It may be a nebulous, catch-all term but by introducing social media into your communications mix, you might reap the benefits, says James Bennett, head of content at internal communications research and training company Melcrum Publishing

Terminology’s a funny thing. I wonder where it originates, how it spreads into everyday vernacular and why we so easily adopt it without challenge?

Take social media, the hottest two-word topic of the moment. No wonder we as internal communicators struggle to get to grips with it – no one knows what it means.

Language matters, particularly when talking about implementing such a fast moving set of tools and techniques as social media. As one expert told me recently, “terms such as Web 2.0 and social media have some value because they group things together, but they have a downside because they turn them into a ‘thing’ that can then be made difficult and have to be paid for”.

He went on to tell me that he spent hours thinking of ways in which he could avoid using those words eventually coming up with “helping people understand the web”. Admittedly that’s slightly long, but at least it explains to laymen what collaborative tools such as blogs, comment engines and interactive forums can do to engage employees.

There are also far too many so-called ‘social media experts’ touting their business to misinformed companies. ‘Experts’, who if they existed in the Wild West, would be selling snake oil to unsuspecting townsfolk from the back of a horse and cart.

So what if you want to trial social media tools in your business? I always adhere to the wise words of those in the know, not those who claim that Twitter can change your employees’ working lives forever; those leaders in the field who listen to carefully to businesses, who explore individual corporate culture and who analyse whether or not they really need it as part of their communications mix.

Here are 10 tips for those willing to listen, learn and lead the way as told to me by leading expert Euan Semple.

1. Social media isn’t for everyone. You don’t have to do it, it doesn’t have to be the only thing you do and it doesn’t replace all the things you’re already doing. It’s just part of the mix.

2. Companies don’t do it, people do. Ownership should belong to whoever’s going to make it work, who’s got the bug, the drive and the passion and who is willing to push back all the barriers that people will throw in their way.

3. If you come at it from a command and control mentality then it will die very quickly. You have to trust the users to make the best use of it.

4. These conversations are happening anyway. It’s better that it gets let off professionally and somewhere contained than somewhere else.

5. IT is the single biggest block to getting social media up and running. They could be such enablers but they’ve been employed to replicate the hierarchical command and control structure that most organisations pretend is actually running them.

6. Corporate systems are like Milton Keynes, efficient with lots of signposting but everyone gets lost because it all looks the same. Try to create the equivalent of Cotswold villages that grow up haphazardly but work because you know where the church, pub and the footpaths are. You’re comfortable in the environment.

7. Allow everyone to talk. The exciting potential is that you can give all those quiet voices a space where they can say whatever they want.

8. The worst thing you can do is ban sites like Facebook. People are having work conversations on the web and the safest thing to do is to make it attractive to have those inside the firewall where you can learn what they are saying.

9. Create the debate. Give employees a platform where people can question what’s happening.

10 Experiment. Don’t worry about the fully manifested project - start putting bricks together until you get a house and see how it looks.