Last week, contributor Chris Hall, who blogs on CowBell and is one of the administrators of the Social Marketing Forum and its Facebook page, wrote the following post…
I’m carrying on a theme from an earlier post but I don’t think it’s just me that sees companies and individuals across social media going through plenty of self-analysis and soul searching lately.
The reasons for this to me are relatively clear.
- Many so called experts and gurus(??) are slightly bemused as to why the promised land hasn’t led them to fields of gold, and the billionaires haven’t materialised quite as quickly as was meant to happen – written out in the prophecy’s of many before them
- Organisations, companies, industry commentators, SME’s, traditional media and even government don’t know what to do with what’s supposed to be the new holy grail of the marketing and communications arena
I could write about the problems and analyse the reasons why but I’m not going to. Instead the focus will be on how to improve the situation. Not just for you reading this, but for me.
Yes – I need to improve my own communications, my own approach & strategy, and above all improve the way I spend my time in all areas of social media.
I’ve been in boardrooms and I’ve had meetings with some very smart people about how to take social media forward. Some of the frustrations in these meetings are the same. It was only last week that two potential clients came back at me with statements like:
All I see from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is people slapping each others backs and saying how great you all are
or
That’s great and I hear what you say, but where’s the evidence for the small B2B companies and how am I going to position myself when all I see is social media experts using Twitter
Difficult arguments to fight against.
And so I’ve decided to change. I’ve decided to create a methodology and a framework for my working day and life
- Only engage with those who want to be engaged
- Ensure that every action has a potential outcome that takes you forward (personally & professionally)
- Don’t play out the day in front of the screen. Try & facilitate meetings or phone calls from your online connections
- Push the people you want to work with to see your true value to their business and not to their ego
- Give as much as your time allows to those who give you back (make people feel good)
- Ensure there are times across the day when you are offline. (go feed the ducks in the stream, or eat some lunch instead of staring at the twitter stream)
This has started to work for me.
It always was crucial, but now more than ever as the networks become saturated with ‘experts’, it’s as important as ever that we ensure everything we do has real value. Value to others, value to ourselves and value to a community.
A friend of mine (@stuartwitts) posted a blog article a few days ago. In it included a video clip I hadn’t seen before.
It’s had a profound affect on me and is part of the inspiration for this post. But in truth these thoughts had been mulling around my mind for a while. I just needed to find the clarity and direction to put them down.
So make some decisions. Think about making change for the right reasons. Realise you can really do something with social media.
Twitter is great! I can’t get enough of it. I can catch up with over 50 people in a few hours with some quick 140 character messages. Wow!…But wait. I CAN get enough of it. I don’t need to spend time saying ‘Hi’ to people I said hello to yesterday. I need to engage with influencers, brands, companies and individuals who will help me – personally & professionally.
Facebook status’ are fun. But isn’t it more important to research the changes Facebook is undergoing in order to ensure I’m ahead of the game for my clients.
Adding people to my vast network in Linkedin is crucial to the success of my business isn’t it? The answer is No! It’s much better for your business to create a discussion group (click here for an example) which engages in a debate about an issue surrounding your sector, your client or your research.
In the words from of the video ‘Be Great, Powerful Beyond Measure’. If we just stop and think, realise the potential of what we have at our fingertips, then we will do the medium proud with what we can achieve.
Don’t perspire..Inspire.
What are your thoughts?
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