Social media. Some of us understand it in general. Others just know they need it. But what are the questions that all businesses should be asking themselves? To be clear,social media is not the silver bullet that is going to turn your business and life around. It is time consuming and enthusiasm can quickly wane when you don’t see immediate results. You have to enter it knowing that you are in it for the long haul. It is not 4 weeks, 3 months or a certain timetable. It is ongoing.

That being said, it does provide a new way to communicate with your customers and that is exciting (or terrifying for some). Your desire to be at the center of attention for your niche/industry is understandable. And since we all want instant gratification, there is a tendency to ask the wrong question.

Here are some questions that you should be asking of yourselves and anyone you hire in regards to social media.

1. How can we optimize and improve our existing social media programs?

Wrong question: What’s the hot new trend in social media that we can use for our company?

Use something that you know that works and then expand. Don’t focus on the new and shiny because you don’t know if the ROI is truly there!

2. How can we encourage existing customers to truly engage with our clients on the social Web?

Wrong question: What’s the best way to get the most possible Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers?

Focus on quality rather than quantity. You don’t just want “likes”, you want advocates or fans of your product and service. The numbers will come if you deliver!

3. How can we optimize a video so that prospective customers find it in search results?

Wrong question: How can we make a viral video that gets thousands of views?

There is no guarantee of anything going viral. If you could, don’t you think they all would be? Think of it like hit records…you can’t predict which one is going to bust the charts and which ones will flop. Do something that makes sense and shows up in searches instead. If you get something viral, that is a bonus!

4. How can we integrate email and social media to increase customization and relevancy?

Wrong question: How much money should we be pulling from the email budget, to support social media?

You can’t substitute one for the other and expect dramatic results. In the same maner, social media is a tool, it is not a replacement for your other marketing efforts!

Better question:

5. How can we create content in multiple forms and locations that will demonstrate our expertise?

Wrong question: How can we convince our clients that we’re good at social media?

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Think about the method that ecology employs. They repurpose. Take an article that you created and submitted to the article directories. Make a blog post from that same info. Repurpose that into a powerpoint presentation that you can put on SlideShare or some other application. Then take that presentation and turn it into a video and also a podcast.

6. How can we distribute social media knowledge across the entire firm, including ongoing training and knowledge sharing?

Wrong question: How can we find a social media guru to add to our team?

There aren’t any “guru’s”. There are folks who are really good at what they do and have certain things they do better. No one knows it all. Your better bet is to have an objective and make sure as you want to implement it that word doesn’t just trickle down to everyone in the organization. Keep everyone in the loop and spend time training/informing on what you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish!

Read more at Social Media Dudes