To help you lay down tracks for social media success, here’s a solid list of strategies from eight top social media experts. Take a look, ask yourself what tips you can use and start reaping the rewards of real success.

#1: Offer live events on Facebook

“To provide additional value and fresh ways for your fans to interact with you, periodically conduct live chat sessions or live webinars or teleseminars. My co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, Chris Treadaway, and I recently conducted what we called a ‘flash chat’ in order to crowdsource content for version two of our book,” explained Mari Smith.

“We used the awesome webinar platform Linqto and within a few minutes we had a large group of people interacting with us. Linqto allows presenters to be on webcam and mic and take turns ‘on the floor’ while participants interact via chat,” said Mari.

Mari also said you can keep it real by simply conducting a live Q&A right on your Facebook fan page wall. You’ll get extra visibility in the news feeds of your fans!

#2: Help others who aren’t necessarily famous

“Don’t try to build your personal brand or company brand alone. Go out of your way to look for opportunities to help others and give others credit. This may seem like a lot of work in the short term, but it pays off in the long run. Plus, it’s the right thing to do,” said Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business.

“Easy ways to do this include recommendations on Twitter of others’ work, retweets and hot tips on the comment section of blogs,” Erik added.

“Heed Guy Kawasaki’s advice and select those not on the A-list. The Mari Smiths, Chris Brogans and David Meerman Scotts already are showered with love. Select an up-and-comer, as you will stand out more to that person,” explained Erik.

#3: Don’t over-focus on marketing

“All too often, businesses overlook the ‘social’ part of the phrase social media marketing and jump straight into the ‘marketing’ part… to their detriment. They forget that social media is dominated by a community of people who have expectations of the various social networks to which they belong. Very often, these expectations do not include having marketing messages jammed down their throats,” explained Hollis Thomases, author of Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day.

Hollis cites INGDirect, L.L. Bean and Ben & Jerry’s as good examples of authentic brand voices that ‘get’ the Twitter community.

Notice the engagement in their streams.

Hollis added, “If you plan on delegating your social media activities to someone, ask yourself, ‘Does this person really understand our brand, the image we want to present and does s/he have the ability to communicate properly about these attributes?’”

#4: Research what your customers are saying

“Stop reading the success stories and best practices to model your social media strategy. Use them for inspiration, but my best advice to you is to go figure out what your opportunity is first,” said Brian Solis, author of Engage: The Complete Guide to Building, Cultivating and Measuring Success in the Social Web.

“Every business case is different. Your customers’ needs are different. Use a tool such as Research.ly to learn more about what your customers and prospects are saying, looking for and sharing. It’s here where you will find the insights necessary to inspire a campaign that’s relevant and meaningful,” said Brian.

Publish your time-stamped stream as an intelligent link.

#5: Meet people in real life

“I’m from Boston and we used to have a huge user group here called the Boston Computer Society,” says Steve Garfield, author of Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business. “They had monthly meetings where people could go out and meet each other and get help and learn about new products. Then, people started getting answers online. So the Boston Computer Society disbanded, thinking that people could just go online to get all their answers.

“The most critical thing that the Boston Computer Society forgot was how important it is to meet people face to face. That’s why I have monthly meetings in Boston with a group I founded called Boston Media Makers. At these meetings every person who attends gets to meet every other person. That’s the secret,” said Steve.

You can meet people online, but solidify these online relationships face to face.

“The meeting is set up to allow for mingling at the beginning, then we have a round table where everyone gets two minutes to talk about who they are and share some news or ask a question. Then the meeting ends with more mingling. What’s very important is that the meeting is free, and happens at the same time every month no matter what. We never cancel. Everyone is welcome,” explained Steve.

#6: Get your content read by being controversial

“We all know that ‘content is king’,” says Dean Hunt, a leader in high-impact buzz and viral content. “This is especially true when it comes to social media and social bookmarking. But what happens if nobody reads your masterpiece? There’s nothing worse than spending hours on an article, blog post, etc., only to see it gather dust in the Internet caves.

“So here’s a strategy I created to ensure that your content WILL get noticed… In fact, people will do a double-take when they see your content title, and will not be able to resist reading it. I call it the ‘negative slant.’ It’s very simple to do, and works best with informational or how-to content,” said Dean.

“An example is a recent post I wrote, ‘How to Work Really Hard and Make No Money.’ It was a big success. Now, I should stress that the content in that blog post was informative, positive and actually showed people how to make money, but I put a negative spin on the title, which gave it shock value,” said Dean.

