Did You Know that Facebook can Hurt Your Business?

Here is a great article by the Folks at Inkling Media as they lay out how Facebook can hurt your business:

1) You ignore it – If you think social media is a fad, you run the risk of falling behind your competitors who ARE on Facebook and have a well executed plan.

2) You don’t update your page – Maybe you’re on Facebook, but you just update it every once in awhile when you think about it. Remember: you are only as good as your last update. You know…crickets. Having a Facebook page you don’t use is worse than not having one. Same goes for…

3) You don’t monitor your page – You might post the occasional update, but you never really read what’s happening. As a result, you miss out on the comments and questions people are posting, which brings us to

4) You don’t engage – You check in, you update, you read. But do you really engage? If people are writing, and you don’t respond, they’ll leave. Even worse, they might start talking, and you might not like what they are saying.

5) You’re spammy – Remember, it’s not about selling. It’s about building community, relationship, and trust. If all you do is push your products and try to sell, you are no better than junk mail, spam e-mail, or one of those calls that always seem to come during dinner.

6) It’s all you have – A Facebook page all on it’s own won’t do you much good. Social Media isn’t the panacea for your sales and marketing problems. But Social Media can be an integral part of your overall marketing campaign. It works great with other media, including a well designed, content rich website. You might cover a lot of ground with your Facebook page, but rarely will it work well on its own.

What you need is a proper approach and a strong plan.

It’s your decision: will Facebook hurt your business, or help it?