Every­one was a new­bie at one time when it comes to social media

Putting together last week’s post “Ten Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies” was a rewarding experience for me, especially because the article seemed to touch a chord with many of my friends — a lot of whom are resisting the New World of Communication.

Not all of them, though.

Below is a really detailed article comment written by Kimberly Noon, one of my awesome marketing students at SFSU. Her Gen-Y insights added a lot of her own experience to the conversation, and whe agreed to allow me to share her remarks as a Guest Post.

Here’s Kim:

Shari — I love this. I think you’ve nailed every­thing. As a very expe­ri­enced Social-Medialite, I think you’ve explained every­thing so well. A few comments…

Learn­ing the dif­fer­ent avenues of social media CAN be super over­whelm­ing. For new­bies, they should do exactly what you said. Fol­low the 4 steps and focus on one ele­ment at a time. Learn­ing one (twit­ter, face­book, etc.) will help you learn the oth­ers. For exam­ple, Twit­ter and Face­book have many of the same ele­ments and reach the same demo­graphic, hence once you learn one it will be “eas­ier” to learn the other.

Friends connect through Mafia Wars

Love the Mafia Wars ref­er­ence 🙂 My boyfriend works for the com­pany that sup­plies us with those games such as Far­mVille, Mafia Wars, YoVille, etc. The point of those games is to con­nect friends through gam­ing. Back in the day, this used to be done by hav­ing family/friend game nights and play­ing board games. It’s the same con­cept, only nowa­days, peo­ple are on-line the major­ity of their day and have less time to meet face to face. These games give peo­ple the oppor­tu­nity to play games with their friends/family (be con­nected) and still have the same kind of play­ful expe­ri­ence.

Also, if the games are THAT pop­u­lar there is prob­a­bly some­thing attrac­tive about them… and it’s just another way to be con­nected, which is the point any­way.. right?

One of the best ways to learn the tips and tricks of social media is LISTENING to your peers. Watch, lis­ten, explore, and learn.

Every­one was a new­bie at one time when it comes to social media. Most social media mem­bers are for­giv­ing and will offer help and sug­ges­tions. MOST, not all.

Be your­self when it comes to social media

Act­ing like some­one you aren’t is bad and it’s for a whole dif­fer­ent crowd — the cults of peo­ple who use social media as an “escape” from who they really are. The peo­ple who are there to be them­selves and con­nect with peo­ple they REALLY know (not imag­i­nary inter­net friends) see these “cult” peo­ple as creepy and spam-like.

Speak­ing of spam — DON’T spam. This will cause peo­ple to “unfol­low” or “hide” you, which defeats the pur­pose of being con­nected through social media. There are so many peo­ple on my Face­book page that post and repost every ounce of spam they come across. I “hide” these peo­ple from my Face­book page so I never see what they post. You don’t want to be one of these peo­ple 🙂

Lastly, social media out­lets are NOT your diary. Like you said, once you say some­thing, it’s out there and you can’t take it back. If you want to post some­thing, think about it first. If it’s some­thing only your diary should know, write it down there and don’t share it with the Web world.

Kimberly’s had her say; what’s yours?

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7 thoughts on “Every­one was a new­bie at one time when it comes to social media”

  1. Well said, you must be careful of what you post online. I can’t count how many times I see on the news someone not getting hired/fired for Facebook posts or pictures. I think one thing that keeps people from spam posting is just posting blogs, information and videos that genuinely interest them.

    Xavier…

  2. Shari,
    I forced myself to read this and boy am I glad that I weathered through it.

    You have given me some powerful thoughts that have raided my interest level where before there was none.

    But now I imaginee that I, too, could enjoy having a blog.

    Thanks for the coaxing and material to wing (my maturing thoughts); you will learn of the flight.

    1. Sulaymaan, actually last semester’s students ALL started blogs. We may be able to do them again this semester, but we’ll have to check out the Lab situation first. I’m glad this has piqued your interest.
      My latest blog article is All About Starting a Blog — and I have two earlier ones that walk you through the How-To set one up.
      Check under the Blogging Basics category for both articles.

  3. Shari

    Greatest line of the article … social media outlets are not your diary. Some would disagree but I say resist the urge. The point of learning the SM tools/channels is invaluable information. I feel the only way to be able to interact is knowing how it all works.

    Ok so now I have new (little) respect for the mafia wars,etc as her BF works for the company that creates it.

    Listen first to see how the people talk. So much is learned there as social media is making us talk again yet is almost like the first day of freshman year of HS. yes, you know some ppl but the majority you have to wait to see what they do first.

    1. Suzanne, very cool to meet you here on my turf.
      🙂
      My initial reaction to Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc. was very negative [i.e., what a waste of time]; however, I do remember last January [before I started my education] I thought people on Facebook were wasting their time. Now I find myself, more and more, targeting articles to my friends who don’t get any of this . . . [social media] . . . yet.
      We’ve got our work cut out for us.

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