Historically, moms, teens, and college students have been the most sought after (and most difficult to understand) marketing demographics. Get these groups on your side and your product will be a success, especially when you are a small business looking for brand awareness and lead generation.

The good news is that all three of these groups now fit under one larger group – Generation Y. According to The Parents Network, 68% of all births are to millennial moms (not Gen X). College students round out the middle of this generation, while teens are at the tail end.

It’s a no-brainer: most companies need to pay more attention to Gen Y marketing because this is the ultimate target demographic right now.

Gen Y is headed to Twitter

While Facebook’s average age has risen from 26 to 33 in the last year, Twitter’s average age is steady at 31 – and it’s dropping. Twitter is now the second youngest network of the big 4 (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). Furthermore, Gen Y now accounts for around 50% of Twitter’s network (if you assume Gen Y starts with people born in 1978 or later, making the demographic 31 years or younger).

This is good news for companies, especially those frustrated with low traction on Facebook fan pages. Compared to Facebook, Twitter is a more open platform that people use to get information from an extended network, rather than a tight knit network of friends. Twitter also works well for providing the information Gen Y values from companies and plays into the way Gen Y discovers products naturally.

From a company’s perspective, Twitter is far better for connecting with Gen Y than Facebook. Here’s some more evidence:

Gen Y wants honesty and optimism

According to research from Hill & Knowlton, there is a direct correlation between a company’s reputation and willingness of consumers to act (in most cases, purchase products or services). The research found that right now, early post-recession, consumers care most about companies that demonstrate honesty and optimism. Obama leveraged this emotional need to win the election, and other smart companies are also using this insight to their advantage.

Ford, for example, has seen success in the market recently due to better quality products (Consumer Reports rates them next to Honda in a recent issue) and its bailout rejection earlier this year. The company has been honest and optimistic over the past 6 years, but this wasn’t clear to consumers until recently. Social media, especially Twitter, has played a powerful role in Ford changing its reputation, and the 3rd quarter earnings prove it. (The company’s next target? Gen Y.)

Consumers want honesty and optimism, and to Gen Y this comes down to being transparent and authentic. Twitter is a fantastic way for companies to demonstrate these traits. Facebook? Not so much.

Gen Y looks to communities to deal with major life events

Gen Y as a demographic is going through huge life changes right now: graduation from high school or college, moving out of the house, getting married, starting new jobs, and starting families. According to a study done by Mr. Youth, the way Gen Y deals with life changes is by turning to online communities for support.

Facebook is an online community, but most of Gen Y still operates with a closed network. For Gen Y, Facebook is not a place to network with new people or to share information. The foundation of a community consists of new contacts and new information, making Facebook a horrible place to build new communities (but a great place to nourish old ones). Twitter, on the other hand, is all about experimenting with your community.

Companies that help Gen Y build communities around life events win, and Twitter is the perfect place to find and engage individuals to form a community.

Gen Y wants to connect on a personal level

Gen Y is obsessed with customization, from their music lists to their sneakers to their vampire novels. The demographic has also been bombarded with advertising during their lives, so they can smell BS through their iPhones.

Gen Y wants you to connect with them personally. There is no shortcut. Email automation doesn’t work, and Facebook makes it almost impossible to connect on a personal level unless you actually know someone personally. But on Twitter, “personal” is built-in – it’s first and foremost a conversation tool.

Gen Y gets annoyed with product campaigns

Gen Y, more than any other generation, learns about products through their peers rather than advertising. This means that one-and-done campaigns don’t work nearly as well as building long-term relationships with this demographic, because you want brand advocates and good reviews instead of immediate action.

Campaigns that use incentives are effective, but only if you are looking for very short-term results. In the long run, you can’t force Gen Y to talk about you, and this demographic will run from anything that asks them to do anything that even remotely seems like spamming their friends. Instead, you should build a platform of useful content that builds trust, establishes credibility, and keeps Gen Y coming back. Eventually, a portion will come back as customers.

