1. “Dive in and ask for forgiveness later”
   If you’ve attended social media presentations or read from the experts, then you’ve likely heard this line before. It sounds great and enticing, but it should (and typically does) come with a disclaimer. The problem with this idea is that “diving in” shouldn’t mean bypassing the planning stage. Without a plan, campaigns are susceptible to derailment and/or abandonment. So, while the “dive in” approach isn’t terribly wrong, it needs to include some direction. When considering this approach, consider the people, objectives, strategy, and technology (or the POST Method) and create a basic plan behind this. The plan might not be perfect at first, but that’s OK because you can always change it later.
2. “Set it and forget it” **
   In the corporate environment, it’s easy to jump from project-to-project. Many marketing campaigns follow the process of “create, deploy, measure and move on”, but this approach is not effective in the social channel. For corporations to simply move on from a social campaign, they risk diminishing the trust of their loyal customers and brand champions. While it goes without saying, corporations must embrace a plan for the long-term and continue to nurture their social strategy along the way.
3. “We are in control”
   This is another way of looking at the improper evaluational of the risks. In some cases, there are corporations that give up too much control with a false sense of thinking that they are in control. Do I dare bring up the Skittles social experiment? While corporations can control the message, the audience will do whatever they want with it. In most cases, the more control you give up the bigger the payoff but the risk will be high as well. With that said, corporations must consider the risks and be prepared to take action if needed. Either over-prepare or think through if it’s really worth it.
4. “The campaign must be successful”
   Measuring ROI in social campaigns isn’t always cut and dry. Short-term measurement can be especially difficult and can be easily diagnosed as a failure. Corporations must not get discouraged by this and must realize that short-term setbacks are inevitable. Allowing these set-backs (or failures) to happen are a part of the process. Progression in the social space, requires a bit of trial-and-error and the reaction to these failures will dictate the long-term success. Addressing these failures to your audience allows for a great opportunity to humanize the company and build even stronger trust among the customers. Corporations must avoid succeeding from a social strategy at the first sign of failure. Keep focus on the overarching social strategy and long-term success will be achievable.

** If you remember Ron Popeil, he caramelized the line “Set it and Forget it” with his infomercial of the Showtime Rotisserie Oven.

We’re still learning
There has been a lot of great information pushed out on social media and yet we are still baffled on how to use it for ourselves. Filtering through all the clutter of articles and blog posts can be a battle. We’ve spent all these years creating billboards and banner ads and now speaking directly to our audience is easier than ever! Unfortunately, “passive” marketing is what we learned, while interactive marketing was still the future. We seek quality information and gravitate towards articles that educated us.

Articles that tell us:

• What is social media?
• How do I use it? (who to engage with and tools to use)
• What can it do for me? (ROI)
• How are others using it? (case studies)
• What are some tips and hints?
• The are the risks? (reputation management)

The very articles we create and learn from become accessories in the social media circuit.

The Recession
Times are hard and we need to pinch pennies the best we can. In many ways the recession has accelerated the acceptance into social media out of pure necessity. Consumers have become more conscious of what they buy and word-of-mouth has become more powerful than ever. With people losing their jobs and they’re finding better ones via LinkedIn. Coupons and deals are cropping up everywhere and people are using tools like Twitter to find them. The point is that people are actively using social networking sites to find shortcuts. It’s up to the marketers to place those shortcuts correctly and capitalize on them. There are opportunities tucked away in this recession that have yet to emerge. As marketers, we seek to find this information.

Power of the Masses
Being a marketer you’re constantly looking for ways to stimulate interest in your product or service. Social media has put marketers in direct conversation with their consumers, but the masses is what really counts. We seek to find ways to energize the target audience through thought leadership and with the help of key influencers. The people in power are the people who can lead the masses.

It’s the Future
Let’s face it, our youth has embraced technology and social media more than we could have imagined. As we’re still learning of all the facets of social media, the upcoming generation has already generated full acceptance. A generation of youth comes up behind us that will not only be technologically savvy but will rewrite our best practices and create new ways of using social media. While we will write about ways to use social media, our youth will write about ways to use social media better. Social media is on track to continuously grow and in essence be very profitable.

Conclusion
While we may be convinced of the power of social media, convincing the decision makers is still the major piece of the puzzle in which we all struggle. It’s true social media has its risks and taking risks in today’s economy for some just isn’t possible. All we can do is outfit ourselves with as much information as possible, which is why our fascination with social media will continue. For many web marketers, social media is a trail of new opportunities waiting to be explored.