Simplicity. The author's 8 steps are simple and direct. If you're looking for a KISS method for social media strategy, here it is.  Summary...

With all the new tools and platforms constantly emerging, it’s very easy to get fall into the trap of thinking about social media through a tactical prism instead of a strategic one. The best social media strategic plans are tools-agnostic, and set forth objectives and metrics that supersede any particular social venue.

Step 1: Build an Ark

The first step in the process is to create a cross-functional team to help conceive and operate the rest of the strategy.

Step 2: Listen and Compare

Your customers (and competitors) will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media, if you broaden your social listening beyond your brand name.

Step 3: What’s the Point?

The best social media strategies are those that focus (at least initially) on a more narrow rationale.

Step 4: Select Success Metrics

What key measures will you use to evaluate social media strategy effectiveness?

Step 5: Analyze Your Audiences

What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your current or prospective customers?

Step 6: What’s Your One Thing?

Your product features and benefits aren’t enough to create a passion-worthy stir. So what’s that one thing?

Step 7: How Will You Be Human?

Your company has to (at least to some degree) act like a person, not an entity.

Step 8: Create a Channel Plan

Only after you know why you’re active in social at all, and how you’ll measure social media strategy success should you turn your attention to the “how” of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the rest.

Definitely worthwhile to do a quick check on your social links to ensure all is well.  The author offers a checklist, which you should click-through to review, save and use.  Issues that he found...

What I found is that many sites had one of the following issues:

• Links to socially share the content on the brand’s site, but no links to follow their accounts/content on these same social media sites
• Limited following links – i.e. links to follow the brand’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, but no links to LinkedIn and/or Pinterest
• Links to join a company’s LinkedIn groups, but not to follow their LinkedIn company updates (or unclear wording so I didn’t know what their LinkedIn button would lead to– (group or company updates)

A very practical and useful article that helps all of us when we’re trying to track social media results. Basic yet sensible…

You can use a spreadsheet, with the following metrics in columns and a row for each week of the year. Over time, you’ll be able to see (and show) the increase (or decrease) in each metric.

1. mozRank

mozRank is on a scale of 1 to 10 and is SEOmoz’s 10-point measure of link authority and popularity. It’s similar to the old Google Page Rank and is logarithmic, so bear that in mind, too. (According to HubSpot that means it’s ten times as hard to move from a 3 to a 4 as it is to move from a 2 to a 3.)

2. Twitter

Track # of followers, # of people you follow, # of tweets. If you can, track # of retweets or RT’s. Retweetrank.com will give you the number of lifetime retweets and your retweet ranking as a percentile of all people on Twitter.

3. Facebook

Track # of fans (number of people who Like your page) and reach. Get the reach data from your weekly Facebook Page statistics email update. Reach is defined as the number of total people who have seen any content from your page in a designated time period.

4. LinkedIn

Track the # of followers on your company page as well as weekly page views, clicks and unique visitors, all stats on your LinkedIn Company Page Insights.

5. YouTube

Track # of subscribers as well as views.

6. Slideshare

Track #of subscribers and # of views.

SMBs take note...

The author reviewed Social Media Management tools, and any tool considered must enable you to:

• Schedule posts
• Connect numerous social media accounts
• Provide analytics
• Shorten URLs

Here are some options for small business owners in need of a cost-effective social media management tool.

Sendible

Price: Starts at $9.99 / month for eight accounts, offers plans up to $99.99 for 120 accounts

Viralheat

Price: Free for 7 social accounts, offers plans up to $499 / month for 50 accounts

Viralheat is a versatile social media management tool, well worth considering for small business owners.

Jugnoo

Price: Free up to three team members managing 20 accounts, $20/month for five team members and unlimited accounts, custom pricing available for larger teams

What you get for free with Jugnoo is impressive. Link up to 20 social accounts, managed by up to three team members. You also get access to web analytics, Google analytics and social analytics. This makes Jugnoo highly appealing.

Among free and low-cost options, Hootsuite is still the reigning champion, in part because its widespread use means there are many plugins and informational resources available.

