This  is a companion piece to this month's cover story "How Social networks can help your business" and is prompted by Jai Vikram Bakshi's question on Linkedin.

0. Social media efforts need people, money and time, like with any thing else

It is not one more task for that intern in marketing. If you want to use social media or online communities as leverages for your business,  then be ready to invest resources into it. And the most important resource you need to invest is people dedicated to the task.

1. Most still don't get it

Most businesses out there still do not understand what social media is or what it can do for them. So, you need not be afraid that you will make a mess of it. On the other hand, you do not have too many examples that you can follow or copy. And the rules are all unwritten and changing. So get in with your eyes open, knowing that you are going to make mistakes before you succeed.

2. Listen

Social media is about conversations. And many many conversations at the same time. So, like at any noisy party, start by listening. Understand what they are talking about before you get in.  Choose carefully which are the conversations  you want to join, which, which are the ones you want to ignore and which to start.

3. Dialogue not monologue

Social media is about conversations. Right? And a successful conversation cannot be a monologue. It has to be a dialogue with both parties contributing. There are business whose sole activity in twitter is to automatically broadcast  URLs of new additions at their website using tools like twitter feed.Does not work in the long run.

4. 99% of what is out there is not relevant. Find the relevant 1%

Social networks tend to generate a lot of noise. a huge amount of them in fact. Almost every other question in Linked in is irrelevant to a professional network. According to twittergrader.com's state of the twittersphere report 55% of twitter users have never tweeted. And if you look at the 45% who do tweet, most of it is inane stuff like - "i am awake" or "i am going to sleep".

You need to navigate through all this to find the 1% that is relevant to you. for this you need to use tools like yahoo sideline and retweerank.com.

5. There is no single magic wand community.

If you believe that there is a single community that is the answer to all your needs, then you are mistaken. Your customers, bot current and potential are active on many social networks, not just one. For this simple reason, if nothing else, you need to be active on multiple communities, but as part of one continuous and crosslinked effort

6. It is more of PR and than of marketing. It is more of marketing than of sales

Social networks are not meant for direct sales. While Dell has been talking about their doing USD 3 millions of sales on twitter, not many realise that most of it is indirect and soft sales and through discount offers, and that a lot of the tweets were about othe rthings including resolving problems customers were facing.

Direct sales is mostly frowned upon on social websites. They are more about helping and good PR and thus indirectly driving sales rather than the hard sell.

7. Do not put all your eggs in the social media basket.

If some one tells you that  Social media is the answer to all your problems, take a reality check. Roughly 4% of India's billion plus population  has an Internet connection. Just about 600 thousand are on twitter. Traditional channels still count, and count quite a lot

8. Revolutions are best driven from the top; else they will be bloody.

If you are looking at revolutionizing your business using social media, then be sure that someone who understands the media and equally importantly, has the requisite powers and clearances within the organization is driving it. Else, the whole effort may just blow up on your face.

9. Don't argue against the individual, even if you are right.

Soon enough, along with genuine issues, you will also come across the perpetual heckler or the constant cribber- individuals who hold a grudge or just want to be the David taking on the Goliath that is your business. Do not argue with the individual. you cannot win. Goliath never won against David. Attempt to rewrite that story only at grave peril to your business.