You can build a platform on Facebook, but it’s not easy if you don’t have a loyal fan base already. (That’s why they’re called “fan” pages.) If you are looking to build brand awareness on Facebook and you don’t want to spend money on ads, you’re stuck. But Twitter is one of the easiest places to build a platform because people are open to connections, your content can be short (the opposite of blogs), your profile is easy to maintain, and viral ideas spread in real-time.

The stars are aligned.

Gen Y is getting on Twitter, which just so happens to be the best place for companies to reach them. According to Marketing Profs, SMBs also plan to step up their Twitter game in 2010, especially younger companies which are presumably focused on building brand awareness and finding customers.

To me, the Gen Y marketing trends are pointing to Twitter, not Facebook.

What do you think? Have you seen more success on Twitter or Facebook?

I also want to hear from Gen Y – do you connect with companies on Twitter or Facebook?

The question the report poses is, how can we integrated social media efforts with email marketing to meet the challenge of attracting and retaining customers?

The best welcome email I’ve ever received

As you may have noticed, I recently revamped my website. In doing so, I added a new search service I’ve been meaning to look into called Lijit.

I first heard about Lijit through a fellow blogger, Grace Boyle, who works at the company. Several of my online friends were also using Lijit, so it was a service I definitely wanted to learn more about. My biggest question was, “Why use this instead of Google Search?”

My question was answered without me even asking, within a day of signing up for the service and setting it up on my site. Here’s the email I received from Grace:

You’ll notice I highlighted a few sections of the email that I thought were special:

1. A simple personal greeting – fairly basic, shows me that the company at least knows my name and cares to use it.
2. An entire introductory paragraph that is personalized with my website and exactly what I downloaded and when. Nope, this wasn’t a standard, automated email we send to everyone, so I read more closely.
3. Over 11,000 users. Social proof. This demonstrates I’m in great company, and making a smart decision by using Lijit.
4. SPECIAL SAUCE! I love special sauce. Let’s break it down:
   • This is a great, non-confrontational way to say “Hey, you missed some functionality we think you should use” without actually saying it.
   • “Don’t worry, we turned it on for you, because you are cool and we want to share our most useful secrets with you.” No need for me to do extra work to try it.
   • “The features will be live shortly.” A soft call to action to log in and see the new features.
5. “A really special tip from me as your friend (not the company), to optimize your usage of Lijit as a blogger.” More personalization, more connection. And I have to admit, the tip is a simple but powerful one that I’ll definitely be using!
6. “I hope all is well.” Email me back and let me know how you’re doing, even if you don’t have questions. We’re not just in business together, but we’re also friendly.

Overall, the email message was incredibly personalized and brought forward a ton of great features that told me why I should stick with Lijit.

So many companies tell me that their email marketing conversion rates are low (less than 10% opens), and my response is I wish more small businesses did this. Sure, it takes some time to send out personalized email messages to every new user, but it’s clearly a great investment. Besides, you can probably see how easy it would be to create a template and personalize it for different people, or even do something automated that’s a little more personalized.

UPDATE: MarketingSherpa just published research that shows the incredible benefits of putting more efforts into your email system.

Personalized email marketing pays

The facts don’t lie: automation is half as effective as relevant, personalized content.

Integrating email marketing with social media marketing

Some companies think this has to be hard, but I can’t think of anything easier. Grace is the perfect example of someone who integrates email marketing with social media, because she blogs, tweets, and creates personal relationships with lots of people online. While I did find out about Lijit from Grace, she never once reached out to me to push the product. She always looked to establish a personal relationship with her outreach, with the fact that she worked at Lijit a far afterthought.

6 months later, when I was doing a site redesign, I thought of how I should try the service. Grace’s social media interactions are what planted the seed in my mind, while her follow-up email is what will keep me using the service and probably turn me into a brand advocate.

