The Top Six Mistakes in Social Media

Time:2010-01-22 20:14:31 Source:Ezinearticles Author:Roberto Mazzoni

I have been working and experimenting with social media for some time now. It is not a full time occupation for me therefore I have to merge it with my other activities in a "controlled" fashion.

I have talked with several experts, some of which I know very well, and I have tried to gather as much information as possible that could be relevant to running a small business or any kind of activity.

These are the top six mistakes that I have been committing from time to time and that I have seen other people commit.

1.Being impersonal. My long journalistic background keeps coming up and I tend to write in the detached, neutral fashion that is often required by traditional media. Business owners that come from traditional fields often do the same. This absolutely doesn't work in social media. It doesn't mean that you should be talking only about petty personal issues, but it is much easier to connect and relate with others if you are just yourself, telling your story.

2.Using social media as a selling channel. I keep hearing people asking me: "How do you monetize Facebook, how do you monetize Twitter?" And they mean using these channels to pitch products and solicit business. Well you simply can't. Social media is the place where you make yourself known, where you show what you know and how you can contribute. Business comes as a natural consequence and has to be promoted on other channels (like your company site, your private e-mail, Skype, and so on).

3.Getting somebody else to write stuff for you. I have heard many people that have been using virtual assistants to take care of their social media accounts. They all claimed to have saved a lot of time with a little investment of money. I have tried it for a short while myself and I have seen that my popularity declined immediately. Also I was losing touch with what was really going on. You simply cannot outsource your voice and your eyes.

4.Not being consistent. Relationships and brands take some work to build. It doesn't need to be long, but it does need to be constant. If you keep showing up and you are pretty much consistent with what you say or do, you will make progress.

5.Listening only. The era of the few writers serving many readers is fading away with the change in the media scenario. Some interaction is now necessary in order to establish any kind of relationship. You don't need to be original if you cannot be: you can always repeat the content of others provided they are of interest to you and others like you.

6.Believing you have got it taped. The web and social media constantly change. What worked yesterday could be a no-no today. Be always alert to shifts in habits. Usually other people will bring them to your attention by complaining about something you have done. It has happened to me several times on Twitter. As soon as I got 4 or 5 people complaining about something that I was doing I checked into it and I discovered pretty soon that it was no more acceptable. It is better to do less, but flowing with the trend, rather than making a lot of action in the wrong direction.

I regularly gather advices from people that I consider expert in a field, but then I adapt what they say to my needs and personality. There are no "ready-made" systems for the Web as far as I know.

President of several international ventures specialized in personal branding, Web promotion, training and real estate. Also blogger, journalist, Web 2.0 fan. http://www.robertomazzoni.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roberto_Mazzoni

Roberto Mazzoni - EzineArticles Expert Author

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