I like Michael Martine. He’s a competitor, but he’s earned my respect.
Recently, Michael posted a video on YouTube in which he tells his audience NOT to use social media to market their blogs. It seems like bad advice on the surface, but I…

As Walt says in comment #5, you’ve got to spend your time in the right place–right for you and for your audience.

So, what about automating part of this, as linkerjpatrick mentions in comment #1? That’s a tougher one to nail down, but you know, really, all this is about is the old “golden rule”: do for others as you would have done to you. While you might be tempted to see something as a “promotion”, others might just see it as spammy.

Jason Calacanis is one of my friends on several social networks, but on Pownce, it seemed all he could do turn it into a mouthpiece about Mahalo. I’m sure there’s hardly anything else on Jason’s mind, but that’s not much of a valuable contribution to any idea of a community. In fact, Pownce almost got a mention in the video for being so spammy, but I wanted to keep it short.

Only you can answer for yourself if you’re truly contributing to make the social network a better place for everyone or if you’re using it as a tool. The specifics or methods are irrelevant.

What Bill’s talking about in comment #2 is what happens when there is abuse. I saw those videos, Bill, from StomperNet, too, and I followed their advice with some good success. They specifically said the same things that I’m saying now. Be a real participant. Contribute value. Don’t spam or abuse it. But people didn’t listen, and look what happened. Scribd shut that bullshit down in a flash, as they should have.

Stephanie and Raza’s points also echo this idea: share stuff that others would find valuable. Be real. If you were on the receiving end of the tweet, post, pownce, etc., what would your reaction be? Remember the golden rule. Social media rewards people who understand that.

You’re right on the money.

It’s two parts:

1. Spend your time at the right place. Like the real world, you probably wouldn’t roll into a biker bar expecting to find a nice girl to take home for Mom’s ok.

2. Join in the conversation… and have a freaken’ point. Back at the biker bar, you better talk “Harly”, or shut up and drink your beer.