Whether you’re a fortune 500 club member or a new business starting out social media is the new form marketing if you want to ‘make it’ today. In today’s business world if you’re not meeting your communities in the world of social media then you’re missing a large part of your customer base that wants more than just coupons in the junk mail or the Sunday papers. You have a company blog and website which is drawing traffic that’s great. What if you could increase that traffic exponentially? That’s where social media comes into the picture. But who has the time to sit down and read all the pontiffs and advisors on what works when it comes to working this new medium to the best benefit of your particular brand? Not to mention what are all these applications that promise to increase my Twitter fans and Facebook likes and why should I even care?

You should care because many companies are discovering all it takes is one person to start a ‘viral’ firestorm. This can cost your company many new and even already established clients to stop patronizing your establishment. This goes for the online market place or your brick and mortar store. Just the opposite also holds true. You can do something that goes beyond your customers expectations and they will sing your praises. I ask you, isn’t that something you should be paying attention to? Social media can be a very daunting task to take on when you’re running a company. But here are a few tips for social media to get you started.

• Join in the conversations that are ongoing. Whether you agree or not let your voice be heard this lets people know that you’re human and not just a bot that spews messages based on hashtags
• Don’t get caught up chasing the numbers of likes and followers. The numbers will come over time.
• Don’t promote the same way across all the networks. This makes you seem lazy.
• Last but certainly not least be interesting when you share something. Target your messages to your audience.

One of the biggest mistakes when people begin using social media as a networking tool is that they spend inordinate amounts of time talking about themselves and not listening to what is being said. When you do this it comes across as if you’re ignoring your audience. Social media is a way to manage the most important relationships that you could ever have, your customers. Social media allows you to connect on a new level with the customers that you already have. It also allows you to gain new customers through smart interaction on your part through posts and tweets that get shared. But if it’s not done properly then you could do some real damage to your company as well.

Engage, listen, be proactive and you’ll succeed. If you’re not…well then lets put it this way. You’ll be serving those who do the above their next fast food meal.