Three Lists from SES Toronto's Social Media Panel

In the "Social Media: Do Big Companies Get It?" panel at SES Toronto, it turned out that the three presenters each offered a checklist of sorts. Though they shared more insight than just this, it's a handy way to sum up some of the knowledge they shared.

First, we have 5 Myths of Social Media, from Mark Evans:

1. Social media is free -- not when you count your time, money, and resources.
2. Social media is easy -- it's not.
3. Social media is about the tools -- but tools are worthless without a clear goal of what you want them to do.
4. Social media is a standalone activity -- it's not an add-on, it needs to be built in from the beginning.
5. Measuring ROI is difficult -- but there are lots of tools to track, monitor, and measure activity.

Then, we have 7 Mistakes of Social Media, from Krista Neher:

1. Focusing on the Numbers -- instead of building an audience of people who care about what you're doing.
2. Hijacking the conversation -- instead of joining it.
3. Spamming -- instead of respecting the conversation.
4. Being irrelevant -- instead of joining conversations where you fit in.
5. Being boring -- instead of giving people something that interests them, not just yourself.
6. Not being committed -- instead of being there to respond when people have questions/concerns.
7. Not playing nice -- instead of being kind and respectful to everyone.

Finally, there's 5 Ways to Impact Your Ranking on Social News Sites from Guillaume Bouchard:

1. Content -- "To make a long story short, you have to make a long story short."
2. Platform -- "Digg is allergic to commercial sites."
3. Submitter -- more important in Digg than StumbleUpon.
4. Category -- The category you choose to write in will affect the level of competition you face.
5. Solicitation -- The number of votes doesn't affect Digg's algorithm as much as StumbleUpon's

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