In the last couple months the buzz about social media has been getting so loud I got rid of my cable. Ok that’s not really the reason I got rid of my cable but it might as well have been. Almost every story was either about Facebook or Twitter.

Ok so we all should know by now that social media is hot. No, I take that back…it’s smoking hot.

Almost everywhere I go there is someone calling themselves a social media expert. What makes them an expert? I read a great post recently over on the MarketingProf Daily Fix blog about social media that I think is the problem with companies and individuals implementing social media.

They can teach you the platform but they can’t teach you to be social

And without those skills any social media strategy is going to fail. People like to do business with people they like. Not with people they find obnoxious.

Becoming a “social business” (meaning true participation as opposed to leveraging social media as a new form of marketing) can impact nearly every function of a business -
Five Challenges Social Media Will Bring to Business by David Armano

My advice to anyone new to social media.

• Decide why you are doing it in the first place. Just because it hot…does not mean it’s right for your business. Just look at all the abandoned blogs out there.
• Be yourself.
• Don’t say anything online you wouldn’t in person.
• Stop reading all blog posts about how to tweet. If someone unfollows you. Who cares.