A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the The 21 Essential C’s of Social Media.  Since there are many more elements, I thought it may be fun to discuss  the key E’s of social media.  My friend and technology consultant, Meetu Singhal may call this the vitamin E of social media . 

The social media E’s are listed below in alphabetical order:

1. Education

Educating your prospects and customers is important to the success of your business.  Not only are college and universities providing online education, but millions of people are going online to watch how-to videos, listen to podcasts, read informative blogs, etc.

2. Effective

 A big part of social media success is creating clear, consistent, timely, and captivating content to effectively communicate with your community.  The more strategic your content is, the more effective your social media efforts will be.

3. Efficient

Due to the amount of information, tools, and sites on the web, being efficient with social media is certainly not easy, but it is also not impossible. If you have a plan, a schedule, and an editorial calendar in place, you will be extremely efficient when integrating social media.

4. Effort

If you want to succeed in social media, you must put in some effort.  Social media is about being proactive and making a real effort to research, learn, converse, test, and measure. 

5. Embrace

Embracing social media means accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Although the social web has provided us with endless possibilities, it also opened doors to things that are not so great (spam, fraud, hackers, and privacy, concerns).  Control the bad and embrace the good!

6. Empower

Using social media to empower your community (prospects, customers, employees, etc.) is extremely powerful.   It is essential to create a vision for your audience and empower them to take action on what they love, trust, and believe in order to fulfill a dream or a goal. 

7. Encompass

A successful social media strategy should encompass all departments of a business:  sales & marketing, PR, advertising, customer service, communications, business development, research, etc.  Remember, it does not stop at marketing.

8. Encourage

Encouragement allows your customers to feel comfortable enough to start dialogue with you.  It is vital to encourage or support feedback, comments, and sharing of information from your community. 

9. Engage

Social media allows you to engage with your prospects, customers, employees, and other stakeholders.  Engaging is about helping, giving, sharing interesting exchanges, and building community.

10. Enjoy

Social media is about being creative and having fun.  To succeed, you must not only enjoy the work you do, but also enjoy the social media process.  People can tell if you are posting things because you think you have to or because you are truly enjoying it.

11. Enlighten

By sharing your thoughts, ideas, stories, knowledge and expertise, you will enlighten and inspire your community.  If you are a business with many employees, it is also essential to enlighten your employees on social media.

Wait! I did get carried away again, so I am not done with all the E’s of social media.  Look for more E’s in tomorrow’s post…