We recently launched a website detailing our emerging media and social networking strategy, a process we call FILTER. FILTER is an acronym including Facilitate, Identify, Listen, Target, Engage and Review. Each element is instrumental in developing a strategy to meet a company’s objective in targeting their audience through emerging and social media.

With all the talk surrounding Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the various other social networking and emerging media websites, businesses are looking for new ways to reach their audiences online. We created FILTER to assist these businesses in strategically integrating their marketing into this area and to help them better understand the available tools.

At the core of FILTER is something you’ve heard before. In fact, Jacque wrote a blog post about it back in January. I’ll reiterate a point she wrote near the beginning of that post: First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind.

A staggering number of social tools are at your fingertips. Which will you choose? I’m here to say that you may not be ready. There are three core phases in the social media process, and most organizations skip the first, allow the second to fizzle, and forget about the third. For some, these three may seem like common sense, but they’re often pushed aside in the hype surrounding emerging social tools.

1. Strategize
Think about your customer: Who are they? What motivates them? What are their values? What will they respond to positively? What will engage them? Before jumping head over heels into social media, you need a plan – a strategy. You need goals and objectives, and you need the metrics to determine if your goals and objectives are being met.

2. Execute
Once you have a solid strategy in place, now you can determine how to implement it. Does it involve Facebook and Twitter? Maybe it instead centers around Yelp or even YouTube. Implementation and execution can be as complex as the strategy. Having a Facebook page doesn’t mean you’re automatically popular in your customer’s demographic. It takes persistence and follow-through.

3. Evaluate
In the first phase, goals and objectives should have been created. Now the metrics you put in place to monitor them are put to work. Have you been successful, or not? If so, what’s next? If not, what can you change in terms of execution to be successful? Regular monitoring and analysis of your metrics can help you reach your goals. There are some really great tools available to help you with this work.

The emerging media landscape is just that: emerging. It’s continually evolving and morphing into something different than it was yesterday. Have a solid strategy in place to target your audience, and consistently follow-through in the implementation of your plan. It’s important to continually review the metrics you set in place to determine strategy success as you enter emerging and social media marketing. A process like FILTER and the regular upkeep of the three core elements noted above can help your organization be successful in this space.

Last week we created a BrandQuery YouTube page. We’ll be uploading new videos on occasion.

Creating the account made me think about the importance of a brand in its emerging media presence. Plenty of posts exist that discuss how businesses with Twitter accounts need to utilize icons, make branded backgrounds, and create the ideal branded page. But if you expand your presence across many social sites the big picture gets bigger.

BrandQuery has always been about enhancing an organization’s brand, and with the emergence of social sites in the marketing mix, a brand should be consistent in this space as well. That’s important: a brand must be consistent in this space as well. Having a standardized brand look and feel will capitalize on your customers’ ability to remember who you are and, if done properly, will also attract your target audiences with matching demographics. Although – your brand can be modified to fit as social spaces vary in terms of what they allow users to do.

When extending your brand across multiple social tools that allow customizable profiles, here are five items to consider correlating:

1. Identity: This may seem a bit obvious, but some seem to forget this most important element. Your identity should be present no matter where you participate online – be it a logo, icon, or merely your company name. Your company name should also be your username, appear in the URL and Page Title when possible, and pop up throughout your social site.

2. Color: Know your brand’s colors and use them consistently. Your website should have these colors incorporated into it, as should anything you do online.

3. Imagery: Coordinate background images when possible, as well as your icon. This is another important step toward brand implementation. It furthers continuity and emphasizes recognition.

4. Font: A few sites allow you to change web fonts. If this is available, use the same hierarchy found on your website. Again, the key is consistency.

5. Content: Managing multiple social areas for your company can be cumbersome if you do it piecemeal. There are plenty of tools out there that can simplify the process. For example, you can update your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace accounts simultaneously from an application like TweetDeck. YouTube allows you to connect with various social sites as well. Using these tools helps you easily maintain content continuity.

Now that you have seen our five considerations when branding your business across multiple social sites, here are two disclaimers.

Disclaimer 1. Symmetry Isn’t Always Possible: Symmetry may be the wrong word, and synergy the right one. Your social presence should emphasize a unity between the various social tools you may enter. Some sites allow for greater customizability (YouTube, Twitter, MySpace) while others only allow minimal (Facebook, Yelp). Do what you can to brand them, but know that minor differences even between the more customizable are OK to keep things interesting.

Disclaimer 2. Don’t Enter Without A Strategy: We aren’t recommending you join social sites for the sake of joining. Doing the proper research and developing an appropriate strategy is the first step. Only then can you properly target your desired audience.

In creating your strategy, you must 1) determine what your internal capabilities are, 2) define the social make-up of your customer, and 3) pinpoint which social tools your customers use most. These three elements, too, are in-depth and complex. A strategic emerging media process, like our bqFILTER, can help. FILTER: Facilitate, Identify, Listen, Target, Engage, and Review.

What has always been most important part of marketing? It’s not being the first to use a new technology in marketing. It’s the customer.

First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind. They are why you are in business. In addition to that, your current customer should be the one on your mind, not the one you don’t yet have. They know you, they have bought from you, and they are most likely to buy from you again, that is, unless you forget them!

At BrandQuery, our goal is to get inside the customer’s head; to understand who they are, what they do, and how they do it. This begins by taking a good look at your existing customer and learning more about them. Their age will tell you some obvious things but further digging will reveal real truths. Needless to say, don’t make assumptions. To find out who your customers really are, you will have to ask pointed questions.

Once you have defined your customer, it is important to create a message that will be meaningful to them. All of the tools you use to attract attention are useless unless your message is the right one and that it is targeted at the right group.

It’s easy to get ahead of yourself (or your customer for that matter). It gets exciting when there are new tools or new opportunities for promoting your business. But don’t jump too quick, take the time to earn a greater ROI.

Social media is getting a lot of attention. We are certainly participating and have for a while now. We also counsel our clients regarding social media or what we like to call emerging media. The biggest takeaway of social media is a greater ability to listen to the customer. If for no other reason to get into this movement, it is certainly that. Even if you are paying attention to your competitor’s audience or the industry’s audience.

Stay tuned, we will be launching a new website soon on our social media process.

And for now, keep in mind, the customer still rules!