"The key to creating winning strategies in social media is first to give up control," Charlene Li, leading analyst of social technologies told delegates at the 2010 World Business Forum, where ExecuNet exclusively reported, "You need to give up control but still be in command."

First, leaders must realize that social media is a lot more than just Facebook, said Li, also author of the bestselling books, Groundswell and Open Leadership. Then, she advised, you need to make sure you have a direction that everyone understands and will follow. "The only way to get people to follow you is if you lead them."

Leading followers sounds simple, but in social reality can be quite complex. The three ways to do this successfully, Li explained, are through:

1. Strategy
   
2. Leadership
   
3. Preparedness
   
   

Case in point? Dell's use of social media to temper a groundswell of criticism when a video of a Dell laptop self-combusting in a conference room became a YouTube hit.

What happens when someone writes about a negative experience with your company? Dell's response led by CEO Michael Dell was to blog boldly. Dell posted a photo and blog called the "Flaming Notebook." After the bold title, the author explained "beyond what you see, we don't have enough data to know what happened." By calling attention to the dangerous battery problem rather than ignoring it, the company explained the problem and how they were fixing it. And they carried it through with posting after posting, each step of the way as they identified the problem (the battery) and how they would address it.

"Dell was focused on relationships," Li explained. "They realized what these technologies do better than anything else; they help manage relationships. By launching this blog the way they did, Dell was saying this relationship was one worth having."

Li likens the company to customer relationship to any you might have in business or in life. "You can't control the relationship with your spouse or partner, so why in business do we think we should? In the world of business it really is about relationships."

Best Buy CEO Barry Judge understood that when he blogged "I'm sick to my stomach when I think of the customer trust we just wrecked" after his marketing department blundered an email campaign. But with the history of humility and trust he had built since his first post ("Here is the first post. Phew, glad it's over.") his readers knew he valued their relationship with him and the company.

"Leadership is more than just your position on the org chart," Li said. "Anyone can be influential with these tools." Salesforce.com has a new Twitter-like product and calls the people in the company using it, the "Chatterati." "This internal social group is the connective tissue in the organization," Li noted. "There is real value being created as people use these tools to get the job done."

Regardless of the success metrics in any organization, Li says the value of the social message can be measured. After asking the audience to shake hands with the person on the left, she opined, "What was the value, the ROI, of that handshake? Can you calculate the ROI of being here? You know there's value that you can't put a number on, so you'd better be asking the right question."

But how to prepare to succeed? Li says you have to be disciplined in your approach, consistent in the empowerment of the social team and willing to fail. "No relationships are perfect," Li reminded. "Encourage people to take risks, create internal ‘sandboxes' where they can learn, grow slowly and think about the strategy you can achieve."

To put a social strategy into practice, Li advises leaders to first select a strategic goal and apply the social tools to an area where they can have real meaning. "No one person or department owns the customer. So you'll have to choose where this should be to begin. Choose where it makes the most sense."

But most of all Li advises leaders to make this a process of sharing. "Sharing is what holds us together as humans," she concluded. "What do you share with people? I don't care what medium you use, but you have to ask, ‘What are you sharing?'"

Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content engagement strategy across the private business network's publications and expert-led programming. She is also a Huffington Post blogger. You can follow her on Twitter @RobynGreenspan

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