There’s so much talk going on about social media these days that we sometimes forget that in order to run a social media campaign, you have to set it up first.

As mentioned in my post over the weekend called “How NOT to Run a Social Media Campaign,” you can’t simply upload a corporate video to YouTube and proclaim that you have a social media campaign. It takes more thought, planning and attention than that.

With all that in mind, we’ve come up with a 10-step social media action plan to help you get going. This is a list of some of the questions you should ask yourself (and your team) prior to launching a social media campaign.

Here’s goes:

1. Competitive Assessment: What are your competitors doing in this space already? What can you borrow from them?
2. Internal Situation Analysis: How much awareness is there of social media within your company? Is there an understanding that it can be measured and create a positive ROI?
3. Major Objectives: What are you trying to accomplish with your social media campaign?
4. Consumer Thought Process: What is the typical sales cycle for your product? How much trust do you need to build before you can make a sale? (Hint: The more expensive the product, the more trust needs to be built.)
5. Key Strategies: What approach are you going to take in order to have a successful program?
6. Brand Essence: What is your brand essence and how are you going to communicate that using Social Media?
7. Positioning: How is your brand currently positioned in the marketplace? Where do you want it to be positioned as a result of your social media campaign?
8. Essential Message: What is the essential take-away you want customers and prospects to have after engaging with your brand via Social Media?
9. Tactical Plan Overview: Which Social Media platforms are you going to use for your program? Which tools are you going to use to measure the success of your program?
10. Executional Roadmap: What are your SMART Goals for this plan? How are you going to be held accountable for them?

Those are just some of the questions you’ll want to have answers to prior to launching. Did we miss any obvious ones? Probably. So let us know what questions you’d add. We’d love to hear from you!

Twitter is still evolving. We all know that.

Twitter isn’t going away any time soon. We all know that, too.

But there are a couple of disheartening trends that have taken place on Twitter recently, and they run the risk of destroying this burgeoning Social Medium.*

The Two Terrible Trends on Twitter are:

1. Twitter being used to SPAM unsuspecting users. It was bad enough when Twitter users started being followed by people with get rich quick schemes, but now we’re starting to get SPAMMED by porn sites. That’s disappointing to say the least.
2. Twitter being used as an advertising medium rather than a social medium. The idea behind all Social Media is that it’s a conversation and by that we mean a two-way conversation. But with increasing frequency, people are starting to send out Tweets that have no intention of creating a conversation. They have every intention of sending a one-way advertisement, but no intention of a two-way conversation.

Does this mean the end of Twitter?

No. Twitter isn’t going away. You’ll recall that email went through the same difficult adolescence. But now, email is a useful marketing tool that is being used properly with increasing frequency.

So, that’s the bottom line — Twitter isn’t going away, it’s just evolving. And part of the evolution of any marketing tool is the awkward adolescent stage.

Hang tight. It’ll be a bumpy ride. But this’ll all get worked out.

*Special thanks to 60 Second Marketer follower Steve who mentioned in our post called  “How NOT to Run a Social Media Campaign” that Social Media is plural and Social Medium is singular.

Social media continues to get a lot of attention — and justifiably so. It’s the biggest, most complex, most dynamic change to happen in marketing since the invention of television in 1923. (In case you’re wondering, yes, TV was invented in 1923, but it didn’t take off in the U.S. until the early 1950s.)

With all the stuff going on in Social Media, it’s not surprising that people are making plenty of mistakes. With that in mind, we’ve decided to compose a list of how NOT to run a Social Media campaign.

1. Don’t upload a corporate YouTube video and claim you “have a Social Media campaign.” Social Media is about a conversation, not about uploading a YouTube video.
2. Don’t sit on the sidelines. As 60 Second Marketer visitor Ruby Gottlieb once said, “In order to understand Social Media, you have to use Social Media.”
3. Don’t downplay the importance of Social Media. We can all agree that Social Media is a bit over-hyped right now. But don’t discount it. It ain’t going away and if you think it’s just a fad, you’re wrong.
4. Don’t think you can do Social Media in 10 minutes a day. That would be like thinking you can have a relationship with your spouse by having a 10 minute conversation each day. Trust me, that doesn’t work.
5. Don’t think that Social Media is only about YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Again, Social Media is about having a conversation and there are plenty of channels to have a conversation in.
6. Don’t assume Social Media can’t be measured in very real terms. In an upcoming online seminar, we’ll show you how to set up, run and measure a social media campaign. Yes, it can be done. And we’ll show you how. (As soon as we get finished writing the darn thing.)
7. Don’t forget that Social Media is about Mobile Media, too. The impact of Mobile Media will continue to grow. This year is the year of Social Media. Next year is the year of Mobile Media. Remember to integrate your Social Media campaign into the Mobile Media world.
8. Don’t think that Social Media is like traditional marketing. Traditional marketing was a one-way street. Social Media is a two-way street. As such, be sure to participate in the conversation. Leave blog comments, Re-Tweet interesting content, comment on someone’s Facebook page. Connect!
9. Don’t think Social Media will sell itself. Oh, sure, Social Media is so hot now that even your CEO knows about it. But there are still people who will need to be convinced of its value. You’ll need to consistently sell them on the value of Social Media, especially if the person you’re convincing has CFO in their title.
10. Don’t think you can run a Social Media campaign from a silo. Social Media is about engagement across many platforms. Remember that and keep on rocking.

