• by Alex Morrison , September 6, 2011

Woody Allen once said that 80% success is showing up. These days, it couldn't be farther from the truth.

The mile-a-minute pace of the average Facebook News Feed, and the pervasive volume of activity vying for consumers' attention, practically guarantees that just joining the conversation won't be enough to make a real impact in social media.

There are a number of proven ways to use social media to engage a community over time. But gaining momentum for short-run campaigns and promotions is exponentially more challenging. While there's no magic formula for success (particularly frustrating for most CMOs), the most successful social media campaigns share common characteristics that turn everyday conversation into action that generates real brand value.

1. Become the expression mechanism. Social media provides the ultimate forum for connection and immediate self-expression. The best social media creative work acknowledges this, creating mechanisms that allow consumers to do what they already want to do in social -- only better. Whether that's expressing themselves, connecting with friends, or even just clearing their minds, the best social media campaigns all give consumers something they can use.

2. Make it play. Social media is almost always playtime. Farmville is the number one application on Facebook because it's a game that everyone playing can relate to. It creates a social fabric as much as it supports one. Play is a more intense form of interaction than conversation, and it moves faster. It's spontaneous, emotional and connecting in a way that conversation alone can't be. Especially when you give people something visceral they can engage in, they will spread it faster than you can keep up with.

3. Require a brand action. Self-expression takes on a new dimension when it creates a chain reaction for the benefit of your brand. People will adopt brand behavior when it gives them something that matters to them. If you require a brand action to play a game that fulfills them, they'll take it. Social marketing is as only as worthwhile as the brand impact it creates; an action-generating mechanism makes that difference between mere conversation and marketplace impact.

For example, earlier this we worked with our client Nickelodeon to increase support for the annual Kids' Choice Awards by turning the simple act of voting into a social game. Every time they voted, kids earned "Slime Points" that let them splatter slime on their friends' Facebook photos -- kick-starting a chain of one-upmanship and sharing. The "gotcha" game took off because it created a brand mechanism, and by show time we had 15 million votes, 25 million earned media impressions and 16 million fans across the Nickelodeon Facebook pages.

Without question, marketers can benefit from "showing up" in social media. And they should. But the real test of success is how they behave once there. Agencies need to help brands do more than join the conversation, by developing marketing that people can use to do the things they already love to do.

To this end, I often find it helps to ask a few simple questions from the start. Are we leaving space for consumers to participate? To express themselves? Does it foster a sense of play? And most importantly, is any of this going to create our desired action?

If the answers are yes, then I say full speed ahead.