If you want to better integrate social media with your email marketing,

• Hire people who already blog, tweet, and generally build relationships online to do your business development and/or community management.
• Let those people initiate contact when someone new signs up for the service. You can switch your new user to more general newsletters after the initial contact.
• Let them handle customer support from their personal accounts in addition to the company account. The roles are blending anyway.

Do these things to meet your goal of attracting and retaining customers.

How do you use email marketing? How do you integrate email marketing with social media?

Internet marketers like Yaro Starak and Brian Clark give away tons of free content to promote their premium content. They have entire systems and processes for how to launch information products, and all you have to do to participate is hand over your email address.

David Meerman Scott claims that his free EBook helped him get 500 blog mentions and sell 30,000 books in 6 months. His philosophy is a one-up on internet marketers – don’t even require the email address. Let free be truly free and reach up to 50x as many people. Stop trying to measure your conversion rates like a marketer would, and just assume that the more you give the more you sell.

Chris Anderson has written a whole book to explain this phenomenon of “free,” entitled Free. He writes about how free music drives more sales of premium versions of the music (live concerts) and how free recipe cards once drove more sales of Jell-O.

Free content sells. It sells premium content, physical products, and valuable services. There are numerous case studies to prove it. And while some companies don’t want to believe it’s true, I think most people, even business owners, are really starting to get it.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what’s next. What do we do with the idea of “free?” How can businesses work within “free”conomics? No matter who you are, here’s where you should be looking:

Can you accept “free?”

You’ve heard of grocery stores making zero profits on certain items, just to get foot traffic to their stores, right? These items are called loss leaders. And content is the ultimate loss leader – you trade time and expertise for nothing.

Sure, it sucks. If you are Britney Spears, you are making less money than before because you aren’t selling as many CDs.

But seriously, just get over it. The economics of many industries are changing. Accept that you need new loss leaders.

In your industry, what is the “free” content and what is the “premium” content?

Business magazines are in the spotlight right now trying to figure out just that.

Every industry has a premium, even if you sell physical goods. For example, in the fashion industry, the free content is the designs. Anyone can copy your designs – the premium is in the brand, the quality of craftsmanship, and the pleasure of having “the real thing.” Likewise, anyone can copy your technology, but Apple doesn’t seem to be hurting these days.

How do you monetize “free?”

Nobody does something for nothing. Even if you are writing a free blog with no ads, you are trading for something – relationships, an ego-boost, personal development… Are you monetizing “free” the way you want to be?

How should you monetize “free?”

Maybe you aren’t doing it optimally. One of my friends told me about an internship program he runs – “free” intern work traded for ample mentoring time. I asked him, “Is your time worth the same as their time? Could you be selling your time in the form of premium content to pay for the time they work for you?” In these cases, I like Sarah Evans take on bartering for business. There was a reason money was invented, after all.

What do you think of “free?” How does it affect your industry? How will you harness the concept to improve your business?

To address the first question, what are PR people’s expectations, and are we as bloggers meeting them? The factors I see here are:

• Do bloggers review products in a timely manner? The beauty blogger said she tests products for 2-3 weeks before reviewing them. In my experience, publicists send me follow up emails only days after I’ve received the book, asking when the review will be up. As a blogger, I need more time to read the book (because, you know, I actually do read it before recommending it). Are these timelines acceptable to PR professionals? Do they compare to traditional media timelines?
• Do bloggers say the right things in the review? Do PR professionals expect to see a review no matter what, even if the review is lukewarm or bad?
• What success indicators do PR professionals want to see? Comments, page views, social media mentions? Are we as bloggers communicating this information back to PR professionals?

