I spend my time reading articles on how to improve my social media skills, but often, feel extremely overwhelmed. It’s almost as if technology is whizzing past me and I’m on a bicycle, racing faster and faster, trying to keep up. Perhaps I need a new bicycle.
Like most people, I love to learn, but cannot help myself from dreaming of Belize, where I lived for a year, from 2004-2005, and wrote in my journal, “I’m bored!” What I meant was, I had so much free time on my hands, I remember finishing a 1,000 piece puzzle with my ten-year-old son, Jordan. The next time I sit down to a 1,000 piece puzzle, I shall probably be in a retirement home.
This is not a luxury that most of us writers, bloggers, and self-employed, have in today’s world, where things have turned towards branding and self-promotion. I recently ordered a great book, Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business, by Marsha Friedman, an expert on PR and branding yourself. Marsha clearly points out that becoming a celebrity means, “You’re not really talking about yourself: you’re simply opening a dialogue about what you know, what you learned, what you have to offer and how you can help your listener.”
So first thing this morning, I started reading Eva Kaplan-Leiserson’s article on “10 Social Media Steps You Should Take (But I Don’t Have To)” and now realize which areas I need to focus on. Please read Eva’s article for a detailed explanation on how to accomplish these ten goals.
1. Launch your website. Include such sections as About Me and Contact Me, including a good description of what you do. (Mine is reserved Soniamarsh.com.)
2. Create a blog. (Done) As Eva points out, “Make sure you’re going to post regularly. It doesn’t have to be every day, but it should probably be at least every week, to keep people coming back.”
3. Set up a program like Google Reader for others’ blogs. (I use Google Reader to keep up to date with other blog posts. Do you?) Eva mentions, “There may be some people who still don’t tweet their blog posts.” I hope you do.
4. Start a Twitter account and create a background. (Do you all have Twitter accounts? Let’s connect.) Eva explains the importance of, “Titling your account with either your name or the name of something else you want to brand (your company name, your book name, etc.)”
5. Use a Twitter dashboard like TweetDeck. (I’m doing that today. What about you?) This allows you to “glance columns for people you follow, direct messages, tweets that mention you, even Facebook status updates.”
6. Create a Facebook Page. (Is yours for business purposes?) “If you have a company, create a page for it. It’s important that this be separate from your personal page.”
7. Join a Facebook Group. (I’ve joined several groups. Have you?) “Groups are great ways to keep in touch with certain segments of your friends or get support for certain niche interests or activities.”
8. Set up a Linkedin account. (I have one, do you?. If so let’s connect.) “While more and more people are using Facebook professionally for their companies, Linkedin is still the go-to place for individual professional accounts.”
9. Link to social media accounts on your website. You need big, visible buttons up on your website so that people can easily subscribe to them.
10. Explore other options but don’t get overwhelmed. (I am still figuring this out as I keep learning.) As Eva points out, “it’s better to use a few tools well than create 100 different social media accounts that will look like ghost towns because you never use them.”
Now it’s time for me to race my new bike again. But first the gym to warm-up. What about you?
I think I've done all these steps, although I'm not out on Twitter very much… You can connect with me on Twitter – my name there is: TheRealLadyFi.
I've done most of these. I will set up TweetDeck today. I'm not familiar with fb groups other than the lists I made myself. I'll check that out as well.
As for LinkedIn, I'm not a fan. It's more corporate, I feel, and I'm long past the corporate world.
Thanks for a thought provoking post.
b
@ladyfi
I'm off to link to you on Twitter.
@Barbara
As far as LinkedIn, you know there are groups there too, for Writers, and specific groups and you can post topics. Also your blog and The Blogstress Network will post directly on LinkedIn, giving you more visibility. Just a suggestion.
Sonia, talk about overwhelmed 😉 It's a full time job doing all that. And right now, guess what, I am packing up and moving to Moldova. Really. I hope to get back in the social media race in a month or so.
I hope you have fun trying all this out! I don't even know what a tweetdeck is . . . Maybe you can tell us in a later post ?
@Miss Footloose
WOW! Another adventure for you. I'm envious. I can't wait to read about your new stories in Moldova. need to look it up on the map.
Another really helpful post, thank you Sonia. I shall have a look at Tweetdeck – I hadn't heard of that. I'm now following you on Twitter (I'm llamamum).
I have a Linkedin account but it's for our fishery so I'll have to create a new one for me. I'm worth it!
Well, I looked at those ten points, and I felt this tremendous sense of heaviness, of being burdened.
You can race your new bike if you want. I'm going to get off the track and watch a while. And reflect a bit.
I know one thing about myself already. I'm not really "racy"; I'm kinda the "subversive" type. It's much more fun!
As far as I'm concerned, Twitter is for twits. And though I have a facebook page, I probably check it once or twice a month.
If you want to find me; try Bear's e-mail or blog.
Well, at least you are on a bicycle; I am sometimes made to feel like a dinosaur considering my absence on Facebook and Twitter. 😀
But I do agree with your comments on Linkedin. There are a lot of productive communities for bloggers there. I'm a part of one called – The Blog Zone. It has many engaging discussions.
