Social media isn’t about the tools – it’s what you do with them.

For us in the social media industry there is always pressure to be at the top of your game, to know about every application and site out there and figure out a way to make this work for your clients. It can be tempting to jump on the latest bandwagon and try and work out a project that incorporates this in some way. As consultants, strategists, gurus – whatever you want to call it, it’s important to remember that social media isn’t about grabbing the latest tools and assuming that this in itself will be your ‘social media campaign’. Believe me, it won’t.

Social media is about taking the tools that are available to you and doing something amazing with them. Something that gets people talking, using them in a way that’s never been done before. The Ikea campaign was an excellent example of this. It wasn’t executed through a snazzy platform like Foursquare, it was focused on Facebook. Note that there weren’t even any applications or integration with Facebook Connect. It simply centered around tagging – one of the original features on Facebook. But what they did was to use it in a way that no-one had before.

Your creativity is what makes compelling social media content. Don’t be tempted into the latest fad just to demonstrate that you’re deserving of your ‘social media guru’ title. To really know social media is to know people : what they respond to, how they function online and how to make your brand a sought after experience rather than an intrusion. This is where the skill comes in. This is where the hard work comes in. Anyone can say ‘iphone app’ in a pitch. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a success.

As social media matures, campaigns and methods get outdated incredibly quickly. I haven’t seen a really good hashtag competition on Twitter for a while. I think these had their heyday around 2 months ago, around the time of #moonfruit . We’ve certainly advised clients on running a hashtag competition before, but this was back in September and this isn’t something I’d advise now as I don’t think it’s relevant anymore. It isn’t going to make you stand out, probably just elicit a mutual groan across Twitter. But Twitter is still there, people are still using it so there’s no need to drop it and move onto the next thing. You just need to think about what your brand or client can do that’s going to make people stop, applaud you, and then engage with you.

The tools of social media are there for anyone to use. As well as keeping up with your competitors, there’s also user-generated content to contend with so you need to prove you’ve got what it takes to stay relevant and ahead of the game. Taking the mundane and making it incredible.