For the second question, my intuition is that the “pushiness” is not due to the recession at all. Here are some other reasons PR professionals might come across as pushy:

• Bloggers don’t respond like traditional media - I’ve written before about the reasons that traditional media outreach is vastly different from blogger outreach. The main gist is that bloggers often have different goals than traditional media, so the incentives are different.
• Bloggers are getting greedy – It seems like every blogger wants a sponsorship deal these days. Whatever happened to blogging about things you like, as opposed to blogging about things so you can make money from them? The world of blogging sponsorships is about as fragmented as you can get, so it’s hard for companies to discern 1) who should get sponsorships and 2) what those bloggers should be paid.
• Bloggers are not a sure thing – I know many bloggers who say, “Send me a sample, if I like it I will write about it.” This partly due to the idea of disclosure, and it’s partly due to the idea of trust, and it’s partly due to the fact that bloggers have limited time and resources compared to traditional media. But if a company isn’t even going to get a mention from a blogger, why should they send the products? It’s a business, not a charity.
• Bloggers can’t deliver on ROI – PR people are extremely pressured to show return on investment these days. Even sending a book to review costs at least $5 – from an author’s perspective then, the blogger must be able to sell at least 5 books to see an acceptable ROI.
• Bloggers are numerous – It’s too easy to start a blog these days. While it’s not easy to build a community, it’s certainly not as hard as say, building a newspaper or a magazine. This means there are a lot of bloggers out there with a couple thousand subscribers who could get traction for a product. A company has to eventually ask, “If I keep giving my product away to anyone with a blog, who will actually buy it?”

What do you think?

• PR professionals, are bloggers meeting your expectations? Are bloggers producing the results you need to get the job done on behalf of your clients?
• Bloggers, are PR people getting pushier in your experience?
• How can we improve relationships between PR professionals and bloggers?

If you are like most entrepreneurs, there are four problems that will come up that might keep you from really getting rolling on social media: here they are, with ideas on how to solve them.

Time constraints

Social media is a deceptive little area of marketing that looks easy but is, in fact, very hard. The politics of social media are so hard that most social media people can’t stop talking about it, because it’s so interesting.
To keep up with social media is a full time job. You have to keep up with current technology trends, interact with people on a very genuine level, personalize everything, and build a relationship based on helping other people a lot before you can ever ask for anything in return.

It’s a lot less time consuming to put together an ad creative. It’s a lot easier to get other work done when you can put a message out there and nobody talks back, nobody asks a question, nobody criticizes your reasoning. So entrepreneurs optimize their time and choose the fastest way to get the message out there – which is not what social media looks like.

Solution: If you lack the time to use social media, hire someone else who really enjoys marketing to do your social media, PR, SEO, sales, etc. It’s crazy to not have marketing and sales talent, especially as a startup in this super competitive and volatile economic environment. Incorporating social media into your company is at least a part-time job, but it’s a necessary means of communication your team cannot ignore.

Current lead generation techniques already work

When entrepreneurs are in the middle of trying to keep a business running, improvement measures fall to the wayside. It’s possible that social media could double or triple a company’s lead generation efforts, like it has for countless companies, from Mint online financial software to Naked Pizza, a local organic restaurant chain.

There are two problems:

1) Social media is unproven, and may not replace current lead generation techniques
2) The company may not be equipped to handle double or triple the leads

Solutions: Keep your current lead generation techniques in place, while adding new entry points to your funnel. Visitors may come to your website through online advertising, sponsorship deals, or search engine traffic – add social media as another way to enter your sales pipeline. It’s pointless to abandon a process that already works, so let social media work with your current processes instead of competing against them.

Worry about satisfying the leads once you get them. According to the 37Signals book, Getting Real, one of the main bottlenecks in startups is trying to solve problems before you have them. So it’s okay to think ahead about how you might accommodate double or triple the business if you get it, but don’t let the possibilities stop you from getting out there in the first place.

Lack of measurement

A great fallacy about measurement is that it’s something that happens at the end. Like you collect the data, and then you analyze it.

In reality, social media measurement takes place before you even create your campaigns. Because you can’t run a campaign until you know how you will measure the results – you must put the measurement methodology in place when you design the campaign so you can collect the data in the first place.

