Over the past four months, I’ve become an avid user of Anthill’s LinkedIn Group ^[1] – when not following our Facebook fans ^[2] and twittering on Twitter ^[3].

Yes, I’ve become a social media junkie.

This is largely because I’m fascinated by the commercial application of these tools. It’s a topic that we’ve covered before.

Our bloggers have been critical of its longevity (Can social media sell anything but itself ^[4]) and equally dazzled by its potential (How I used social media to put my CEO on the street ^[5]).

Of course, the following example (first published as a ‘Discussion’ on the Social Media Academy ^[6] LinkedIn Group) had me from the get-go.

Its author is Paul Rickett ^[7], Founder and Principal at VARKETING!:

Lots of local businesses are using twitter these days. In particular I seem to be following a lot of restaurants and wineries. The other day I tweeted 2 restaurants with a simple question (and emailed a third as they weren’t on twitter) about what wines they were serving.

Now, not everyone checks twitter every few minutes and my question wasn’t time critical – but after 24 hours with no response I tweeted a #Fail and mentioned their names.

Received a snippy email from one owner (whom I knew and who had recommended the restaurant on twitter under their personal id but I didn’t know they owned it) about why I did this. In part, here’s my reply:

As a general point, I see many businesses getting on the twitter bandwagon and not being prepared to invest the time (even if its a few minuted a day, but consistently) to make it work for them. Secondly, most use it purely as a substitute/addition for other forms of advertising rather than as a social means of connecting with their market.

“Its an object illustration of social media’s power and responsibility. Social media is 2-way communication, not 1-way so by establishing yourself on twitter you invite people to talk to you as well through that medium and in my case I chose to use that invitation to save myself cell minutes in calling a restaurant.

So you sort of have an obligation to check and respond in return for the ability to promote. I did give you 24 hours before complaining about it as I know not everyone is on twitter all the time.”

So my question is: a) do you agree with the premise that business does indeed have an obligation (sounds like common-sense, but maybe not) to monitor and respond in a timely manner if they use twitter to promote themselves, and b) when you are advising clients to you try to inculcate this responsibility to monitor and respond in a timely manner?

Had the restaurants simply tweeted back a response, I’m sure it would have been of interest to their customers and potential customers.

As a general point, I see many businesses getting on the twitter bandwagon and not being prepared to invest the time (even if its a few minuted a day, but consistently) to make it work for them.

Secondly, most use it purely as a substitute/addition for other forms of advertising rather than as a social means of connecting with their market.

Earlier this year, we hypothesized that it might be a while before many of the common social media tools move into the marketing mainstream (Why executives fear social media ^[8]).

But the marketing crime here seems to be akin to putting in a telephone line and neglecting to pick up the receiver when it rings.