Once, when I was representing social media on an arts marketing panel, a fellow panelist said to me, one-on-one, something along the lines of “ okay, but how does this sell tickets ?” The longer answer is about social media metrics and the complexity of conversation, and it’s not really an answer. There is a lot of great writing and research out there, by people like Beth I guess I didn’t get that point across! I gave him the short answer .

This post is the third in a 4-part series on social media policies . In this part, we're looking at user agreements and moderation guidelines for an organization's official presence in social spaces like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. (Remember, We're not talking about your own website or blog or white-label social network--those will be covered in a later post. Remember, I'm not a lawyer. I'm just laying out what I've learned from smart people like Barbara Dunn from Howe & Hutton .

Should my association have a social media policy? This post is the first in a four-part series meant to clear up the confusion around policies that your association may need in order to make the most out of the social web. The true goal of every type of social media or web policy should be to make interacting on the social web easier, more comfortable, and safer for your stakeholders. I get that question a lot. Short answer...yes.

Tomorrow I’m presenting a brand new webinar on How to Integrate Your Website, Email Newsletter, and Social Media Sites . Do that by putting links into web and e-news templates, email signatures, and social media profiles. Use social media icons ( search “free social media icon set ” for tons of them) to make these links more obvious. It was the #1 requested topic in last fall’s survey of what you wanted to see on the weekly webinar series schedule. I

The strategic use of social media is about changing your perspective, not using new communication tools. The talks I give about social media and social marketing these days focus almost exclusively on the shift we need to make in how we think about interacting with people formerly known as the audience and much less on the tactics, or how to use specific social and mobile media tools. Fortunately, in the past four years, But the pace of adoption of social media in public health and social marketing programs is outpacing the understanding that social media is not simply a new set of communication tools to substitute for, or complement, posters, pamphlets, PSAs and publicity events . A number of points about strategy and social media came together for me over the past few days as I have been consulting on five different social media projects at various stages of development.

was very impressed at the time, with what seemed to be the most comprehensive analysis of social media user segments available, explained very nicely in a book. Naturally, this goldmine of data was bound to evolve into something more interactive, customizable and useful for people actually trying to apply it. Social Technographics Explained A while back I read the book “ Groundswell ” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research . I

What was clear is that social media is playing a bigger role in disaster preparedness and response than ever before. As we went into the holiday weekend, I watched in awe from the sidelines as a tribe of people on Twitter mobilized to put social media tools into place to deal with the anticipated disaster, building on what had been created two years earlier on an ad hoc basis in the social aftermath of Katrina. With a volunteer While at this point it is apparent that Hurricane Gustav is not going to turn into another Katrina, at the end of last week it was not so clear.

The dreaded “It Depends” answer is the bane of existence for a lot of communicators trying to get involved in social media. There is no kit of parts in social media. The difficulty in social media is that there is no storied history yet. We want shortcuts. We want a kit of parts, turn-key, that we can plug and play. (We

Have you filled out the Social Tech Survey for associations yet? Even if you haven't taken on any social media initiatives yet, but plan to start something in the next 6 months or so, you should fill out the survey. In just a few weeks, we'll have solid information about social media initiatives that associations are tackling. I was honored to be involved in producing the survey, along with association superstars Ben Martin and Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation.

  Are the people within your organization aligned with your social media strategy and do they understand how social media will impact the enterprise? When most enterprises develop their social media plans the work usually begins with defining goals/objectives which leads to how to measure success and of course defining the tactical execution.  Few companies begin their internal social media foundation with HOW social media will impact the organization, the brand and the people. By people I mean those who actively participate