Don’t do social media just to do social media

Posted January 4th, 2010

As an agency, we are always investigating new ways to help our clients market and brand themselves or their products to the community, local or national. Using social media for this purpose has been evolving steadily for the last few years. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other sites have pushed themselves to the forefront, but the question for small businesses has always been, is social media for me? Are there times when you shouldn’t be using it at all? Here is an excellent article  by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb about when NOT to use social media. My favorite of the top 5 times to avoid social media is the following:

Strategic Vacuum: Don’t do social media just to do social media. If a company doesn’t know what they’re trying to accomplish, then there will be nothing to measure and no way to determine success. Just as with any other initiative a company takes on, there needs to be an objective…and that objective shouldn’t be to distribute a press release.

Are there any other times social media should be avoided? What do you use social media for?

Related posts:

1. Social Media and Email Marketing: mixing it up
2. A few social media mistakes to avoid
3. Don’t have time for social media? You are not alone.
4. Social Media for beginners (no really.)
5. New FTC Ad guidelines applies to all social media