I just bumped across a cool post on the B2B Social Media group up on that there LinkedIn. I felt compelled to add to the thoughtStream, so here’s the original post with a little link to an awesome article on IttyBiz with my little follow up trailing after. Enjoy.

No more ‘harnessing the power of social media’!

I ran across this story on one of the blogs I frequent. Something about it really hit home. Everyone is trying to ‘engage’ consumers in order to create a relationship that will hopefully lead to sales. While I am not denying the power social media has to strengthen current b2c relationships (in the form of customer service) is a company really going to get a new customer because they have a spiffy Facebook page?

http://ittybiz.com/social-media-marketing-sucks/

Here’s my comment added to the discussion …

Thanks for posting this … and thanks for pointing to the IttyBiz article that your thoughts grow out of

I think a very pertinent point to take into consideration … the current mindset of the user … I particularly enjoyed the concept ( in big red letters ) in ‘Social Media Marketing Sucks’ that ‘Interacting is a social activity. Buying is a commercial activity’ … you need to take the initial mindset of the user into consideration every step of the way and determine which activity they are originally engaged in and then cater your online behavior to the user

For instance, I bet if done wrong, the interactions you might engage with could be perceived verymuch like that superPushy salesperson that’s just sort of lurking in the aisles of the store, springing on you at the first opportunity … total turn off for me … I bet the same turn off for SO many others

Very important to make each and every one of these experiences user-centered … and to realize that as the marketer, as the businessperson, as the potential snake draping down from a branch of a tree, well … you need to be there for the user more than you’re there for you or the company … give without expectations … interact without expecting any guarantees … just be there for them … most of the time people are just on the social web to just be social