Facebook and LinkedIn are wonderful business tools, but like all tools, they must be handled properly. They are easy to abuse, and this abuse may bring short-term gains, but will hurt business in the long run.

It’s abusive to treat Facebook like a large selling portal by sending out hordes of “spammy” messages. Facebook is the place to create awareness of your business, to create trust in your professional ethics and to bring people to your primary website.

On the other hand, it’s a mistake to set up a profile and just let it sit there. A business needs to engage with those interacting on their wall.

People will come to your page, but if you are only trying to sell them something or are not engaging them at all, you’ll turn away many potential customers.

Interact with your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts daily. Post updates on a regular basis and make sure the content of those posts has ubstance. Focus on interaction and be sure to respond to comments from your fans. Show that you are alive and you care about them and they’ll come back for more.

The proper way to use these valuable tools is to get and keep people’s attention without resorting to gimmicks or hard sells.

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