My Social Networking Journey – Some Lessons Learned
Photo by LizMarie
Several posts back, I mentioned that I had been spending a lot of time on Twitter and neglecting my blog. Actually, I have been spending a lot of time not only on Twitter but “messing around” with lots of social networking applications. Why? Well, I am fascinated by the societal and cultural transformation that is taking place and being fueled by social networking. I wanted to experience first hand what social networking was all about and get a sense of if or how it could add value to a small business. I wanted to know if social networking was just a passing fad or a hard trend. If it was a trend, I wanted to understand the role effective use of social networking could play in helping an insurance agency, for example, build a strong trusted relationship with its customers, provide quality service, efficiently grow its business and improve profitability. While I may not be a social network “rock star”, what I have found is that social networking is indeed a hard trend that must not be ignored by any small business expecting to succeed in today’s socially networked culture.
So, what have I learned? Most importantly, I have learned that it is virtually impossible to tell someone about blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr, or You Tube let alone Twitter and expect them to really understand and appreciate how these applications work or how they might make business sense. This is stuff that must be experienced. If you are new to the world of social networking, I know you have “issues”. You still doubt that social networking has any relevance in the business world and besides you are already over booked and don’t have time to be messing around with this stuff. You have privacy and security concerns. You want to know what’s the ROI and how to go about monitoring and managing employee on-line activity. You are concerned about losing control and your brand image. Even if you are interested, it all seems a bit overwhelming and you have no idea where to start. If this all rings true – here is how I got started and I think it might work for you as well. Go to blogger and create a blog – not for your business but for you personally. No real risk here. Find something you are interested in – a hobby, one of your kids sport teams, travel, etc. and set up a blog with the expectation of just having fun and sharing stories with your family and friends. Setting up your first blog won’t take you more than 30 minutes, if that. You don’t have to have a masters in journalism to write a blog. Blog posts do not have to be long. In fact, short is better. So, write a paragraph or two. Your first post might be a “welcome” and about the fact that you are starting a blog. Here is a blog I did for a backpacking trip I took with some friends. Your blog experience will start providing you with your own answers to many of your questions.
I hope this gets you started. Let me know how it goes. In future posts, I will continue to share my social networking journey and the lessons I have learned. It would be great if you would let me know what questions/issues you have so please leave a comment.
