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This is a guest post by Anna Miller

There’s no doubt that social media has taken over as the reigning promotion platform – it’s not only free to use, it also has the widest reach you could ever imagine. People are no longer glued to their television sets when they need entertainment; now they have Facebook and MySpace to hang out with their friends and their applications. So if you’re a marketer, you’re probably looking to tap into this time and get them to notice your products and services. But the downside of pursuing this interest avidly is that you tend to make mistakes that could turn the tide against you. The most common social media marketing blunders are:

• In-your-face marketing: I hate cold calls, and although they may be a great marketing ploy, I never give them the time of the day. To me and most other people with jobs and lives to take care of, they are unwelcome and irritable intrusions into our time. They annoy, and more often than not, even if people stay on the line just to avoid being rude, they have no idea what the call is about. Marketers on social media would do well to remember this fact – they must wait for customers to notice them and come to them rather than push their services and products onto their personal space. It’s one thing to get customers to notice you, and entirely another to shove yourself into their faces – while the first is appreciated, the second gets the door shut on your face.
• Blinder mentality: Most marketers I know suffer from this – they’re so focused on the message they want to deliver that they forget that they have to listen to the voice of the customer as well. So it’s common to see on social media marketers who ignore direct questions and suggestions from customers or potential customers and instead send out emails or other forms of communication that solicit business. They make the mistake of not noticing the customer and their needs and instead being blinded by their own goals and aspirations, little realizing that both must be tied together to taste success.
• Short-term vision: And then there are those who look only at the short term profits and popularity – they feel that if they can boost their business by twisting the truth a little, then why not do so? They don’t stop to think of the long-term repercussions of such a strategy – once customers realize that they’re being taken for a ride, they stop trusting you and leave for greener shores.

The problem with social media is that it is a great leveler – you can scale great highs as well as sink to spectacular lows. The lows are never easy to get over, not with the everlasting memory the Internet has, so it’s best to avoid blunders in the first place if you’re looking for marketing success using social media.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of degrees online . She welcomes your comments at her email: anna.miller009@gmail.com

Further reading:

Roberto Hoyos Interview – Social Networks & Technology Are Powerful For Sales

Jordan Cooper Interview – Being Transparent On Social Networks

Chris Pirillo Shares His Thoughts On Companies Using Social Networks

How To Prevent Business Suicide?

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