(This article originally appeared in Social Media Today.)

The mantra for marketing should be “add value or get out.” A brief history lesson of the marketing adoption cycle with new digital communication channels bears this out clearly.There are typically five discrete steps:

1. New communication technology becomes popular with mainstream audience.
2. Marketers utilize the channel for promotional purposes.
3. The channel gets noisy. Consumers adopt technologies and alter behavior to tune out marketing clutter.
4. In response to reduced channel efficacy, marketers begin to add value, not just promote themselves.
5. Consumers begin selectively tuning in to value-creating marketing messages. Channel ROI stabilizes.

This story has played out repeatedly within digital marketing. Take banner advertising, for example.Marketers initially competed on the “how annoying and intrusive can I be?” scale (remember Punch the Monkey?). Consumers responded in kind by ignoring banner ads. Marketers began employing techniques to target ads — giving consumers ads that were less annoying and more relevant. Behold, the CTR rebounded and marketers and consumers rejoiced!

Email was much of the same. Remember when you first got that email from Amazon that said “you may also be interested in this” and you were actually interested? Amazon started sending these emails around Y2K, and their technology seemed magical at the time. Every other ecommerce merchant just sent mass emails, but Amazon really knew what we wanted.

The commonality across mature digital marketing channels is that for consumers to be receptive to marketing messages they need to derive value from the relationship with the brand. Social media is starting to find its way towards this equilibrium. Two years ago, companies could get by simply by “being social.” The channel wasn’t noisy yet, so the companies that did invest the time to join the conversation were rewarded just for showing up. Today, not so much. Marketers that don’t add value will be given a swift kick in the unfollow behind.

So how do you “add value” as a brand in social media? We’ve talked about how email and display marketing can add value through increased targeting and promotional offers, but that’s not really how social media works. This is because social is one-to-many: as a brand, every message you send goes to your whole audience, not just a single person. So targeting isn’t the answer.

While the book on social media marketing is being re-written daily, we can all learn from the best practices that successful brands are implementing today:

• Provide amazing customer support
  Customers don’t like waiting on hold to talk to a representative. Social presents an opportunity toWOW customers by answering questions far more quickly and efficiently than the phone. In particular, you can really stand out if you respond quickly.
• Be a filter
  With a deluge of information, stories and research to sift through, you can curate content to help your followers and friends find the most important stuff. In doing so, you can make a name for yourself as a trusted source of useful information.
• Provide resources
  As a brand, you have your finger on the pulse of your industry. If someone has a question or is looking for more detailed information, why not provide articles or white papers to aid their search?
• Invite your customer into the R&D conversation
  Your customers love you, but they love a company that asks for their input, listens to them and can cater to their needs. You can learn a lot about your customers and your products by monitoring what is being said. You can then use this insight to improve your offering and pay back your customers in spades by providing the best experiences (or energy drink) you can! As bonus points, you will really stand out from the 94% of companies that DO NOT get product feedback from their fans.
• Take your audience behind the scenes
  We are all trying to find our Tribe, whether we are avid kayakers, competitive hot dog eaters, horticulturists, entrepreneurs, etc. This is important for business as summarized by the old adage, “all things being equal, we do business with people we like and trust.” With that, social media is an excellent way to invite your fans, customers and friends into the company, have a little fun, develop personal relationships and build a collective mojo that makes your tribe one-of-a-kind!

The answer for your brand will be a unique mix. Figure out what your customers, prospects, and advocates want from you and then give it to them. They’ll be much more receptive to your marketing messages if they’re getting value out of the relationship too.

How are you adding value for your audience?