This is a guest article by Rick Mathieson, Author of The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success
in an Anytime, Everywhere World.

#1: Don’t Ask How, Ask Why
Just because social networking is hot, that doesn’t mean its right for
every new business. Don’t just ask yourself what your social
networking strategy should be. Ask why it should be, and why your
target customers should care. Seattle-based Jones Soda couldn’t afford
pricey TV commercials to launch its brand of beverages. So it used
social media to connect with consumers in very personal ways. Fans can
upload photos that can be printed on Jones bottles. Today, it has over
1 million submissions and has used upward of 4,500 of the photos for
bottles — which consumers can collect and trade on the Jones Soda
website. As founder Peter van Stolk recently told BusinessWeek: “We
allowed the labels to be discovered, and that gave consumers a sense
of ownership. With big soda brands, the Britney Spears model of paying
a lot of money to some hot artist to sponsor your beverage is so done.
The wonderful thing about our competitors is for all the money they
have, they should be thinking more originally but they don’t. If they
ever do, I’m dead.”

#2: Keep It Events Based
Certain consultants (and business book authors) can have success using
social media to share their stream-of-consciousness about things
happening in their fields of expertise. But for most small businesses,
a much more strategic approach is in order. Think of social media as
digital direct mail — the ability to deliver a limited-time, social
network-only offer. Countless small pizza shops, for instance, offer
weekly specials on social networks to get people into their stores.
One shop, called Golden Knights pizza, has discovered 40% of its
business can come from these efforts, according to Clickz. In fact,
according to a recent Rice University study, Facebook fans of one
Houston-based café chain visited 20% more often, and spent 33% more,
than non-fans.

#3: Keep It Social — And Keep ‘Em Coming Back
Youth-oriented discount travel company STA uses social media to enable
customers to meet other people who love to travel, and who may be part
of the vacation packages they purchase. Users can read about other
people’s adventures through their own words, tips, pictures and
videos. And they can ask experts about travel related issues. Best of
all, every month, the company offers travel prizes to Australia,
Japan, Europe and other destinations. And Twitter and RSS feeds will
even send STA subscribers the cheapest flights so they can stop
spending hours online searching for the best deals.

#4: Don’t Just Pitch, Sell
The price of developing apps for Facebook is coming down, and with
ingenuity, can even be revenue builders. Pizza Hut recently launched a
Facebook app that enables customers to place orders without leaving
their profile pages. There’s no reason a small company, say a local
sandwich shop couldn’t do the same. Los Angeles startup ice cream
truck company Coolhaus takes a different approach. In addition to
differentiating itself with ice cream sandwiches designed using
architectural principles — with names like “The Mies Vanilla Rohe”
and “The Frank Lloyd Light” — “we roam the entire radius of LA and
update our location on Twitter,” co-founder Natasha Case tells Young
Hollywood. The idea: To entice people out of offices and onto the
street for an “ice cream social” that racks up serious sales.

#5: Don’t Just Talk, Listen
Social networks are also an excellent way to solicit feedback from
your customers. Perhaps you’ve heard of Dell’s “Twelpforce” (or
Twitter help force), a team that fields questions, offers and
suggestions and sends Twitter-specific promos to followers.  There’s
no reason why your startup can’t use social media in the same way,
answering any questions your customers have about the products they’ve
bought from you. Of course, as sophisticated as that may sound to
monitor and respond to social networking chatter, it should be noted
that it’s far more useful to have highly-trained, highly-effective
customer service in the first place. If you want to get cutting edge,
start there.

Author Bio
Rick Mathieson, author of The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital
Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World, is an award-winning
writer and leading voice on marketing in the digital age. His insights
have been featured in ADWEEK, Advertising Age, Wired, Broadcasting &
Cable, and on MSNBC, CBS Radio and NPR, while his next-generation
business models have earned recognition from USA Today and Dow Jones
Interactive. His first book, Branding Unbound (AMACOM 2005) was widely
praised in the business press. A regularly featured speaker at
industry events, Mathieson also serves as vice president and creative
director for Creative: Advertising & Interactive Media, one of Silicon
Valley’s most prominent advertising agencies. He lives in San
Francisco, California.

Social Media and Web 2.0 has really swept across the internet community like wild fire and the effects it’s had are remarkable. When I decided to start building my start-up, I knew my main obstacle would be the marketing aspect once I am done. This is certainly not because I lack the skills to successfully get the word out, but the resources I will have to work with on my PR and Marketing campaign are very limited. I am bootstrapping and will do so until the I convince the right investors that I am worth their coin. However, the emergence of Social Media has really cut down the costs of most marketing campaigns if you know how to take advantage of it.

When we say Social Media, one word immediately comes to the mind of the young, tech savvy individual – Twitter. Whether you like it or not, Twitter is an amazing platform for people to build and grow relationships. If you are an Entrepreneur and you are good at networking with other people, you can win several thousands of followers just from Twitter alone. On the other hand, there’s a whole lot more to Social Media than just Twitter. Websites like Facebook (0ffering fan pages or company pages), MySpace, Scribd, LinkedIn have all shown potency as a means to reaching a targeted audience.

I first heard the phrase ‘Social Media’ a little over 2 years ago, and have always been fascinated by how people jumped on the bandwagon. We are talking about a network of websites whose premise is to get people to interact with others. It first started off as people staying in touch with their friends and then it grew into getting to interact with friends of friends and so on. Today, the openness and the ease with which people can communicate with other people (friends and strangers) on these platforms have made Social Media Networks a revelation in the world of Marketing.

Three brands that stand out to me when I think about social media and businesses are: Zappos, Ford and Dell. Now you may say these brands are all popular names and it is only natural that people flock towards them. While I agree with that stance, I also still believe it takes some good strategizing to achieve what they have achieved using Social Media.

When I first examined the Ford Brand presence across the social media sphere, I imagined that these networking sites were built for Ford. Ford has taken a few specific networks, focused on them and built a community in each network. They also built a ‘media hub‘ that brings together all their feeds, networks and online presence in one place.  They have used Social Media to handle their PR effectively and this can be observed in how they dealt with the copyright infringement fiasco they dealt months back. Not only can Social Media win you new costumers, it can help you define your public image.

Dell and Zappos have done very well with Twitter especially. They have used this network to develop intimate relationships with their customers, announce new developments, get feedback and so forth. The success of these two companies can only inspire young, new Entrepreneurs like myself. Their stories have taught us the importance of building personal relationships with fans/customer, being open to their needs and being readily available to interact with them.

The moral lesson of this post is just to encourage every new entrepreneur, whether you are still in stealth mode or you have gone live with your product, learn to embrace Social Media. Study some of the success stories of companies on Social Networks and take follow their lead. I understand that not everyone is Social Media savvy and can handle Marketing for a start-up, in those cases you can always outsource. You can also look for firms that are specifically build for this purpose – to market for startups. People like Samir Belwani, Reem Abeidoh, Rebecca Ryckman are all brilliant Social Media Strategists with good experience. Remember that the startup journey is always a lesson, you might learn that you failed or learn that you succeeded, all that matters is that you learn.