“Imagine if the title had been ‘How to Make Lots of Money’ instead. We see these kinds of promises every single day, and we’re trained to not believe or trust them. So put a negative slant on your social media content, and watch it create buzz and get shared faster than ever before,” explained Dean.

#7: Invest in social media after you do your research

“Just as you would invest your personal finances based on your family size, age and market conditions, you should be spending in social business with the same industry knowledge,” said Jeremiah Owyang, partner of customer strategy at Altimeter Group.

According to Altimeter’s recent report, How Corporations Should Prioritize Social Business Budgets, “Corporations should gauge their own social business maturity and prioritize spending decisions based on the industry benchmarks. Novice programs must focus on getting their internal teams in order; intermediate programs must scale customer-facing initiatives; and advanced programs must integrate social business throughout the enterprise.”

This chart matches spending priorities with an organization's social business maturity. Take a look and see where your business fits best.

#8: Share the knowledge of experts with your audience

“Get experts involved with your content. Determine who the experts are in your industry. Then go to them and offer to interview them about their hottest new project. During the interview, be sure to ask plenty of questions your audience would like to know the answers to. The result will be a great article, audio or video that provides valuable information to your audience AND forges a relationship with the expert,” said Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner.

To see an example of this strategy, check out Mike’s recent interview with bestselling author Seth Godin.

Want to Learn More About Social Media for Business?

If you’re not fully leveraging the power of social media, don’t worry. You’re not alone.

There’s one easy way to take your social media efforts to the next level. By attending the web’s largest online blogging conference, Social Media Success Summit 2011 you’ll become empowered to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business.

The great part is you’ll be learning from 22 blogging experts. Join  Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Frank Eliason (Citigroup), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Erik Qualman (author, Socialnomics), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Dan Zarrella (author, The Social Media Marketing Book), Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing), David Meerman Scott (author, Real-Time Marketing & PR) and experts from Verizon, Boeing, Intel, and Cisco as they reveal proven social media tactics at Social Media Success Summit 2011.

Check out this video from Michael Stelzner

It’s the web’s largest online blogging conference. Go here for a free sample and to learn more.

By the way, all eight of these experts cited in this article will be joined by 14 other social media pros at this year’s Social Media Success Summit 2011. Go here to learn more about this online social media conference.

Now it’s your turn! Which of these expert tips are you going to model for your own social media strategy? Share your comments with us in the box below!

Stelzner is a well-known white paper writer, author of the book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged and founder of Social Media Examiner.

But he literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto Facebook.

“I thought it was just for college kids,” Stelzner says. Then a friend he respected invited him to join, so he did.

But within a short period of time, he stopped updating his Facebook page. “I spent a lot of time on Facebook and frankly accomplished little. At least on Twitter I knew I could strictly talk business.”

So he just fed his Twitter updates into his Facebook profile and fan page. “All along I was treating my Facebook page like Twitter. I thought that by simply posting updates I would build a loyal following.”

Things changed when Mari Smith showed him the right way to use Facebook.

Watch the above video to learn more about Stelzner’s Facebook story.

Create a Facebook Page

Armed with that knowledge, he created the Social Media Examiner Facebook page in March 2010. By July of the same year, the page broke the 12,000-fan mark.

“And these folks are active,” he says. “They post questions, support each other, reply to our questions and promote our articles. A vibrant community was building right before my eyes. Almost overnight, Facebook quickly became the number-one source of traffic on Social Media Examiner.”

You may have heard that Facebook is one of the most cost-effective ways of advertising on social media. “Nowhere else can you target users as surgically as you can on Facebook [and] you can do it for a fraction of the cost of the same targeting on other Internet properties and offline outlets,” write Mari Smith and Chris Treadaway in their book, Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day.

Build a Community on Facebook

But according to Stelzner, Facebook marketing isn’t just about placing ads on people’s pages. He compares Facebook to the Social Media Examiner site. People can comment on the articles, others can respond to those comments and everyone who goes to the site can see all these comments. “FaceBook is like the comment section of our blog taken to an extreme.”

“Facebook has 500 million users,” he says. “That means that your customers are already on Facebook – a huge percentage of them. And they’re on there almost every day. I’ve heard that 250 million people are on Facebook every single day.”

And a recent Nielsen study found that those 500 million people are spending an average of 7 hours a month on Facebook. But they only spend 2 hours a month on Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN.

