The big social media news of the week is Facebook’s new Groups.  Like with any great tool, there are ways to use it for positive results – and ways to abuse it.

In one of the internet marketing forums I’m a part of, somebody posted recently that he’s excited about the new Groups features because, in his words:

I sorta cringe to hear people highlighting these “benefits” of groups. Groups – just like everything in social media – is not about the automation.  And to focus on that would turn your “friends” against you.

Just yesterday I interviewed Matt Bacak for a compilation CD I’m putting together called “What’s Working in Social Media – Lessons From the Experts.”  And he spent a lot of time talking about the fact that most internet marketers don’t “get” social media.  They think it’s about the (very maculine) tactic of blasting your message everywhere; when in fact it’s about the (much more feminine) art of listening and providing value.

He also said people are missing the boat when they’re looking for direct EPC from their social media.  He went so far as to say that although he doesn’t have the hard numbers to back it up, he feels certain that the people who buy from him are doing so because they’re also connected to him on Twitter and Facebook.

That is an argument I’ve been making for a long time – that your conversion rate with your emails or direct mail will skyrocket when you’re also communicating with those same people on social media.  And not just blasting them in a different medium, by the way – but rather, chatting about their dog and kids and travel.  Those “waste of time” topics that do nothing but create rapport.  Oh yeah, that thing.  Remember it?

In this way, social media is not unlike the newsletter – the tried and true standby of direct mail.  Not the content newsletter that people pay for, by the way, but just the chatty “here’s a little way for us to stay in touch during the month” newsletter.  Why does it work?  Because it lets your customers get to know you a bit as a person.  Same as social media.

The person who I quoted at the beginning of this article has actually done a terrific job over the last year and a half, using social media to build a large and responsive list for himself.   And he’s succeeded at that not because of the automation strategies he uses, but because he’s put a LOT of time and effort into communicating authentically with his people, and providing a lot of good content and terrific value.  And all that real “work” is something I’m afraid gets lost in the shuffle when newbies are looking for the magic pill and they read something like “you can now automatically add friends, and all your messages go to their inbox.”

What do you think of all the automation in social media?  Leave a comment – let me know you’re alive!