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?

When you speak with many executives and marketers, the concept of a “brand” is something they are comfortable with discussing and frequently can tell you the difference between their brand strategies and other marketing efforts. Having worked with many small businesses, the idea of their company being a “brand” is unclear, as are the strategies that go along with it. Some will argue that their company has no brand, usually due to a lack of logo or “designed” brand identity. But thanks to search engines, it’s time for everyone to realize that yes - you are a brand now. Fortune 1000 companies, small and medium businesses, and even bloggers are brands now too.

If I’m supposed to be a brand, do I need a logo now?

Let’s break the misconception that a brand is intrinsically tied to the ‘logo’ - it’s not. I’m a brand. I write and produce content online under my name, which is how I’m recognized. My name stands for a certain perspective, a particular type of content, a writing style and is further defined by everything I produce. This is a brand - it’s how the world identifies you. IBM needs a clear logo and color scheme so that as diversified as they are, when they release a new product or service offering you can identify it with their brand. Years of being IBM defined their brand, so their logo and the blue color represents how and what everyone feels about IBM. This allows them to do something new or innovative and tie it back using their recognized brand identity (their logo.) When I produce new content, I require other methods of “branding” that content since as an individual I don’t have a logo or branded color scheme. I use my name, picture, or style of writing to “brand” the content as mine. That said, I really would like a logo - I think that would make it all much easier.

What do I need to know about my brand?

Branding strategies are usually built on the idea of crafting a specific message in the market that will move your brand in a particular direction. For example, a company want’s to move upmarket into the Enterprise software space. To do this, they will need to launch a brand campaign around connecting their company to the enterprise. They will likely start with their website, redesigning and (possibly) rebranding completely to present a more “enterprise” friendly brand. Then they will have a SEO expert work their content, launch some SEM campaigns around it, print marketing and email marketing, and if they are smart - they will launch a social media campaign to get some momentum online. Your business is no different. You will need to do all of the same things, possibly in smaller doses, to get your brand “VISIBLE” online and offline. You need to think about your website, and how people find it, and work to “craft” your message about your brand.

You can either take control of your brand online, or bloggers and employees (sometimes ex-employees) will handle it for you.

For small businesses, managing your brand online can be as simple as adding a blog to your website and launching a social media campaign to improve and control your brand’s visibility online. This simply scratches the surface of what you can do to build your brand online, but anything you do will only strengthen your other marketing efforts. Online marketing, blogging, and social media have provided new opportunities for companies to build their brand, but the most important first step is to rethink what that means to your company and to start thinking about yourself and your company as the brand you want them to be.

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.