The start of a new year often fosters discussions over what will be the key events to occur over the next 12 months. So far, many pundits are pointing out how 2011 will be the year of mass adoption by businesses of social media platforms as part of their marketing, management, and employee retention efforts. Given the fact that Facebook has surpassed Google as the most visited site on the internet in 2010, as well as the deepening integration of social media platforms into people’s everyday lives, there’s no question that businesses will have to adapt and incorporate social media into their various processes.

Granted, there are many businesses which are already fairly active on the various social media sites. Of course, while some of them have been shining examples of how businesses should use social media, most are still struggling in large part because they haven’t quite understood how they should be using social media to benefit their organization.

So why are some companies able to join in the social media scene and within a short period, reap the benefits while others were better off before they made the jump into these online social spheres? To help answer this question, I’d like to first start off by sharing this example of an interaction between a small business owner and a customer from the ‘real world’.

A friend of mine recently had some problems with his car and so he took it to his local garage to have it checked out. After running a series of tests on his car, the mechanic told my friend what was behind the problem his car was having and what the he could do to fix it. But then this mechanic did something completely unexpected – after explaining how he could fix the problem, he then advised my friend that his solution would only be a temporary fix and that he would be better off going to another garage that specializes in this kind of repair work.

Yes, you heard right – here was a small business owner who was basically telling a paying customer that while his service would fix his problem, he would be better off going to his competition to get his car repaired.

So, in addition to being a great example of true customer service, what can this story teach other business owners/leaders about how to approach using social media for their business?

To find out the three key takeaways from this story, click here to read this guest post on the thoughtLEADERS blog.

Last week, a few of the leadership bloggers who I enjoy reading and conversing with were invited to the 2010 World Business Forum in New York City to share with their readers some of the ideas presented by such renowned business leaders and thinkers as Jack Welsh, Joseph Grenny, and A.G. Lafley. Among the many interesting insights and points presented during this leadership forum, there was one comment regarding social media I found particularly interesting and worth more examination.

Charlene Li, the founder of Altimeter Group and author of the book “Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead”, gave a presentation on developing effective social media strategies during which she made the following comment about how businesses should approach social media:

Social media is about giving up control yet remaining in command.”

Upon reading this quote, I couldn’t help but notice that in addition to being an accurate assessment of social media, this statement can also be easily applied to the field of leadership. To help illustrate this connection, let’s look at two examples of social media blunders made by companies this year, and what these mistakes can teach us about effective leadership. Click here to continue reading »”Social Media and the True Meaning of Leadership”

The following is another guest post by my friend John Haydon.  As he works primarily with non-profits, I asked him if he could share his insights on how these organizations can approach marketing in social media outlets as I think it would be of use to both entrepreneurs and other for-profit businesses.

We all know that Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are free platforms that marketers can use. But what’s not free is the investment in strategy and the staff time using the tools. Also, social media is often an additional cost, and not meant as a replacement channel within the overall marketing mix. For example, I would never recommend that a nonprofit should replace their direct mail marketing with social media. So the net costs of social media generally increase the overall marketing spend.

However, there are at least five cost-saving benefits that social media can create:

1. Permanent Sales Pitch
Emails written to customers answering the most common questions could be repurposed into blog posts, or demonstrations of your product on YouTube (bonus points if you can make it fun and entertaining). This could lower customer service costs spent and demonstrate your expertise to potential clients.

2. Improve search
Using a blog to answer the most pressing questions about your service or industry helps to improve SEO. Especially if no one has answered that question. The cost savings is found when you can dial down paid online ads when your appearance in search engine result pages (SERPs) hits a certain point.

3. Word Of Mouth
Getting people to talk about your company to their friends has to do with your offering (which better kick ass, by the way). Facebook is now the sharing beast. The cost savings is found in warmer leads that cost less to convert.

4. Volunteer Sales People
Social media allows you to connect with your biggest fans on their terms. Whether it’s on Facebook or in a private online community, companies that treat their cultists like gold eventually see a percent of them blogging or tweeting about their products. The cost savings is found in zero payroll costs, and a higher conversion rate in trusted third-party endorsements.

5. Market Research
Listening to how your current customers are talking about you in forums, on blogs, on Twitter, can be valuable research. This can be used to improve the product and how you talk with your customers. The cost savings is found in dialing down traditional methods of market research, which can be expensive.

What do you think? What ways have you realized a cost savings with social media marketing?

John Haydon writes about social media marketing for nonprofits.

The following is a guest post by my friend and fellow blogger John Haydon.  John writes about marketing strategies for social media sites on his blog at JohnHaydon.com.

Integrity, as Tanveer has talked about before, is a critical factor in attracting and retaining readers, subscribers and customers.

In the offline world, integrity is something people easily recognize. It could be demonstrated by returning something on time that you borrowed, staying true to one’s convictions, or having the courage to protect others from unfair attacks – even if they are “competitors”. In these examples, integrity and character is demonstrated through the actions of that person.

But how do you demonstrated integrity online, through the proxy we call the internet? How can people quickly get a sense of your trustworthiness and character – even though you’re not actually present?

The Trust Of Crowds

The answer is in your crowd – the hundreds or thousands of readers who, on a daily basis, give you the thumbs up.

Blogs by definition have several features that can easily demonstrate crowd-sourced quality checks, or “social proof“.

• Comments – Comments are a qualitative measurement of our character. How many comments, on average, do your blog posts receive? What is the quality and depth of these comments? Is there a diversity of people making these comments? Getting large numbers of quality comments takes years of hard work – even for people like Chris Brogan and Brian Clark.
• Comment Replies – One advantage bloggers like you and I have over people like Chris and Brian is that we are able to reply to each commenter. Two bloggers who do this very well are Grant Griffiths and Liz Strauss. They both take the time to comment back and forth with each commenter. A quick note: Make sure you have set your commenting system to support threaded comments – at least three levels deep.
• Admit When Your Wrong – Or At Least Not Completely Right – No one can know everything about a subject, and often times, it’s our commenters who help us fill in the gaps. When you acknowledge them, and amend a post in response, it says you respect your readers and can admit when you’re not completely right. Click here to continue reading »”How To Demonstrate Integrity On Your Blog”