Well, sorry about the long hiatus. RDG and I have been working like the mad women we are on the product line. There just haven’t been enough hours in the day lately…I’m sure you can relate.

Anyway, I’m going to revisit social marketing because I still see so many marketers that don’t get it yet. Remember I said there’s only so many hours in the day?? Well you learn very quickly that social properties and Web 2.0 activities are very time consuming. But, they are the hottest way to grow your business right now.

This is where the problem I see arises. You and I only have so much time…so we are constantly looking for ways to get into social marketing without putting in the time. In fact a whole industry that sprung up to *game* the systems. Automate everything!! Hey, there’s nothing wrong with games…I love them. There’s nothing wrong with saving time in my book either.

But, don’t confuse the game with the intent for using Web 2.0. You want to grow your business and profits. All these automated things are great if you just want to make money fast. Sounds great on the surface, doesn’t it? I want a piece of that…

However, you need to see that course of action for what it is. You’re falling into the trap that has plagued internet marketing since the beginning. Take a look back… Adsense then-- Adwords…fast money…but no real business foundation. Many people made a killing with both for a few years. When things changed because the systems were gamed into oblivion, many marketers lost their shirts (Most of the good ones will admit it, too) because they built everything on the fast money route and had nothing in place that was long term.

There’s a reason it’s called social marketing. To build your business long term, you need to build relationships… There’s no way to automate that or there wouldn’t be a divorce rate…