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Social media is about engagement...it's not like traditional marketing, pushing a message  one way only: social media is user centric, not about a product! And you must have your target profiling very well defined before starting this journey. Create content: social media stages an interactive story about a product or service, enabling multiple interactions, from sharing, commenting, to playing with the story! Don't forget to lead this journey but let your followers and the experience breathe!

1. Embrace the Age Get involved: you must really believe that old marketing rules are almost dead and you must start doing social media campaigns and events in the same professional way you do with the traditional channels. You can have a part of it outsourced but you need your own specialized force to make it happen - one human resource only making comments or tweeting things is not enough: I'm talking about serious work on a social media strategy.
2. Know your target feedback How do your clients behave concerning your products/services?
Use the Net Promoter Score (NPS): Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:
·      Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
·      Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
·      Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
To calculate your company’s NPS, take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors. Now compare to other companies. Amazon is on 75%, for example (and that's very high).
3. Now decide if your company is ready for a social media campaign Most companies shouldn’t open themselves up in social media until they’ve earned respect. Is your product at a "five starts" level? Chris Brogan also wrote that "you shouldn’t push a social campaign unless you have pre-existing trust and relationships in social media". Focus on a number of followers you need and target it. Feed your network. Nurture the relationships. Deep study your target group and study the launch of the  campaign (decide if you want to start with all your group or a sub-target).
4. Align all the channels and make sure you have a FIT You must align the release of a new product/service and the launch of a new campaign; you should have all other sales and marketing channels aligned with the social media channel. You must grant you have a FIT between your company values, the campaign and the followers' profiling. Make sure you have all the analytical tools ready to measure it.
5.  You feel ready and things can get viral you know you're ready and you'll launch a new campaign or more actions when you feel you have the quality and the number of connections you need to be effective in the social media. Just a reminder: this is a no turning back point and you have already made a big journey until here ...but in social media there is no guarantee that it will be a blast! As a matter of fact the success is more dependent from the story you tell, from the experience you are giving, form the quality of the product and the compromise your company made, as a all, than any other variable.

And don't forget to make it with the help of a Social media professional because when things go wrong in a potential viral ambient, they spread even faster!

There's no interest in building a Social Strategy if you don't know your customers! Look for professional help to do it - don't make only a pallid appearance because that's the new SPAM species and you'll put your brand in bad sheets! Social Networks or other digital marketing strategies only represent some ROI if you really understand your customers' needs and wishes. You must study closely their behavior and you need to measure constantly the impacts of each campaign! There are 5 step stones to do it. I can't go deep inside each one because there is a lot to talk and work around each:
1. Profile your target and start with a very small sub-group that have a strong brand awareness - study their consuming behaviors and other consumption preferences : they are your brand ambassadors - they will do the buzz you need to attract followers. If you don't have none, "fabricate"!
2. The BEST FIT: Align your strategy with your public - question your ambassadors what do they like or find unique in your brand, product or service. Try to understand what you could do even better to surprise them, exceed their expectations - build the App or Campaign based on this! This is the motive nr.1 for WOM.
3. Delivery a life time Experience: The social Apps must engage the consumer trough an emotional event or other kind of active behavior with the brand, product or service. Can they make money with it? Can they create something? Can they have fun? Be unique? Motive nr.2 for WOM.
4. Response control: you must have someone to supervise or have enough time to do it yourself - You really can't predict  consumer behavior and the action impacts in social networks but if you manage closely the movements, you can act quick!
5. Measure: You must use the analytic tools you can to measure and adapt constantly the Campaign or App. You must define some KPIs! If you don't use any analytic backoffice you won't be able to see numbers, present results and react. This is particularly important if your social strategy is an e-commerce page on Facebook or an affiliate selling App where there are % on revenue.