This article was written by Bill Radford.

When embracing social media, focus on that first word: social.

Many businesses that have added Facebook, Twitter and other social media to their marketing toolkit regard it  “as simply another corporate megaphone,” said Joe Hodas, senior vice president of brand communications for Colorado Springs-based advertising agency Vladimir Jones.

“With many, you’ll see that all of their Twitter feed is, ‘We just put out this press announcement, we just won this award.’ It’s just a one-way avenue to speak about their brand in very corporate terms. That’s a mistake.”

Businesses that use social media simply as a way to blast the online world with sales pitches will turn people off, said Kevin Knebl, owner of Colorado Springs-based Knebl Communications, which specializes in online and offline networking skills and social media training. It’s about building relationships with current and prospective customers, he said — and thus increasing your “like, know and trust factor.”

Here are some local businesses that are using social media to do just that…”

read the rest of this article from the Gazette.