The author frames the challenge succinctly (and correctly).  Granted it is more B2C oriented than B2B, but the B2B marketer will understand the impact (and challenge):

Modern business social media monitoring and analysis demands a disciplined, scientific approach, rather than a non-scalable, miscategorised overview of online opinions. Companies must systematically implement a scientific methodology that moves from mere social listening to social intelligence. This means analysing the content of Big Data, respectfully extracting meaning from public conversations, and making actionable sense out of what is being said. Only in this way can social sources be used smartly to activate and recalibrate marketing, customer service, competitive insights, fruitful prospecting and new business programmes.

Of course it’s also important to refine scientific analysis by bringing human judgement into every equation, incorporating a ‘teachable’ algorithm that finds real meaning behind Big Data. It’s critical not to misinterpret artificial results that might skew business intelligence and result in bad decisions.

Key paragraph...

With social media, advertisers are supposed to care more about impressions and engagement and “brand like” and “brand love.” That hasn’t exactly translated, though as social networks like Facebook and Twitter realize they need to provide real return on investment to their advertisers. And how are advertisers accustomed to understanding their ROI on digital ad spend? The answer is with clicks and sales — which is what Facebook and Twitter have to give them.

So far, it hasn’t been a smooth ride. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest still drive less sales than analog catalogs.

Organizations are still cautious about dedicating resources to social media marketing: Only 27% of those surveyed employ someone who focuses exclusively on social media, according to a study by Ragan Communications and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions.  Marketing Profs has written an article on the report, which is summarized below.  You can register to receive a FREE copy of this report here.

• Most (65%) organizations (including for-profit corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies) have added social marketing to the list of tasks traditionally assigned to marketing communications professionals.
• In addition, one-quarter (25%) of organizations employ an intern to help with social marketing.
• Most organizations are still learning about social media: Only 13% of marketing professionals say their team's social media efforts are an "advanced, well-run machine."
• Some 65% of marketing professionals say they use social media regularly but have more to learn and accomplish, and 23% describe themselves as "newbies."
• When hiring social marketing talent, a plurality of marketing professionals (45%) says they rely on a combination of educational background (degree) and experience; 25% weigh experience above all; and 18% view writing skills as a priority.
• In addition, a background in communications (77%) and public relations (76%) is most desirable, followed by one in marketing (65%), journalism (42%), and advertising (28%).
• In 2012, only 28% of organizations recorded increases in their social media budgets (excluding salaries and benefits), and 69% stayed flat.
• Prospects for 2013 are slightly better: 62% of organizations expect their budgets to remain flat, 36% expected budgets to rise, and 2% expect declines.
• Even so, social budgets are still small: 23% of organizations have budgets (excluding salaries and benefits) of less than $1,000, and roughly 27% have budgets exceeding $50,000, with just 14% exceeding $100,000.
• Asked about their social media goals, 87% of marketing professionals cite increasing brand awareness, 62% cite boosting Web traffic, and 61% cite improving the organization's reputation.
• Some 45% of marketing professionals cite generating leads as a top goal for their social efforts, 40% cite sales, and 38% cite customer service.
• Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of marketing professionals say they are "dissatisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with how they measure their social media efforts, compared with 31% who are "satisfied" or "very satisfied."
• Across various metrics, 86% of marketing professionals measure interactions and engagement, such as followers, fans, and "likes." Some 74% track Web traffic, while 58% measure brand reputation.
• Fully 4 in 10 marketing professionals (40%) say they track new leads gained via various social channels, and 31% measure sales.
• Most (86%) organizations monitor their own brands (i.e., what's being said about their organization), while 77% monitor industry news, trends, and events. Only 57% monitor their competitors.
• Among the organizations surveyed, Facebook is by far the most popular platform: 91% maintain a Page on Facebook. Twitter is the No. 2 platform (88%), followed by YouTube (73%), LinkedIn (69%), Google+ (33%), and Pinterest (32%). At the bottom of the list are Instagram (17%) and Tumblr (9%).
• Most (58%) organizations post social media content at least daily, though one-half of those don't post on weekends. Roughly 22% post two or three times a week, with the remainder posting less frequently.
• Across various types of social media content, Facebook posts (86%) and Tweets (85%) are most popular, followed by images (65%) and videos (64%).
• More than 6 in 10 (61%) of marketing professional say their companies publish blog posts, while 51% draft online articles.
• Most business leaders support social media efforts: 81% of marketing professionals (working in both large and small organizations) say their executives are "very" or "somewhat" supportive of social media; only 19% say execs in their organization are unsupportive or indifferent.

