Getting Serious About Social Media.

 It's a new year and I was wondering who is really ready to get serious about social media? Getting serious means more than just joining facebook and checking it once or twice a week. I've got a few friends and clients that all think social media is a great tool for marketing and want to use it. But when it comes to the time needed to truely invest in it they grossly underestimate and eventually feel over whelmed and lose interest. Social media really isn't something new, it's just an extension of what we've been doing for years when we create brands and try to connect those brands to people. It's just another way of bringing that brand to life and creating a connection to the consumer. And it's not a quick fix, like building a brand it takes time and it takes a strategy for what you really want to accomplish. 

But if you are ready to get serious about using social media in 2010, then here is a great post I ran across on Social Media Today(a great little site!) by Amber Naslund about "10 Ways To Get Serious About Social Media". She has some really good points that might help excite and focus you again on your social media strategy! 

10 Ways To Get Serious About Social Media.

If this is your year to buckle down and tackle a social media strategy, it’s time to get serious. The time for oohing and ahhing is rapidly drawing to a close, and instead your efforts have to become about practical, methodical application.

Here’s 10 ways to get serious about social media this year. There are plenty more, too. Add yours in the comments.

1) Quit counting fans, followers, and blog subscribers like bottle caps.Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.

2) Learn how to measure stuff, and quit making excuses for why you can’t do it. Katie Paine’s blog is overflowing with stuff. Here’s some metrics you might consider if they’re applicable for your goals. And here’s how you canstart setting measurable objectives.

3) Learn what case studies can and can’t do for you. Stop saying there aren’t enough of them and go Google the term “social media case studies” or spend a few minutes on my Delicious links. Then, get busy writing your own.

4) Understand the difference between making a business case for social media and chasing the next and greatest fad. If you don’t understand how to explain where social media impacts areas outside the business besides your own, make a concerted effort to learn.

5) Stop lauding social media as the thing that’s going to fix it all. Fix your business first. And read Jay Baer’s blog (including this post) for a reality check.

6) Approach social media methodically, and with the same care that you would any other business investment you make. Tamsen McMahon will help.

7) Quit waiting for the water to be perfect before you get in. It’s not going to be, ever. Try something that makes strategic sense for your business. Julien Smith articulates a bit about why waiting for one tiny thing is often what holds us back.

 Think long term, and commit to it. That doesn’t mean some of your experiments can’t be finite, but the overall approach has to be for good. Mitch Joel even says so.

9) Focus on what you’re good at. Know the core of your business, and make that the center of your work, especially through the amplifier of social media. Chris Penn reminds us of the importance of this, as he’s apt to do.

10) Recognize that potential missteps shouldn’t paralyze you into inaction. Acknowledge that there are ways to recover from, say, a misguided communication effort. Having a plan to pick yourself up is the key, rather than trying to avoid failure at all costs (including stagnation).

What else would you add? What’s your buckle-down strategy this year, and how are you turning your approach from theory into application? Share your ideas, favorite posts, and strategies in the comments.