I am blogging from O'Reilly's Tools of Change Conference in New York City, where I will be co-presenting a case study today with my colleague Sean Gargan about the work we have done over the past year with social media.

While working on our presentation, Sean and I realized that we had a handful of practical tips to share about creating and integrating a social media strategy. Here are the top ten lessons we learned about strategy development, implementation, content management, marketing your presences, and educating your authors, customers and colleagues.

1. Rethink your organizational structure and job roles
2. Become familiar with your customers' social media habits
3. Be consistent wherever you build a presence



4. Hook your audience with an ongoing feature
5. Build an informal network of colleagues and cross-promote
6. Integrate social media into existing collateral
7. Use social media to make 1:1 connections with customers
8. Educate your audience in social media 101
9. Don't be shy to ask (or beg) your colleagues for content
10. Don't assume your authors know how to use Facebook or Twitter

I invite you to share any lessons learned about integrating a social media strategy into existing marketing plans, as some of the best advice I've received has come from those who employ the tactics in their everyday work.

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