Where did my social media efforts get off track? That is something that I’ve been trying to understand these last few months. Whether writers block, or busy with work, moving, family time, or whatever; I’ve lost track of what I was trying to accomplish in my social media efforts.
This is rather troubling to me since I seem to have lost focus somewhere back in September. I’ve rethought my topics time and again, got sidetracked reading the feeds I thought I enjoyed, and failing to use the time I did have available to me to good effect. The result is that I’ve floundered.
This post is not a declaration of a new direction, nor is it a launchpad of new resolutions to do better or post more, etc… It is, however, a post about how blogging can get away from you, and how social media can be a bit overwhelming without a least some kind of plan.
Now, the plan thing really starts to make more sense. While I’ve been blogging for awhile (three years this month), I really hadn’t had a clear focus on the why of it all. Because of that lack of definition, I’ve started and dropped several blogs. I currently have three, two of which are languishing in the dim corners of my mind crying out for content.
Without a plan, you may wander like I have from topic to topic, trying to find inspiration that would drive me to write more, share more and have fun doing it. Two of my blogs are on things that I’ve always been passionate about. Snowmobiling and mobile devices. But even that hasn’t helped me post on a regular basis or create media to support the blogs and make them interesting.
What I’ve found in the past year and a half (or so) is that I’ve become very interested in topics that I’ve no training in, no previous knowledge of. However, they have pushed me to grow in ways that I never thought of and for that I’m grateful. These topics are personal branding and social media.
So, I’m just going to “hunker down”, as it were, and keep working my way through to where I seemed to be.
Interesting aside when I was trying to wrap up this post. Jeremiah Owyang had a great post in Some Conversations have shifted to Twitter today. I wrote more on Twitter in 4 hours than I had in the whole month of November on all blogs and social sites combined. More on that topic later, but it demonstrates how one event can change things.
I’d like to point you to Issue 2 of Personal Branding Magazine. While this publication is still quite young, there is significant traction with the authors, editors and publisher Dan Schawbel. This issue breaks new ground for the magazine with several new contributing writers, reporters, editing staff and sponsorships.
While this is a non-profit magazine with all proceeds going directly to The American Cancer Society, the quality and coverage is top notch. With articles from thought leaders and experts in personal branding, you will find many helpful ideas and techniques that will help promote your greatest asset – yourself.
Dan kicks off the excitement with a cover story on none other than GE’s Jack Welch. Also included is an interview with Philip Rosedale, the founder of SecondLife. With an updated format for easier reading, and many reader-suggested improvements, Issue 2 has been a work of professionalism, and the desire to provide you with real-world ideas and information.
There are many good social networks to be a part of, but as I delve deeper into social media and personal branding I’m coming to the conclusion that your blog is becoming more important.
On your blog, you have a direct feed to your readers. Those readers can be friends as much as it can be potential employers or business contacts. Your blog can take on more of your characteristics, from the way you write to the theme that presents the information to your readers.
A blog can interact with other social networks, augmented with whatever tools you choose to bring into your branding strategy. Adding additional communications, video, audio and so on adds more value to your ability to network and share with your community.
The one big thing about viewing your blog as a social network is to remember the social aspect, which infers the interaction in a community. A blog’s comment system is there to enable the conversation, you are there to help drive the conversation. If you’re disabling comments because you don’t like some criticism, you may want to take another look. That feedback could help you grow in ways that aren’t readily apparent.
Also, your blog is your online hub. Use it to send information to other social networks that you frequent. It’s also the one place on the Internet that you can make sure people find out about YOU. You can make sure to let them know how to find you, to find your profiles and networks that you have left profiles, feedback, and articles on throughout the Internet. From your blog people can download a copy of your resume, talk about your latest work, and so on. Don’t forget that you can have an easier to remember URL to get to your blog than your profile on any service or social network.
Overall, the advantages of having a blog that you can interact with others is a statement about you. You took the initiative, you are reaching out, you are placing your ideas in a public forum, you are inviting feedback. Don’t get me wrong; in phrasing it that way it sounds like The Great You Show – but it doesn’t have to be. It’s up to you to be able to show it’s really about conversations.
On your blog, and through your interests and reading habits, you will find other bloggers in the same genre and begin to share links and comments with. This is one of the best ways to grow your network. No, it’s not like getting 250 ‘friends’ on Facebook in a weekend, but that’s because it’s more valuable. Having two or three blogging friends is more valuable and powerful than large numbers elsewhere. Your interaction in the blogosphere with others is what builds that value. It’s more than any number can represent because it’s real exchange of ideas, real interaction. And that my friend is social networking.
So what else am I missing? What else helps make your blog your entry point to social networking?
Must be because of some of the news coming out of TechCrunch40, or just a coincidence. There seems to be two current conversations, one on corporate involvement in social media, and one on social media in the enterprise.
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking on the idea of what I call the corporatization of society. I’m hoping to get that finished yet tonight and posted for tomorrow, because I’ve got a few ideas on the previous two conversations I mentioned above.
I’ve been talking with a number of people in differing areas of companies while drumming up consulting or contract gigs, and something is becoming very apparent. While there is a huge amount of misunderstanding regarding social media, there is also a growing interest in online professional networking.
What intrigues me is how the growing interest in social networking can’t address the biggest problem facing these tools in corporate settings. That is, the need to provide a business case that is benefited by these tools and technologies. Fine, sure, yeah, I know that there are many business situations that simply do not require new ways to do their jobs, but there are many other situations that do.
Communication is one of the obvious ones, but I remember a number of individuals who could not look past the continuing arguments of “its a time waster” or “it’s a security hole”. Sure, they can be that – but no worse than email. This problem and these arguments are as old as technology itself. No matter what the new idea/tool/concept is, it requires a new generation to prove it’s worth.
What we need to do to help foster corporate uptake of social media is to provide learning opportunities. This might be by sending articles addressing the professional and productivity aspects to key decision makers. It may also be done by providing “brown bag” lunches with an agenda of exploring online and hosted social tools. One could also use themselves as an example of how to use social media to leverage their personal brand within an organization – I think many of us are already doing that.
At any rate, I’m going to continue to look for those opportunities for companies to leverage new media/social media tools to their advantage.
Have you discovered innovative uses for social media in your organization?
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