Chris Brogan on Getting Started with Social Media
One of the great things about the internets is that you can easily link to really cool information from really smart people. Like this post from Chris Brogan, who knows something about Social Media Literacy:
Okay, so you’ve heard from someone that this social media and social networking stuff is great and you should get involved, and it’s really going to help you out. Maybe it will help you in the economic downturn. Maybe you have heard how you can use Twitter for business. But there’s a lot to it all.
Where would you start? What would come first? How might you think about getting out there and joining in on the experience?
If I Started Today
Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll build three different scenarios out, and give you the starting points for what I’d do with social media if I were in these steps. Try to extrapolate them out to your profession or your need. If you really want to have fun with this post, take what I’ve started here, and write your own post for your vertical or condition, and then be sure to share the ideas with us here, so we can go to your site and check it out. (We’ll even be able to visit via trackbacks, if you link back to the original post).
Social Media Literacy starts with Listening
The number one thing that I tell all of my clients is that you start by listening. Again, no sense re-typing this:
Listening is my first move in starting to understand social media. That means this: go and read the blogs that are out there. Read from different genres. Go visit Twitter.com and more importantly search.twitter.com, and see what people are saying. Read comments on people’s blogs and see which ones seem to get any response. Search using Google and Technorati.com, and start listening to conversations that are out there.
Find the people and players in your market. Read what they have to say. Read what their customers are saying. Look for them in forums, blogs, and online magazines. Read as much as you can so that you understand where the conversation is going before you start talking back.
- Take copious notes, who started the conversation and who has the best insights.
- Bookmark the posts and comments for later reference.
- Find the authors on Twitter and LinkedIn, and follow them.
What to do when you feel ready
When you believe that you have enough background to get involved in the conversation:
- Leave a comment on the blog. Make it insightful, make it useful, contribute to the conversation.
- Invite further suggestions or comments.
- Do not make it an ad or pitch for you or your company, let the value of your comment be the pitch.
Once you get involved, build some trust, and create some name recognition, then it is time to take the next step.
Read all of Chris’ post - “If I Started Today” - for much more insight.
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