Why is it that 99% of social media sites aren’t able to monetize themselves beyond $100? As we rant and rave about how great social media and networking is, the truth is that it’s a long process that takes work. Sure there are a lot of benefits, but there are “rules” of the game that everyone who participates must follow. Just one question comes to mind. Are you having connectivity issues with your audience?

Social media sites are revamping industries and the way internet marketing is done. With SEO, you can market your way to the top and purchase everything from key word articles to links. With social media marketing (SMM), you really can’t do that – at least not at this time. SMM is about making a sincere connection with your audience. Who can buy or sell sincerity? There was this article the other day where an author of a blog post wanted his audience to know who he was first before making a connection. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that. After all, that’s what SMM is all about. However, the problem was two-fold – that the audience member didn’t know the rules of SMM and that the author didn’t understand that perhaps his audience didn’t know the rules.

Connectivity issues in social media occur because people don’t understand the perceptions of impressions they leave if they leave anything at all. In another post, the woman was vigorously posting as well and had virtually no audience. Isn’t this like the teacher who continues to teach while her class falls asleep? Just what has she really accomplished when class time was over?

If we find that we are not seeing the explosive results that SMM can bring, are we failing to realize what social media is all about? Connectivity issues arise because we fail somehow to make a meaningful connection. You can join all the communities and social networks on the internet, but without any participation or rapport with one other person, it’s all in vain. At the same time, whenever you’re responding, sincerity and genuineness as well as posting something that truly makes sense and benefits others is very much needed.

Social media operates on an entirely different playing field than SEO techniques. That may seem obvious, but it may be also so obvious that we somehow miss the point of it all. SMM is about creating your own audience. We find that what relationship marketing is for salespeople, SMM is for the internet. When we understand that, we understand how we need to handle our interactions on the web and focus our time on making sincere connections with people.