Social media has been around for awhile now. Innovators and early adopters have been at it for years and the majority of people are now catching up. Whether you’re doing it for personal reasons (reconnecting with friends from childhood, high school, college, etc.), networking for business purposes, or just feel like getting in on it to see what all the hub-bub is about, it’s safe to say that social media is now mainstream.
When it comes to being on social media for businesses and general networking, there seems to be more of a sinking feeling people have that they’re falling behind the curve and something big is passing them by… I’m not going to argue with that. One of the issues I’ve encountered with people just getting started with social media is the feeling they have that it will suck up large amounts of their valuable time. I’m not going to lie to you, it can. For some it will. In fact, I’ve seen many a casual passerby who thought they’d just stick their head in the door to see what’s going on, get sucked in and become addicted. Easily understandable. It really is nothing like we’ve ever experienced before. On Facebook you can connect extremely easily with people you may have thought fell off the face of the Earth. Not only that, you can see photos, videos, likes/dislikes and really get a good idea of someone through their profiles and conversations. It brings you up to speed quickly not only with friends you’ve reconnected with but new people you meet. On Twitter you can talk about your interests and also have conversations extremely easily with brevity. Great way to find new people as well.
So to that point (there was a point somewhere in there), let’s talk about how you can take 10 minutes out of your busy day to get started in the social media sphere and get some traction. I akin the process to working out: the first 2 weeks it’s extremely difficult to get yourself to the gym on a daily basis, but after you get going you feel the obligation and need to be there. It really does take some time just to get in the groove and feel your way around anyways.
I’m going to talk specifically about Facebook and Twitter here. There are plenty of other social networks out there but these are the two I’ve personally kept up with. If you’re looking for information/advice about other social networks, please visit my friend Matt Dickman’s site Techno//Marketer, in fact I encourage it. There are tons and tons of excellent posts there for all your social networking needs. (You can follow Matt on Twitter as well.)
On with it already…
Learning about someone quickly has never been easier. Once you start to find people either through the Search on Facebook or “People You May Know”, everything they’re doing or talking about appears on your “News Feed”. If you’re set up to receive email notifications of people either requesting to be your friend or writing on your “Wall”, it’s real easy to keep up. Another quick way is to check the “Notifications” tab (next to “Online Friends”) at the bottom right of your browser which lets you know of anything going on directly related to you.
I first check the “Requests” section in the upper right portion of the page. If I have any friend requests I usually answer those and maybe go over to their page and see what’s going on with them. Also, I’ll write something to them by either writing on their “Wall” or by sending them a message directly (found as a link under their profile photo). I usually scan over my “News Feed” which is the default tab showing everything going on with my friends and see what people are doing and if there are any new photos or videos posted. A quick way to connect with others is to find out who of your existing friends have become friends with others which will be listed on your “News Feed” as well. People also join causes which is another great way to find out what people are into and something you yourself may want to participate in.
Some people can get thrown off by the “What are you doing?”. This is one of the first things I hear when I mention Twitter. It’s much more than just “Washing my dog” or “Just ate breakfast”. The real power with Twitter lies in finding conversations and people who are talking about things that interest you or are relevant to your field.
The first thing I do when arriving at Twitter is click on the @Replies link on the right column. I want to make sure I didn’t miss someone talking to me. When you want to talk with someone directly on Twitter, reference them with @theirname and they will reference you in the same manner. It also allows others possibly following your conversation to see the other side of the conversation because the @theirname is a clickable link that takes you to their page. This is also helpful for finding new people to follow. For example, if I see @georgenemeth talking to @techczar and I go over to @techczar’s Twitter page and see he’s got relevant information that interests me, then I’ll most likely follow him too. This is actually the primary way I figure out who to follow.
I also check my “Direct Messages” to see if anyone has contacted me directly. This is a way for people to connect directly on Twitter without posting on their page for everyone to see. You can direct message anyone you’re following.
You should be able to get away with spending as little as 5 minutes on Twitter just scanning the conversations going on with the people you’re following or start your own conversation by posting a link to a cool article you read or an event you’re attending. Since you have to condense your post to 140 characters or less, there are a few sites out there for converting longer links into shorter ones. The one I’ve been using recently is bit.ly.
If you’d like to get started, follow me on Twitter
This is just a “quick” primer into the wonderful world of social media. I hope that helps clear things up a bit and maybe takes away some of the anxiety associated with jumping in. If anyone has anything to add, something important I may have missed, or questions please contribute in the comments. Thx!
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