Socially Awkward...or Advantageous?

The debate over the benefits of social media as it pertains to marketing have been well documented. Personally, at least on the consumer level, using sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help drive traffic to your website or promote products/goods/services seems like a no-brainer to me. But when it comes to industries and trades such as HVACR, what type of relevancy does this media really have?
As it turns out, it may have a lot. Let's face it. People are on Facebook. HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. And call me crazy, but I'm guessing that most of those people have a furnace, heat pump, air conditioner or mini-split. Last time I checked, corporate entities such as Whole Foods, Hyatt and the W Hotels all had pages that were offering potential customers tidbits, useful recipes/travel tips and discounts. So the opportunity to develop a connection is there. The question is, how do you do it?
Social media requires engagement. It requires updates (I know, because I've been bad about blogging over the last month...sorry!). And most importantly, it requires genuineness (see, as a Publisher, I can create words too!). If the information you are sharing with others doesn't come across as real, or helpful, it's going to be perceived that way. People (your potential customers) are going to walk away...and they ain't coming back.
At RSES, we are using a combination of approaches to try and build up a fan base on our Facebook page, while also using Twitter and LinkedIn to update followers on press releases, new information and products that we have, etc. We're also promoting certain educational or training products to our fans, offering them unique discounts via those mediums. It's not over-the-top savings, but enough to whet the appetite, and also keep them talking with us.
We're also looking at ways to grow our audience via electronic means. For example, as we expand our subscriber list to our magazine, we're looking at how we can tell those readers about the benefits of following us "socially." Getting those folks to sign up for e-mail alerts and updates is a simple way to do that.
In your business, some or all of these options may work. And you don't need to spend a ton of time on doing it. You just need to do it everyday. A friend of mine who operates an online furniture site (and is making some nice money doing it) commented to me at dinner on Sunday that he wished he would have integrated Facebook into his marketing program two years ago. "It doesn't take a lot of work to offer a special, or ask other sister sites to friend you. And that expands your network and allows you to get more clicks, generate more traffic and get more sales."

Sounds like the goal of all our businesses, right?