It’s starting to aggravate me that I’m getting irrelevant messages and friend requests on a particular MySpace account that I run. Mainly, these requests are coming from bands. Now, I’m all for checking out new music, but the account is very obviously not a personal account. A message or friend request saying, “I’m really interested in what you’re doing,” or something to that effect would be much more welcome than, “Listen to our music! We didn’t even read your profile so we obviously don’t care about who you are or what you do, but you should support us anyway!”

In this day and age, social media is about branding and caring. If you’re going to use social media as a marketing tool, you should use it the correct way. Look at the profiles of your potential clients, consumers, or fans. Decide what they need and how you should approach them. If you send me messages trying to get me to comment on your page without even checking out mine to see if I’m going to like what you’re trying to sell me, I’m going to see right through what you’re doing and I’m not even going to bother. Even worse, if my account is for a jewelry business and you’re telling me to check out your oh-so-awesome hardware site, kthxbai, I’m not even going to bother with you.

We have to learn how to use the tools we have in front of us to target our audience, our niche. Stop sending automated messages and comments telling me — and others — how cool you are or that we should check you out. Pay attention to your audience first. Find out what they need, and if they will be interested in whatever you have to offer. Do not send messages that look as if you just cut and paste from a saved document without even bothering to see if the recipient is going to be interested.

Learn how to care, or get out of the sandbox.