Social media moves faaast. So fast that I’m often asked by panicked clients if I think “things will slow down” and allow them to “catch up”.

Um, no. No one will ever hang a “Mission Accomplished” sign on the Internet. It’s a dynamic platform, and your company is going to have to map to that innovation and dynamism. Innovation certainly dips and swoops, but new platforms will continue to emerge, and you will have to come to understand how the most important of them work and what they mean to your business and constituents.

Now that I’ve frightened and upset you, I’d also like to let you in on a really simple process to help you both keep pace with new social media stuff you’re planning and also (even more importantly) generate value and insight into the social media stuff you’ve already done. We call it the SMG Framework for Experimentation.

It is intended to provide:

• A healthy mix of accountability and experimentation
• The right environment for programs to mature to a point where informed go/no go decisions become possible
• Senior management visibility/input into activities
• The ability to constantly learn and course correct
• Institutionalizing programs with demonstrated value
• Looking ahead: focused innovation

It seems simple – and it is. It’s also a key success factor in both being able to demonstrate and generate value from your social media efforts, no matter where you sit in the org. So while you’re laying out your social media plans for 2010, repeat after me, “Framework for Experimentation. Framework for Experimentation…”