As social media marketers, we’ve seen it all too often. A brand starts a Twitter account or Facebook page, only to abandon it within a few months, if not weeks. Marketers tend to look for the latest and greatest thing and when we find that next piece of low-hanging fruit, we jump in full bore, never looking back. However, we don’t always take the time to plan, to strategize, and that is where the failure begins.

In a recent interview with Mashable, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (whom I shall refer to as The Rock) was quoted as saying, “When I launched Twitter my biggest goal was just to be authentic, so that people know that when their tweet alert goes off on their device, that it’s coming directly from my hands. I also try to make it a platform for three things — motivation, encouragement and entertainment. And it’s a great way for me to have my finger on the pulse of what my fans do and don’t like in terms of projects and overall sentiment, because there’s no other platform on Earth that gives me that instant feedback.”

The Rock understands the importance of having a strategy and a goal and as simplistic as his plan sounds, there are five important points we can pull from it.

Authenticity

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating, people understand that in social media, there is a voice behind the brand. Unlike so many other forms of communication and media, social media allows for brands to be authentic and personable and yet so often, I have to shake my head at brands that stay aloof and distant, hiding behind of the auspices of “the brand message”. In order to truly take advantage of the benefits of social media, brands must learn to be authentic.

Motivation

Motivation may mean different things to each person or brand but whether it be getting a follower to purchase an item, book a room night or repeat your message, if you aren’t motivating your followers to do something, then you are wasting your communication.

Encouragement

Although The Rock most likely means inspiration when he says encouragement, we can take it to mean something slightly different. Let’s encourage communication and open dialogue. Let’s get our followers to push out our message for us. One of the true powers behind social media is not necessarily the reach your brand has, but rather the reach your followers have. Encouraging followers to share will go a long way to propagate your message.

Entertainment

Let’s be honest, nobody wants to follow a boring brand, yet you don’t have to be a comedian to be successful. With all of the extraneous noise out there, people have more and more to distract them from your message. In order to capture your audience, you must be engaging, add a touch of humor now and again, and above all else, be sure that your content is compelling.

Listening

As The Rock so eloquently says, social media allows us to have a “finger on the pulse” of our followers/guests/customers. Very few, if any other, platforms provide this opportunity. We have a marketing research tool at our disposal every day and yet, are we even using it? Have you ever asked what your fans and followers would prefer? Have you ever thrown ideas to your followers for their input? If the answer to any of these questions is no, why not?

Let’s take a lesson from The Rock and enter the realm of social media with authenticity, aiming to motivate, entertain and encourage and with a receptive attitude. Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?

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This guest post was contributed by Randy Stuck. Mr. Stuck began his career at Hyperdisk Marketing as an associate in search and social marketing and had the privilege of being trained by one of the foremost minds in search and semantic technology. He has since been promoted to manager of search and social Marketing, and manages the development and execution of search engine optimization, social media and paid search strategies for Hyperdisk’s portfolio of clients.