There’s a right way and a wrong way to introduce your company to the social media world. When your company decides to adopt a persona within social media, I highly recommend doing some research first both outside of your company and inside of your company. Outside of your company, you’ll want to research how companies have succeeded in social media, and inside of your company, you’ll need to consider who the best person would be to run your campaign, what attitude you will be displaying, and how you will interact with your followers.

I have compiled a list of important factors your company should consider before you dive into the social media ocean.

– What image do we want to display? – Some companies have taken the business world by storm sharing in humor with their followers while others have taken the successful route of being ultra-informative and helpful to the public. There are also companies that focus on promoting green living or volunteer work. Whatever your company chooses to focus on, the important thing is to stick to it once you’ve made your decision. Establishing a clear company image with your followers is very important.

– Which employee should run the show? Should we bring in an outside source? – One of the most important decisions your business can make when launching a social media campaign is who will manage it. Some companies go the route of bringing in a professional to handle the job. This can have its benefits as this professional will have relative experience in how to properly handle a campaign like this. However, in my opinion, promoting from within presents the best option. The correct and experienced employee will have a better understanding of the appropriate image to portray, what your customers want to see from your company, and a loyalty to you and your customers that you won’t find hiring an outside company.

– Is our company prepared for open critique? – In a general sense, most established companies are used to a certain amount of criticism from their customers and have adapted ways to approach this criticism. Establishing a social media profile for your business will open up a new can of worms like you’ve never seen before. While this is not necessarily a negative thing, your company needs to ensure that you are prepared to answer to your customer’s comments and criticisms. Social media provides an open forum for customers to communicate with you and with fellow patrons. Hopefully you will see more positive feedback than negative, but when you incur an unhappy customer how your company publicly handles it can either greatly help or hurt your image. Be sure to create a customer satisfaction outline in advance designed specifically with your social media campaign in mind.

– What is our marketing strategy exactly? – When it comes to social media – marketing simply isn’t marketing anymore. Consider taking the anti-marketing approach. Your followers don’t want to have sales pitches hurled at them repeatedly. Rather, they want something in return for promoting your company for you. What is your company going to do for the consumer? Some companies choose to provide endless coupons to their consumers. Other companies have taken the route of simply providing humorous relief. Then. you also have your companies that give great advice day in and day out. What is your business prepared to offer to your patrons in return for their loyalty?