Are you confused by social technology? Do you know your social media listening tools from your engagement tools? What is the difference between Yammer and Jive?

This deck organizes and presents the major social technology tools available to all marketers today in a sensible, easy-to-follow format. You'll want to bookmark this for future reference.

It's a great op-ed piece, and highly recommended.  It's worth the read just to get to the closing paragraph:

Social networks, like them or not, are fast laying out a new grid of personal connections. Even if this matrix of humanity sputters in advertising and marketing, it’s bound to spawn new industries in consulting, education, collaborative design, market research, media and loads of products and services yet to be imagined. Maybe, just maybe, it will even be able to sell soap.

1. Embrace social search

The launch of Google+ in 2011 and its continued development in 2012 is just one of many signs that traditional search is becoming increasingly influenced by social signals. Whilst great content and effective link building are still the most effective ways of optimising your website for search engines, genuine social media activity is also playing a part, too.

2. Adopt a content marketing strategy

One of the most powerful and effective ways of combining search and social is to focus on developing an integrated content marketing strategy. Creating useful, unique, engaging content is a powerful way of connecting with prospects and customers and it underpins many other marketing efforts, including:

• SEO
• Paid search marketing
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Conversion rate optimization

3. Differentiating your social presence

It’s still important to have strong, impactful and well-designed branding across every social platform to ensure it aligns with your website, products and online/ offline presence. Integration is key too.

4. Develop actionable insights through social analytics

Hard data should be used wherever possible to monitor social initiatives so that you can form a much clearer picture of what techniques are most effective for your business and to build a compelling business case for further social media marketing should it prove successful.

5. Mobile is the present and future of many social media interactions

Mobile will continue to play an increasingly important role in social media as the technology develops and users become savvier.

This is a tremendous blueprint to support both B2B and B2C organizations.  We've summarized the topline blueprint items, but everything is in the details. 4 steps to effective social channel use:

1. Channel and content strategy: The first step consists of formulating a clear vision on the role of each of the online touch points (the truth is that all online channels are interrelated.  Next, you need to determine at which of these touch points is conversion to your objectives (reputation management, community building, lead generation, etc.) most likely to occur. All other social channels should then support traffic generation toward these conversion points. When mapping out your conversion touch-point plan, define the trigger for each touch point that makes it possible to move on to the next.

2. Build reach: To increase the return on content creation, it is advisable to build reach in the early phase of your online plan. In this phase, the hard part is maintaining a balance between creating relevant content and being able to attract a large set of “likes” and followers.

We recommend choosing the fast approach, which consists of the following seven factors:

• Conversation-worthy campaigns
• Rhythm
• Contests and free stuff
• Social advertising
• Employee activation
• Offline communication channels
• Partner up with other major brands

3. Persuasion through content and interaction:

Three elements are key in this particular phase:

• An editorial calendar: Make sure you know what your content updates will look like at least three months in advance. Remember, content planning consists of three layers: big campaigns (very intense), projects (recurring thematic themes), and content updates (small content sparks).
• Creative content
• Operational conversation management: To succeed, you need top operational conversation management, which is about listening to what people are saying and reacting when necessary.

4. From “likes” to ambassadors: In this phase, you are looking to create a small army of active ambassadors. Where the previous steps focused on winning people’s hearts through great content, in this phase, the challenge is to create ambassadors — people who will promote your brand to their friends and family.

Topline summary...

CEOS may be telling folks that social media is important and useful, but most top executives don't use it personally. 70% of all Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence of any kind on social media.

When you get right down to it, the fact that CEOs openly acknowledge the importance of social media for their companies yet don’t see the need to be socially active themselves is downright hypocritical.

Yes, I saw the stat that read the number of CEOs using social media is expected to grow to 57% from the current 16% in three to five years—but I will believe that when I see it.