It’s a new era. The idea that companies big and small need to integrate social media into their business models is no longer just a theory. It’s a common practice. But the question of how businesses begin incorporating social media strategies is still being defined.

2010 will be the year that social media goes mainstream, argues Brian Solis in a guest post for Mashable titled “The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration“.

According to Solis, businesses tend to adopt social media plans incrementally. You don’t just create a Facebook fan page, go to sleep and wake up with 10,000 engaged fans, whom you then convert into sales. The whole thing happens in stages.

Solis’ essay looks mostly at how large, complex companies begin using social media to drive business and enhance customer relations — not to mention convincing CEOs it’s a good idea to Tweet. But there’s lessons to be learned for all. Let’s take a look at the 10 steps.

1. Observe and Report: Listen to what people are already saying on social sites about your company, products, field, and so forth.
2. Setting the Stage and Dress Rehearsal: Create primary accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. and begin experimenting with posting content and building an audience.
3. Socializing Media: Begin conversing with the crowd and documenting what they’re saying, encouraging the positives and dealing with the negatives.
4. Finding a Voice and Sense of Purpose: “‘Chatter’ or aimless broadcasting is not as effective as strategic communications and engagement. This stage reflects the exploration of goals, objectives, and value implementation. Companies begin to learn that exchange is based on trust and loyalty.”
5. Turning Words Into Actions: Show that you’re invested by taking what you’ve learned from your customers through these conversations and putting them into practice.
6. Humanizing the Brand and Defining the Experience: Develop a “socialized version of a branding style guide” to transform your business’ online presence from a static, website-based model to something with a voice that speaks with people on a human level.
7. Community: Now that you’ve brought people into the discussion around your brand, turn them into ambassadors for you.
8. Social Darwinism: Make the necessary evolutionary changes within your business — personnel shifting, rebudgeting, whatever they may be — to grow and improve your social media performance.
9. The Socialization of Business Processes: This stage deals with Customer Relations Management (CRM), or, more precisely “sCRM” (the “s” is for “social”). Which then becomes SRM, which Solis describes as “the recognition that all people, not just customers, are equal.”
10. Business Performance Metrics: Unlike a billboard or Super Bowl ad, the return on investment (ROI) of social media usage is completely measurable. Track your performance in terms of things like growth (or decline) of fan base and number and quality of interactions. If you already have a Facebook fan page, for example, the built-in Insights feature is an example of this on the small scale.

Whew. That may seem like a lot to digest. But really, it’s a breakdown of a process that, when it happens successfully, amounts to a combination of good planning and solid intuition.

That is, you’ve got to be deliberate and proactive about how you frame and present your message — but you also genuinely have to want to interact with customers and listen to what they say.

Because social media is nothing more than a new, brilliantly effective way of communicating. And if 2010 is going to be a big year for that, then bring it on.

Image courtesy Flickr: Leo Reynolds.