(Image: The fork in the road, by i_yudai on Flickr)

When presenting social media, find out first what matters to the client. This sounds obvious, but sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes we assume that the client needs a Facebook page, a blog, a Twitter account, and that assumption comes too fast.

I am also not saying to start with business objectives either. Of course, they want more sales. What I am suggesting is to listen to how the client thinks they will arrive at those sales and to position the social media program to further that strategy. For example:

• If the client believes that sales comes by delivering a message to the press, which in turn informs prospects and drives sales, emphasize social media as a tool to cultivate, refine and deliver messages to journalists and influencers.
• If the client believes that sales comes by delivering a compelling call to action to the right person at the right time, emphasize social media as listening tool to find the right people and discover what call to action will motivate them to act.
• If the client believes that sales will come through the right strategy partnerships, demonstrate how those partners are using social networks and the ways in which they can be reached through them.

Discovering how clients believe they will achieve sales should influence what aspect of social media to present.

This week I noticed a few things on twitter worth sharing: best practices for disclosure, a glimpse into Guy Kawasaki’s tweeting life and Little, Brown and Co.’s exceptional use of the channel.

1. Disclosure
I noticed that my friend (and PR strategy expert) Todd Van Hoosear offered a disclaimer when he tweeted about his own blog.

Here’s the tweet:
[On Todd's Blog] Do you have a community manager? http://tinyurl.com/759rvh

In Todd’s words, “it’s all about disclosure.”

2. The Guy Kawasaki Network
I asked if Guy had people helping him tweet. He replied, “Does it matter as long as the content of my tweets is good?”.

On the one hand, it doesn’t matter. Just as a CEO certainly does not write every blog entry but is responsible for the overall blog, the same might be true with Guy and his twitter account.

There are two aspects of subscribing Guy Kawasaki’s tweets.
A. Guy: the person. Access to his personal comments, feedback, insights, humor, etc.
B. Guy: the network. Access to articles, links and cool stuff (a mix of Alltop + Truemors)

I expect that a support staff might help him with the second. It’s the former that would not be ideal for an intern to impersonate.

3. Little, Brown and Co. – @LittleBrown – Do What You Know. A Best Practice.
This famous book publisher offered to help anyone on twitter by offering a personalized book recommendation. @ChrisBrogan picked up on the offer and broadcast it to his followers. Great example of using twitter to help prospective customers and stay on brand message.

Did you spot a twitter best practice this week? Please share it in the comments.

Via: The World’s Best Ever and @nickydigital

Vans is a brand that keeps true to its culture through social media.
The brand actively blogs, tweets and shares on social networks.

I recently interviewed Nikki Scoggins, the online communities development manager, to discuss Vans’ blog and participation in social networks.
Her fun, candid answers below give us an insight under the hood of Vans.

1. Why does Vans blog?

We blog to give us another way to connect on a casual level with our customers & fans. It’s a way to tell people about Vans-related phenomena (like sneaker customization) or random happenings that Vans actually has nothing to do with, but we find interesting. People do it on their own. Also, through the blog, Facebook, MySpace, & Twitter people can talk directly with us about their likes & dislikes….events & happenings in their world. I mean, people are online all the time anyway in social networks. Why not go where the people are, right? And anyway, of course, blogs are a great way to further our knowledge of how our products are being used. If a guy builds a giant chair made out of our sneakers I wouldn’t exactly put it on the front page of vans.com. It’s not the place for it. However, posting it on The Vans Blog and asking the artist why he felt he needed to make a giant chair out of Vans- getting the story about the person- is what I find most interesting and makes the best material to write about. (Is there really a giant Vans Chair? No, not yet. I am seeding. I need to see one. Haha!)

