Of course I don’t. I find it completely ridiculous.

I do receive emails from vendors, suppliers, and marketers requesting a sponsored blog post, link, or guest post. There are times when money is offered and other times when they would prefer something free. However, I experienced something different last night while reading new emails.

Ready?

I hope this message finds you well.

I’d like to advertise on your site kylelacy.com for our WEBSITE. It wouldn’t be anything obtrusive; I’d like to get either a mention & link in a post leading to our site. If you help me out we’d be more than willing to compensate you with social media services such as 1000 Facebook fans or 1000 Twitter followers to maximize your marketing online.

Please let me know if you’d be interested or if you’d like more details.

I couldn’t believe it. Who am I kidding? Of course I could believe it! The issue with this email is not that vendor is offering payment with Twitter and Facebook fans. The issue isn’t that they are offering maximized marketing services by increasing friends and followers.

The issue – this company is still in business.

What would be the point of automatically receiving 2000 accounts connected to my name? I have no idea who they are… what’s the point? Social media is about storytelling and communication. We build community because individuals must have the ability to connect and have a conversation.

I’m not interested in shouting.

Instead of going with Company Terrible… try the follow tips instead.

1. Tell customer and personal stories on your blog. If you currently have a blog for your company be very sure that you are telling stories and not regurgitating industry information. How are you setting yourself apart from your competition? You are more likely to garner leads (in the long term) if you are telling stories with personality and flair. People will latch on and relate with stories about other customers.

2. Use Facebook Ads to Drive Leads. Facebook Ads could be one of the more important things you could do in social media in order to drive leads and business development.

Check out the following posts to help with the building of your Facebook ads:

3. Track Local Users on Twitter. If you are currently using Twitter to share information it is extremely important to connect with potential customers in your area of influence (Do you see a trend forming here?) You have the ability to search over different keywords while using Twitter. If a user is talking about a topic that is central to your business… communicate with them!