and search engines.

So what’s the problem? These people are not built to be early adopters. Corporate America, listen up - stop creating your own social networks. You are missing the point entirely, and it’s going to create a backlash that could harm the real potential of social networking. Sears, just because you partnered with MTV, you are not suddenly cool and creating a stand alone social network around back-to-school shopping just isn’t the right thing to do. Let me explain what you are doing wrong, and why.

There are many social networks out there that have become a part of people’s lives. These web based networks are breaking down barriers and connecting people in ways that weren’t previously imaginable. With all this wonderful connectedness, it’s completely confusing why companies of any size would think that they had a product or corporate brand that was SO fascinating as to compete with the likes of Facebook and Myspace. Besides being blindly arrogant to the point of being comical, why does this matter? Because, the value in social media is creating networks and connecting people - not using disparate social networks to separate people. One of two things is going to occur. Either the site will be wildly successful and build a community of like minded people who worship that particular brand and reduce their interactions on other social networks, OR, an extremely small number of people will join your social network and your marketing team will be forced to say that “social media marketing” didn’t work for your company. Which sadly, will not be true at all.

Think about the missed opportunity when a company decides to forgo participation in the greater social community to instead create their own closed network.
1. They are forcing customers to divide their time among networks. (Bad idea)
2. Consumers who choose to participate in the network are connecting with other people already passionate about the product or brand, with no ability to spread the network virally among their other friends online who might not know about the brand.

They lose the benefit of network effects generated by being able to connect to various people with different interests all over the world. These companies who start their own social networks are saying, “I’m happy just serving our existing customers.” It’s terrible, and it’s a total misuse of the technology.

What should they be doing?

Build on your loyal fanbase within existing networks and social media sites to better leverage the network effects of these larger communities. Build affinity groups within Facebook and Myspace, use Twitter to build a network virally, start or join a group on Linkedin…there are so many different ways to creatively use social networking to BUILD a network that will provide much better results than creating your own closed network. FUJIFILM cameras wouldn’t decide to start their own tv channel because tv advertising was all the rage, so it’s not obvious to me why companies like Fuji are creating their own separate social networks because that’s the hottest new technology to hit the business magazine rack.

Can you list some examples of large brands/companies that ARE doing social media well?

Social media is a phenomenon. No one will argue with it’s popularity, traffic, and continued monopoly over people’s time on the web. For marketers, this is wonderful as it offsets the loss of access to consumers due to declining television ratings and diminished popularity of radio. Google grew to monopolize advertising in web 1.0, and traditional marketers missed the boat. Now, all eyes are on social media and marketers are ready to react.

The question is, now that everyone is participating, networking, tweeting and friending…what are companies going to do to leverage these tools?

Twitter is a great example of a popular social media tool that is ripe for creativity. Twitter can be used to build a community, network directly with consumers, share PR news and updates, add personality to your company’s brand, provide status updates related to your company or service, and probably a litany of things that have yet to be discovered. For all it’s traffic and users, Twitter is missing 2 significant things that made companies like Google and Yahoo! successful - it has yet to provide a clear way for anyone to make money using it in the way that Google Adwords and Overture did before.

Let’s explore options on Twitter that could create value for businesses. There are the less creative things like sponsorship and advertising. Twitter could require company or branded accounts to pay, versus their current unlimited free model. I think one of the more creative ways to leverage Twitter would be to build communities.

This is The Community Model:

For the Community Model, let’s take a popular brand, website or blog with a growing but dedicated following. Rather than create it’s own branded social network, why not leverage Twitter to extend the blog and build a community of readers. This way, readers with like interests could begin to follow the blog’s Tweets and the connect with each other. The blog or website could use Twitter to give additional insight, live blog special events, provide a “behind the scenes” look at activities at the blog, and pre-release teasers to articles.

How does this create value for companies?

The Community Model would help distance blogging from social media, allowing companies to make it a mainstream form of publication. For established brands, this could be especially useful since their blog likely resides on a subdomain and is closely tied to the main website and brand. Leveraging Twitter in this way would allow them to frequently update without having to post directly to the blog, but still keeping up frequent connections with consumers.

Why would consumers do this?

Consumers are capable of brand loyalty, but more than anything this gives uninitiated consumers an entry into Twitter and a way to connect with like-minded people in a non-brand specific way. Forums on websites have proven successful, but by participating in forums you are tied to a particular website or brand. Twitter provides an ability to go beyond that company and continue growing your own personal network (this also benefits the companies involved as well, since it amplifies the network effects of each member. Thanks to Yoan Blanc or his excellent visual representation.)

This is just one example of way to leverage Twitter to build a community around a blog or website. Do you have any ideas of how Twitter can be used to create branding or marketing opportunities beyond just posting Tweets?

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.