Social media is in the process of rewriting many marketing textbooks and is being hastily added to the curriculum of many business-oriented schools of education, complete no doubt with many footnotes, asterisks, disclaimers and question marks. A business must be involved with social media, but the question is to what extent. Further, what level of risk is acceptable when entering such virgin territory?

It would seem that there is a lot more to gain than there is to lose when you consider whether to entertain a social media campaign, so long as you exercise a modicum of common sense. A lot of the well known pitfalls experienced by some premier brands could have been avoided with a little introspection.

So what are some of the pitfalls for you to avoid?

1. Avoid controversy.

Some people advocate that to make a wave in the vast social media ocean you need to be controversial to stand out. What you need to realize is that your energy wave creation could become a tsunami of controversy. The same element that makes social media such a tempting proposition could also work against you by creating substantial negative press that you can do nothing about.

2. Avoid spreading muck.

This follows along with the previous point to a certain extent and underlines why you should put some of your best marketing brainpower behind a social media campaign. Don’t be tempted to become a shock jock or openly criticize other competitors in an attempt to gain an edge, as no matter how subtle you try and how many “smoke and mirror” campaigns you dream up, this approach will backfire and hurt you more.

3. Avoid “puffery.”

This colorful word describes the act of blowing your own trumpet or aggressively talking up your brand or product, maybe under a disguise created for the purpose. Be careful that your IP address or e-mail cannot be traced back, allowing people to “out” your efforts!

4. Avoid being vanilla.

Again this comes back to creativity. Don’t expect a great result just by setting up pages, profiles or accounts. You must have a good “hook” and have a policy and strategy to update and create meaningful content.

5. Don’t shoot first and ask questions later.

It may be easy to imagine the social media environment as a “wild west” of sorts, where pretty much anything goes as we are all in uncharted territory. Don’t make the mistake of unloading your shotgun of poorly formed thoughts, questionable tactics or competitor onslaughts without fear of a reprise. You may well not be able to put the fire out.

6. Don’t bite off the hand that feeds you.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are really valuable assets and you should treat them accordingly. Always be aware of their terms of service and never do anything to make them turn the focus of attention on you.

7. Don’t delegate and forget.

This will require your best brains, as we have already said twice. For veteran marketers the whole concept can be difficult to conceive, but don’t be tempted to delegate to junior IT people, rather make it a think tank approach.

8. Don’t forget how visible you could be.

When you enter the world of social media, you may encounter a visibility that you are not prepared for. Remember that to a certain extent it is a commenting free for all and you need to be constantly aware of what is being said about you, within your pages and “retweeted.”

What is your best tip?

Matthew Toren

“We’re fond of constraints that inspire creativity. Constraints inspire us in how we approach the press, how we approach business relationships, how we do everything.” Jack Dorsey.

It’s quite sobering to think that someone at the ripe old age of 29 could come up with a such a simple idea, that has the ability to change the very way that we communicate socially. The emergence of Twitter, which is still enjoying meteoric growth, came about somewhat by accident and still represents a phenomenon that is to a certain extent, without direction.

Jack Dorsey, born November 19, 1976, had an idea that eventually morphed into what we now know as Twitter, when he was only 24 years old. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he had already exhibited an interest in software development by the age of 14 and was to invent open source software applications related to taxicab and messenger route dispatching. His initial efforts were picked up by several organizations in his home city and are still in existence to this day.

Following college at the University of Missouri and in New York, he moved to California. At the time, instant messaging was really starting to take off, with AOL’s Instant Messenger service being particularly popular. Dorsey took a look at this and wondered whether he could combine his earlier ideas to provide a service sending status messages. “What if you could share your status with all your friends really easily, so they know what you’re doing, but you don’t want to have to write a whole blog entry or Live Journal entry?”

As time went by and Jack was busy working on a web based dispatch solution, he considered whether SMS text messaging could be incorporated into his interactive status messaging concept. Podcasting service Odeo became aware of his interest and collectively they decided that they should go ahead and build a prototype that was to become Twitter. Dorsey and fellow geek Biz Stone honed the concept in just two weeks.

Evan Williams, a former Google executive, provided investment funding and together with Dorsey and Stone co-founded an operation to host Twitter, Inc. By early 2006 they were ready with the first incarnation, but did not really have an active launch strategy. By August of 2006, however, the word was starting to spread that the service existed and even though they didn’t have a marketing presence of any kind set up as such, Twitter was born.

Since that time, the organization has been focused merely on keeping up. Expansion has been off the charts and it has taken every bit of effort from Dorsey (who was until recently the CEO) and the others merely to keep up with the demand. Every couple of weeks the user base was doubling as people really took the concept to heart.

The very idea of Twitter appeals to the human need to socialize and to keep in touch. As we all lead such busy lives, the idea of being able to send a very brief, 140 character or less, simple status message back and forth has a certain attraction.

To this day, Twitter is still self-funded by Evan Williams and there seems little pressure for them to create a business model, which is completely non-existent at this point. Other investors have offered to buy out the organization and it has been estimated that it might be worth a market capitalization of somewhere in the region of $1 billion. Nevertheless, Dorsey and Stone remained grounded. They want to keep in control of what they are doing. “We’re looking for a very simple investment and a very clear financial base and hopefully enough to get us a way out so we can focus on building a great product.”

While they have admitted that they are looking at several different models to help them achieve revenues, their main focus is just growing the service and staying true to the original philosophy. Meanwhile Dorsey has stepped down as CEO to become chairman of Twitter as he considers the implementation of his next brainwave idea.

Adam Toren

In last week’s Entrepreneur Poll results I asked you What Was The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done For Your Website? The number one answer was focusing in on Social Networking and Social Media Marketing.

Using Twitter was a popular choice for many of our readers so this week our new Young Entrepreneur poll is:

What is the best way to build your business through Twitter?

Many entrepreneurs are just coming on to the service and have no idea how to use it. What strategies are working for you? How do you use your time on Twitter to build connections and grow your business?

I would love to hear your thoughts so we can build a list of best practices for other young entrepreneurs to follow.

Please post a comment with what you’re doing on Twitter to build your business and stay tuned for the results!

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Evan Carmichael