So I came across some interesting articles today. I suppose you could categorize them under the “how to” genre. Which got me thinking. For a new company getting started in the social media space, what steps should they take to ensure they are on the path to success? I realize that there are books and blogs dedicated to this, and I sure came across many an authority/ expert on this topic, but here are my two cents – I call it the 4Ls.

1) Listen – This is a very important step and one that is perhaps not often followed. Companies need to first listen to what people/market is saying about them. This includes the who, what, why, where. Who is talking about your brand/ are they possibly influencer? What are they saying – is the tone positive/negative, Why and in what context are they mentioning your brand? and Where are these conversations taking place? Yes, this concept is repeated over and over again, but listening really is the building block of any social media research or strategy. For further details on the 5Ws you can consult this article.

2) Learn – What your competitors are doing? Research the social media tools out there – its probably not a good idea to be on Facebook, but you need to know what are the options, functionality, pros and cons of each. Its also a good idea to learn from the mistakes of others, and what factors have helped the competition or other firms succeed.

3) Leverage – Use the knowledge gained from the listening and learning phase to create a strategy that assists and bolsters your organizational goals and objectives. This will help you to deploy your presence on the right channels and ensure that you are not force fitting tools because its the in-thing.

4) Lead – Stay-on-top of the conversations, be active and engage your followers. Set the ground rules for managing and leading your online presence and establish the measures to success. Ignoring your followers is digital suicide.

I have also attached some interesting articles I came across.

Great piece on the evolution of social media – MediaPost – http://bit.ly/lsMC1X

Read a summary of Ted Rubin’s Tips Social Media success – http://bit.ly/lCEFx6  and details on Return on Relationship concept – http://bit.ly/jwVdEC