When it comes to social collaboration and community, I imagine that if you have a full time job in marketing or sales, you probably aren't devoting enough time to social. I get it, time is precious… But I suggest you reconsider.

Recently, I was meeting with a new employee that was handed the keys to the Twitter account and Facebook page for their organization (Note: this is a multi-billion dollar organization). Upon checking the Twitter page, the last update was several months in the past meaning in the digital world, followers likely assumed that the organization was in trouble or understaffed, though we know that to not be the case. Impressions matter in social media.

Social is changing the landscape. Rather than relying on your local newscast, which is producing each story for a vast number of viewers tuning in, social channels are allowing us to personalize messages specifically for the people interested in consuming it. In the social world, people get to choose the information they want to consume. If I flip on the news, I'm going to see stories about politics, world news, local sports, weather, etc. If I login to my Twitter account, I'm only going to engage with the people and information that I care about (i.e. Ektron, Indiana basketball, friends, etc.).

Here's an example of being fully on the social media train. Let's assume you have an Ektron site and you post a press release to the site. If you're leveraging all of the Ektron tools, that announcement is simultaneously posted to your site, your regional/global sites, your social sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and even PR Newswire (or whomever you use for PR), as well as being optimized for mobile viewing. It's a great example of multi-channel delivery to provide single source authoring.

Furthermore, a key element to being successful in the social realm is consistency. I'm not saying you need to post the same article to every social site out there at the same time. However, you should be updating each of these accounts regularly to ensure that those following you based on their preferred channels, have the latest information and opportunity to engage with you and your organization.

Whether it's one tweet a day or five, posting to Facebook and Google Plus (or one or the other), offering rewards to users that check-in via Foursquare at your location, or something that's even beyond my modest experience, it's a good time now to truly value social collaboration and community as a necessary marketing and customer experience management strategy.

As I've said in other posts, if you look back at the beginning of the internet, many people were slow to adopt. Once things took off, they accelerated their people and resources to catch up to the fast moving train. This is another moment just like that – either you can invest the time to learn about what social engagement can mean to your business, or you will surely fall behind.

Follow me at @jonmkee and @ektronchicago on Twitter. Connect with me at Jon Kee on Linked In. Friend me on Google Plus or Foursquare too. I'm onboard!