My Wall is NOT Your Billboard!

Stop putting advertisements on my Facebook and Twitter please.

I understand, you read an article on the Social Media revolution, Egypt, and how brands are being born through Facebook and Twitter.

You hired a social media guru who told you you would have 500 fans and followers within a week, a month, whatever and they promised to make you a "voice" on social media.

Maybe you read "Twitter Power" or "Social Media Marketing for Dummies" and signed up with Hootsuite or Cotweet with a "Whoohoo I just saved my Company" revelry.

You may get one or two desperate individuals who are social media newbies/old school marketing buffs to respond: "Oh yes, that whole life insurance for at $34.99 a month is just right for me." But you will not win fans and followers in the long haul. And social media, my friend is a long tail of the cat. It is about building a relationship. Not selling product. What?

You missed the most important statement that Dierdre Breakenridge ("PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences") and Brian Solis ("Engage") have been preaching for the last three years. (I've been devouring their books, blogs and tweets for two.)

Marketing and P.R. have merged. This means within the social media world, content and proper manners are king. YOU the marketer are supposed to engage. This can be hard for old die-hard radio hype advertisers who believe Frequency and the offer leads to the pot of gold.   This is not broadcast or outdoor media where the most obnoxious catch the attention.

Lately my Facebook wall and Twitter page are being cluttered with discounts, blatant ads - no valuable info - nothing I want to read.

Is this unusual? No. And often, if you follow me at twitter.com/Melsprwrks or twitter.com/SocalWinecntry you will see this kind of garbage on my page or on my Melody.Brunsting Facebook page. I friend and follow many. Melsprwrks follows social media, pr and marketing people that I consider to be experts. SocalWineCntry follows wineries, event planners and wine experts as it covers events in California. For every one individual I may follow there are two to three I either block or stop following. Why?

There is also a new crop of marketers that failed to read either
Brian's or Dierdre's book. They did read about Hootsuite and Cotweet, then signed up a few 50-something clients to "build and maintain" their social media presence. SAVE ME!!

They are doing it wrong. If "they" are doing this for you: "Save 20% on case of Zinfandel if you attend our concert this Friday at... yadeeyadeeyadee for $50 buy tix at yadee yadee."

If you are sending out ADS you are doing it wrong. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and even your blog is not a FREE billboard. It is a SOCIAL network. Do you avoid the guy at the party who tells you why you need term, whole life and temporary disability insurance? Yes. Do you turn off the radio or television when an annoying ad blasts through your peace? Yes.

To the insurance agents that annoy me - tell me how to save money on business liability insurance, why I need automotive liability at $2 million or tell my friend if she should just add business liability to her home because she is home based? That's good information and I might just follow you for that.

And if you are a marketer -- I really hate seeing tweets with long lists of mentions and hashtags. What good does that do anyone on my Tweets or blogs? They can't tell what the heck you are trying to say or where you want us to go.

Here is what you will see on Brian Solis' Twitter:
"Reading@lou hoffman's book review of "Tell to Win" by @PeterGruber http://bit.lyh8fVkK.

"shelhotz 13 answers on Quora to "Should every business have a blog? Why or why not?" and mines on top! http://b.qr.ae/hStec7.

I am interested in both tweets and will follow the links.

Here is what I won't follow but was actually on my Twitter page:

"The BLEEP BLEEP Wine Guide Daily is out http://bit.lyleVbleep To stories via @bleep,@bleep@bleep."

"Dummy read/dummy does GET MORE FOLLOWERS MY BEST FRIENDS/ WILL FOLLOW YOU IF YOU FOLLOW ME. http..bleep.

Really? yes he did type all caps.  The BLEEP BLEEP guide actually put out a separate entry for every BLEEP BLEEP guide he/she writes and posted them all within the same 15 minutes.

I implore you - if you are serious about using the social media, take a public relations course, read at least two more books than Twitter Power and Social Media for Idiots - I mean dummies. And, please read the section on manners - not just the 1 hour a day task list. If you outsource - please in source with someone who reviews what your outsource is going to do. If it is nothing more than advertisements, don't waste your money or good name. Wait until you can do it right and put a person on the task that is engaging and engaged with your company story.

Next up - Do I need to Tweet to Sell a Seat? A primer for special event marketing.

For more information on marketing your event see my seminars at slideshare.net/Melsprworks

The Grand Social Networking Experiment - part II

We are two weeks into our campaign and have 5% of our Facebook fan base as active contest participants. We expect more as we open up some of the points earning areas, and announce more prizes. Those enrolled in the contest are playing it most of the days. But what has it done for the event? We are adding more than 100 fans per week to our site

And here is the surprise, sponsors. Event sponsorship is hard to come by in our ever penny-pinching "back to the basics" economy. Sponsors like the campaign, the constant attention, inter action with our Fan and e-blast subscriber base. And so we are adding -- adding to the campaign as it continues. It is a fluid promotion that allows for expansion. We're sending contestants to sponsors. We're sending them to their website. We're sending new prospects to their data base. Heck - we're sending them to the stores and place of business. You gotta love that!

The not-so-much-surprise … It takes constant vigilance and we have several folks doing that 24-7. So for those of you wishing to launch a similar campaign -- better either hire staff that know social media manners, an agency or both. Where you save marketing money on print and broadcast now -- you should invest on your web strategy.

(For the record, I hate it when someone tells me they have gone back to the basics.  The "Basics" are dead. What they have done is stopped spending on effective marketing; put people on phones; blamed advertising for their bad economy, and usually wasted money on a passive print campaign. Don't tell me you went back to the basics. You got cheap and tossed away creativity. And I just love it when you tell me you would rather buy an iphone app than a mobi site. Count you as one of the new complainers who tells me internet marketing doesn't work. Look around you … How many of your business associates are on i- phones? and … did you notice the network? I did … I'm on ATT went to a 2g phone because their 3g network drops calls.. So Verizon will eventually get an i-phone... they have what droids now?  Think about it. Are you going to invest your entire mobile strategy on a fraction of the market?)

If you're trying to figure this all out ... some of my reading material for the past 18 months. "New Rules for Marketing and PR," "Twitter Power," "Social Media Marketing,"  and "Putting the Public back in Public Relations."

Melody Brunsting is president of Melody's Ad Works, Inc. and marketing and public relations company that specializes in event promotion, non-profit events and specialty retail.