Solution: Some companies leave measurement out all together, and get frustrated because all they see are the disappointing end results. Some companies think of measurement as an afterthought, and try to decipher a mess of charts and graphs before they finally give up because they didn’t collect the data they needed to begin with. Be the company that puts measurement at the forefront. Prove to yourself that social media works by letting the data speak for itself.

Unrealistic expectations

Social media does not work quickly. So many companies want to create a funny YouTube video and get a million hits on their website, but as these platforms become more competitive, the chances of your video standing out are even less.

To use social media effectively, you have to build a platform (which consists of relationships AND content) on every social media tool you use. This takes time, and you will not see results overnight.

Solution: Plan for 3 months without results. Think of when you first started the company – did you plan to be profitable right away? At some point you will hit the break-even with social media, but it does take time.

You don’t have to build a company to find your passion. I repeat, you don’t have to build a company to find your passion. Here is how to find your passion, whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not:

Look to your childhood

I spent most of my free time as a child with my nose in a book. I also spent countless hours documenting my life (yeah, not a good read from the perspective of an 10 year old) and writing short stories. In fact, my dad recently sent me a copy of a published short story I wrote when I was 8. It’s awful. But it reminded me that I have always been passionate about reading and writing. Always. So passionate about writing that when people ask me how I keep writing on my blog, or how I can write a book, I have no advice, because I always write.

You are probably passionate about many things, but you will find your strengths by remembering what inspired you when you were young. What did you care about then? Ask your parents or siblings if you are stuck.

Reexamine your hobbies

One of the best sources for finding your passion is stuff you already do for free. And don’t stop at things you do – also keep in mind subjects you are constantly reading about, ideas you’ve dabbled with on a blog, and magazines you are subscribed to. But be careful – sometimes turning a hobby into a job doesn’t work out.

Find the good in your current job

Compartmentalize your job. Even if you hate your current job, there must be at least one thing you like about it. Maybe it’s something unrelated, like you work with your friends, or it’s only 15 minutes away, or you get free bagels and orange juice for breakfast – but that’s still something you should know about yourself.

When I completed my analysis, I learned that I love to be near home. I think about the jobs I’ve quit and it was mostly due to the commute. So now I know to never take a job unless I plan to move within 15 minutes of it.

Do this with all your jobs, and look for patterns. You could find some skill set that you’ve overlooked. At the least, you will better understand your priorities in life.

Volunteer

You can find your passion by process of elimination. So volunteer whenever you can – for unusual projects at your current job, with a local organization or charity, at your church, wherever. Internships and apprenticeships, and shadowing are also good ways to eliminate options.

Throw out the BS

It’s so easy to tell yourself you are not good enough to do something as a career. Question those negative thoughts. Why can’t you? I recently watched something on TV where this guy who weighed over 600 pounds lost all his weight and became a fitness trainer. Can you imagine?

Pump yourself up, do whatever you need to do to boost your self-esteem, and above all, don’t rule anything out because you don’t have the education, the skills, the know-how, the degree, the talent, or the look. Skills can be learned, attitude can’t; so having the right attitude probably counts more in whatever field you want to enter.

This is not to say you should never stop pursuing an impossible dream, but don’t rule it out before you even begin.

Research

Learn about careers you think you could be interested in. Ask around. Sometimes your friends can help you see yourself differently – the people close to you may see a great career path that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.

Take an assessment

I don’t have all the answers for you. It’s impossible for me or anyone else to look into a crystal ball and tell you exactly what your passion is. But luckily, there are a few people I can recommend who can also help you find your passion. Two passion tests I really love are:

Find Your Career Path by JT O’Donnell

Find Your Career Path is about getting a career and work environment that is compatable with your strengths. The workbook is divided into four sections using the G.L.O.W. Method:

Part I: Gaining Perspective – a series of unique personality assessments to give you a better perspective of your strengths
Part II: Luminating Your Goal – a guide to determining a best fit career and workplace environment
Part III: Owning Your Actions – information on creating your resume, developing a career story, and taking the steps necessary to get your dream job
Part IV: Working It Daily – a worksheet that will help you stay committed to reaching your goals

Get the book here. Or you can learn how this book literally changed my life (umm, yeah, I don’t say that often, so you know I mean it) by reading my entire review.