But just an offtrack thought here, sometimes when we push too much for traffic, stats and comments, I think we take something away from the reason we’re doing it – the simple joy of writing, telling stories… 🙂
I set a goal at the start of the year to develop and maintain a Facebook page for my blog. I did and add something fresh everyday.
Now, I'm wondering what the payoff is. After 3+ months I have a whopping 14 people who have said they like it (the equivalent of having "friends" on a regular Facebook account).
The blog readership continues to increase but the Facebook page is starting to feel like a drag on my time. It doesn't seem to be contributing anything.
Should I just give it up as an experiment that proved not worth the effort? Time will tell.
GREAT post; I definitely am working on #9. The technical stuff can be hard, even when sites like Twitter and Facebook have the widget code all ready for you. I just blank on that stuff, completely; but I'm trying! Thanks for posting…
Thanks, Sonia, for the excellent advice. I still need to take several social media steps – haven't joined FB groups or set up a Tweet Deck or Google Reader. Like you and Belize, I dream about other horizons, but the reality is that we have to get fully involved in the social media scene if we want our message to be heard.
I don't know if there is a "right" way of doing this and it does depend on the goal.
I've found facebook and twitter to be huge time-wasters and not very productive ones. LinkedIn is different, but not connected to my blog.
Still waiting for the platform or site that will allow an interconnectedness that does not require frantic jumping around.
@llamawriter23
Glad you fond this helpful. Now following you too and was wondering what dish you made for Frirish cuisine? French and Irish together; what a clever idea. BTW you know I lived outside Paris for 12 years and am fluent in French. You should start a Frirish restaurant.
@Rob-bear
I know how to reach you via e-mail. Don't worry, be Gutsy!
@Chaitra
Good point you made about not forgetting the simple joy of writing and telling stories. Need to check out The Blog Zone on LinkedIn. Thanks. Sonia.
@Bob
I think your Satisfying retirement fan page needs to stay. I'm # 15, BTW.
You have an e-book, and you'll probably have more, so KEEP IT. Ask everyone who's on your FB Bob Lowry page to click on your Satisfying Retirement Fan page.You deserve it, with all your effort.
These are all wonderful hints…might I add one more? Each time you leave a comment put the url address for your blog just under your signature. This means your fans (and you do have lots) will increase in numbers because you have made finding you so easy.
I clicked the follower button. You are doing all the right things!
b
ps. I found you by way of Bob Lowry's blog…he is a good person to have on your side.
http://www.retireinstyleblog.com
@Bob
Keep your Satisfying Retirement FB page. That's what I think.
@Rusty
You use Blogspot so you should be able to paste the code for the widgets in the Gadgets HTML code section for the icons.
@Penelope
You are right about having to get in the social media scene. Think of it as an opportunity we never had before to connect.
@Antares
People swear by the power of twitter to find the "right" audience for them. I haven't spent enough time developing that aspect yet.
This is a great list. I'm always advocating that everyone and particularly seniors get hooked up with social media. Then I rant. You've got it all laid out. Good for you!
@b
Thanks for your comment and I agree Bob Lowry is a very helpful man and is guest posting today on my blog. Also regarding your suggestion about the URL, underneath your comment. If I click on your name, b, I'm automatically taken to your retireinstyle blog. Thanks and see you again, I hope.
Social media sucks a lot of time and energy when done interactively. It's easier to post here and there but to comment blogs, interaction takes a lot of time. I know.
Moving back to Helsinki I've noticed to have a new life – not in a social media but in real life.
I've noticed how people do not visit or interact if I'm passive.
Now I try to 'steal' a couple of hours to connect again.
Saying that I wonder who are those people who I saw online when I had more than enough time for social media? They are not working because in normal work place you don't have time to hang in social media the whole day…
Greetings from rainy Helsinki! 🙂
Thanks for writing up my post and pointing people to it, Sonia!
I agree with everyone–it can definitely be overwhelming. I think the key really is to pick a few key things that you think work best for you and your purposes and concentrate on those.
This week I'm posting a guest-written piece on choosing technology solutions; this may help some folks. Look for it later today (www.thefastertimes.com/socialmedia)
PS–And as that piece mentions at the beginning, even I who write about social media weekly am behind on a bunch of those steps. 🙂
Another informative, enlightening post. Thanks, Sonia!
Personally, I find social media challenging and exciting. My world is global and FB keeps me connected to friends around the world and helps me make others.
But while I live on FB, I hate Twitter & LinkedIn. Then there’s this new one, Netlog, that feels like FB meets LinkedIn. Not my style.
What amazes me is how wannabe professionals abuse social media, mixing personal rants, political views and just plain garbage with more pertinent posts. Don’t they know 1) how inappropriate this is and 2) anything posted in cyberspace is tantamount to having it posted in Times Square?? Do you really want the world, much less your professional colleagues and potential clients/employers to know about that drunken orgy with your mates last night…or how you’re sick of summer vacations because there’s no “daycare” (read school) for your 8-year-old. Get a grip…first we had drunken dialing. Now we have wasted on FB!
Melissa,
Yes, We need to remember what we write online. OOPS!!! I’m trying to remember everything I’ve written over the past 3 years.