This is by Krishna Kumar got this article on DARE.

1. Social media efforts need people,money and time, like with anything 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 in is people dedicated to the task

2. Most still don't get it.
Most business 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.

3. Listen
Social media is about conversations. And 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. Carefully choose the conversations you want to join, which are the ones you want to ignore and which to start.

4. Dialogue, not monologue
Social media is about conversations, right? And a successful conversation cannot be monologue. It has to be a dialogue with both parties contributing. There are businesses whose sole activity in Twitter is to automatically broadcast URLs of new additions at their website using tolls like twitter feed. It does not work in the long run.

5.About 99% if what is out there is not relevant. Find the relevant one percent.
Socual networks tend to generate a lot of noise. A huge amount of it, in fact. Almost every other question in LinkedIn is irrelevant to a professional network. According to twittergrader.com;s state if the Twitter sphere 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 one percent that is relevant to you. For this you need to use tool like yahoo sideline and retweerank.com

6. 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, both 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 pert of one continuous and cross-linked effort.

7. It is more of PR 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 doing US$ three millions of sales on Twitter, not many realize that most of it is indirect and soft sales and through discount offers, and that a lot of the tweets were about other things including resolving the problems that customers were facing.
Direct sales are mostly frowned upon on social websites. They are more about helping and good PR and thus indirectly driving sales rather than hard sell.

8. Do not put all your eggs in the social media basket.
If someone tells you that social media is the answer to all your problems, take a reality check. Roughly four percent 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.

9. 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 suere 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 in your face.

10. 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 agrue with the individual. you cannot win.