First off – I want to acknowledge that we understand using a social network or a community is a tool approach and not a strategic approach to developing a complete internal social media strategy.

With that said, suppose you are wanting to experiment and don’t have a huge budget, if any.  Say you have to prove out the medium before you can have access to real budget dollars. 

This week’s topic is a little granular but still very important.  Companies are eager to jump in and try out social tactics but often stop short of actually funding a project.  When employees at a tactical level “try out” new marketing approaches they are mostly one-off and not tied into a particular strategy whether at a campaign or a corporate level.  With little amount of thought tied to the actions, it’s no surprise that when the boss asks what the benefit was…the project usually ends there.  So what’s a person to do?  Well, for one thing – MAKE IT COUNT!

If anyone can make it count, it is this week’s moderator Rachel Happe.  From her vast experience in corporate product management to a highly touted analyst, she operates from a position of true hands-on-knowledge that is difficult to match.  This is why her insights are a perfect fit in helping companies determine not only why to participate but how to derive value from the experience. 

There are a lot of ways you could take this conversation and we still find that companies are still perplexed in what to do first.  Many times it’s as simple as having a real test bed for executives and employees alike to engage and interact and get their “hands dirty” a bit.  So here we go with the 3 questions for today:

1. What’s the difference between a social network and a community?

2. What should a business or company focus on…Developing a Community or developing a social network?

3. What are the success metrics to look for in each?

This week’s chat will be flying (you might want to stretch first) so join us early at noon est using #socialmedia.