Social media means different things to different organizations. To me, it is both an extension of my personality as well as my professional life. I started experimenting in this space five years ago and luckily enough….it is here to stay.

Today we see brand managers mouthing social media terms and subscribing to analytics tools liberally fueling an exciting and evolving industry. My personal (and professionally recommendation to clients) understanding of social media is to be holistic first…

• Who are you? Maybe it is a somewhat difficult question to be answered by a 100-year-old brand that has grown organically. However, if we start from this point, there is a good chance that the tone and style of social communication will be easy to sustain by the brand manager.If not, it is always going to be tough, trying to be someone else. We all know how difficult it is in real life. Borrowed personas on social media are equally challenging.
• What do you want to say? Do you jump into a conversation of peers by talking about TGIF? If yes, then please go ahead and see how far THAT conversation goes!If not, then look hard and deep and identify meaningful conversation that is not re-gurgled content, and (no offense to cat lovers!) definitely not the nth post on cats!
• Passion pays. We are all passionate about something. Sports, music, art, sustainability, management excellence, amazing customer service, value-creation, great deals…you name it!I mean, actually name it. Associate the brand with a passion. Fuel it and see how you can create a hotbed for other passionate folks, and in turn customers.
• So does diligence and customer service. I like to compare social media to Hollywood. Below the sheen of glamour, there is hard work and war paint. Diligence on social media is also hard work thanks to the volume of data and plethora of tools.Customer service, a big expectation on social media today can be a big influencer on how a brand is perceived in the digital world. Take a look at any airlines’ FB page and you will know what I am talking about!
• Be human. Start-ups tend to achieve this better than the large enterprises that might have rigid corporate communication guidelines, which would need to be modified to include first-person-style communication relevant for social media.

Thought process when responding to digital comments also need to be more in line with a socialistic form of thinking rather than capitalistic.

Such broad strokes are meant for brands that are launching a digital roadmap and gearing up the marketing team to be social media savvy.