Yeah, I’ve been there too. I used this twitter auto follower tool once. Sure it worked, but it never worked out :p

As a hobby I sometimes like to contact various companies just to give them some of my thoughts (hence the comment from LG Wallmark above) just because I find it very interesting.
Right now I’ve been focusing on telecom companies in Sweden because it still baffles me that some companies has only “thought about pushing the start button for a social media project” but in fact barely know what it means.

One of the most crucial things in my opinion is to create an initial goal with the usage of social medias. What do you, as a company, want to achieve by existing on Twitter,Facebook,Ning,Sphinn,StumbleUpon or anywhere else?

For some it might be to increase sales, for some it’s just to facilitate customer support, and for some people it’s to bring additional value to an already established customer base.
Many Swedish companies are still in the “Hype” phase; Let’s use twitter because people say we should.

I’m so excited for a local project coming up where we will be utilizing facebook as a base to spread the word of our brand. Will be a lot of fun!

Have a great evening,
Jonas

AWESOME post with some great insights you’re providing! I totally agree with the one way communication which is very noticeable especially on Twitter. I did the same mistake once…I was building a list of followers without thinking…hundreds and hundreds of new people every week and I was just tweeting out my “genius” tweets ) It doesn’t work…it’s much more effective to focus on building relationships rather than building lists of followers.

I really find it funny how people’s habits are changing with the growth of social media. As you, I usually don’t contact companies who are not on FB, Twitter, etc…if there are other options, lol. And everytime I’m doing a due dilligence of a company…I review what they have online in regards to social media )

Keep up the great work with your posts!!!

Cheers

Ronny

PS: There is a pretty good special report on social networking in last week’s issue of The Economist

“Social media” is a really interesting field and something I’d love to study/experiment with further. I will definitely write more on this topic later
In the meanwhile I will also be keeping an eye on other companies (yes, I’ve noticed your work the latest months ) which will be just as much fun!

Have a great evening!

/Jonas

Best regards,

LG Wallmark
TeliaSonera
Group Communications

I’ll do my best to keep the articles coming

Have a great day!
/Jonas