There are some rules of thumb, there are few if any best practices, there are few if any tried and true marketing processes that work across all audiences in social networking, but reading an article from Douglass Karr over at marketingtechblog.com you really do need to question your guru, and find out what they know about your business.

Social media is working out exactly what it is, social marketing is also working out what it is meant to do. Sure, you can have Facebook, thousands of people on twitter following you, be blogging, podcasting, and making video, but the bottom line to any social media whatever is, what are you doing that you are comfortable with?

I agree very much with Mr. Karr on the idea that people who are doing social media need to be doing those things they are comfortable with. As he states on his blog:

I share with my audiences strategies that I’ve tried, how to measure the results and what worked/what didn’t. I explain the functionality and features of the tools at their disposal. I encourage my clients and audiences to experiment. I encourage to measure. I encourage them to put in enough effort that you are assured of whether or not it’s a good medium for you. What works for me may not work for you… and vice versa.

That is the demarcation point, what are you doing and how do you measure it to make sure it is having the goals you need/want from what you are doing. It is not fun explaining to someone that what you are doing has no positive impact on the company. When you look at companies like Comcast and Mazda that engage with people, two different styles, and two different industries they are learning what is working. Just because they are doing it differently does not mean that what they are doing is ineffective, it means they are working out what works for them.

If you are into cable TV then the Comcast model might work for you, if you are building and selling cars then the Mazda model might work for you. That is the good point, it might work, and that can provide your company with a baseline, learn from someone who has had success in their industry, you also need to look at the failures in social networking for those industries. See what worked, see what didn’t work, then plan your process accordingly.

You also need to be comfortable with what you are doing. If you cannot find the time to blog every day, four or five times a day, great. If you don’t like making podcasts great, video, same thing, if you are not comfortable or happy doing a thing, it shows up immediately in what you are doing. That will put people off, or they will see that you are timid of what you are doing.

Yes there are many Gurus’ out there, but as I build out my social networking program for where I work, the models I am using are ones that are already in existence, academic earth, MIT Open Campus, and a host of other social networking sites and academic blogs that have shown how cool this could be. I am literally following, but in many cases also spinning out some capacities that are going to be unique to where I am working.

Then I am measuring what is happening, and socializing the new systems internally and externally. The process includes tweaking as needed/warranted to increase adoption of the new systems. That is the fun part, tweaking as you go, and trying to see what works for you. Your company is unique in many ways; it has its own culture, its own idea of risk, its own sales process, and its own viewpoint. Your social network should reflect all of those, and be deeply embedded and representative of the company that is using it. There is no right or wrong here, just what works and what does not work.

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