1. Determine specifically what you want to get out of the site.
2. Set a period of time during which you’re willing to experiment with the site and develop a clear method to measure your progress.
3. Evaluate your success and determine whether the time you put into it is worth the return.

Some of us live in Twitter constantly, while for others it’s a brief foray. For example, if one is running a marketing campaign for mother’s day 2010, then they have a short, sharp focus that is easily measurable. However, for lots of people, the Twitter engagement is about trying to add value to their work, their day or their life. You can intrinsically gather if it’s really providing value. Otherwise, use the points above to see if they can provide a clear path.

• The many challenges of Social network sites
• Appreciating the challenges of social networking sites

The great thing about these sites is that they offer easy access to companies to meet their target demographic. Regardless whether you’re a mainstream player like CocaCola or a niche market like a small company selling hgh spray, social networks put you in touch with the people who matter most to your business: your customers.

I came across an interesting post the other day that puts together an action plan of how one should tackle a new social media engagement, specifically around a marketing engagement. Here are the steps it defines:

1. Understand what social media is: First of all you need to learn about social media and the different channels that make it up. Remember that these change over time. Twitter wasn’t important a year ago and who know what will be next year.
2. Understand what social media can and can’t do: It’s not a magic bullet that can cure all ills, and it’s very hard to get a hard ROI off it. Understand what benefits you’re looking for, whether it’s conversion or just brand awareness and apply them to the medium,
3. Determine where conversations are happening: Put some effort into analysing the ecosystem. There are a number of social media monitoring tools out there that you can use to understand where conversations are happening.
4. Divide .. : Decide which social networks you’re going to target. Based on capabilities, usage and profiles this will be a selection rather than the whole set.
5. and Conquer: Implement your strategy across the channels you have selected and using the mechanisms you have decided. Remember that each channel is different and what works in one may not work in another. Don’t forget to define what you consider a success in each channel.
6. Trust in the Force: Social engagement is all about Trust. You need to gain this from your channels and it’s awfully easy to lose. So be sincere and honest in your relationship as this is the key to your success.

These steps are important whether you’re promoting Britney Spears or just trying to sell social security disability online, and following a plan is always better than jumping in without looking.

Some interesting ideas in there. What do you think?

Is your brand on Twitter yet? If not, you might want to grab is to stop squatters taking it over. Reading through a blog post on squatted brand username on Twitter it’s quite clear that there’s an increase in people taking up brand names without really being out there to represent the brand. Whether they’re being used to hold the brand owner at ransom; or whether they will try and sell products through affiliate links is anyone’s guess. The reality is, they’re not owned by the right people though.

Twitter can be an excellent medium to promote your brand on; so stop worrying about your office furniture and start thinking about how to engage with your customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

It’s interesting to watch Dell start to adopt Twitter as a promotion channel. It recently launched a campaign whereby people who were following them on Twitter were given an exclusive voucher offering them 30% off a laptop, with the promise of offering new vouchers every week. This was a follow on from a campaign that made them $1 million before Christmas. Granted, $1 million may not be a huge impact on Dell’s revenues but it’s a huge number by any stretch of the imagination.

What this also shows is that communicating with your audience is a golden when it comes to improving your bottom line. Twitter is but one mechanism to do this, but social networks in general give you an extra edge when it comes to pushing your promotional products or just listening to your audience and finding out what they want, need and desire.