Passion + Profits Test by Jonathan Mead

I love this test. Jonathan first takes you through what getting paid to exist means in a video presentation. Then he has you brainstorm potential passion businesses, and gives you a 25 question quiz to evaluate the validity of your potential business.

Get the Passion + Profits Test here (short email sign-up required).

It gives me hope that the workplace is actually changing from a stodgy focus on number of years at the company, to promotion and recognition based on ideas, leadership, and raw talent. The prize makes sense to me for these reasons:

There is no rule that young people can’t move up quickly

People keep harping on Obama’s age and experience as a reason he doesn’t deserve the award. Get over it. If the accomplishments warrant award, there is no reason to wait until a person hits a certain age.

I hate when companies do this. I worked at a Fortune 500 out of college and a position one level above mine opened up in my department. My coworkers told me to apply because I was already performing every single one of items listed under qualifications. It makes sense – why should they hire someone else, when I was right there doing the job already?I applied, but was rejected because I had only worked at the company for a 1.5 years and they didn’t like to promote people until they’d been there for 3.

Paying your dues is fine and necessary – but some people pay faster than others. Basing due-paying on age alone is lame. It’s for academics. It’s for old school thinkers. And I’m glad the Nobel Committee is not so old school.

Leaders who inspire people win

The workplace is nothing without strong leadership, and no company moves from good to great based on its products or services alone. Likewise, the United States would not be out of the global dog house if it weren’t for the way Obama represents our country to the rest of the world.

Truthfully, not much about our country has changed since Obama became President – we are not suddenly a better or smarter or more productive group of people. What has changed is our leadership – and the way Obama has inspired both the US and other countries makes him worthy of winning. And frankly, it’s amazing and shocking that one man can change global perceptions of an entire country.

Plus, now that Obama has been recognized as a leader of world peace, he has more clout to continue his mission, and more incentive to continue inspiring others.

You can’t grow without a stretch position

It’s career suicide to take on a role that’s past the breaking point of your talents and experience level. But we also know that the best way to advance in your career is to do the job you want before you have the title or authority to do so.

That’s where stretch positions come in. Obama has an aptitude for taking stretch roles that allow him to grow, without screwing up. US President was a stretch role for Obama, but he beat out several competitors with more age and experience than him, and he seems to be faring well.

While Obama hasn’t accomplished world peace yet, he’s a Nobel laureate for world peace because he has been executing on his vision of world peace all along, before he even won the presidency. This prize is yet another opportunity to grow into a stretch position – and I’m confident he’ll do just fine.

What do you think? Workplace revolution in the making?

My first pick is Valerie Mondesir’s blog, InsightFULL. I chose Valerie because she writes about her own personal development in a way that helps others improve themselves too. Plus, personal development a topic that I love and was the focus of this blog when it first started (way back when), and I’m glad to see a unique, female voice in the space.

I also like that Valerie describes herself as quiet, but fun. It’s clear from her blog that she’s fun, and it’s clear from the fact that she doesn’t self-promote herself into oblivion that she is quieter than the typical blogger. Her blog is inward-focused, which is a refreshing change from some of the louder personalities on the web. Unfortunately, she doesn’t always get the recognition she deserves for being a great writer who picks great topics and says great things about them.

Here are three recommended posts that Valerie has written lately:

• Stop looking for heaven elsewhere, you’re not going to find it
• Why you don’t have ADHD. The real ADHD, anyway.
• You’re still responsible if you refuse to take responsibility

These are not just posts that I thought were neat or cool or awesome – I learned something interesting about myself from each of these posts. Check them out, and if you like what you read, be sure to subscribe to her regular updates here. I truly think you will enjoy her blog.

