Editor's note: Dana Stanley is vice president, industry sales, at iCharts, a Sunnyvale, Calif., business information company. Kristin Luck is president of Decipher Inc., a Fresno, Calif., research company. This article appeared in the August 23, 2010, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

The market research world is figuring out how to embrace social media in more ways than one. Methodologically, it is experimenting with ways to incorporate analysis of social media sources such as Twitter data to enhance traditional survey and focus group data. On another level, the industry is figuring out how to take advantage of the promise of social media for its own marketing efforts. Our advice to clients about social media strategy will ring hollow if our own social media marketing efforts are lacking.
 
Following are some suggestions we have for fellow research vendors as they market themselves and their businesses using social media.

Begin blogging

Just do it. A company or personal blog does not have to be overwhelming or time consuming, and it can significantly increase your Web traffic. There's a good resource for beginner bloggers at www.squidoo.com/blogstarter.

Easy setup. Setup has become very simple. If you're technophobic, consider finding someone on your staff to help you out with the logistics.

Spread the responsibility. Decide how frequently you will post, and if relevant, assign writing to senior members of your team. If you have a market research business, asking a business contact to write a post for your blog is a way to communicate that you value their opinion - and when they tweet the link to their followers you'll likely pick up some new readers as well.

Comment. Commenting thoughtfully on other people's blogs is a way to win friends and give you high returns at very low cost.

Get linked on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the premier social network for business networking. Participation is a must. 
 
Analyze traffic. See who's looked at your profile. Depending on a user's privacy settings, you can see a description (at varying levels of vagueness) of who's cared enough to click on your personal profile.

Integrate applications. LinkedIn makes it easy to share information using a number of integrated third-party applications. Among our favorites are:

  • TripIt - Use the TripIt travel application to inform contacts of your travel plans and make more meetings. You can also see when your contacts will be in your neck of the woods.
  • SlideShare - Post presentations to your profile using the SlideShare application.

Monitor others. Keep track of former colleagues', clients' and prospects' job changes and business activities. Keep track of competitors' activities as well.

Messaging. In our experience, people are often more responsive to LinkedIn messages than normal e-mails.

Q&A. Posing questions and thoughtfully answering others' questions is a great way to establish or reinforce expertise and to learn and meet new people in the industry, including potential customers. 

Participate in industry groups. Join, create and participate in targeted industry groups. There are scores of groups related to research where fascinating discussions are taking place. They need your participation, and you'll learn from the experience. It's also a good idea to check out groups tangentially related to your specific business.

Research prospective clients. The more contacts you have, the greater your ability to see the names and titles of prospective business contacts. Use this capability judiciously. It's best used to conduct background research that will help you make a more informed approach to selecting potential business partners.

Figure out Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network; it caters to both personal and business networking.
 
Personal, or personal and business? Many people use Facebook solely for personal contacts; others use it for both business and personal networking. Decide which camp you belong to and stick to it. Keep in mind it can be awkward to refuse a connection to a client; however, a simple note explaining that you've chosen to limit your Facebook connections can work well if worded correctly. Consider connecting with clients on Facebook; it can bring them closer to you and help personalize your relationship.

Learn. Learn what's working for brands and what's not, and apply those lessons to your own efforts.

Target. Target content to specific subgroups of contacts.

Fandom. Create a fan page for your business.

Things to avoid. Avoid extremist posts and ranting; posting questionable content; complaining; getting too personal or worse, not getting personal enough.

Take on Twitter

This is the most misunderstood of the major services. Spend some time getting to know it.
 
Company news. Send out a tweet when your company has news or research results to share.

Drive traffic. Twitter is a great way to drive traffic to your Web site and/or blog, Webinars, events, etc.

Share knowledge. Post interesting facts that your contacts will find relevant and informative. However, don't exclusively re-tweet other posts - be sure to share your own original insights as well.

Lists. Use market research-focused user lists to keep on top of industry news and developments.

Meet people. "I follow you on Twitter" is a great conversation starter. Each time we go to an industry event we have interesting discussions with people whom we would not have been aware of were it not for Twitter.

Don't forget about Foursquare

Foursquare is a popular service available on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and others. The service uses your GPS location to allow you to check in in different physical locations. The service notifies your connections of your various check-ins.
 
Twitter understands the power of geolocation. The service now integrates with Foursquare, and Twitter has announced a Foursquare-like feature called Twitter Places.
 
Check in, especially when traveling. If you fly in to New York or San Francisco, for example, and check in to a few locations, you'll be letting your contacts know you're in town. Before you know it you could be having unplanned meet-ups for coffee with valued industry contacts.

Enhance events. Temporary locations such as conferences can have a Foursquare location. Multiple users will check in, creating another way for participants to interact.

See the future. Foursquare-style location-based technology is going to become more prevalent over time. Mobile, location-based surveying is on its way. Even if Foursquare's not your thing, it's worth investigating if you want to understand the promise of mobile technology.

Remember these points

If you take nothing else away from this article, please remember these points:
 
Get started. Not participating in social media is like not having a Web site. It's no longer an option, both in terms of opportunity cost and what it says about you and your company.

Have a written plan. At a minimum, have a company policy about each of the big three - LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Your plan must take into account the strengths and weaknesses of different social media tools.

Take control of your brands. Take control of both your personal and (if relevant) company brand. Everything you touch in your professional life contributes to your brand. Monitor what's being said about you (and your company) online, and push out content that helps people understand the value you can provide them.