Dumb Things Business People Do

When it comes to using social media well.

1. They Don't Do Their Research.

Much of what I have learned about making social media work for me comes from following the leaders and learning from them. This includes Mashable, Techcrunch, Chrisbrogan, Seth Godin's Blog, and Alltop.

If you are anxious to learn – go to these sites and use the search boxes.

Techcrunch is truly cutting edge. Mashable and Techcrunch overlap a bit, with Mashable perspectives appealing to a wider audience. Chrisbrogan and Seth Godin will freely offer opinions, just as I will, and most of them are well-founded. Alltop is an aggregator where you can find more than you will ever need – thousands of blogs on a variety of topics besides social media.

To follow and learn from blogs, my recommendation is set up your Google Reader and subscribe to as many as you can handle. Then set up iGoogle as your desktop where you can plug in the Reader, your blog, and other things like ESPN.com. You choose. What I like about the reader is I can research hundreds of articles at a glance, yet read only what applies to my business – all without cluttering my inbox.

2. They Assume Too Much

Don't assume everything we all say is gospel. While I don't rant, I opine, which comes close. Chris Brogan will definitely rant, but not excessively. And what's wrong with a little emotion to wake up a few readers. We need it once in a while!

Also, if you are an experienced business owner, don't assume the tech crowd understands your 'brick and mortar' business. They probably don't. It's up to you to adapt to the new media ideas. You may wish to consult with a few gray hairs like me once in a while.

This gives you a reason to come back to this blog – to get a pragmatic perspective based on 30+ years in business – meeting payroll, acquiring new customers, dealing with excessive regulations. You know what I'm talking about.

3. They Cling to Old Habits

Look out, here comes an opinion. How many of you are still using the Microsoft browser because it came with your computer? Do yourself a favor and go to Mozilla.com and download the Firefox browser and make it your default. Firefox now has the majority of the market, compared to the about 10% when I started using it. Don't take my word for it, go to Techcrunch or Mashable and see what they have to say.

One great benefit to Firefox is the ability to drag and drop a bookmarklet to make your blogging or use of many social media sites easier and faster. Some of my favorite bookmarklets are from Typepad, Evernote, Tbuzz and Bit.ly.

Typepad is the blogging platform I prefer. Evernote is a wonderful site for bookmarking web pages into notes, and otherwise organizing any note for any type of endeavor, and you can carry it all on your iPhone with the free App. Tbuzz is a site that gives you a shortened url of a page that you can push to Twitter in one click. Pretty slick. Bit.ly does the same thing with one or two more clicks, but also gives you analytics to boot.

Finally, I'm not saying anyone is dumb … or dumberer. All of this is easy.