Some of our travel and wine industry clients have recently been asking for a basic “social media 101″ primer to help them understand how social media marketing integrates with overall communications strategy. While social media use is growing and will not diminish anytime soon, it is important to remember that tactics like Facebook and Twitter should be integrated into a comprehensive communications plan. With that caveat in mind, here is a rundown of some basic social media tools and the ways they can be used to increase brand visibility and communications effectiveness:

1. Public Facing Blogs: Blogs can extend the conversation beyond the press release, becoming a resource for media and consumers alike to find news that is targeted and relevant to their specific needs. Blogs should pull traffic to the core website (not a separate URL) and be designed to promote conversions, i.e. sales, bookings, downloads of information or whatever objectives you’ve set forth in your communications plan. Must be updated regularly to be relevant and support Search Engine Optimization, which depends largely on fresh, relevant, keyword-rich content.
2. Facebook: Currently the hottest social networking forum, Facebook has more than 200 million users, making it highly relevant to marketers. Businesses should create a Facebook Page rather than a Profile, which are intended for individual use. Pages allow for greater control over page content and have no limit on the number of “fans” permitted; Profile “friends” are capped at 5000. Utilize free applications to feed your company Blog, Twitter feed (see #3), Flickr images (see #4) and YouTube videos (see #5) to your Page. These tools will help keep your Page content fresh, extend the reach of other PR efforts, and provide additional inbound links to your website.
3. Twitter: Designed to communicate short messages instantly to a network of “followers,” Twitter updates—called “Tweets”—are searchable, trackable, and appear in some Google search results. Create a Twitter Account with a name and profile containing key words that will help interested parties find you. Update regularly with helpful tips, promotions and calls-to-action—including links to landing pages on your website, which you shrink and track using a tool such as Tiny URL. And don’t forget:  Twitter is a fantastic tool for brand monitoring! Conduct a Twitter search for your brand (and your competitors!) and add the RSS feed to your Google Reader to keep track of what people are saying, engage your audiences, and respond (carefully) to negative brand mentions.
4. Flickr: This image sharing program allow for ‘tagging’ photos with searchable keywords that help increase brand visibility online. Images can be easily uploaded and embedded in blog posts, Facebook Pages or other online content using automatically generated embed code or widely available free applications that stream your photos to these outlets as soon as they are uploaded.
5. YouTube: The best-known and most-trafficked video sharing application on the web, YouTube can be utilized to create a brand channel where short (2-5 minute) videos can be uploaded and distributed to company websites, Facebook, blogs and other outlets easily and without requiring multiple uploads. In addition, since all videos are hosted on YouTube, large videos can be uploaded and streamed to platforms that don’t support big files. Viewership of online video has increased 2000% in five years, with video content widely reported as some of the most-viewed content on news and company websites alike. Brands would be wise to embrace the power of video to convey a genuine (read: non-commercial) experience of a product or place.
6. Measurement: Free tools such as Google Analytics reveal website traffic patterns and behavior and can be paired with Facebook Page Insights, Twitter-compatible programs such as Hootsuit, and dozens of other widely available tools to track the effectiveness of social media tactics in achieving objectives. The key here is not ROI, but ROO—Return On Objective.