"Should social media be integrated into your organization's marketing initiatives, or should it be a stand-alone campaign?"

This question was posed by Shana Keith (CBeyond) this morning at the TAG Marketing event where I had the pleasure of hearing Paul McKeon (Content Factor), Jennifer Jones (Porter Novelli), Hope Dlugozima (Mother Nature Network), and Jeremy Porter (Definition6) discuss using social media as a part of your company's marketing mix.

While there was some controversy in the discussion, the overwhelming message was clear.  The answer to the question was a resounding "YES!"  Marketing is how your organization communicates its message, services, and culture to the outside world.  It dictates how your organization is perceived by the public.

Social media has allowed the public to originate a lot of the messaging being delivered to the masses about your company.  You now have a choice, should you ignore it and hope that more people consume the message that you dictate, or should you get involved and participate in the conversations being had about you, your company, and your services?

So, the question begs to be asked: "Which is more important, the message that our organization delivers to the public, or the message that the public delivers to each other?"  Bill Flitter writes in an article titled Maximize Your Content's Reach on the Social Web, "For brands, consumers tend to be more responsive to [social media] marketing than other forms of online marketing. With content flowing freely on the siteless web, your fans will be more likely to share it. Good content reaching the right people in the right way builds loyal customers." 

With the growing number of websites available that allow us to engage with others online, a very common question is: "which social network should my company be on?" Some people will make generalizations such as "LinkedIn is great, Twitter is too cluttered," or "Facebook is great, don't waste your time on MySpace." However, there is no one right answer for everyone (if only it were that easy!): you must first assess your goals and target audience. Here is a guideline for choosing the best social networks to get started on:

 1. Who is your target audience? You need to know their age, gender, income level, and industry (if B2B audience). Once you know your target audience, find out where they go online.  If you have a B2B company targeting managers in IT departments, LinkedIn and Twitter will be your best tools. If you have a B2C company targeting teens, go to Facebook and MySpace (for now- but usage of this network is clearly on the decline).  Forget LinkedIn, Plaxo, FriendFeed and even Twitter- teens aren't on these networks. If you need help with this step, I'm always open for questions :)

2. What are your goals? Are you looking to boost your search engine rankings and presence? Find new leads? Brand your company? Engage with consumers? Some social networks help more with certain goals. For example, if your goal is SEO, fill out a profile on every social network, social bookmarking site, and media sharing site. Link to your website, have an optimized profile name, and use anchored text wherever possible. Link profiles to one another. If your goal is branding, stick to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Post content often. Your goals are just as important as your target audience is for determining where you should be online.

3. How much can you afford to put into social media marketing? Do you have an entire marketing department, or is it just you? While it would be great to have a strong presence on every social network fitting your goals and target demographic, realistically this isn't always possible.  Don't be afraid to focus your time on just one or two social networks when you don't have time for more. I'm a fan of focusing on one or two places to social network and checking the others a few times a week if you're short on resources.

4. Test and measure. Still not sure if you're on the right social networks? The numbers don't lie. To find out if your social media marketing efforts are working, look at how many friends you have, how many leads you've gotten, how many more hits you have on your website, number of positive responses, etc.