Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

14. Why Do I Need to Be Selective?

Although it is important to protect your brand by creating a username on your relevant networking sites, it can be just as important to be selective about which sites you actually use for your brand. There are so many networks to choose from, and establishing a username at any and all of them is not a bad idea. This can prevent others from taking the username and possibly confusing consumers with conflicting brand names.

However, putting 20 different icons that link to your 20 different online profiles can be just as confusing and damaging to your brand as having a conflicting one.

As a social media strategist, there are many different sites on which I can choose to establish a presence: Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Mashable Follow, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, FourSquare… the list does go on and on. However, all of these sites can cause people who want to follow online to be overwhelmed.

Before selecting the sites on which to take an active presence, it's important to determine what each site will do (both positively and negatively) for your brand. Some things to consider when making the decision:

Determine Why You Like a Site

Did a popular tech blog article convince you that the network was the best thing since sliced bread? Have you looked at it and enjoyed the way people communicate on it? Are you not entirely sure, and want to just check it out? ...