by Harvey Raybould

At his peak, notorious Tweeter Stephen Fry had 1.2 million followers on social media site Twitter, and was keenly following many hundreds himself.  He was rarely able to respond to more than a handful of replies (Tweets) he received.

Is it any wonder that he recently announced he was taking a break from Twitter to write part two of his autobiography? Is it possible he has done so, because it’s just too overwhelming to continue, keeping contact with such a vast number of people?

I believe his experience may in fact reveal why many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to make an impact with social media marketing.

As I have said elsewhere, in my post on Seth Godin’s Tribes, people use the Internet today to make connections and find meaning in their life, and so the question remains, just how meaningful to your business are the connections you are making as a business on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites?

Marketing online is not like marketing offline.

Unlike the offline world, trying to reach as many people as possible, by applying a scatter gun approach, and hoping something sticks, rarely works online, because the Internet gives people the power both to tell others what they think of you, and or, switch you off.

So, I believe that to really succeed using Social Media Marketing, you need to focus on making fewer but more relevant connections. It is better by far to have a smaller group of people – friends, colleagues, allies, associates, and other key influencers in your space – than a vast number of people who have connected with you for the sake of connecting.

So, who should you be connecting with, and how do you find them?

Read more on the original post -(OfficeWire – LONDON, ENGLAND)