Late Adopter's Guide to diving into Social Media

I won't name names, but I still have friends and colleagues (male 40+) that are realizing that the social web is passing them by. They mention a news story from the radio, and friends roll their eyes and inform them that this was posted to Twitter and Facebook hours ago... They discover that people are networking, trading leads, and making deals off LinkedIn. They find colleague's blogs that make them appear as experts (gee I hope so) - yet they know just as much if not more than that guy. To all of you, I say welcome. Better late than never.

The first thing is to determine how social you want to be and if there is to be a divide between personal and professional, where will that be. I posted a tongue n cheeck post 2 years ago about this, that is still relevant today. My attitude is that if you're a good person, living a good healthy life, then your social media personna will reflect that. For the one shot of you holding a beer (as if that's so bad), there are so many others that will reflect your interests that will provide fodder for professional relationship building. Still, some folks may not be so ready for all of that. 

LinkedIn : This is the modern day rollodex and chamber mixer rolled into one (except no coctails unfortunately). Consider this as your number one tool for building your individual professional brand. Here is where you express your knowledge and build cred.

• Create a rich profile that is balanced between personal and professional. Include a bit of your personality, but consider it a professional vehicle for building relationships and selling yourself.
  • Add Apps to pull in other media feeds such as blog posts, twitter, video, photos.
  • Join Groups : See what colleagues that do what you do have joined.
  • Build Cred via answering Questions. You will be rewarded with "exper" status if others like/share your answers.
    • Groups: Users will post questions. Answer questions or ask questions. Answers visible to all other members and will feed to their home and your profile.
    • Answers: There is an area from the [more] extension of the main nav called Answers: indicate here you're area of expertise and begin answering questions other users post.
• Connect with clients, colleagues and friends. In the process of connecting, use the "we've done business together" option if you can, as it has the least barriers and everyone uses this method. Write a short personal note with each invite.
• Poach Connections: See who colleauges are connected to, and connect with the those that serve your needs.

Facebook : Unless you've left a trail of corpses behind you, don't worry so much and jump in. You can and should segment your "friends" into "lists" and then assign specific access permissions to each. I have both a Professional list and a Limited Professional, which I lock access down for. As you accept freind requests, you'll notice the option to 'add to list'. You can also go to 'Edit friends' under Account. Then go into Privacy settings and block access to things such as photos, religious and political views, relationships, etc.

Twitter : You won't hit the masses, but is a great tool for listening and projecting yourself as a knowledge leader. Just DO NOT bore us with what you ate or plan to eat. Success here is about building good karma. Be generous and give to receive.

• Share articles or ideas that are quality... quality, not quantity. 
• When someone retweets (rt) your post, direct message (dr) them and thank them
• If someone follows you, follow them back
• The pound sign # is a convention for categorization.. there is no governing body
• Do as others do

Listening & Broadcasting Tools

Hootsuite or TweetDeck : Both are awesome tools for listening and broadcasting to multimple channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook). My choice is Hootsuite currently as it's web-based (vs software). It allows you to schedule your posts, and it has a great app for iPad if you're interested. The value is really less about broadcasting and more about listening in my opinion. Setup search feeds for the topics that are important to you. I listen to #webdesign #html5 #onlinemarketing #socialmedia... as well as my local news about Burlington VT : #btv. Each gets segmented into separate columns, and its here that I listen and learn what is news before it becomes news.

That's the quick dillio. Go get 'em.

Comments

[hot Gucci Jockey bags]

And they'll keep on doing that, because they thoroughly intend for you to keep jumping through hoops to keep your
privacy, in the hope you eventually give up and relent, so they can maximize your monetary value to them-hot Gucci Jockey bags