In a well written blog posted by Valeria Maltoni of the ConversationAgent , the words were exactly put together as I have been trying to put together for sometimes now. Her point of view on how businesses need to get serious with how they use Social Media hits home with a number of businesses I have been talking to recently. Following are Valeria’s 8 Points of behavior businesses need to change to gain a positive digital footprint in their social spaces.
8 social media behaviors that won’t win you customers
(1.) you have a blog, or a Twitter account, or a Facebook fan page and still don’t understand that the Internet or the world wide web is the context, not your brand
(2.) you’re pushing your message at specific users without a connection — one thing is being syndicated by people who want to pull your feeds, the other is pushing to them, do you understand the difference?
(3.) you’re not prepared to address potential issues in real time — visibility and connections in a two-way medium come at a risk
(4.) you’re all over the place, yet there isn’t a coordinated effort behind it — seeing what sticks wasn’t a marketing strategy in 2010, it’s definitely passe’ in 2011
(5.) you’re not looking for your fans and evangelists — or you want to make them conform to your idea of social
(6.) you focus on changing what people say by talking at them, locking them out, or positioning them as crazy when they aren’t, instead of looking inwards and changing your business practices as appropriate
(7.) you want to interact with customers, when all customers want from you is a great transaction — put shopping carts everywhere, and support those transactions
(8.) you fail to learn from the feedback people provide on social sites
We watch each other when making decisions. Your reputation precedes you and changes upon your behavior. Know where your customers are and what they share. Show up, but know why you’re there, and bring good content with you.
More businesses need to put adequate resources behind their social media efforts. Placing an intern in the back room to Tweet and find ‘Likes’ for their Facebook page is not using Social Media effectively. To realize success and to gain anything from using Social Media a dedicated effort needs to be made.
Let me know how I can help.
