Social Media is not merely for marketing. It is a space where meaningful conversations on brands are taking place. It is beneficial for companies to filter these conversations from chatters and derive insights on information pertaining to their brands and products. I found a tool call SPY by Ben Hedrington. It is a search engine that sniffs out conversations on blogs, flickr, twitter & more.

Before jumping onto the social media marketing bandwagon, companies can first listen. Listen to what consumers are talking about them, their competitors, their product & services and their brand. Use these to evaluate the approach to engage and build relationships. The whole game starts by just listening.

Excellent way in articulating the ‘wrong way’. We cannot further emphasize that social media is not a place for peddling your wares. You don’t do it in real life too. I was doing a presentation a couple of days ago and was emphasizing that to the client. Imagine going into a social gathering for the first time and you whipped out your products and started pushing them to everyone you meet. We just don’t do that in real life. People that do these things are usually ‘excluded’ from the community immediately. In social media, it is the same.

Listen to Chris – don’t be that guy. please.