Watching what gets done right and wrong with various social tools I offer up my three ‘F’s. First it is important to say that Social Media is not a single tool or application. As I got drilled into my head from the likes of Brian Lamb and D’Arcy Norman – its about community. If you are building a social network is needs to be based on the community not the tool. In many cases you will need to multiple tools.

With that in mind, here are my three F’s

FEEDS – you need a syndication, transmission, stream of consciousness that people can latch onto. Provide some thoughts that people can look at. This could be Twitter, an RSS feed, or even a series of emails if that is what it takes to reach your audience.

FOCUS – Provide a platform for the community to engage with your content. At this point it could be a blog, but more likely it is a common platform (Facebook, Flickr, Google Groups) that is not seen as being ‘owned’ by an individual.

FEEDBACK – The community must see its influence fold back into the content. What’s the use of contributing if it has no effect. This can includes comments in blogs, voicemails played in a podcast, or collaborative content like a Wiki.