Where’s All the New Business from Social Media?

Self proclaimed “Social Media Experts” wrote blogs, sent tweets, and created multiple presentations on how social media is going to bring in loads of new business and increase sales.  Although some companies have seen an increase, others have not.  Social media is all about building relationships and that is were some social media strategies go wrong.

You can take the time to listen to all the podcasts, webinars, and presentations you feel is necessary to become more informed on how to handle social media, but in the end, you have to cater your approach to your targeted audience.

You can not build relationships if you do not communicate effectively.  Creating a Twitter account and just posting links to your website, blog, and digital press releases are often viewed as annoying.  Social bookmarking sites were created for that.

Posting an occasional tweet with a link is fine, but two way communication is what drives social media networks.  It’s the two way communication that makes people’s Twitter accounts interesting.  Facebook works the same way.  If you just post links to your group/page wall, you don’t create any value for your group members of fans.

Social media is all about being social.  You don’t go into a new business pitch quoting links to your website or blog, and you don’t fill a presentation with them either.  If you have not gotten the response you want from your social media efforts, evaluate your activity.  If you are doing everything right, be patient, Twitter wasn’t built in one day.