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Social Media Marketing Do’s and Don’ts (part 1)
Social media is fun and addicting. Millions of people update their Facebook status and Tweet away all day long, every day. Businesses of all sizes have jumped on the social media bandwagon in an attempt to interact with those people that make them successful, you and me. However, there is a problem.
The problem is that most businesses have no plan of attack. They base their philosophy on the famous Field of Dreams quote, “if you build it, they will come”. I hate to disappoint you but I’m not coming just because you build it. I am selfish and want to see some type of personal benefit before I become one of your Twitter followers or Facebook friends.
Social media is a game and it has rules. Break these rules and you’ll quickly find out that you are wasting your time. Over the next seven days we are going to discuss some of these rules, do’s and don’ts if you will.
1. Build a Strong and Effective Social Network
I am completely perplexed with people that think they are going to achieve success because they have 9,647 Twitter followers. Those people aren’t your friends. They don’t care about you, your website, your blog, or anything you have to say. They are following you in hopes that you will follow them. Then, they can spam you. That’s right, I said it. They are social media spammers. Your “true” followers are those people that interact with you. They are the ones that send you private messages, retweet your tweets, etc. You need to build a strong and effective social network.
Start by interacting with those people that are in your social network. Don’t wait for them to interact with you. You should initiate the contact. And by all means, be diverse. Don’t limit yourself to people that are within your industry. Establishing an effective social network doesn’t mean iPhone people should only communicate with iPhone people. You have no idea how many opportunities may pass you by when you’re not diverse. iPhone people should communicate with the Blackberry people and the Droid people. Be diverse and interact.
2. Don’t Spam
You can smell spam from a mile away, literally (sorry to all of you spam lovers). We’re talking about social networking spam here, not the spam from a can.
Engage in spam and you will become an outsider, a member of the blacklist, the snub. It only takes one time. Let’s define social network spamming for those of you who are feeling guilty or may be confused.
Social Networking Spam, according to my interpretation and verbiage, can be defined as sending messages (private or public) to members of a social network in an effort to offer some sort of product or service.
If I have a problem with hair-loss I’ll search for a solution. Don’t send me unsolicited messages. You don’t know me. Maybe I’m okay with my receding hair-line.
So there you have it. Build a strong and effective social network and don’t engage in social networking spam. Tune in tomorrow for day two of this seven day series, Social Media Marketing Do’s and Don’ts.
Read: Part 2
