Reputation Matters, Forbes, August 5, 2011

Continuing our series of The 10 “Dont’s” of Corporate Social Media, co-authored with Temin and Company Intern, Ian Anderson, and published daily for 11 days, starting yesterday, following is #2:

Don’t Act Like a Robot; Show a Human Face

Retweet, Retweet, Reblog, Retweet, Retweet. Brands whose Twitter feed has content patterns that look like RT, RT, RT, and whose blogs and Facebook page(s) look like advertising streams aren’t getting the most out of social media.

As we stated in our introductory post, social media is social.  Failing to interact with audiences — by holding contests (if brand-appropriate), asking questions, and replying to followers’ posts — is a big mistake many companies and brands make.

They seem to feel that a presence, any presence, is all that is necessary on social media, even if it is not alluring, of interest, or humanly generated. […read more]