We’ve watched a lot of people jump into the Social Media fray over the past year or so. They’re the brave ones who were the first to dive in. Now, you can use your “fast follower” strategy to learn from their mistakes and jump in right along with them.

This is only a partial list. Are there any mistakes you’d like to add? If so, let us know. Our readers would like to see them.

There’s only one reason for a businessperson to use Social Media and that’s to grow revenues. Seriously, that’s the one and only reason businesspeople should give Social Media an ounce of their attention. The problem is, Social Media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube can be distracting as all get-out.

It's easy to get distracted by social media. You can improve the efficiency of your efforts by using the 60 Second Marketer Social Media Management Principle.

What’s the solution?

That’s the question I was pondering yesterday in a conversation with Ann Pruitt, who helps run the 60 Second Markter. Ann and I were talking about the various ways we’re using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube to build awareness and traffic to the 60 Second Marketer site.

The problem is that when you dip your toe into Social Media, it can distract you and take you away from your primary task — to grow revenues. And that’s when it hit me — Social Media is both an Attraction and a Distraction and depending on how you use it, it can grow your business or shrink it.

I’m a visual person. Anybody who has been in my office will find yellow stickies, white boards and print-outs all over my walls. They help remind me of things to keep on my radar screen and, most importantly, they keep me focused on the key tasks at hand.

So, taking a page from Rajesh Setty‘s 60 Second Marketer post last week and the book The Back of a Napkin, I drew up the 60 Second Marketer Social Media Management Principle and have included it with this post.

The key thing to remember as a marketing director or as a business person is that there’s only one reason you should be using social media for work and that’s to grow revenues. With that in mind, we broke Social Media into two categories: things that should attract you and things that will distract you.

When using Social Media, follow the links that are related to:

• Making money
• Growing market share
• Retaining customers
• Building visibility

When using Social Media, don’t follow the links related to:

• Fun and games
• Friends and family
• Sports and hobbies
• Unrelated activities

For me, it’s helpful to keep the napkin in this post taped to my wall. That way, any time I find myself reading a Tweet that leads me to an article on Astronomy (one of my favorite topics), I can stop myself and say “Is this an attraction? Or is this a distraction?”

If it’s a distraction, it waits until I get home. After all, we’re still trying to grow the 60 Second Marketer and that’s our #1 task right now.

Do you have any “back of the napkin” ideas you’d like to share with our online community? If so, send them our way with a short description and we’ll give you a guest blogger post on the 60 Second Marketer.

Findings from a new poll conducted by the 60 Second Marketer were released today. The research was conducted with marketing executives from around the globe.

Respondents were asked “Which Social Media Tool will be the First to Become Irrelevant?” The choices included YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

The full article on the results can be seen by clicking 60 Second Marketer Social Media Research Study, but the bottom line is that 51% of the respondents to the poll indicated that MySpace would be the first social media tool to become irrelevant. 35% of the respondents indicated that Twitter would be the first to become irrelevant.

What can be learned from this study?

1) The life span of some social media tools might be no longer than the life span of the pet rock: That’s not to say that MySpace won’t be here for the long-term. It is, after all, the Grandaddy of All Social Media tools. It’s just to say that if you thought internet time was rapid, wait until you experience social media time.

2) If you’re targeting young people, MySpace is still a valuable tool: The fact that millions of young people from around the globe visit MySpace each month shouldn’t be ignored. If you’re smart, you’ll find a way to leverage that traffic for your own brand.

3) Many people may end up migrating back to MySpace: Once people under 25 who are on Facebook get “friended” by their Aunt Myra in Iowa, you can be sure a certain percentage will migrate back to MySpace. Just watch.

4) Reports of the death of MySpace are greatly exaggerated: To assume that MySpace isn’t aware of some of these trends that were spotted in the 60 Second Marketer research would be wrong. Trust us, they’re evolving the product right now as we speak. Stay tuned. You might be surprised with where they take their platform next.

For more research and information like this, stay tuned to the 60 Second Marketer. Or, better still, sign up for our free marketing eNewsletter that delivers weekly tools, tips and tutorials on how to improve your marketing results.