SOCIAL MEDIA ISN'T

Do you have a social media "strategy?"  Or, are you like most people, simply trying to figure it all out?  Are you trying to build "conversations," and connect people to your brand? 

As a photographer (or other creative-type), social media can be a huge tool if understood for what it really is.  The problem is, a lot of the research about social media lately contradicts many of the "truths" we have accepted.  Much of the research comes from Dan Zarrella, the Social Media Scientist, and it's not pretty.  

Basically, Dan's research rejects most of the premises that we hold dear in social media.  Things like - more comments on blog posts is better.  More "likes" and comments on Facebook posts is better because more people will see it.  More "engagement" in the social media space leads to higher brand equity.

Now, I'm not the expert on social media.  I don't claim to have a bunch of answers, but I do know that social media has real value when used appropriately.  The problem is - most of us use it in ways that can't be measured.  There's no way to measure whether more blog posts converts to more clients.  There's no way to know whether more Facebook "likes" leads to more people having a positive perception of our brand.  

With that in mind, how are you using Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Instagram, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Ping (does anyone use that?) for your business?  How are you measuring what works?