The Executive's Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy: How Social Networks Are Radically Transforming Your Business

CHAPTER 8

The Keys to Success in Social Media

Once you shift your focus from yourself to others and extend your concern to others, this will have the immediate effect of opening up your life and helping you to reach out. The practice of cultivating altruism has a beneficial effect not only from a religious point of view but also from a mundane point of view; not only for long-term spiritual development but even in terms of immediate rewards.

—The Dalai Lama, via Facebook

IT’S DIFFICULT IN ITS SIMPLICITY

While successful social media strategy and practice is a large topic that occupies the time of hundreds of bloggers, consultants, and “experts” on a daily basis, there are some fundamental principles of success in using social media for business purposes.

These principles permeate the examples you’ll read in this book. Some of them may be easy to accept; some may be more difficult. We recognize that we’re asking you to accept two major ideas that seem like they might be contradictory, but if you can keep both of these in your head at the same time, you’re well on your way to succeeding:

1. Social media is driving the biggest revolution in the way companies communicate since the introduction of the World Wide Web. It will eventually touch—and change—everything you do.

2. If you’re a successful businessperson, you already understand the fundamental truths that social media is built on. And if you already understand how your business works and where you want to go, putting social ...