Secrets to social media success

If you're the Web strategist in your organization, you've been hearing questions like these more often. The answers don't necessarily involve cataloging every new API and social networking site, as that list changes every day.

Rather, you need to look at the basis for a long-term strategy and recognize how social media changes the conversation between you and your customer. We've identified four key activities that can help you engage your customer in this new marketplace.

Social media, according to Wikipedia, is “the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations among authors, people, and peers.”

The word “Internet” is absent from this definition. To understand how social media reshapes the e-commerce landscape, first look away from your computer. Consider instead a marketplace in ancient Mesopotamia, a contemporary Middle Eastern souk, or even a farmer's market in your own city.

In these open-air markets, the storefronts are not defined by crisp boundaries. Trade is conducted within the booths and in the alleys in between. The running dialog among consumers has more impact on sales that any merchant's pitch.

That's the future of your online selling environment. No matter how polished your pitch, your customers are engaged in a conversation of their own. They don't need to enter your store or site to learn about you. You need to join their discourse to earn the sale.

The market is a conversation. That's a central idea in The Cluetrain Manifesto, a book written early enough to not even contain the word “blog,” but more relevant now than ever. The Cluetrain authors recognized several things:

• The Internet makes it easier for consumers to form their own communities and conversations.

• These networks conduct conversations in authentic human voices that can't be faked.

• Companies that ignore these conversations and simply hope they go away will be actively resisted or completely ignored.

How can your company get on the Cluetrain? Develop a social media strategy based on four very human activities: writing, listening, talking, and building. Here's how.

1. WRITING: Blog and let your content travel

   The written word is still king when it comes to communicating online. Enabled by RSS (Really Simple Syndication), blogs let your content travel. Your customer can consume your prose within the browser-based reader of her choice — without ever visiting your site.

   But depending on what you say and how you say it, your customer may choose to ignore you. The blogosphere underscores the truth of the market as human dialog. Any hucksterism or corporate-speak that sneaks into your Website copy needs to be banished from your blog. Over time, your blog's straightforward approach can influence your core site's copy too, but for many companies, blogging first requires finding a new voice and new points of view.

   What should your company blog about? Get in touch with your company's inner-geek. To paraphrase A-list blogger Hugh MacLeod, we're all geeks about something. What you're a geek about is what you're passionate about, what you find all consuming. If you're in the right business, some of your enthusiasms are shared by your customers.

   Does your company sell lightbulbs? Somewhere in your building there's a lightbulb geek, a dedicated employee who can tell you everything there is to know about filaments, or the environmental and economic benefits of switching from incandescent to long-life fluorescent. That person needs a voice on your blog.

   Does your company sell packaging supplies? Carton-geek is ready to blog. Your customers may or not be interested in the 50-lb. stress test, but packing and moving tips always have an audience.

   As you unleash your geeks, tune in to your blog readers who comment and join the conversation. There are customers who want to share their gardening tips, their own amazing lightbulb stories. Your blog is a place that user-generated content helps flesh out your social media strategy.

2. LISTENING: Tune in to your customers' user-generated content (UGC)

   If your site offers customer ratings and reviews, you're already publishing user-generated content. While product category and price point affect reviews' utility, don't hesitate to add them simply because you fear negative comments could hurt sales or vendor relations.

   Your customers don't believe every product is perfect. When you allow a negative review to appear, you enhance your credibility as a resource, potentially seeding a future sale. Negative reviews may also shed light on problems that you or your suppliers need to fix.

   While reviews are the most prevalent example of UGC, retailers can go further. Look for opportunities to showcase what people do with your product. Do you sell seeds? Let your customers upload growing tips and pics from their gardens.

   Are your products used in craft or hobby projects? Let customers show off the results to an online gallery. When you give people their own page on your site, you give them pride of ownership, reasons to return and send their friends.