10 Golden Rules in Social Media Marketing

The latest from Danny Meadows-Klue at Digital Strategy Consulting, kindly distilled into 10 VERY SMALL 'Golden Rules' for social media marketing and a useful digest. Given the amount there is out there to read on this topic, bite-size right now is good! But there's a link to the full report too.

Blogs, online communities, social media and then social networks: they have permanently changed online marketing. In this new landscape brands are in a constant dialogue with customers who increasingly play critical roles in advocacy and recommendation. The brand is only one guest among millions and the challenge for marketers is that while the rewards may be great, the risks are greater. The Ten Golden Rules were extracted from analysing the successes and failures of hundreds of social media marketing campaigns, looking for DNA that was shared between the successful and absent in those that failed. The clarity of patterns that emerged removes much of the mystery of social media and helps marketing teams quickly identify the specific risks and potential of the opportunities unfolding around them.


The 10 Golden Rules

1. Stay: Keep taking part
2. Ease: Make participation a single click
3. Initiate: Help start the discussion, don't set out to own it
4. Think webspace. Not website.
5. Release: Give consumers content they can adapt
6. Share: Encourage brand advocates to advocate
7. Tools and content, not 'marketing': Give your community tools they need to achieve their goals, and content they enjoy
8. Encourage: Nurture creative talent, encourage them to create and enthuse
9. Amplify: Amplify the effectiveness of your offline
10. Honesty: Be yourself, be transparent, be true

Brands need a different approach

There's a new type of transparency in customer relationships. The interruptive model of advertising continues weakening in favour of engagement. The challenge to persuade consumers to listen has replaced the ease of buying time to interrupt. Consumers are more conscious than ever of where and how they give their attention, and are ruthless in tuning out when the message doesn't resonate. Between Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google and the portals, there's a ceaseless stream of new technologies and techniques for marketers to try, and the roadmaps for many brands remain unclear.

Speed read

• There is vast potential for any brand to use social media marketing
• Getting social media marketing right requires understanding the new rules of engagement, and the different approaches to marketing through classic media
• In spite of the newness of social media, clear best practice has now emerged
• There are many types of social networks and social media, each with different techniques, benefits and roles - but these common rules still apply
• Best practice principles need to be applied both within a brand's own network and where they market themselves through other websites
• The role of social media in the digital marketing mix will continue to grow
  massively
• Brands take huge risks by entering social spaces without preparing properly,
  and they are often unaware of the scale of those risks

Unlocking massive audiences

In the right hands social media marketing creates news, sparks discussion, delivers entertainment customers want, and achieves an engagement lost by the advertising industry. With the right team and ideas, brands can nurture consumer generated content, boosting discussion and the reach of their messages. Feeding the social media ecosystem places new challenges on website publishers, as they rework their content into malleable and exportable formats ready to invite participation.