We’ve seen organizations and individuals use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and a whole covey of other social media sites for one or another type of campaign. That’s a really good idea if done with a plan. We’ve also seen the idea taken to extremes simply for added exposure.

We’ve seen trivia contests on Facebook Fan pages that centered on company history, a neat trick to get people to the website. Printable coupons on Facebook was another neat trick, but now Facebook has changed their user agreement and you can’t remove the coupon once the promotion is over.

What many folks lose sight of is that these are social media. Rather than a physical place where friends gather to socialize, it’s a virtual ice cream social.

Let’s look at that a moment. Is there some way to use social media to entice a group of friends to meet for a meal at your pizza place? Yes, and pizza places, among others, are learning to do just that. Once upon a time, a restaurant would assign a banquet or meeting room for groups like the Kiwanis or Rotary or Friars Club. But that room remained empty when those organizations were not meeting. Now the restauranteurs fill them full time using Facebook events and other social media. Good social networking is good for business.

We’re using a similar track to draw people out to book signings and other promotional events in support of our clients. Bookstores have signings to build traffic. We build it further for the author. Everybody benefits.

But there has to be a plan. Simple, repeated blitzing of the social media sites with the same information over and over inures the audience to the message. In other words, they get sick of hearing about it before the event and don’t attend. Too much, too often backfires. Using a little group psychology to plan the social media campaign can build enthusiasm. Overdoing it has the opposite effect.

There is, however, a built in saving grace for Facebook and a few other media: Geo-specific targeting. This lets the message go to specified zip codes. So, we can set up a main event, in our case, a book tour, announce the tour and maybe at the same time post a complete schedule. Then, for each city or individual book store appearance, do a geo-specific event that will only be seen by folks in those zip codes.

At Hudnall and Associates, we use social media to promote our clients. We try to be smart about it.