By Michelle McIntyre

Here are five facts from the new book “How to Succeed in Social Business,” a collection of case studies and tips from social experts from 20 companies compiled by Shawn Santos.

1. “The exponential growth of social media channels and the popularity of graphics and visuals on those channels have spawned a new visual format on steroids with a new name: infographics.” Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Visuals are the rocks stars of social media.

Holly Nielsen, IBM, @HollyNielsen

LESSON LEARNED: Never post a blog without an image and make more infographics.

2. “Social media has enabled a momentous shift in the balance of power, and this type of democratization will continue.” A girl in the U.K. started a blog about school lunches that caught on with millions of school children globally. As you can expect, some of the food reviews were less than favorable. For example some posts said the food seemed unhealthy. This angered school district management. Her teacher told passed along the message that she was not allowed to take photos of her lunches anymore. She stopped. This backfired. Because of the groundswell of support for the girl from communities globally, the school district reversed its decision to let her take photos.

Shawn Santos, ServiceSource, @ShawnSantos

LESSON LEARNED: Use negative feedback from social media to improve.

3. A weblog is a great way to deal with the flood of requests from journalists for timely commentary on popular and constantly changing topics. For example, security threats infiltrate the digital landscape daily. Symantec ‘s Security Response Blog allows them to post commentary that reporters can efficiently access.

Charlie Treadwell, Symantec, @CTreadwell

LESSON LEARNED: It emphasizes what I already know, that a blog is a seriously effective and efficient business communications tool. Post to the blog when news is not big enough for a press release.

4. “Relevant conversations happen everywhere. Cast a wide net.” Cisco found that customer sentiment was found in non-obvious places, like competitor pages and blogs.

Sara Del Grande, Cisco, @SaraDelGrande

LESSON LEARNED: Use a social media measurement tool to get a big and deep glimpse of what your customers are saying.

5. “Effectively enable willing managers to experience the direct benefits of social media” because this is the fastest path to influencing the entire team.

David Shimberg, BMC Software, @DavidShimberg

LESSON LEARNED: Management needs to blaze the brand’s trail on social media. In the past I often recommended that start-ups hire an intern for this but now my attitude has changed.

“How to Succeed in Social Business” is available from Amazon.com in both a Kindle and print edition

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