Many A/E/C firms are in the experimental phase of social media and many more haven't yet considered taking the social media plunge. Like any new(er) medium there is a lot to learn. But before you jump in there are a few basic things to think about first.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that social media is a tactic, not a strategy. Take a look at your overall marketing plan. What are your goals? Are you driving brand recognition, client retention, better customer service, lead generation or more likely a combination of many or all of the above? What marketing tactics have you been using? Have they been successful? How might they be augmented with new tools?

With these goals in mind you can begin to think through how different social media tools might help you achieve your goals. My advice is to start small, decide which tool will help you the most and start integrating that. You can always add more tools once you become adept at the first. Some of the most common tools include blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Setting up a blog can help establish thought leadership which in turn will generate leads. LinkedIn allows you to participate in groups with like-minded professionals, Twitter might give your firm one more outlet to push out company news, share trade secrets and connect with prospects and clients. Facebook can show a more personal side of your firm and might serve as a recruitment tool.
 
Once you decide on the tool, it's time to start thinking about the metrics you will be measuring and what results signify success. At this early stage in social media adoption you should set individual firm goals instead of relying on benchmark data. Benchmark data will be heavily skewed toward businesses that embraced social media long before you and the metrics may prove hard to achieve. Examples of metrics on Twitter could include measuring followers, retweets, direct messages, click-throughs, or traffic directed to your website. Blog metrics can include subscribers, number of comments that your posts generate or link-backs. Facebook metrics might include number of friends or engagement with the items you post.

Now that you've looked at your marketing strategy, decided on the tool(s) that you'll be using and tied some metrics to the strategy it's time to think through the implementation. But first consider whether or not your firm needs a social media policy in place. Social media policies can help with questions about the voice your company wishes to portray online, it can put rules around what to respond to and what not to respond to on-line, who can use company accounts to post things on-line, it can also formalize what on-line behavior is acceptable vs. non-acceptable from employees talking about the company through their personal social media endeavors (though this will be a little harder to enforce). For an example of a social media policy click here.
 
No matter what tool you choose content is still king which focuses your next decision around naming the author(s). Maybe you have a firm principal whom you're trying to establish as a thought leader. Having that person be the main contributor helps to achieve that goal. Or maybe there are a number of people in your firm that are good content providers. Or maybe marketing (i.e. you) is responsible for providing all content. Whatever the case, setting up an editorial calendar in advance will help to organize thoughts and output and help to better define tasks that need to be accomplished in order to make your new publishing medium a success.

If you need a little help convincing others in your firm that embracing social media is important share this statistic from a recent B2B survey, 57% of B2B marketers are now using social media, up from 17% in the last study. Another indicator, get on-line and start looking at what your competition is doing. If they're already there it's time to play catch up, but if they're not there then you have an opportunity to establish relationships with potential clients before your competition even walks through the door. For more B2B social media stats click here.