Stealth may be good for military purposes, but for social media, it just means that your profile can’t be seen. It’s not really a desirable trait.

Maybe it’s a Facebook business page that hasn’t seen any love or attention over the last six months. Maybe it’s a LinkedIn profile that hasn’t been updated since you quit your last job. Or are you neglecting your tweeple?

It takes ten minutes and a fleeting whim to create a social media account. Very little effort is involved. If you are using social media for business reasons, accounts that are created and neglected may be doing you more harm than good.

I recently read an interesting Biznik.com article on this subject referring to these as “stealth” profiles. You find them, they may pique your interest for one reason or another, and the person behind the profile is nowhere to be found.

The reaction of the person potentially interested in your service is not a favorable one. They are more likely to move on to your competitor’s page or profile than to contact you for your services. Customer lost.

So, be thorough. Don’t post information you are not comfortable with, but make sure you are aren’t leaving pertinent information blank. Try to keep up with your tweets. Maintain your presence. It will only help in the long run.

Most of us have been on the flip side of this at some point or another. We get excited, thinking “there’s a bookstore in my town I didn’t know about,” or something to that effect.

You didn’t know about it because maybe the business has been closed for years, and they dropped their social media midstream. Worse, maybe the business is still open and they just didn’t see the value in the social media experiment. Again, customer lost.

So, don’t go into social media half hearted. Stay vigilant, stay active, and hopefully see the results. Neglected accounts detract from your business’s goals.

Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.