One of the biggest differences between social media and most other marketing channels is the idea of developing an audience. As a marketer, this may not seem all that new at first — you have a marketing database already, right? But an audience isn’t a database.
An audience chooses to listen to or engage with you. You earn your audience, by listening and engaging, by entertaining or by providing value. On Twitter, @comcastcares, @oatmeal and @thisissethsblog are good examples of each of these. More importantly, unless you are @charliesheen, developing an audience takes time. It takes hours (and hours), but it happens over weeks, months or more. And there is the rub for marketers.