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Presentation company Slideshare recently released its list of “5 Social Media Secrets for 2010″.<\/a> While these secrets certainly sound like great suggestions, we thought we’d connect them to some concrete tactics and resources that you can use to improve your social media strategy. <\/p>\nSponsor<\/em> 1. Pay Attention to the Metrics:<\/b> Slideshare<\/a> illustrates how CMOs are looking to measure social media conversions for 2010. ReadWriteWeb recently wrote a post about social media ROI <\/a> in late December. In addition to our suggestions for cash-related ROI, startups can also check out Robin Broitman’s Social Media Metrics Superlist<\/a> for a look at some great measurement resources. <\/p>\n 2. Scale Good Habits:<\/b> Says Slideshare, “What works with 2 people won’t work with 20 people. Your entire team should be motivated to respond quickly, post consistently and talk like a human.” Some resources for determining your company’s goals and capabilities include the list of social media questions on Museum 2.0<\/a>, DoshDosh’s article on campaign goal setting<\/a> and Beth Kanter’s Social Media Strategy Map and Worksheet<\/a>. In considering your “human voice”, check out the discussion between Echo’s Chris Saad<\/a> and Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang<\/a>. <\/p>\n 3. Have Rules, But Trust People<\/b>: According to Slideshare, executives need to “lead by example, rather than managing with a rule book.” We recently wrote a post about how blogging and tweeting leaders build better teams<\/a> through shared learning, transparency and a culture of openness. Our early article on Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh<\/a> also exhibits how more leaders are embracing the chaos of brand conversations. <\/p>\n 4. Creativity & Personality Trump Big Budget<\/b>: We’ve published a variety of posts on successful cause-related campaigns including Sloane Berrent’s Kiva fellowship<\/a> and Beth Kanter’s work with ChipIn<\/a>. Neither of these efforts were well funded, but both leveraged leaders’ creativity to increase engagement and response. <\/p>\n 5. Listen Listen Listen<\/b>: Early last year we wrote an article on how sentiment analysis would heat up in 2009<\/a>. To track conversations about your company you can try ContextVoice<\/a>, PostRank<\/a> and\/or Echo<\/a>. For a look at your overall industry you might want to set up your very own Social Media Cheat Sheet<\/a>. <\/p>\n And finally, before your run out to tweak your own program, check out Sarah Perez’s “When Not to Use Social Media”<\/a> article. <\/p>\n If you’ve got social media secrets you’d like to share, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. <\/p>\n Discuss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n