Over the past six months the mania for social media seems to have gathered force, particularly amongst smaller and medium sized businesses. There has been an explosion of usage by business. Some big brands are have really got it right, but this article doesn’t purport to explain those - but rather looks at a bigger problem. The question: why doesn’t social media work for some companies? Should some companies just leave it alone for now? Unfortunately as with all other booms there are an awful lot of people who just get it all WRONG. Why? 1. They don’t get it. They see social media from a simplistic and limited perspective, as a set of new platforms, rather than a new dynamic. They often only notice platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter and often only because of media hype. Their first instinct is to use these as extra channels to serve up their information to new audiences. The lure of being able to access media on Twitter is particularly compelling – but they assume it’s a new way to blast out product news, thus missing the point. They create marketing pages and groups on social networks like Facebook and populate them with company information. They think that creating a new social network is a great way to create a community, when what they really desire is a captured community to sell to rather than one which thinks for itself. 2. They assume interest rather than create it. They stare in a puzzled way at the single digit numbers of their Facebook fans and Twitter followers, because they thought that followers would flock to their feeds, and that memberships would mushroom naturally and fast. Perhaps they thought their information would take on a new glamour somehow. Bad news: if you use the same old content you will fail to gain much benefit from social media, and you need to understand how to create interest and onward referrals. That is not to say that the content you already create is useless – on the contrary, any company with a healthy newsflow, opinions and valuable insights can extract huge new value from social media.  However, those which don’t will need to take a fresh approach. Sad fact: if you bore people you will not engage them – in fact, you are more likely to drive them away. 3. They simply aren’t ready for it. This is a question of readiness of thinking, not readiness of platforms. Many are stuck in traditional modes of marketing thinking, even if they believe themselves fully equipped with a digital arsenal because they have a nice website with a web-shop and a Google Adwords campaign alongside their “real world” sales activities. The problem is that many companies still think about communication in only one direction – outwards. Their products and services are their core topic, and they haven’t taken on board the role that mutuality plays. They have a transactional mentality, believing that the only positive interaction with a customer is that which ends in a purchase, rather than those interactions which make someone interested to get to know them or go to them for advice, keep potential customers near them for longer, build their reputation or make them look like a company that gives a damn about the world. Interested to hear a little more? Then look out for part 2 in which we will examine the building blocks which companies often fail to create and the commitment issues they often have. We also look at why picking the wrong players to run your campaign can be one of the reasons for failure – and why knowing when to smack the CEO on the nose can be the key to success.