No one could disagree with your main argument – i.e. that in your face selling not only doesn’t work on social media platforms but actually alienates the very people you want to do business with. Spot on.

However, I’m afraid I have to take issue with you on a few points:

1. Your article somehow seems to imply that selling and marketing are synonymous when of course they are two entirely different things. All the things you can do so powerfully using social media – making connections, building relationships, giving valuable information, distributing content (your own and others’) are all integral to building a brand, which is marketing in its purest form.

2. There are already people who are very successfully selling directly on Facebook. I think we are going to see a lot more of this in the future.
As we have seen with Amazon, the ability to access your customers’ and fans’ personal data (such as friends’ likes and birthdays) is very powerful indeed, allowing you to put personalised offers and recommendations directly in front of your customers and prospects. The back end technology may not be fully evolved yet but it will be here sooner than you think allowing companies to fully integrate their website functionality with Facebook. And when they can transact directly with you there and are happy to do so why bother going to all the effort of driving traffic to your website?

3. I don’t think people compartmentalise their lives quite as much as you suggest and we are all becoming very adept at using media in lots of different ways (often at the same time!) Yes, I may primarily use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. for social and entertainment purposes but shopping IS fun for most people and let’s face it, people are always in the market for an incredible product or an amazing offer. Works for B2B marketing too – as a business owner I’m never off-duty and if a relevant piece of content or an offer catches my eye I will check it out.

Like it or not, the fact of the matter is social media has now permeated all aspects of business and commerce (and vice versa) and you ignore it at your peril. The trick is to do it well – with subtelty and a lightness of touch. For those who manage to pull it off the potential rewards are enormous.

Thanks for sharing, Fazal

i createa fan page on facebook and I tweet each of my blog post! I bookmark my posts to digg and stumbleupon too…so, i think social media can you help you in a lot of ways!

Did you try organic marketing on Facebook or did you buy ads, Erwin?

Interesting! How do you go about advertising your business on social, Fazal?

Mixing it up sounds like a working plan, Paul. I guess nobody likes a hard sell ever, right?