In my experience with start-up entrepreneurs, small business owners, and big business, here’s the naked truth about social media/influence integration:

1. Fear of really being unique.
   
2. Control the message. Big companies lose every day by controlling the messages with their self-appointed social media messenger.
3. Patience & entitlement. You’re on twitter, you have a blog, you made a video and people are not following, commenting, or contacting you during your first few months. Social media must not work for you-right? Many will quit, before they ever really started.
   
4. Talk vs. listen. You are engaged in anti-social behavior when you don’t listen, respond, and engage with  your followers. You’re a popular and pompous putz!
   
5. You want a pretty static flash website with copy cat generic stuff about your business vs. a blue-collar Word Press template filled with constantly updated practical and relevant content for your highly-focused market niche.
6. Mistakenly compare social media ROI with traditional marketing ROI. Can you think of an example?
7. Confuse social media and social influence. Social media are channels like YouTube and twitter. Do you have your own definition of social influence and how it’s different than social media?
8. Internal vs. External. I think companies hiring people outside the organization to handle social media marketing are crazy. Also remember, your business doesn’t plug into social media, social media should plug into your business.
9. Do you really believe social media is a fad?
10. There is nothing free about social media.
    
11. You just can’t bring yourself to exclude people and only include your ideal clients into conversation.
12. You can’t invest enough in uncovering and building relationships with your key social influencers.
13. Don’t understand the concept of friend-sters. You are not just conversing with a person, rather the individual and his/her followers.
14. You don’t get that asking questions can be the answer.
15. Underestimate getting found in the way people search online for your type of services/products.
16. ____________________.
17. ____________________.

Will you contribute to this topic list in the comment section below?