SOCIAL MEDIA COMMANDMENTS:

1. Be a good listener. Use sweet tools like Icerocket, BoardReader, WhosTalkin, Google Alerts to see what’s going on out there. What are people saying? What is the conversation about? What is the tone? You’ll find there are a lot of haters and evangelists, but not a whole lot of the middle ground. Find out where the community is and what the shared experience is, then build from there.

2. Think before you speak. Once you put it out there, it’s out there, so be careful. Find you/our/the voice and tone. You want to be a person at the company instead of the company.

3. Be patient, stay committed. The worst thing you can do is create a profile and neglect it. You don’t have to be everywhere so stick to what you can manage.

4. Someone needs to own it.

5. Be creative. There are only so many ideas out there; with that said, don’t just copy something. Re-purpose it. Make it something special. Make it mean something to your brand.

6. Stay on top of trends. If you wait too long to perfect your profile/site/whatever, it could be MySpace status (aka dead) by the time you’re ready for takeoff.

7. Participate in conversation. Talking back sets you apart. Make the effort to search out a topic and start conversations or participate in those going on.

8. Be an active user.

9. Embrace the lack of control. The sooner you realize this, the better off you’ll be. Try taking something out of your control and use it in a new way.

[Thanks again to the boys from eROI for road tripping down to see us in our university bubble  when I'm sure they had plenty to keep them busy in the real world!]