Sumolabs

This is a follow up to my quick 5 minute presentation at the Vancouver Social Media Road Show 2009: Risks & Rewards for Marketers. In it, I only really had time to go through the 3 best practices that I perceive to be the most important.

Here is the original quick 5 min presentation I gave:

And without further delay....

The Worst Practices in Social Media

Forgetting about SEO & SEM

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is only one part of the inbound marketing equation. Don't forget about proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Being able to excel at all three will cause some synergies to form, thus amplifing efforts. I call this cross pollination.

Treating social media like traditional publishing

Traditional publishing is broadcast. Radio out, TV out, magazine out, newspaper out. Social media is a conversation and therefore is implicitly bidirectional.

If you are only publishing, you are not really participating and reaping the full benefits you might be able to.

Not being transparent and honest!

Don't be fake in any way. Don't even think about Astroturfing. Bullshit detectors are exceptionally well tuned on the social web.

Be clear about your intentions out in the social media wild.

Not making social media a company-wide collaborative effort

It is often that different departments and divisions try to create their own social media tests and campaigns. What results is a disparate group of marketing attempts with mixed messaging. A collaborative effort, sponsored from the top dogs, is best.