“Define exactly what you mean by ‘doing Social Media,’” I replied.

“Define Social Media?” they asked incredulously.

“Yes,” I said. “When you say we need to do more Social Media, exactly what services are you suggesting? Community Management (i.e., manning Twitter and Facebook)? Content creation? Creating social apps? Doing even more sophisticated monitoring and analytics? All of the above? None of the above – something different?”

We went back and forth on it for a bit. My colleague acknowledged that we “do a lot of social strategy and creative social brainstorming for clients” but their team wanted to be even more hands-on.

“In other words,” I concluded, “your team wants to hit ‘tweet’ or ‘publish’ more often? — You’re essentially suggesting that they want to be more tactical, when everyone else in the world seems to wish they could ‘be more strategic.’”

No, thanks.

While I firmly believe that agencies can play a compelling role in Community Management (which is what I deduced the team was looking to do more of), i.e., research, monitoring, content calendaring and creation, analysis, crisis comms, and so on, I also firmly believe that the workaday Community Management stuff is best handled by in-house corporate pros. That’s not to say we won’t do it — we have, we do, and we will, when called on — but it’s not an industry best practice, imho.

I raised this issue on Twitter today, and I think Steve Farnsworth said it best:

@tdefren “We take money from clients to implement a tools based “strategy” (i.e., tweet for them) because they have more money than sense.”

— Steve Farnsworth (@Steveology) May 22, 2012

Just because it’s snarky, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

What do you mean, exactly, when you tell people you “handle” Social Media?

Follow a 70/30 Rule – 70% of content curated, 30% branded.  Why? Because the rest-of-the-world is at least 70% more interesting than your brand; and, promoting external content builds social capital, makes grateful fans of influencers.

All content should be SHAREWORTHY.  Don’t publish junk.  Better to be quiet than to queer the signal-to-noise ratio.

All content should benefit SEO.  Note that search engines increasingly favor Social Signals and Blended Results (multimedia).  Keyword optimize your content whenever possible and appropriate, across all channels.

All content should be digestible.  Big pieces should be readily and easily broken-down into component parts (e.g., a big infographic could be made available in smaller chunks)

Content should be channel optimized (by channel, by device) and distributed synchronously across social outposts.

Earned Media (MSM or fan-generated) is the best media.  (Really? Yes.)  A reputation for credibility trumps a reputation for creativity: credibility today lends authority to the creative endeavors of tomorrow.  And in our overheated media market, credibility comes from third-party influencers and from peers.

Paid Promotion – deployed flexibly, for the best earned media (primarily) or for the best branded content (secondarily) should be used to extend content lifecycle.  Where it makes sense, Social Advertising should tout user plaudits vs. features/benefits: make the customer the star.

… There are more than 7 principles in successful content marketing, of course. And some might argue that these are not even the most important seven.  Let’s hear your thoughts: what are the must-have considerations for success?

Next month I’ll be moderating a panel at the Corporate Social Media Summit, which is being held June 13-14 at the New Yorker Hotel in NYC.  It’s gonna be a great time, with an impressive list of corporate attendees, including SHIFT clients such as McDonalds and H&R Block, among many others (Whole Foods! Dell! Lego! Mercedes!).

I’ll be moderating the panel on “Reputation preservation and enhancement: Use social media to maximize the impact of your brand.”  I’ll be joined by McDonald’s Heather Oldani, Director of U.S. Communications; by Citi’s Jonathan Young, VP of Social Media & Digital Communications; and, by Brandy King, Senior Communications Manager at Southwest Airlines.

Think about that for a sec. I’ll be talking to communications execs from the fast food industry, from Wall Street, and from the airline industry, about “reputation preservation and enhancement.”  Could it be more perfect? It could not.

By the way, my client and pal – the brilliant and gutsy marketer Scott Gulbransen from H&R Block –  will be speaking on using advanced social media strategies to improve consumer engagement on another panel.  That’s another must-see.

Pretty compelling, eh? Register here. And don’t be daunted by the price, cuz I am offering readers of this blog a 35% discount (code: SPEAKER).

See ya there.

Wow, wow, wow. We are busting at the seams over here.  Today the Holmes Group named SHIFT Communications the 2012 Digital/Social Agency of the Year – with “honorable mentions” in the category going to behemoths like Edelman, Ogilvy and Weber Shandwick.

This marks the 3^rd time in the last few years that SHIFT has nabbed “agency of the year” honors.  We were the “Agency of the Year” according to the American Business Awards, and the “New Media Agency of the Year” (again via Holmes) back in 2008.

Both times we were psyched.  But this win feels extra special.

Let’s face it, the PR industry is moving in the Digital/Social direction moreso than ever before.  We’ve stayed on top of this trend from the get-go, vying for opportunities (and even winning sometimes!) versus agencies that are 10X our size.  In the process we’ve evolved a vision for the role of earned media and content marketing that we’re excited about … and for which this recognition is truly gratifying.

Here’s a link to the broader Holmes Group report, and below is the excerpt announcing our win… which I will be committing to memory for engraving on my headstone, right after the bits about “loving husband and father” …

Digital/Social Agency of the Year: Shift Communications

Shift’s investment in an integrated offering that blends paid, owned and earned media reaped rich dividends in 2011, spurring growth of around 15 percent. The firm’s digital capabilities encompass typical social media solutions, along with ecommerce, design/build and a content marketing facility that has proved a true differentiating factor. Shift leveraged this offering to land some impressive new business, including assignments from McDonald’s, AOL, Salesforce.com and H&R Block. And there was plenty of eye-catching digital work, for Overstock.com, Zeo, Everbank and, perhaps most notably, a crisis brief for Applebee’s that offers a model for crisis communications in the social media era.

Honorable mention: Edelman, Ogilvy PR, Weber Shandwick, Zocalo Group

If I’ve ever impressed ya as a nice chap, or helped you in some way, or made you think a little differently about marketing concepts, do me a favor and give us a tweet about this news?  All of my colleagues are so psyched and I know they’d appreciate it.  Thanks!