Right now, it seems that there is no shortage of “social media experts” out there. It’s so popular, I expect a new event to be added to the X Games… EXTREME TWITTERING or something like that.

Just kidding. I really do enjoy the X Games.
Anyway, regardless of if you have a social media expert on staff or not (if you don’t, just go on LinkedIn, there seem to be quite a few available these days), it’s not a bad idea to have a plan in place for your social media program.
A plan? What I’m referring to is having a basic idea of what you’re going to use your brand’s Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, etc., profile for.
There are a lot of options out there. One option is to just spout about what’s going on with your brand. Another option is to interact with fans/followers. Have a conversation with your brand’s champions and challengers. Or, you can selectively respond when the need arises, have the time or feel the situation warrants it. That seems to be what Surfrider does.
Recently we made an announcement for project BLUE. Because Surfrider is a beneficiary of project BLUE, they reposted the news on their Facebook site. It turns out a fan on the Surfrider page doesn’t think the organization does enough and made a public comment about it. While some organizations just let these comments stew and go unanswered, the folks at Surfrider responded quickly and succinctly.

Nice job Surfrider.
Take a second to think about what you’re doing online, how you’re doing it and who is handling the execution. Make sure you have a program in place and people running it who can adequately respond to issues. Honestly, I feel it’s unlikely that any organization will have enough staff to respond to, or even want to respond to, ever comment, challenge or kudo posted about them on the Internet. However, you should make sure whoever monitoring your program is on it and has the maturity to make the right decisions, including when and how to respond.
Your social media presence is an online extension of your brand. It’s the sign people see as they pull into your parking lot. If someone sprayed graffiti on your sign, you’d try to clean it up, no?

(If someone did this on our building, we’d probably leave it



Don’t expect everyone on Twitter, especially celebrities, to get back to you. As Twitter grows, much like MySpace, Facebook and offline fan clubs before them, one-on-one interaction is going to decrease. The bandwidth required to respond to each person who Tweets @ a celebrity will be immense and it’s unlikely that they’ll keep up without hiring outside support, which will take away from that personal interaction people love on Twitter.
For those that don’t follow surfing, Clay is ridiculously good. While he hasn’t qualified for the ASP, it hasn’t kept him from receiving endemic/surf industry coverage and props from his peers.