Let’s face it, social networking is easy.  Facebook has over 300 million users all of which are experts at using the site.  Twitter is approaching 100 million users who average about 600 tweets per second as a whole, and as long as you get on the site and get people talking you’re building your brand.  This is often the interpretation of the misinformed marketer delving into the new coliseum that is social networking.  The truth is business-to-business or business-to-consumer social networking is hard.  It requires patience, interaction, and most importantly time.  Modern day marketers are scrambling to find ways to take advantage of this new forum where they can promulgate products and herd in the masses to their services.  And herein lies the first way to fail at social networking.

5.  Use Social Networking as a Top-Down Advertising Approach

You just set up your Facebook and Twitter account branded with high quality graphics and a consistent professional look.  Your next step: start hawking the new sale you’re having on handbags, or inundating consumers with details of your latest MP3 player.  Marketers must realize that old strategies of top down advertising are lost with social media.  Bottom up approaches are necessary for success in these new area’s that are made for interaction instead of informing.  Customers must come to you.  Gone are the days when you controlled every aspect of your message, and now it is time for your customer to do the talking.  The good news is that you control the forum, and you command the shape of the message.  The trick is sculpting the conversation, not dictating it.

4.  Control the Forum, Delete the Cynics

You control the conversation that is happening within your social networking accounts.  This gives you the opportunity to squash the complainers, and the pessimists.  But where’s the advantage?  Okay, an irate customer from Des Moines isn’t happy with your return policy, and they made it known right on the front of your Facebook page for all 50,000 of your closest followers to see.  What’s next?  Delete the message before anyone sees it?  Where is the advantage in this?  Now you have an evangelist in Des Moines spreading ill will of your product and company.  Instead, address the problem head on right on the front page by offering an extremely generous apology, and be apathetic and genuine about solving the customers problems.  Now all 50,000 of your biggest fans will see how involved and dedicated you are with solving problems head on.

3.  Make it About You, Not the Customer

Social networking is like a fish finder.  It points you to where your customers are, but it won’t catch them for you.  Thats your job.  Remember that you are in their arena now, and your fans are skeptical of you. Admit it: you took over their TV, roadsides, webpages, sporting events, and magazines.  Why would they want you in their social circle?  Make social networking even more beneficial for the customer than it is for you.  Offer prizes or rewards for RT’s, Likes, or Follows.  They don’t have to be in line with what you are offering them as your product or service, just make it attractive enough to be friends.  Sure, it will feel like you’re trying to buy them off, but approach it as a goodwill offering to let them know you’re serious about getting to know them and working with them.  The customer is your business, its time to be honest and make them your friend.

2.  ”Both Teams Played Hard” Responses

If you watch sports you’ve heard it before: “Both teams played hard”, or “I apologize for my transgressions”.  Ahh, the ambiguous response to a specific question to avoid potential negative PR.  In the world of social networking it appears in forms such as, “I apologize for any inconvenience, please contact our customer service department at 123-4567″ or “Thank you for your question, please direct inquiries to problems@widgets.com”.  But whats the purpose of joining a venue predicated on conversation when you offer touch-tone responses.  Interact with your customers and show them that there’s a real human being behind the company twitter account.  Better yet, show them in your profile that Jake Finklestein from The Widget Company is here to answer questions until you are satisfied with your response.

1.  Don’t Even Get Involved

Social networking is too time consuming, too youthful, and too risky. The juice isn’t even worth the squeeze? People, its been around longer than beanie babies and tamagotchis, lets face it, social networking is here to stay. Social networking is no longer reserved for teenagers sharing meaningless highlights of their day.  Housewives, grandparents, business professionals, and blue collar workers have all signed on to the movement of social networking.  It has no foreseeable death, and will only give ways to new forms of online interaction.  A audience of 300 million plus people are waiting to interact with you and stumble across your product.
As with any marketing venture, social media requires careful strategic planning and valuable resources from inside the company.  Of course there is certain etiquettes to follow, but as long as you follow these 5 basic rules for social networking, your initiatives are sure to fail.