Dear CEO: How to use social media

What would I tell a CEO?

We often talk about social media at the tactical level rather than strategic. So for a recent viewpoint in Utah CEO magazine I tried to relate social media to the business processes where communication was vital: Reputation, Customer Service and Establishing a Brand.

But first I had to come up with a definition that was grounded in business rather than technology. And that actually meant I needed to define marketing as well.

Here's what I came up with:

• Marketing is the alignment of your company’s solutions with a defined set of needs to everyone’s mutual benefit. While it may incorporate advertising and promotion, those are not the primary functions of the marketing team — it is making sure that your product is in demand.
• Social media are the vehicles that leverage human interaction to convey a message. Of particular interest to marketers are recommendations and complaints.