Getting started in Social Media is all about JUST DOING IT!
That’s what I continue to do — and exactly what I suggest to those listening to me.
[Those NOT listening to me get the same advice, and I know it’s just a matter of time until they, too, jump in.]
My TWO Biggies this week: Ning & Squidoo
My Performance Social Media Ning site
Q: How many times have I heard people praising the opportunities on Ning.com?
A: Countless times — at least a dozen any way, and three times last week:
- During a phone conversation with a fellow social media evangelist
- During the #smbookclub discussion I moderated
- During the SM ROI panel discussion sponsored by Women in Consulting [for which I took videos now on YouTube@sharisax]
The Time for Ning was NOW
And it was quite easy . . . and more importantly for lots of us . . . did not take much time.
So what is Ning and why did I create my presence there?
Ning is a tool/platform that allows you to set up YOUR OWN Social Network — with what appears to me to have different capabilities and ease-of-use than, say, a Facebook Fanpage. To my mind, it is more personable . . . and, well, less Facebook-y . . . which means more of you, and what you want.
While my Ning site is far from “complete,” what it does have now is a FORUM I set up so that “newbies” can ask me [and my interns] questions about HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA — the question that plagues so many small business people [mostly Baby Boomers] who are gradually “seeing the light” but don’t have a clue where to begin.
There are a lot of people like me “out there” who do want to help. The people I’m meeting are invited to ask me their questions on the Ning forum.
If you are reading this post, of course, sign in to the Ning forum and ask away.
Here’s a question for starters: Just how do external links help pump your Google Juice?
* * *
My first Squidoo lens:
Reviewing and chatting about social media books
My Performance Social Media partner Les Ross has been hounding me for months to begin Squidoo-ing . . . yet another link to drive traffic to my blog.
And yesterday was the perfect day, especially since Squidoo founder Seth Godin announced his own new Squidoo launch Brands in Public. You can read on his blog post about how companies can now aggregate everything being said about their brands in one place WHERE they can comment right alongside.
I do want my readers to check out my own Squidoo site, but I just got it started . . . and that is the key: JUST GET STARTED.
BTW, Good luck to my brother Chuck, who is going to start a Facebook fanpage for his Temple in Hawaii. He told me he was going to follow my advice and learn a new social media platform/tool every week.
Next post: NEWBIES, How to Get Started with Social media for your business
I graduated back in 86, And being in your class is like a blast from the past.
To tell you the truth I feel lost because I haven’t seen any of this stuff in twenty years. but it all looks familar, and the same goes for my math class.
But I have to give it my best because I’m 42 yrs old now and I think I read like a 5th grader.
My comprehension and spelling is ok, I think! but I feel need a LOT of work to compete with the world.
And I know you’re the one to guide me from what I’ve seen so far.
I’m sure I’ll be thanking you when it’s over, But teaching will never end.
Kenneth, you’ve taken the first important step — getting back to studies. Personally, I am what’s called a “Continual Learner” — and a lot of what I learn continually is from my students. Hope this semester is the beginning of a rewarding journey for you.
When I see some good content I try to link to it. That is the way the internet is supposed to work. That’s how Google, in their formula, weighs how important a site is. The problem is 80% of the bloggers out there or already established websites will only link to you if you have something to give them. And it turns into a selfish thing when if we all just link to sites we like than Google juice would pass to the best sites and we wouldn’t need to do link exchanges or pay for links in directories.
-Clinton Young
We can all try to do the right thing, and the hope is that the “good” will rise to the top and the “bad” will get filtered away. . . We can hope.
The challenge with the exploding number of SM platforms (in my exp so far) is in creating draw and centralized user interactivity within the domains that users create.
A million SM groups that contain less than 100 active users each within a domain doesn’t seem to be a model for lasting interest. As I search through I see a lot of stagnant and non-vital groups like that online and within the SM domains.
I think that broad and mass experimentation is probably the key there to finding those “draw points.”
I would love for anybody to share tools or tips that they have had success with in creating a wide and lasting draw. -Tony
Johnny-on-the-spot, Tony
HOW COOL
Focus & Effort will bring both of us what we are looking for
🙂
Now, to give a response to your comment:
Building community is definitely one great goal — and could be the “best” one; however, it is not the only goal.
For those of us WANTING to drive traffic to our “web sites” — to BUILD that community — Putting content on many links THROUGHOUT the Web will “pump up” the Google Juice.
We all start out as “babes” and no one knows us. As we “grow up” and make our marks, we can become better known and build the following we are looking for. Did this answer address your question/concern?