10 Ways to Blow Social Media Marketing…Okay, Only 9

Randy Block is a career transition coach and consultant—an Obvious Expert in his field. He has an interesting article, “10 Ways To Blow An Interview” that you can find on his website www.randyblock.com.

While his advice is very helpful for face-to-face encounters, we think it carries just as much relevance for social media marketing. So we applied his 10 strategies, but instead of including his explanations for what these strategies mean in a job interview, we looked at them from a different perspective.

Here’s a social media marketer’s spin on Randy’s 10 tips for blowing that all important job interview, and remember, this is what NOT to do:

1. Don’t prepare. Jump into your social media marketing without a plan. Don’t consider the objectives you want to realize or what your competitors are doing in their efforts on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

2. Show up early. Be the first to jump on new technologies, software, and widgets. You don’t have to know whether or not they are effective, offensive, or stable. You just want to be first.

3. Take control of the interview. Tell your audience, but don’t listen in return. Make your conversations totally one-way so that you establish control.

4. Tell them everything. Share all the personal details of your life online. After all, you want your market to see the real you, right?

5. Look down and look up. In other words, never make the equivalent of online eye-contact. Assume that a moving target is harder to hit, so don’t engage your audience, fan, or followers in anything that feels like a personable communication. (Note the key word is personable, not personal. Rule #4 has already told you to pour out the personal details of your life on your blog and Facebook page.)

6. Trash your old boss. Or in this case, your competitors.

7. When in doubt bluff. No one fact checks or looks for transparency in business these days, so don’t worry if some of what you put out on the internet isn’t true.

8. Show desperation. Make it clear to your blog readers and Twitter followers that your business or consulting practice is desperate for their business. Consumers love the smell of blood.

9. Take notes throughout the interview. Okay, Randy, we have to admit, we were stumped at how to apply this rule of interviewing to social media marketing.

10. Don’t ask questions. Remember, it should be a one-way conversation at all times.

Thanks, Randy for writing such great, how-not-to advice for job interviews—that also has a very interesting application in the world of social media communication.

Tagged as: business, career transition coach, consultants, Consulting, conversations, engagement, entrepreneurs, explanations, facebook, followers, job interview, key word, linkedin, marketer, marketing, moving target, personal rule, relevance, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, transparency, twitter, widgets, youtube