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Question: If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?
Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you.
“If you’re not part of the conversation, then you’re leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it’s accurate or incorrect. Or, even worse, you may be leaving it up to your competition to jump in to become there source for the community. “
For many of you reading this article you may say ok this is just way to basic, however after teaching some Social Network classes I realized that many people are still a bit fuzzy on what Social Networking is all about. For starters I would recommend you watch this video that is short and sweet but to the point when it comes to Social Networking
Now that you have some understanding about Social Networks there are two that I feel are important to start with . Facebook and Linkedin. Facebook is where you can grow your personal network, and Linkedin is where you can grow your professional network.
When using facebook there are some basic rules to follow and this article does a great job in explaining what they are. Get out of my Face(book).
In addition to the basic profile of facebook you also might want to explore how to successfully use the page function of facebook. Dustin Luther does a great job explaining pages in this article. Face book Pages.
Social networking is a process that you have to participate with on a very consistent basis. It isn’t a sprint but rather a long distance run. You have to crawl walk run. This image gives you a good idea of what I’m talking about. It starts with building a profile, that’s the crawl. Then to walk you have to ad rich content that others are interested in, then to run you have to engage individuals on a regular basis, then you can embrace the community, now you are flying
Last but not least remember this as you begin to enguage in your social networks.
It starts with respect.
Participate as a person, not as a marketer, sales person or
message factory.
Be real!
Be helpful and bring value to the conversation.
During this entire process, you’re contributing to the personality and the perception of the brand you represent.
Don’t be an advertiser be a person.
Be consistent.
