Friday 30 September 2011

Social media - my good, bad, and ugly

I have been active in social media since May 2007.

In the early days I became involved because some people I respected said I should be.

I have gone from a few minutes a week to many hours where it became all consuming and now I spend a few minutes a day and a two concentrated hours per week.

My conclusions are:

Good

The best thing I have done is to start my own online community and in there my own tribe. Leading a tribe is better than following one in terms of positioning, reputation and attracting the people I want to attract

Consistent engagement in various forms of social media is good for building our reputations

Content is king. Putting up good content in words, visuals and audio attracts people to contact and make connection with us

I have gone from producing content for a wide audience to really focusing on my micro-niches and this means only the right people for me are contacting and connecting with me as a general rule

Starting and contributing to discussions on LinkedIn is the most valuable action for me to do in terms of attracting people I want to me

My other favourites with the same purpose are blogging, slideshares, YouTube
The most actual business I have obtained from social media has come from people who have watched my Are you values on the wall lived in the hall video on YouTube

I have changed my ezine from monthly to fortnightly which has increased reader engagement

Doing webinars is a great way to add value and demonstrate value

From a business perspective whatever we do in social media circles has to have strategic value. Mine is to attract the right people for me to sign-up at entry points which for me are: my changing what’s normal ezine, my changing what’s normal conversations, join my differencemakers community, complete one of my online audits, engage in the free monday morning mentoring I offer, or join my changing what’s normal Torchbearer tribe.

Bad

I think Facebook is incredibly over-rated and for me so far useless for business.
I maintain a presence on Facebook and I am playing with Google+.
The jury is our for me on the value of either.
The stuff some folk put on Facebook is simply unbelievable so much so that I spend about 2 minutes a week on Facebook.

Ugly

There are a lot of shameless self-promoters who give nothing and want to take everything in the social media space. Of the hundreds of things I have signed up for in the past four and half years only a handful still have my patronage.

Conclusions

I am forever gratitude for friends, colleagues and collaborators, and clients who without social media I probably would never have met.

For me it is worth a few minutes each day and two focused hours per week to do what I do online. Nothing however replaces the value of connecting with real people, in real time, in person, and so for me, although necessary, much of social media is still just hype and the places where already established brands gain exposure. This was confirmed for me today in a blog by Seth Godin where he said that only 10% of people who read his blog buy his books. Now mind you his 10% is a lot of people. LOL.

I would be very interested in your thoughts and experiences. Please comment or email ian@changingwhatsnormal.com

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Leader Changing What's Normal Tribe


Sparkenation: a spark that ignites passion that leads to action that changes what's normal

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