2. Who reads the Vans blog and why?

As far as I can gather, there’s not any particular type of person who reads the blog regularly.  I’ve connected it through all of our other networks so the range of person isn’t targeted at one audience. Certainly the majority of traffic is US, followed by Canada, the UK & France, but hey, I gotta give a big holler at my one reader in Azerbaijan, too. (I know where you are. What up, Google maps!) Some people could think that writing a blog about Vans would be boring and too restricting. You’d run out of content. In fact there’s so much out there, when you consider how many people wear Vans and have an emotional attachment to them, oftentimes I can’t keep up with all the material. Also, picking one topic & elaborating on it for more than a year certainly helps to understand the nuances of the culture behind it. I guess that’s why people keep coming back to it. It’s like looking under the hood of Vans.

3. How do you measure whether the blog is a success?

Ah! That’s a perfect follow up to the last question. I measure the success from two perspectives: connecting the people at Vans with the public & providing a conduit for the public to us. When people in my office learn something new about what one of our fans is doing with our product, they get excited.  When a fan feels more connected to us because we blog about DIY projects or something going on in their town, they get excited. That’s a success. That’s not supposed to sound all crazy altruistic, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

4. What’s your favorite Vans blog post?

Well, they aren’t terribly popular ones, but I really love finding the homemade commercials by kids on YouTube. They’re so sincere. They make up songs about Vans. They write bitchy skits about how nerds wear Sketchers and cool girls wear Vans and by wearing Vans you magically become Cinderella-awesome. Haha! I know I’m a sucker, but I used to make videos like that when I was little. It’s nostalgic.

As far as ones that readers like?

The Alexander Hamilton Vans

This one here where rapper Gata makes up his own slang

and the Coachella poloaROID RAGE! Study

5. In your “about” section on the blog you show a lot of personality. Do you feel free to be yourself on the blog?

Absolutely. The only things I stay away from are politics and religion. (I’m a Southern girl. That’s just not proper. Haha) Other than that, I am pretty down for whatever. Like I mentioned before, blogs are casual places. I can’t claim that I’m a versatile writer. I’m not about to win a national book award in my spare time. I write how I speak, but sans F-bombs as constant placeholders. Most people get my humor. Come on, I literally wrote about waffles this week. Occasionally, some people take me seriously. A while back I wrote about how a guy in a Facebook commercial for iPhone wouldn’t be my friend. Over the top sarcasm all over the place, right? After I’d written the post, I ended up exchanging emails with the guy in question. He works at an ad agency in Santa Monica, CA. We were quipping back and forth in the comments section, joking about adding each other on FB. Seriously, I wrote, “OMG LOL LMAO MAO ZEDONG” in the comments, so I figured it was pretty obvious that we were joking. Anyway this woman writes me back a long, “you need to respect yourself, honey” comment. It was hilarious! The moral of the story? Some people just don’t get it.

6. Have you used the Vans blog in any of your marketing efforts? If so, how?

Oh sure. Like I mentioned, it’s all part of our relationship marketing. When I post something, it goes on all of our networks. The Vans Blog is just one arm of the social networking program that I’m helping to build at Vans. No, I’m not making an ad, but I think the blog is something that rings true with our consumers. It comes from a sincere place.

7. What are a few blogs you personally enjoy?

For skate news: Skate Daily

Fecal Face’s NYC blog – Bryan Derbally & Todd Seelie are fantastic photographers. It lets me know what I’m missing and makes me want to move back east.

Design Sponge - Hooray to making things

Inspiration Resource

Music blogs: ah yes, the walrus & day trotter.

refinery 29’s blog

and of course I love the biggies like Gawker, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, and Cool Hunting is def a favorite.

Connect with Nikki on twitter.

There is something beautiful about building a profile in an online community for the first time.
It’s a bit like falling in love.
Here you are with a blank slate in front of you.
You chose what to show this new world.
What books you read. Songs you like. Pictures you wish to share.
You select who you will friend.
And why.
You determine how much to share.
And whether to connect this world to others.
If you want to be discovered.
And by whom.

When is the last time you joined a social network you made a deep commitment to?