Sometimes it’s important to know and understand what NOT to do. Considering the deluge of information on social media it’s good to have the "Do NOT Do" list. Social Media Today ran an article by Brad Smith, The 3 Worst Ways to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business. I think his points will be very helpful as you maneuver your way through the maze of social media to develop your practice. Smith not only tells us what NOT to do but tells us what to do instead.

Bad Strategy #1: Creating Too Many Social Networks. 

According to social media experts, you should be on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and every other network possible.

The problem with this strategy should be obvious. Who’s going to manage all of these? How can you really do a great job on ALL of them? And which accounts are your customers supposed to follow and interact with?

Corrective Strategy #1: Invest MORE resources in to LESS tactics.

If you want to grow visitors to your blog, then produce one exceptional blog post each week. 

Bad Strategy #2: Relying on Others to Share for You.

Getting people to share your blog posts, or Retweet your updates is one of the best things about social media marketing. It exposes your content to new people, and turns customers and fans into ambassaders of your brand.

But serendipity is not a marketing strategy. And it doesn’t matter how many social media buttons you plaster on your site. You can’t sit around and wait for others to do the work for you.

Corrective Strategy #2: Drive visitors to specific points of conversion.

You’ll get better results if your activities are more focused and deliberate. Funnel people from one marketing asset (your existing website traffic, email list, offline displays, or another social network) to the new place you’re trying to grow.

Another way to drive more users is to piggyback off other’s success. Which leads us to #3…

Bad Strategy #3: Focusing Too Much on Easy, Ineffective Tactics.

Engagement is a vital step in the marketing process.

But joining Twitter chats, leaving 3-sentence blog comments and doing a lot of manual outreach is ineffective and inefficient.

Instead, you should position yourself so people want to come find you. That way you’re pulling people in, and they’ll be more receptive to engaging with you.

But how do you do that? Especially if you’re new, small, or virtually unknown?

Corrective Strategy #3: Focus on business development, not just community management.

Community management is important if you already have a huge audience. But if you want to grow, then you need to focus on business development and create partnerships with other entities.

Maybe you can provide content to a larger media property. Or donate time and money to an important nonprofit that will position yourself in front of affluent or influential people.

Either way, the goal of online business development is to use these new tools and technologies to create partnerships with important people and organizations.

It’s more difficult because there’s no pre-defined script. And it takes more time to develop trust and figure out how to help each other properly. So you won’t see quick, fast returns.

But the long-term ROI is much higher.

And it will contribute more to your overall business growth than a Twitter chat or blog comment ever will.

Smith makes sense. And the reality is… the underlying principles are the basic principles of business development. Just because we are using new tools doesn’t mean that the core of business development has changed. Focus, build relationships and put your resources where they will make the most impact.