“If people are already on Facebook and they’re already spending an enormous amount of time there,” Stelzner says, “then how can you get them to notice you? That’s where the marketing comes in.”

And that’s why Stelzner created Facebook Success Summit 2010.

16 Facebook Lessons From 22 Top Experts

Scheduled throughout the entire month of October 2010, the summit was designed to give you all the tips and techniques you need to master Facebook for business use. You will receive 16 hours of training from 22 Facebook experts. They’ll cover everything from setting up Facebook pages to growing an active fan base.

And because this conference is online, you can attend the sessions in the privacy of your home or office. For a fraction of the cost of a traditional conference. No airports, rental cars, hotel rooms or expensive restaurants. All you need is a computer, computer speakers, and a high-speed Internet connection.

When you register, you’ll receive an email with a link to a website and your login information. At the appropriate times, just go to the website and login. That’s it!

Just look at some of the speakers you will hear:

• Mari Smith and Chris Treadaway, authors of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Brian Solis, author of Engage!
• Paul Dunay and Richard Krueger, authors of Facebook Marketing for Dummies
• Jesse Stay, author of I’m on Facebook, Now What? and FBML Essentials
• Justin Smith, founder of Inside Facebook and author of Facebook Marketing Bible

You will also hear how companies are implementing their Facebook marketing campaigns, including Microsoft Xbox, Intel, SAP, Cisco and the Washington Redskins.

These social media pros—the world’s leading Facebook experts—will be your personal trainers during October 2010. They will teach you everything you need to know to successfully market your business on Facebook. You’ll learn how to:

• Develop a Facebook marketing strategy
• Customize your Facebook page
• Start a Facebook advertising campaign
• Create a community around your product or service
• Optimize your News Feed to take advantage of viral marketing
• Use Facebook analytics and apps

“The marketer’s job has changed from creating and pushing messages to one that requires listening, engaging, and reacting to potential and current customer needs,” says Erik Qualman in his book Socialnomics. “Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media. Today, 76% rely on what others say, while 15% rely on advertising.”

And Facebook is the biggest social network in the world.

So are you ready to dump traditional, interruptive, “in-your-face” advertising in favor of social media marketing? And can we please stop calling it an “advertising campaign” and start calling it “customer engagement”?

Your customers and competitors are on Facebook – isn’t it time you joined them?  Click here for summit details.

If you don’t agree, read these articles on Social Media Examiner:

• 3 Reasons Facebook Trumps Twitter for Business
• 5 New Studies Show Facebook a Marketing Powerhouse

If you DO agree, grab your place in line for this first-ever online Facebook marketing conference. Their online venue holds 2,500 attendees (and their last event sold out)!

And he used social media to do it.

His YouTube videos got 110 million views, estimated to be 14.5 million hours of viewing. Mass media advertising to reach that many viewers would have cost $47 million.

A famous rapper made a promotional video that gave him even more free publicity.

At the time of the election, he had five million fans on Facebook — over four million more than his opponent. On MySpace, the numbers were approximately 800,000 and 200,000, respectively. On Twitter, he had over 100,000 followers and his opponent had about 5,000.

And he rode that social media train all the way to the White House.

“If not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president or even the democratic nominee,” said Arianna Huffington.

Specifically, if not for social media, Barack Obama would not have become the 44th president of the United States.

And that is how social media is changing the world as we know it.

Social Media Is Changing the World

Erik Qualman wrote a book on this topic called Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Its tagline is “It’s a people-driven economy, stupid!”

And he says that’s a good thing. He believes social media will save billions of hours of productivity, make companies more accountable and efficient, and make products and services better.

It could even make your own life more fulfilling and productive.

Here’s an example:

Sally is in a supermarket checkout line on the Fourth of July weekend. She thinks it will take 10 minutes to reach the cashier. But instead of wasting that time, she uses her mobile phone to check her social media updates:

• She posts a message that the store is out of an ingredient she needs.
• Within minutes, a friend recommends an alternative.
• She learns that her daughter just aced an exam.
• Another friend announces she’s pregnant.
• She notices a Starbucks gift card at the checkout stand and buys it for her daughter.

“This is a simple example of why social media isn’t just for teenagers with too much idle time on their hands,” Qualman says.

It’s Not Just for Kids Anymore

It’s also for the new father who wants to find a good child safety seat. Instead of searching the Internet, he searches his social media sites. Within minutes, he sees that 14 of his friends bought the same child safety seat and they all recommend it highly.

