This morning I was ploughing through the mountain of emails trying to sift which needed actioning, when I noticed one from a small marketing agency in the North of England.

The email began like this; "About 8 months ago I sent you an email (you might remember it.) It was about how UK businesses are the worst in Europe at staying in touch with their customers. i.e. we lose more repeat business than anyone else."

Clearly "you might remember it" is based on the fact that he believes that I don't get 200 email each day (therefore c. 40,000 since he last wrote), and the fact that he had said "UK businesses are the worst in Europe at staying in touch with their customers" clearly demonstrated by the fact that he sends one email every 8 MONTHS!

When I stopped laughing I considered whether I should send him a note to let him know how he'd brightened-up my day. But I figured that if he could send an email like this, the irony might be a little bit lost on him!

Anyway, my point is, that companies like this are setting themselves up as experts, helping organisations to "get it right".

Is it any wonder the economy's in the state that it is?

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

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These days pretty much everyone who hasn't been marooned on a desert island is aware of Facebook, but I've recently heard some staggering numbers attached to it.

• every day 6 billion minutes are spent using it
• 40 million users update their status every day
• every month 700 million photos are uploaded
• there are more than 300 million active users
• 45 million active user groups
• 1,000,000 developers worldwide are creating applications
• 65 million users access it through mobile devices

So, we can safely say that Facebook is pretty darn big!

But then, so are LinkedIn (47 million users), Twitter (18 million users), MySpace (135 million users), Plaxo and literally hundreds of others. YouTube gets 60,000 hrs of video uploaded every single month, and there are over 100,000,000 blogs on the internet!

Conversations are being had 24/7 about all manner of people, places, things and businesses. Importantly for you, some of those conversations are being had about your industry - possibly even your business.

These conversations are taking place whether you like it or not, whether you're involved or not.

Many businesses are rushing to be part of these conversations. To sell, sell, sell...

But unfortunately for these businesses, this is the world of Social Media, where different rules apply.

Many businesses seem to think that "visit my blog", "special offer" or "I saw this, see what you think" will drive traffic to their website and deliver sales. Well, it won't. What it will do is turn people off.

Think of social networking as an online party. Befriend people, win their confidence by talking to them (with no obvious ulterior motive), give them advice & help where you can. Give, give, give, and pretty soon you'll be popular, trusted and credible...

...isn't this what you work so hard to achieve in your business life?

The fact is, it doesn't matter how many followers, friends & connections you have, what matters is what you do with them.

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