Facebook without Fear

Marcia Yudkin’s Marketing Minute (you can sign up at the link) had an interesting take on social media and business.

While lots of people have jumped on the bandwagon on social media, some have avoided it because it’s so, well, cheesy and fake at points.

Can you keep your integrity and boost your business while descending into the sometimes crazy world of social media? The answer is a qualified “Yes”… here’s how:

In the last year, I’ve had numerous off-the-record chats with fellow marketers in my age group who, like me, feel uncomfortable with the way social networking sites cheapen
the concept of friendship.

A canned message from a stranger saying “I’d like to be your friend” or “I’d like to be in your network” can feel presumptuous, impersonal and off-putting.

But as Paul Gillin’s book Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! makes clear, the ever-expanding category of “social media” includes a vast variety of ways to forge connections with actual and potential customers:

* Find communities where your target market already congregates – or start a special-interest group on Facebook or elsewhere.

* Create a private community where your top customers offer feedback on projects in progress and receive bonuses.

* On Linked In, show off your expertise by answering other members’ questions. Some people landed in Gillin’s book exactly that way.

What social media tools have in common is a person-to-person approach and a conversational rather than institutional tone.

They go beyond fake friendship.

Resolve to learn one new interactive business tool in 2009!