I was the "branding guy" on a Social Media panel in San Diego yesterday. Most of the attendees were from biotech, pharma, and life sciences. I recommended these rules:

1. Just because you can, does not mean you should. Deploying social media has an upside and a downside for your brand. Do not make the mistake of automatically doing social media just because it is available and popular. It is a strategic choice that needs to be integrated into your overall business planning.

2. Assess the value of social media like you would any other marketing and communication tools. Separate out the "cool and trendy" factor and evaluate how each tool individually and collectively will impact your brand. Think of the variables that constitute blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and other tools; things like speed, interactivity, reach, user control, etc. Each tool has its trade-offs.

3. If you do it, do it right. Maintaining an effective brand presence in social media requires a sustained commitment. You need to keep providing updated content of value, manage and moderate it, and track results. Otherwise, it will backfire as a broken promise.

4. In one word, social media is about engagement. Customer engagement with your brand leads to customer intimacy with your brand which leads to increased revenues (check out this Gallup study). Customer intimacy reflects a fundamental set of values and priorities that directly shapes how you do business and what constitutes success. Are you as committed as you want your customers to be?

We'll see you out there!