There’s social media and then there is social marketing. What’s the difference you say?

Think of social media as tools (blogs, twitter, facebook, linked-in, youtube, slideshare) that you can use to spread the word about your company, product, cause or just to share the knowledge you have and position yourself as the expert. That model is still 1-to-many, but with the opportunity for 1-to-1 conversations.

Now there’s also the reverse side, there is the email message, direct mail, sales calls, sms, print ads… that you should be using to create 1-to-1 conversations. While many think of these as traditional marketing channels, they are in fact not. They are just as much tools for making a marketing campaign social.

If you honestly believe you have something relevant to say to your prospects and customers, then they’ll want to share that message with their friends. You need to make it easy for them to do that.

1) Provide a way for them to share your campaigns (Share on facebook, re-tweet your message, post your document on their blog - See Seth Godin’s What Matters Now)

2) Create applications that involve your recipient’s networks (See The world is social, shouldn’t marketing)

3) Empower your recipients - Management gurus figured this one out long ago, empower your employees to make decisions without having to consult their manager. Apply this concept to marketing, allow your recipients to control who uses the product (think google wave invites), share a special with their friends (exclusive discount codes), share an interesting application.

So the difference between social media and social marketing is just the platform you use. The goals are still the same - educate, listen, contribute and communicate. They both should be an integral part of your marketing strategy for 2010.