All too often I come across companies online that have a social media presence and seem to think that the quality of that presence doesn’t matter as long as it’s there. Too many companies seem to think that their brand or their product will carry them. That’s an outdated way of thinking about your brand.

By far the biggest mistakes companies make when deciding to create an online presence for their company is thinking that people won’t notice how impersonal their accounts are. You can’t run your social media like you run your website. Websites are static, information pages. Your social media accounts are your company’s heart and soul.

If you’re looking to truly leverage social media for your business you better find someone inside your company that is a social media rock star, that is truly passionate about your product, knows how to be a connector and can generate authentic buzz. But here’s the caveat, if you’re an established brand you should not be using social media to generate buzz about your product. Use it to generate buzz about your people and how much you care about the people that use your products.

If you don’t have someone inside your company you think can accomplish these things then find someone from the outside and bring them in. Give them access to different department heads, let them sit in on meetings and get a feel for what you’re company is passionate about and where it’s headed.

I’m not saying that you need to completely ignore ROI but you need to know that you’re getting in on the ground floor (if the internet is a teenager, social media is an infant) of something that, if done right will generate an enormous amount of brand loyalty. Brand loyalty equals revenues.

You can bet the farm that if you get off on the right foot and stop trying to “pitch” your product and start listening to your customers that you will look back in a year or two or five and realize just how powerful an impact it can make to put a real face on your company and how much it will improve your bottom line.