Like many other business ventures, a successful social networking campaign revolves around using good information to drive smart decisions. Gather qualitative and quantitative information and then use it to define project goals. An ill-defined project is substantially less likely to succeed.

To get context, research what competitors are doing in the social networking space and identify best practices relative to the specifics of the campaign. Perform research into the target demographic and determine how their interest in the campaign will help the enterprise. Define measurable success metrics and track them carefully through the life of the project. For a Facebook widget, it might be total number of active users. For a MySpace page, it could be the number of friends the brand has.

If possible, identify hard numbers that can be pointed to that substantiate revenue or conversions. These are key steps on the business end of a social networking campaign.

Without proper research, it is doubtful that the campaign will reach the intended audience. If success metrics are not defined at the very outset of the project, the project will lack focus, and you'll be unable to identify what is or is not working. This makes it very hard to justify future expenditures on similar projects.

Source: Quantcast, July 27, 2008