Sitting in “How to destroy your business with social media” — it’s a discussion format.  We’re talking about marketing and how to do it and how *not* to do it.  Using the theoretical example of a florist on twitter — what are some good  and bad practices?

The keys to success:

  • building trust with your clients (or potential clients)
  • creating conversations

The keys to failure:

  • constantly bugging someone to come see how awesome you are
  • constantly sending out specials — though this can go either way (see below)
  • constantly trying to sell someone on something (but again, see below)

There are exceptions, of course – some companies will send out tweets once a day that list their daily lunch specials, like Mama Mia’s Pizzeria or give a lot of information like pictures of the goodies they’re baking over at Muddy’s Bake Shop as well as the occasional coupon.  I follow both of those because I like the restaurants and want to see what’s new. Daily specials don’t hurt, either

The general consensus seems to be that it all comes down to community and trust.  Trust is there until broken or abused.  If you come off like a used car salesman, you’re probably not going to have a lot of followers for long.

With the knowledge that there’s a community and conversation going on, as a business, what do we try to do with that?  Do we try to start it, control it, fit into it, etc?  You can start conversation and join in conversation, but I think if you try to control it, people will see that and know that you’re not authentic.

As long as you’re knowing your audience and making it relevant to them without trying to “hard sell” to them, you’re on the right track.

Thanks to Thom Rigsby for leading a great discussion.