So, you’ve decided that your company needs to have a presence in social media. Maybe you’ve already set up accounts and pages for the various networks, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and more recently, Google Plus.

Perhaps you have an official company account for each of these, but you’re also encouraging the various “faces” of your company to set up their own individual accounts on a professional basis too. With that in mind, you have to decide what you want to use for the avatars.

Contemporary social media conventions would tell you that each individual person should use a personal photo/headshot for their accounts, while the company should use the company logo. However, this may not be the soundest advice for your social avatar. You want that avatar (also known as a profile picture) to be appropriate and easily recognizable.

This could mean developing a specific color scheme or using certain types of imagery, rather than using headshots and other photos of the people themselves. There are certainly pros and cons to every approach. What do you think is the best way to utilize these opportunities to market your company effectively?

Getting ahead in business oftentimes means forging the right kinds of relationships. There are many opportunities for partnerships where both parties can enjoy some mutual benefit. A recent example that I noticed was on The Colbert Report.

Stephen Colbert collaborated with Jack White and Third Man Records to produce a new song. It’s not a “serious” single that will get a lot of radio play, to be sure, but there is something huge that can be gained for both parties. First, Stephen Colbert gets a Grammy winning artist to help him produce a very high quality and professional song, even if it is meant to be funny.

Second, Jack White has the opportunity to not only promote his record company — Third Man Records — but he also has the opportunity to push the Black Belles. This band of goth-style girls provide the music for Colbert’s song and they feature prominently in the cover art. Without the “Colbert Bump,” the Black Belles likely would not get the same kind of attention as they have been in the last week or so.

Regardless of the kind of business that you run, it is important to seek out these kinds of mutually-beneficial collaborations and partnerships. It really is a win-win situation for everyone.

Social media, by its very nature, is a social endeavor. Whether you are talking about Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube, the whole idea of these social networks is to allow individuals to socialize with one another. That also includes individuals who also happen to be businesses.

Far too many companies feel compelled to make sure of these “free” channels for advertising and marketing, but they are going about it in entirely the wrong way. They view Twitter and Facebook as nothing more than broadcast channels. That’s not where you find the real value.

The real value is when you actively engage with these online communities. Answer the questions that your followers, fans, and viewers are asking. Pose questions back to them, asking what they like and what they would like to see improved. Use these channels to learn from them and they’ll feel a greater connection with your brand.

If you’re simply syndicating content via an RSS feed to Twitter and Facebook, you’re missing 90% of the picture and 90% of the opportunity.

It is certainly more economical to shoot a single commercial or put together a single type of ad banner to use across all your different ad placements. It’s easier to run the same full page ad in the local newspaper, a trade journal, and a popular magazine. However, this may not be the best implementation and it may not reap the greatest rewards.

Consider the captive audience and how you can best utilize that opportunity. I was driving around town the other day when I saw an ad on the back of a bus. Instead of being generic, it asked if I was stuck in traffic again. It then reminded me that the oil change service location was open late every day, telling me that there was still time for to get the proper maintenance on my car. That’s timely and appropriate, given the likely situation I’d be facing if I was reading the ad on a back of a bus.

Another great example comes from the movie theater situation. If someone is sitting in an auditorium waiting for their selected feature film to begin, they may represent a certain demographic and a certain type of customer. If you’re a candy company, you can remind them that your snacks are available in the lobby. If they are there to watch a movie, there’s a good chance that they may also be interested in subscribing to your movie channel on TV.

Yes, it may be more costly to put together these “specialized” or highly targeted types of advertising, but they could bear more fruit than the generic ad you have running across all media possibilities.

When many companies consider their social media efforts, they oftentimes think about the company’s own Twitter and Facebook accounts. They think about the kind of messaging they want to use, the kinds of links they want to share, and how they want to broadcast these messages to the Internet at large. These are all valid concerns, but there’s another part of it that they’re missing: the community.

One Twitter account is just that: one Twitter account. The key is trying to leverage the community to work as your own ambassadors. Even if your end goal isn’t to go viral, per se, you can still get other Twitter and Facebook users to help advertise and promote on your behalf. Some great examples of this include Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook Places.

When someone “checks in” via Foursquare or Facebook Places, they are letting all of their friends and followers about your business, even if they are doing so briefly. Some people might ask where this place is, what it sells, and why they may be interested. This represents a great opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to get that word of mouth started.

How can you encourage this kind of activity? Contests, giveaways, and incentives can certainly go a long way. In the case of Foursquare, you can say that whoever is the “mayor” of your location each month will receive some kind of free bonus. How have you used these kinds of social media platforms to promote your business?

Reading that post title, you might be inclined to believe that I’m going to write about how you should follow the example of other industry leaders in your niche. If you’re in the fast food business, you should keep a close eye on how McDonald’s is marketing itself. There may be some value there, but that’s not the topic of today’s post.

Instead, it’s an entirely different concept. What we find that is many people like to follow. If they see that everyone around them is buying certain items and acting a certain way, they may be inclined to do the same. Popularity breeds more popularity. It really is a snowball effect and you should try take advantage of it.

You may want to implement this strategy in a product launch or press release. An endorsement from a powerful figure in your industry can prove to be invaluable. Let’s say that you want to provide a healthy alternative to fast food. Getting Morgan Spurlock, the documentary maker behind Super Size Me, to provide a quote for your press release, praising your product offering, can really help to push its visibility.

Similarly, service providers can (with their permission) publicly display a list of past clients, possibly with real testimonials and endorsements. This is particularly effective when you have a well-known brand attached to the client. If you provide A/V equipment to Paramount Pictures, that could be the way in to attracting other movie studios.