For April 2010, I chose to create this Linkedin Poll as a way to remind you all that Social Media can be an incredibly powerful tool to all businesses, but at what cost? Many people take Social Media and Social Networking for granted. A huge misconception about Social Media is that it’s only for tweeting what you just ate or posting a cute photo of your kid’s first steps. Can it be used for these purposes? Of course. You can technically do whatever the heck you want…it’s your profile and your space. Here’s the real question, “Is anyone listening to you?”

If your Social Media campaign is not bringing in sales…you are doing something wrong. Keep in mind, this should be seen as a long term project…unless you have a brand name that people already know. It doesn’t matter if you sell high end jewelry, a live chat service, or whatever. If it’s not done properly or orchestrated to a certain degree, then all the time you spent was a complete waste of time. I have personally seen so many of my clients come to me and ask me what they are doing wrong and usually it’s as simple as; content creation, post frequency, and content relevance.

You can’t just post photos all the time. I’m sure they are nice to look at, but Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. just can’t read the context of a photo. They may say a picture is worth 1000 words, but not to search engines. (of course if you tag your photos correctly, then that is a different story…of which is for another article.) You need content and lots of it. Posting only once a year in not the way to gain followers or fans and posting every 5 seconds will most likely mark you as a Spammer. And no one likes a Spammer now do they? Most importantly in my opinion is relevance. Your content should be about your business and should use keywords or phrases that relate to what you do or sell. Using your Facebook business page to chatter about what you did last night is not going to get you more customers…unless that is what is relevant to your business and people follow you for your perspective on night clubs or something.

Basically, think of your profile as a unique website that you have to optimize so that other people who think like you will be able to connect to you. This is why so many companies are not getting the response they are looking for with Social Media. The most important thing to do when starting in Social Media is just listen. Read the tweets. View the profiles. Look for patterns in how people communicate. Your audience is out there and they are looking for you. Are you sending out the right message and is it effective? Is your time being spent wisely. If not, then you need to re-evaluate, revamp, and reconnect.

Take my poll and let me know what you think.

The response so far has been incredible from my recent posts on my website www.AndrewDavidBaron.com as well as my Facebook Fan Page. I’ve had such an influx of people candidly asking me for advice and suggestions towards their businesses and Social Media.

I’m happy to report that I’ll be making a bunch of new Microsites and helping quite a few of my fans reinvent their businesses with Social Media and Social Networking. As I complete each project, I’ll release the website and information about them.

I’m truly excited to jump in head first and literally help people help themselves and their businesses in the roughest economy since, The Great Depression.” You can’t wait for someone to help you or rely on them to care about your business. People need to help themselves, but so many have absolutely no idea or clue as to where to start or do. That’s why I am doing what I am doing. It’s imperative to help small businesses evolve and grow with the changing times. Small businesses are the backbone of any economy.

The wait is finally over.

You now can become a fan of www.AndrewDavidBaron.com on Facebook! You’ll be able to get new perspectives on Live Chat Software, LiveChatAgent, and ClickToTalk technology and how they integrate and contextualize into contemporary Social Media. The future of Social Networking is here!

Just use the Facebook Fan box in the Widget Bar to the right of this post.