Connection
I read an interesting tweet the other day courtesy of my good friend TarynP (Taryn, if you’re reading, I’d love it if you could share the tweet I’m referring to… you can also read more of her stuff at her blog) about social networking. It made me realize how easy it is for me to go about this whole thing the entirely wrong way. I also heard Seth Godin speak on this topic in one of his talks as well.
It got me to thinking. What is social media good for?
Is it about achieving a “score”? i.e. followers, friends, “likes”, karma, diggs or some other kind of points to win some imaginary internet contest?
OR
Is social media about making connections? Is it about engaging and being relevant, making new friends, making meaningful contact and growing real contacts that you can build a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship with?
Food for thought.
I’m in Athens today meeting with some folks from Care Medical to see how BroadRiver Communication can help them. I hope it goes well and we make some a good connection. It’s everything.
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Some great posts I liked today.
My friend Todd talks about social media in sales We All Have a Story to Tell
JaMonkey talks about connecting Say What?
Taryn talks about Foursquare for professionals
Category: Marketing
I wrote about something like this today. Twitter peeps now have Klout. http://www.jamonkey.com/2010/07/say-waht.html
and to answer the question. I build my network of “Friends” to keep my name planted as a seed. It works. I’m seeing more and more this year just how much it works!
Hey, Meghan
I like your approach toward “seed planting”. You’re right it does work but like any growth, it takes time and consistency. Thanks for sharing!
~JB
yeah, it is all about engaging. in fact, i tell me clients that it is really only about making conversation.
isn’t a friendly conversation the first step in making a sale?
and it is hard to start a conversation with someone you don’t know, cold.
the social web, and all that implies, really makes that process easy…
it doesn’t really have to be much more complicated than that….
yeah you’re right, Todd. I think it was refreshing for me to shift my paradigm in regard to social media a little bit this way. I found myself getting really caught up in the numbers (and I still do!… How many followers do I have? How many visits did I get today?) It’s like trying to keep some kind of score that means nothing at all.
One reason I’ve liked twitter and blogging is for me not only the ability to express thoughts but also to engage and interact with people. I actually get involved in some good conversations and have made some great friends I wouldn’t have met otherwise just by talking to people on these platforms.
I still see too much use of social media for all kinds of reasons other than connecting with people.
~jb