Social Media - Everybody's talking when they should be listening

Social Media's all the buzz but do you know what it means for your business and your customers?

I've been attending talks and seminars both as a presenter and a participant.

There's a lot of hype out there. Lots of starry-eyed business people all excited about getting rich quick or, in equally passionate droves, scared about missing the boat.

People want to know about Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Why use them? How and when to use them. If the phone's not ringing off the hook, how to know if they're achieving viable results for the business or not.

Developing successful Social Media campaigns is not easy. It takes a lot of time and faith - oh, and one very important thing...

Listening.

Social Media is about opening up lines of communication with people - friends, family, customers, employees, prospects - whomever.

But these communication lines go both ways. Social Media is not a soap box or a bully pulpit.

Unless you're willing to listen, Social Media is not going to work.