“Social Media: Step-by-step”
The End of The Year is made for reflection, clean up, and planning for the future.
Six months ago, social media luminary Chris Brogan published 19 tips to manage your SM online presence.
And I most likely did what a lot of my friends might have done, i.e. LOOK at the List and THINK “What a great list” and then [most probably] moved on to something else to read.
What were we missing?
A lot!
An Actual Roadmap for DOING & LEARNING Social Media!!
So I thought I’d take a few of our moments here to actually study Chris’s list and chat about each item, i.e., more active reading and more opportunity to “internalize” some of his great advice.
Note: Chris’s 19 tips are in blue. [And he recommends you do them Daily. That, of course, is up to you.]
1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.
- When starting a new regimen, EASY is good. And finding valuable info on the Net to share will make you feel good as well. Of course, if you have really read the information and can add an insight of your own, that will help you as well as your audience.
2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).
- Commenting on other people’s blogs is Not Easy, but it accomplishes so much: e.g., adding to the conversation, recognizing the writer’s hard work, and getting your name out there . . . for just three benefits.
3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.
- Hmm. Have to do a bit of interpretation here. I’m assuming that Chris suggests we use the @name and pat them on the back in a Tweet. That’s very cool, but every day? It might be more realistic to find new person to applaud every day. If you keep praising the same people, that seems a bit spammy.
4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)
- Following people back is easy — but deciding WHOM to follow back is another story. I, personally, am not a fan of anything automated and that alone may slow my popularity growth online. Many people do follow you automatically, most often after you Tweet something with a keyword they are following. And, in most cases, I follow them back — but NOT if their last comment was spammy or missing. And I also look at the Avatar. If I feel it is “inappropriate” in any way, I don’t follow back.
5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.
- Every time you or I go onto Twitter with some time specifically devoted to participating, I think this is fun to do. If your closest Twitter friends are not posting at the moment, you can engage in some conversation with anyone who posts something you like. The poster could be someone you are already following — or better yet [and a way to accomplish #4] — do a search for an area of interest and converse with someone who writes something interesting, whom you were not following before.
- Because I use Tweetdeck and have a steady stream of real-time posts about my key search terms, I can always find new people to chat with.
- BTW, I just Tweeted @chrisbrogan asking if I could use his photo, and he said ‘Sure” [only 9 more minutes of 2-way chat to go for today]
- Thought I’d take this opportunity for a shameless plug for my own Twitter Cheat Sheet post: http://sharisax.com/2009/12/03/twitter-basics-workshop-cheat-sheet/
1. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)
- Honestly, it was fun back in October to have all the birthday greetings on my Wall. But I imagine Chris is right and that a Tweet or email would have been even more “personal” and warm.
2. Respond to any comments on your wall.
- Actually this tip sounds like a No-Brainer, unless you have 5000 friends — which I don’t . . .
- But from what I understand, if we want to use Facebook for Business purposes as well as Personal, then we all will need to connect with many, many people through Facebook. If you are reading this post, please Ask to be my Friend. Chris, you, too. 🙂
3. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.
- This advice gives me the opportunity to spout my own viewpoint on “Updates”: At this moment in my social media learning curve, my opinion is that updates to Facebook will Not always be appropriate to other platforms. I am really anxious, though, to hear/read other people’s opinions on this.
- I know there are sites like Ping that make posting to all your sites simultaneously a breeze. I don’t do this [yet], do you?
4. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.
- Now this is WORK, but the kind of “social capital” that pays off huge rewards. As a matter of fact, I’m going to stop writing right now to comment on my friends’ updates.
- This reminds me of a related tip: Do things NOW. If you wait, they are forgotten.
5. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.
- Honestly, this is ONE tip I’d never thought of, but I can see that ANY TIME you share someone else’s thoughts, you make them very, very happy . . . and spread the good words.
6. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two
- Again, something New for me. I’ve been joining a few Fan Pages, but I can’t remember even looking at them.
🙁 Let alone, commenting. This will take some thought; however, that being said, I, too, have a FanPage that would love to see some “love,” i.e., comments: Performance Social Media. [Become a Fan . . . and comment 🙂 ]
1. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.
- A “no-brainer” . . . except for deciding what “makes sense” for you. I’ve heard of people who are VERY discriminating in accepting LinkedIn invitations: their practice is to ONLY connect with people whom they know well and would write a recommendation for.
- My own practice follows the advice of many LinkedIn gurus who suggest that the real power of LinkedIn is in your second and third degree connections, i.e., the people who are connected to your connections.
- Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shariweisssf
2. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).
- Great suggestion and a practice I do subscribe to. Of course, this means you need to keep up your F2F [Face to Face] networking as well as online. My friend and one of my personal social media gurus Dean Guadagni gave a great networking presentation to a networking group I belong to.
3. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.
- EXCELLENT ADVICE! LinkedIn is so much more robust and powerful than most people know. Personally I’ve been on the “receiving” end of the Q & A function. I’ve met some great new contacts from all over the world — a few whom I’ll be collaborating with on future projects.
4. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
- WOW! Wouldn’t this be sensational! I do see that Chris has modified this practice to “one every few days”: I bet that’s do-able. So much more auathentic when you give the recommendation without having been asked.
5. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.
- Another item for my To-Do List. I know that creating and sharing Slideshows is a fantastic way to build your online authority . . . and I Resolve to do some.
Blogs
1. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.
- WordPress makes this easy as I receive email notifications [and not enough comments . . . yet . . . let’s change that. I do promise to reply to EVERYONE who comments on this post! Chris?]
2. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.
- GREAT IDEA: You comment here and I’ll comment back — Be very happy to.
3. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.
- Absolutely, but I like Digg and Delicious . . . hint, hint. [Check the end of the post for an easy click through to those sites.]
4. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.
- Great idea: Some of my fav bloggers are Adam Singer, David E. Henderson, Larry Brauner, and Suzanne Vara, and Valeria Maltoni [to name just a few]. I learn a host of new things every time I read their articles.
NEXT POST: Handy Checklist to manage all these tasks
Well “we’re” finished with the planning. Now it’s time for the doing. Please let “us” know what that “Doing” entails.
@ #8 Larry you couldn’t have said it any better lol!!
@ #!4 Agniezka .. Once you start to work on these social networks it becomes very simple and easy. but the tips given are just kind of to help you enjoy the overall expierience of social networking.
I definitley agree with some of the information on the page. the more interesting stuff you post on your pages the more prople will come and follow you or request you as a friend. I also agree that commenting on other peoples statuses is a good way to engage in good conversation and obtaining more friends and followers. like i said before i am big into twitter and facebook so alot of these tips that are given i already follow the methods.
Hey Shari,
it was great to read this article, i’m a begginer with social media, but thanks to Chris’s plan and your comments, it makes things much more clear!
Agnieszka
@Ann – if you look more closely, the folks who are most successful are the ones who promote ideas and connections and work hard to be helpful to the community. You can transfer that very same attitude and approach to your business.
Small businesses are usually smarter in that regard, because they’re usually closer to their customers. What Shari lists here is a very comprehensive checklist of “what” to do, you need to figure out why and for whom. As for is it preferable to do this hard work to making cold calls… do you like making cold calls? Do you get plenty of business that way? Do you think the success of others is due to luck alone?
To me, it’s about what you think and know works for your business – and what you’re willing to do to make it work. As Brogan says, overnight success is many years in the making.
Many of us here have very full time activities on top of a full participation. Many who have small businesses integrate some of these activities to their existing business development efforts – to extend and reinforce them – and test what works over time.
If you’d like to learn more about marketing for small business using social media, I recommend checking into what Team and a Dream is working on. I’ve known Skip for a number of years and know he’s top quality.
Valeria, thank you so much for helping me help Ann. She’s a golf physical therapist with a wealth of knowledge. She knows in her heart that social media strategies will work, but I believe she is looking for more immediate results. That’s why your Brogan quote “Overnight success is many years in the making” is so very appropriate.
My own brief experience trying to help fellow Baby Boomers get a handle on social media platforms, tools, and strategies has shown me that these efforts, too, will not be overnight successes WITHOUT small consistent steps in the right direction.
Lots of continued success to you and everyone “out there” trying to help us all how to work together more effectively — and more enjoyably.
–Shari
Hi Shari
Well, I am exhausted just thinking about trying to manage to do half of these suggestions. It seems that the people who are successful in Social Media are the ones promoting themselves in Social Media. For the rest of us, who have an actual business that needs to bring people in the door, I would like to have a couple of examples of businesses that have been successful doing just that, bringing people in the door thru social media. Is the time commitment, to do even some of the steps listed above, more effective than making cold calls or setting up appointments and physically meeting other people that could send me business and vice versa? I would like to see more solid information on if this works. Especially for very small companies that do not have a person who can dedicate themselves to social networking as their main activity.
I hope you had a wonderful time in Ohio and very happy holidays to you and Jack
Actually, Ann, the examples abound . . . and can be found in many online articles. One thing you should not expect, though, is for mainstream media to be promoting this kind of marketing because all those stories would inevitably lead to less advertising for them.
We had a great time with grandbaby and are looking forward to our new year vacation AND new work.
🙂
You’re doing a great job Shari. You’re a team player!
I try
and
try
and
try
🙂
Shari, It’s nice to be reminded about the things that I can do to enhance my online presence. It’s easy to forget that Social Media is really about building relationships. Like reading a good book, and not knowing the ending, exploring the intriguing divergent paths are facinating.
Well stated, Chuck. When will we get that Guest Post from you talking about your initial adventures down Social Media Revolutionary Road?
Oh and yes, I agree with Stumble upon not being very good for text based websites 🙂
For pictures it is BRILLIANT!
I think you’ve got some great ideas and instructions here, but the title and the introductory text that people will read first is not going to attract anyone to this post because it doesn’t actually tell them what the post is about!
A post like this is probably something that millions of people are searching google for every week, but they’re going to be looking for this:
“How to get started with social media”
“Where to start in social media”
“step by step social media”
“how to manage my online presence”
“top 10 ways to manage online presence”
“best tips for managing my online presence”
Something straight to the point. Something that they would be stupid NOT to click on.
The saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but when it comes to blog posts, if you don’t have an appealing cover, it doesn’t matter who you are, it wont be read.
OK, James, I’ll try to add some of your suggestions.
🙂
Thanks, as always.
🙂
Shari
Great to remind us of what Chris had posted a while back. Hint hint on the digg and delicious has been taken and I shall oblige.
I think that as social media really starts to become more popular with companies and people in general, we will see where people start and then come across a list like this and run. It is not easy work to stay on top of social media.
Very well done on the explanations of CB’s list. He is a seasoned vet that is proof that these 19 points work.
Suzanne,
Isn’t it COOL when successful people actually tell us How To Do It?
Now we simply need to follow the directions.