Listen up! Put down that smartphone, stand up, raise your right hand and repeat after me:
1) I promise to listen to — and talk with — my customers online, because reciprocity is the foundation for successful engagement when using the online social channel.
2) I promise to respect and value the information shared online by customers and clients. I will not break their trust in me or my company by exploiting or abusing their information.
3) I promise to focus on building relationships — not generating leads — as the best practice to create long-term value for my company, the customers, clients and other stakeholders.
4) I promise to create thought leadership content that lives up to its name, and not simply babble on about nothing. No one likes or respects social spam!
5) I promise to maintain the integrity of the social channel and not attempt to game it or engage in improper behaviors to influence my ratings, activity scores or endorsements.
6) I promise to not confuse high-influence activities with viral good fortune.
7) I promise to train my staff in the art and science of social business to grow their knowledge and help my company advance its online social capabilities.
8) I promise to make social performance metrics part of staff and organizational MBOs, and to make sure they measure business results, not just the things that are easy to measure.
9) I promise to help my company explain its social efforts and the impact those efforts will have on work practices, because social business programs affect everybody’s job.
10) I promise to be patient with my company and colleagues as they grapple with the organizational changes inherent in adopting a social business strategy, and help them benefit from it.
That’s the ideal way of establishing a social media connection, though often times I reckon, only one or three at most are followed by various brands.