Excerpt from: 5 Reasons Why Your Social Marketing Strategy Fails

You were excited about tools like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. But your efforts have only produced online cobwebs and tumbleweed. Now you're frustrated and ready to swear off social networking for good. Don't let that happen because social media is tool that can boost brand awareness, bring in new supporters, and rally followers. Did you treat social media like a New Year's Resolution? You were excited about it at first but then your enthusiasm started to fade when you didn't see instant results. An effective online strategy requires a lot of planning, patience, and persistence. Here are some common mistakes you need to avoid:

People Don't Know About You: You've signed up for social media sites and expect people to magically appear and become your followers. "If you build it, they will come," only works in Iowa cornfields. From business cards to brochures to email signatures, you need to list all of the sites where you have a presence. Every opportunity you have, you need to let people know that they can find out more about your organization by visiting your Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube pages. Social media does not reward the shy.

Not Enough Or Any Updates: You've successful directed people to your pages but there's no reason for people to ever come back. The problem is that you don't provide a steady stream of updates. This happens a lot for organizations that rely on traditional marketing tools quarterly newsletters. But online, you can't update your supporters and fans every three months. That's the kiss of death. Instead you need to provide regular updates. Make a commitment to a schedule of updates and then stick to it. This can be news from your organization, pictures, or comments on national news stories. These updates don't need to be very long but they should tell people something they didn't know about your organization. You're goal is to be the most interesting person at a party, who always has a good story and never outstays his or her welcome.

You Ignore Daily Opportunities: If you do anything of interest, you need to capture the moment with a digital camera or video recorder. Within a few hours, you need to post your photos or videos and tell people to log on to see them. Don't let pictures become leftovers that no one wants to eat. Serve them up while they're still fresh in their minds.

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