And it’s for the woman planning a trip to South America. Instead of scrolling through 400 reviews by people she doesn’t know on a travel review site, she checks her social media sites. She sees that two of her friends went to Chile and rave about it. It’s within her budget, so she makes a reservation.

“One of the key maxims of this book is that wasting time on Facebook and social media actually makes you more productive,” says Qualman.

That’s why he believes social media will save billions of hours of collective personal productivity. “Social media eliminates millions of people performing the same tasks over and over. This recaptures billions of hours that can be redistributed toward the betterment of society.”

He claims online voting alone would save $6.7 billion in lost productivity during a presidential election because people won’t have to travel back and forth to the polling place.

And companies that monitor social media sites could quickly find out about problems that can easily be fixed. They can ask their followers to recommend product enhancements and even new products.

Who needs expensive focus groups and questionnaires when you have tens of thousands of Twitter followers? “The days of advertising executives sitting behind two-way mirrors munching on stale chips and M&Ms will become a distant memory,” says Qualman.

Socialnomics in Action

Qualman’s book has dozens of examples of Socialnomics in action:

• Two football podcasters saved money by letting their fans do much of the work.
• A comedy skit on Hulu.com drew more viewers than the same skit on TV.
• A human-lion encounter filmed in 1969 went viral on YouTube 40 years later.
• Barack Obama’s “micropayments” from supporters raised almost $700 million.

And many more.

Read about the 83-year-old man and the young mother of three who both say using social media has led to happier, more productive lives.

And the 22-year-old man hired by Apple who had never sent an email in his entire life. He preferred IM, texting, calling using his cell phone and communicating on Facebook.

In fact, as of 2013, Boston College will no longer give incoming freshman an email account.

Qualman doesn’t even think much of the Internet. “Search engine results and the traditional Internet advertising model are antiquated. Social media will push both of these to revolutionize, otherwise they will see a dramatic decrease in market share.”

Yes, you read that right. Erik Qualman thinks Internet advertising is “antiquated.” Internet advertising is the same old interruptive advertising applied to a new medium.

But spam filters and popup blockers do the same thing for Internet advertising as TiVo, mute buttons, and digital video recorders do for TV commercials. Consumers have made it crystal-clear that they do not like traditional interruptive advertising. Will advertisers ever listen?

And if Internet advertising is antiquated, traditional mass media advertising may soon be prehistoric. Qualman says the famous “Dancing Matt” YouTube videos have been watched by more than 33 million people as of April 2009. They were even shown on one of the large video screens in Times Square!

“The best part is the video is still being viewed by millions, which is completely different from a one and done television commercial.”

So once again, Social Media Examiner asks: Are you still sitting on the fence when it comes to social media?

If so, download and read your FREE copy of 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses. “If you’re still unsure about social media marketing,” report author and Social Media Examiner founder Mike Stelzner says, “I hope that these findings will help push you over the edge.”

Or maybe just push you off the fence. You may not be ready to jump off a cliff just yet.

We’ll let Erik Qualman have the last word: “Companies can elect to do business as usual at their own peril. We are at the start of a newer and brighter world for consumers and businesses; this is the world of Socialnomics.”

Social Media Examiner gives this book a 4-star rating.

Have any of you read Socialnomics? If so, what do you think? Feel free to comment below.

As Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motor Company, says, “U.S. brands looking to leverage social networks internationally know that while their messages need to stay consistent regardless of the region, the language, cultural reference points, platform and tactics, all need to be tailored for each market.”

He continues, “Whether it is customer service, IT, HR or product development, there are a number of uses for social media. And when you add to that all of our constituents—customers, employees, shareholders, dealers, retirees—it becomes a very complex assignment.”

Here’s a look at a few of the difficulties and how you can overcome them…

The Information Available

In the past, statistics on social media were difficult to come by and they were not always relevant.  But there are more Internet statistics available today even for social media.  McCann’s Wave 4 Power to the People report  is one resource available to gain insights into how to use social media internationally.

The trouble  with an international social media strategy, as Erik Qualman of Search Engine Watch points out, one size does not fit all. Having more relevant statistics does not get you very far.  You still need to learn how to adapt what you do on social media to effectively connect with people in other countries. And before you can do this, you need to know a bit more about what social media is like over there.

Social Media in Different Regions of the World

A good place to start is to look for general insights into the social media environment in the places you would like to reach.

The Nielsen report Global Faces and Networked Places clearly explains why localization has won the day in many countries and says, “Succeeding in China takes more than producing a translated version; it requires investment in a local infrastructure and a mentality of running a Chinese social network that understands the domestic nuances of social network behaviour rather than simply rolling out a generic social network in Chinese.”