Some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make with social media revolve around making decisions that aren’t consistent with having good business sense. Because social media tools are free, startups and small businesses tend to take the pasta approach: throwing noodles at a wall to see what sticks. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid with social media:

Not developing a social media strategy

Because social media is the hottest trend in marketing, companies assume that all they have to do is set up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. This is the equivalent of pulling random magazines out of off the rack and purchasing full page color ad in each one, then throwing together a quick and dirty PowerPoint flyer to run. Just like any other communication medium, social media requires a well-thought out marketing strategy plan.

Perfecting a social media strategy

Even though a social media strategy is important, don’t wait for the strategy to set up your company’s accounts. Reserving your company’s name on various social media sites is of the utmost importance. Furthermore, because it takes time to build social media accounts, every minute you waste by not being there is followers you could be losing.

Thinking the tools are everything

Most social media talk revolves around tools – ie: 10 Ways to Get More Followers on Twitter. While it’s useful to get into the details and tactics of social media, a solid marketing strategy should work no matter the medium. The smartest companies will focus on strategy because in the world of Web 2.0, the tools are constantly changing.

Not using the tools correctly

It takes a long time to build credibility, especially as a company because individuals are taught to be wary of anything that looks like marketing or spamming. Unfortunately, it only takes one discrepancy to do damage to a company’s reputation. Err on the side of caution with each tool, and take time to listen to the conversations and learn the etiquette for each medium.

Not using the tools at all

Many corporate social media profiles make the company look like it went out of business, because the company doesn’t update regularly. Every tool holds opportunity for companies, so companies must be willing to experiment. Rest assured your competitors will be experimenting, so don’t let them set the tone or build equity without having your own presence.

Putting all eggs in one basket

It’s exciting to see extraordinary results on one form of social media, and tempting to invest all your resources into what’s working. Try to resist. With the speed at which technology changes, social media is starting to look similar to the fashion cycle: one day you’re in, the next day you’re out. Tools fall in and out of fashion all the time – remember Friendster, and more recently, MySpace? Companies that build a large equity on one tool will find themselves with nothing if the tool loses popularity.

Gathering followers rather than building a network

There are no shortcuts in social media, and the bottom line is companies have to build relationships with their customers before they can sell anything. Social media may seem free, but the hidden time costs to build relationships Social media is not a quick way to make more sales; in fact, social media actually adds cycle time to the sales process. Just like any other process, a company must consider how much of its resources to invest.

Putting the horse before the carriage

Another cliché is the company that doesn’t follow a logical process with social media and then wonders why it isn’t seeing results. Common sense comes in handy here. For example, consider a company that doesn’t currently have many customers, but creates a Facebook fan page and starts promoting it with Facebook ads. The keyword is “fan;” people who haven’t experienced the product are not likely to join a fan club for it. Make sure your company is following a logical customer acquisition process by thinking about social media from the user-perspective.

Pitching poorly

Every social media user has a very clear idea of what social media means to them, and how they want to be approached by companies on social media. Most companies don’t realize that they way they approach social media sends its own message to consumers.

Creating impersonal accounts

Users don’t follow companies; they follow engaging people who work at companies. Unless the tool is meant specifically for companies to use (ie: Facebook fan pages), every account should be an actual person who has a name and a title that clearly signifies him or her as a face of the company. This person should write with a conversational tone and respond to other participants in the conversation. Automated accounts or accounts that are updated with a stream of links do not produce results.

Controlling the message

Social media is not about controlling a message. In fact, the very nature of social media is such that no one person or organization can control the message. Because social media is a medium to share information through a network, companies must realize that once they put the message out there, they have no control anymore. Users can choose to edit the message, inject their own opinions into the message, share the message, or ignore the message. Furthermore, companies can’t even control where the message starts: a user can also create a message about a company without having any affiliation to them. Because of the nature of social media, companies that try to control the message will have difficulty reaping any of the benefits of the medium.

