With a flood of media interest promoting and evaluating the uses of social media during the last few years, social media is becoming a permanent fixture in our cultural landscape.
If different social media platforms are used in a coordinated fashion, these applications can be tailored to effectively build a personal or business brand. But as powerful as these tools are they are most useful when harnessed to a specific business or social goal: building relationships, introducing a product, raising awareness.
An obvious and conventional use of broadcasting a message about a product, a service, an opportunity, or an issue is only one use. More important is the creation of a place for dialog, information sharing and exchange in an environment that reflects a certain personality. Building community in this way –within the context of specific interests or expertise, is similar to designing a home and hosting invited guests for a meal.
Cultivating relationships, creating conversation, building a community and serving that community is what being social is all about in a physical space and an online community is the same. Even though it seems merely virtual, an online community can easily transition to real world relationships.
Social media platforms are among the most useful tools the internet age has spawned. The five platforms I use regularly are listed here with a brief description and a recommendation for further reading.
1. A Blog Based Website
My website –the one you are reading this post on, is a Wordpress content management blog platform. This website forms the hub of my web presence. On it I can maintain a simple blog or incorporate an e-commerce platform if necessary. Through the use of plugins, functionality on the site can be basic or more fully developed. Ideally, a Wordpress blog should be on your own domain and while relatively simple, does require some rudimentary technical knowledge, and patience, to set up and maintain.
Recommended reading: Copy Blogger
2. Facebook
I’ve found Facebook ideal for connecting with people I’ve known. No surprises there, are there? At first I felt constrained by the memories that built older friendships. Seeing a collection of people from different corners of our lives can dislodge forgotten memories through the reconnection. Building a community of old friends many of whom have no common history with each other other than through you, brings on a vague sense of vertigo. Facebook is a Venn diagram of friends, acquaintances, new faces, mixed interests and perspectives. Sharing ideas and events in your life today by posting commentary or links, photos and videos, keeps the bonds with your past alive, and offers the opportunity for building new memories and new friends from old. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing An Hour A Day, Chris Treadway and Mari Smith
3. Twitter
What a free spirited, twitchy, free-for-all this platform!
140 characters makes an art of brevity; an exercise in pithiness. In contrast to Facebook there is no barrier or limit to finding and following people. The tendency here is to think that the more numbers you have, the better, but that’s not necessarily the case. If you follow thoughtful people interested in providing useful information and you reciprocate, you’ll find fewer than you would otherwise and you might eventually discover you’ve made some real friends. Twitter is about finding people you would like to know, and those who would like to know you. Recommended Reading: Twitter, An Hour A Day, by Hollis Thomasas @hollisthomasas
4. LinkedIn
Of the three platforms, LinkedIn was an enigma that at first seems almost impenetrable. This platform has a reputation for being a no-nonsense corporate environment that isn’t creative friendly. At first I thought the reputation was well deserved. I couldn’t figure out how to make connections outside the few contacts I had within the limitations of my own email list, and everywhere I turned there was a barrier. What I’ve discovered is that one key to connecting with people is in joining groups within LinkedIn that involve your particular interests. Once you find a group, listen in and then join the conversation when you have something meaningful to say. The one thing to be aware of with LinkedIn is that this is about making connections, not making sales. Help people solve a problem if you can and make note of your contacts’ strengths for future reference. You never know when you’ll be able to pass on a name and ‘pay it forward.’ Eventually it will come back in a good way. Recommended Reading: Understanding, Leveraging and Maximizing LinkedIn, Neal Shaffer.
5. YouTube
Images are compelling. Media is even more irresistible and YouTube is the way to go when delivering video content. Setting up a YouTube account is easy, free, and freely available. Video adds immeasurably to a personal or business brand and may be incorporated into blog posts, Facebook pages, and Twitter posts. Videos can be used to conduct interviews, provide instruction, offer opinion, entertain, demonstrate or review a product or service. As a personal and business branding and marketing tool it provides attractive content and adds a dynamic dimension to any web presence. All that’s needed is an inexpensive camera with a video feature and a point to be made. Recommended Reading: YouTube and Video Marketing An Hour A Day, Greg Jarboe
The content on any one of these platforms can be, and should be referenced on other platforms within the context of the total online property mix -blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN , YouTube, and any other social media platforms. Such cross-platform sharing will reinforce the message being delivered and elevate the visibility of the main platform –website or blog, by providing inbound links from such high value sources as social media platforms.
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“Facebook is a Venn diagram of friends, acquaintances, new faces, mixed interests and perspectives.” I like this metaphor for what facebook is.