I admit it, I am a social media junkie. I have three classes of accounts for three different purposes: two business related (including myCSO Solutions) and one personal. Like most thinks in life, there can be too much of a good thing. And social media can be one of them.
A recent article in “CSO” magazine Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking Security, provides good advice for businesses using social media:
One of the purposes of using social media for businesses is to help establish the company’s credibility in the particular target market it chooses to compete. If you are a company that builds satellite receivers, then your commentary should be on telecommunications, namely satellite communications. If you are a restaurant chain, you should comment on the food industry and your segment therein.
If I am going to follow you on Twitter or be your fan on Facebook, I better get something for it. Not a lot but enough to keep me interested. Maybe I need to know if you are running a special for the month, have a new product or are attending or sponsoring an industry event.
I don’t need to know where you went to lunch or that Suzie was promoted from assistant office manager to office manager.
Because of the popularity of social media sites, there are some dark sides to them. This is in the minuet minority but prudence is warranted. This is especially the case with Twitter. There are millions of Twitter accounts that are set up for garbage purposes and are not with the silicon they consume. The key is to be careful who you follow, making sure the content is appropriate for what you are trying to do.
I would recommend for a business to be more involved in content creation and promotion on chosen social media accounts than being actual consumers of them.
A reasonable approach to social media, that includes coupling it with a solid search engine optimization plan for your web site, will help drive viewers to your company’s web site. The end goal for social media should be to increase revenues for the company. Social media should be considered a marketing tool. If done with taste and proper messaging, those following your social media sites will get what they expect and not a bunch of spam, inappropriate ramblings or security exploitations.
18 August 2009 at 17:37
Some of the reasons that you list as what not to do is why I do not use a lot of the social media sites. I mainly use this types of sites to keep contented to old school mates and peeps that have moved out of the state(when I am to lazy to call). So in short I agree with what you said in your post.