Not controlling the message

While companies should be careful about trying to exercise too much control over the message, there is also the opposite end of the spectrum to avoid. Companies often cite “control over message” as a reason not to participate in social media, but the truth is that companies have lost control of the message whether they participate or not. This is because, as mentioned earlier, users can create a message and drive the conversation surrounding that message.

So how can companies exercise some control over a message and still reap the benefits of social media (rapid diffusion of information through people sharing messages with their networks)? The answer is that companies need to participate in the conversation. Responding to complaints and stressing the benefits and what the company does well; these are all ways for companies to control the end-consumer’s perception of its products.

Abusing permission

Abusing permission is by far one of the worst mistakes a company can make with messaging. An example would be if a company collected emails from various blogs in a certain niche and started sending weekly newsletters. While this seems harmless on the surface, none of these bloggers signed up for the company’s weekly emails, and thus have not requested the information.

Abusing permission is a fast way for companies to lose credibility, damage relationships, and generally make a bad name for themselves in social media. So where do you draw the line with abusing permission?

Unfortunately, this question is similar to asking where comedians draw the line with potentially offensive jokes. The truth is that different users have different levels of tolerance. Just like a comedian might experiment with messaging based on the feedback he or she is receiving from the audience, your company must experiment with the right level of communication, erring on the side of unobtrusive.

Has your company made mistakes on social media? Have you had a bad experience with a company on social media? Let’s talk about it in the comments section.

Action Item #1: Land the meeting

It’s not easy, but I get meetings with many CEOs and other executives in the Chicago area. When people ask me how, I tell them it’s a fairly basic process – I email people and convince them to meet with me. If I’m trying to reach the CEO, I sometimes schedule a call with one of his direct reports first. I sometimes send a couple of follow-up emails. I sometimes ask other people in my network for referrals.

Be persistent. There are many ways to ask for something, but the key to getting it is almost always persistence. Everyone calls once, some call twice, but the people who land the meetings are the ones who called for as long as it took.

Action Item #2: Ace the meeting

It is not as difficult as you would think to research a company or a person thanks to Google. I research all sorts of things, from industry statistics, to competitors, to website statistics, to hobbies of the person I’m meeting. I also read through press releases and media coverage (all found on the internet) to understand the history of the company, the pain points, and what the management team cares about. If you do your research beforehand, you can make a good impression at the meeting.

Based on your research, you should know how much you can actually contribute to the networking meeting, and how much information you will have to ask for. This will help you set expectations for yourself and the person you are meeting with.

It’s essential to set expectations for a networking meeting so you don’t waste someone’s time. I have gone to meetings where a CEO just wants to chat over beers, and I’ve gone to meetings where the CEO wants a PowerPoint deck of my ideas and how to implement them. If you set expectations well, you can avoid being under-prepared and making a bad impression.

Also, don’t forget to articulate your interest and your value. There are two things people want to see in a networking meeting: enthusiasm or passion, and what you bring to the table. Make sure that you incorporate both these answers into your story about your history and your goals.

Use language that ties both of your interest and your value to the company, the person you’re meeting with, and yourself. It’s a tough balance, so practicing beforehand helps!

Action Item #3: Follow up

Often, you will not get an immediate offer from a networking meeting. That doesn’t mean it was a waste. Instead, you’ve gotten a contact, information, or a referral. Or you found a way to help the person with one of these three things. Be open to what someone can help you with, and good things will come.

Because networking meetings are not for closing deals, you have to follow-up and check in on the person within a reasonable time frame. This reminds the person of what you discussed, what you want, and what value you have to them. I generally follow up with a thank you email to begin with, and then follow up once more within a month.

What’s your most outrageous networking story?

There is no wrong way to use social media. Just like there is no wrong way to wear a tattoo. The question is, do you know who your audience is? For example, don't get this tattoo unless your wife's name is Leslie.

Image by leslie adams on Flickr