Social Media - Are you part of the conversation?

Twitter and Facebook have gotten such positive attention from the media the past few months, more and more companies are placing greater emphasis on social media in their Internet marketing strategy. And that is a good thing, even if their view and approach to social media marketing is not perfect, building a presence and getting started is better than doing nothing.

An important aspect many businesses are missing with Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms is that they are communications tools, not traditional mass media marketing tools. You can't just constantly tweet or post sales pitches and marketing slogans. You have to understand that social media is about conversation. And we should all know by now, it is not polite to interrupt a conversation. If you want to contribute expertise to the conversation, then you will be allowed into the community. In other words, you will always be greeted and welcome in the conversation if you are helpful.

By the way, if your business is ignoring social media, just know that people are discussing the products and/or services you offer. They are talking about and sharing their experiences, new uses and applications, quality and price. And yes, they are talking about bad experiences and poor quality, prices being too high, etc. These conversations are happening every moment with social media platforms, and they will continue to happen with or without you.

Whether your company has been participating in the social media conversation already or you are just now considering the use of Twitter, I encourage you to observe this as a communications tool and not think of it the same way as your radio commercial. Your audience expects the music or talk on the radio to be interrupted by advertising, but they are in a completely different frame of mind when participating in social media and intrusive advertising is not acceptable.

Add value to the conversation and take the opportunity to help people, then they will trust you and your product. They will even recommend you to their friends.