Here are more insights from two social media players well-known in their own countries:

Have a look at this interview of Laurel Papworth in which she gives an analysis on what’s happening in social media in Australia and Southeast Asia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlhEzAdyCIs

Fred Cavazza says, “The main differences in France‘s social media are based on the local offering and local players: Dailymotion, Skyblog, Viadeo, Dofus, BlogSpirit, CanalBlog, OverBlog… and there are 3 distinct groups in France around culinary, political and IT gadget blogs.”

Fred Cavazza raises a good point. Let’s have a look at the main challenges presented by local offerings and local players.  These are areas where you will need to adapt to fit in with what works in the local social media environment.

Cultural Differences in How People Respond to Social Media

Cultural differences always impact how people use social media. Here are some insights from a few culturally minded social media players.

Engagement—Jack Yan says, “There seems to be a gap between Americans and New Zealanders on Twitter usage, for instance. Kiwis, for the most part, seem to engage a bit more and there are relatively fewer accounts, proportionally, made up of automated tweets. There seems to be more of a demand on American tweeters, for instance, to provide a lot of content, and I suspect that this drives the automation. This arguably comes back to the different cultures: one historically more collaborative, the other historically more individualistic.”

Hesitation—France shares a trait with many countries: hesitation and observation before engaging in new social media. Thierry de Baillon says, “Where Anglo Saxons are prone to quickly dive into new platforms and get new habits, Frenchies stick with old ones, watching others acting while taking their time.”

Networking—Lucy Chatburn sees more networking activity on both LinkedIn and Facebook in Turkey than in the UK. “This could be because networking doesn’t come naturally to many British people. And a LinkedIn profile is definitely not seen as an essential career tool in the UK.”

Shyness—Mixi, a leading social network in Japan, added a special feature to make it easier for people to make friends.

Of course, there are many more ways cultural differences impact social media. Before you can find the right way for your business to connect with people on social media platforms in different countries, you do need to:

• Develop cultural awareness
• Do your research
• Adapt your communication and social approach

Evolution in Local Players

Other challenges in international social media are related to changes in popularity of social media platforms.  A snapshot of the social media environment in any country may not remain current for long.  Social media environments change.

Facebook’s growth has had an impact on many countries outside of North America. Orkut’s popularity in Brazil and India is changing.

This is why it is difficult for businesses to know how to:

• Anticipate where to spend time
• Identify the most relevant social media platforms for their business

Good monitoring practices and a local presence are keys to success.

Can Social Media Help Your International Business?

There are many reasons why this is a tough question to answer.  As we have seen above, statistics do not always reflect how people use social media. There are also:

• Different speeds of adopting social media
• Differences in how locals use social media
• Differences in how businesses can use social media in different countries

On the one hand, local statistics can be misleading.  Another culturally minded social media player, Martin Lindeskog points out that “The broadband/high-speed Internet connection is very common here in Sweden.” However, he also notes that “you can’t find many examples of companies that have embraced a new type of media strategy in full scale yet. There is a lot of talk about Twitter, but you don’t see many companies microblogging.”

On the other hand, although statistics only tell part of the story, a detailed view of the local social media environment can give you valuable insights.  According to Fred Cavazza, the social media market in France was evangelized long ago by local players, and this made the road to success easy to maneuver for Facebook in France.

A Source of Inspiration

In addition to connecting with business networking partners abroad, there is another good reason to keep an ear open for what is happening in international social media: there is richness in diversity.  And this can help you stay in tune with social media as it evolves for everyone.

Monitoring how businesses in other countries use social media helps you to:

• Get ideas for new things to try in your own country
• Spot new trends in other areas of the world which might, in time, affect your own industry

As different people around the world adapt social media to their own cultural tastes and the driving forces in their local markets, we are sure to see:

• More innovation
• Different uses for social media in business
• Opportunities to adapt the strategies and tools we are familiar with to new international markets

Observing these changes and understanding why they fail or succeed increase our understanding of what social media is all about.  Although North American businesses are using social media more than businesses elsewhere, there are many examples of innovation and inspiration to be found outside of North America.  This alone is why following international social media is useful to many businesses.

Now, over to you…

• What have you learned by observing social media in other countries?
• What is the most interesting difference in international social media to you?
• What anecdotes can you share about social media in different countries?

Please share your comments with us below.