7 social media behaviors that won’t win you customers

(via Conversation Agent by Valeria Maltoni on 2/28/10)

1. you have a blog, or a Twitter account, or a Facebook fan page and still don’t understand that the Internet or the world wide web is the context, not your brand
2. you’re pushing your message at specific users without a connection — one thing is being syndicated by people who want to pull your feeds, the other is pushing to them, do you understand the difference?
3. you’re not prepared to address potential issues in real time — visibility and connections in a two-way medium come at a risk
4. you’re all over the place, yet there isn’t a coordinated effort behind it — seeing what sticks is not a marketing strategy in 2010
5. you’re not looking for your fans and evangelists — or you want to make them conform to your idea of social
6. you focus on changing what people say by talking at them, locking them out, or positioning them as crazy when they aren’t, instead of looking inwards and changing your business practices as appropriate
7. you want to interact with customers, when all customers want from you is a great transaction — put shopping carts everywhere, and support those transactions