Lesson 1: "Executive engagement is critical"

That's what Sandy Carter told me when I had asked her about the appropriate level of executive engagement in social media.

"It's a question of credibility," she explained, adding that it was "almost unethical" for executives to advocate use of social media and not be engaged themselves.

For her part, Sandy started a blog in 2005 because she saw the potential and wanted to lead by example.

And lead she did. Her IBM blog, "Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) -- Off the Record," eventually garnered a million followers, making her one of the highest profile B2B bloggers on Earth. (When I mentioned that I was not yet writing for a million people, Sandy was kind enough to say, "You'll get there!")

Lesson 2: Ask the right questions

"The question I get asked most frequently is, 'How do I get started on Facebook (or Twitter or Second Life, etc.)?'" Sandy said, "It's always something very specific. 'I saw my competitor on [fill in the blank], how do I do that?'"

She continued by saying, "I think that people should be asking, first, 'Where do I start?'"

The answer to that question begins with answering this one: "Where are my customers?" For example, IBM ran a B2B campaign on Facebook which failed. They ran it again on LinkedIn and it was a success. Why? LinkedIn is where you'll find B2B folks ready to do business.

The other question that Sandy thinks people must ask is, "How does this fit in to what I'm already doing?"

"You can't have someone on the side doing social media to see what happens," she added, "it has to be integrated."

Lesson 3: " Social media is not just about marketing"

Lesson 3 follows from Lesson 2. When thinking about social media and how you might leverage specific tools, you need to focus on the whole organization and not just a particular function.

"Social media is about social business," Sandy insists, "and 'social business' means leveraging social media within your entire business."

"It's greater than marketing," she went on to say, "Social media can transform everything from service and support to inventory management. It can even be part of your commitment to corporate social responsibility. For example, holding virtual events in Second Life was one way we chose to implement our green strategy."

Let's Review!

Sandy Carter is an executive committed to social media in the enterprise because she has seen first hand how it can work.

Her experience has taught her that executives have to "walk the walk" if they want the organization to adopt social media technology, that getting social media right means starting with fundamental, business-focused questions, and that social media can and should be used across the enterprise, not just in marketing.

She's also learned the most basic lesson of social media success: Listen.

"50% of social media is about listening," she says, "So the ultimate question you need to ask is, 'Have you listened?'"