The world of social media is evolving and how you use it should also change if you want it to rock your world. Here are some tips.

1 Don't focus on fans, but friends of fans

Brands trying to get business only out of fans are like businesses trying to only sell to their employees... or specifically, their sales and marketing team.

The whole point of having fans is that they're so excited about your brands that they would let their friends know about you -- friends that otherwise could be very difficult (and expensive) to reach! So instead of trying to get your fans to buy, give them a reason to refer their friends to try what you have to offer with their blessing! There are way more friends of fans than fans anyway.

2 Monitor both evergreen and real-time content

Some brands focus on evergreen content (e.g. reviews on TripAdvisor) whereas other brands focus on real-time chatter (e.g. what are they talking about on Weibo or Twitter).

As a brand manager, you need both. Evergreen content is content that convinces/dissuades people to buy, and real-time content is the buzz that has to do with your brand reputation at the moment. Brands that focus too much on one or the other are driving with only one headlight on: dangerous in most situations. If a brand is still wondering whether they should be monitoring social media or not... hope luck is on their side. But we all know hope is not a strategy.

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