I receive daily emails from Brian Solis, who is an expert on defining the convergence of media and influence. His recent post on “The Difference Between Friends, Fans and Followers” was very interesting and I recommend you read it.  One thing I learned from reading this post is that Twitter has a new website totally geared toward businesses that are trying to use Twitter for marketing. 

Brian describes the various roles of the audiences or participants in social networks. His post reinforced for me how important it is for us (as marketers) to have goals in mind when we enter into a dialogue with our social networks. The technique of message mapping which we use at Nancy Marshall Communications provides an excellent foundation to guide our conversations in social networks and to keep us on message, and on strategy. Otherwise we may be wasting our time in social networks without having any idea of what we are trying to accomplish. Here is my template for Developing a Strategic Communications Plan for your organization which includes setting goals for all your communications as well as creating a message map.