You Already Know How

Do you remember when no one knew the word blog? Suddenly, it’s everywhere ? in the New York Times, on the TV News, and in our kids’ elementary schools. The BBC has a blog. So does PBS. Not only are blogs showing up everywhere, but Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are too. You’ve probably heard stories of companies who’ve had great success with blogs and companies who’ve had horrible results.

Perhaps you’ve even had a social web something go wrong.

Social media is a lot like riding a bike.

When you bike, you need to know how all of the parts ? the bike’s and yours ? work together, where your bike belongs on the road, and how to interact with cars and other bikes. When you enter the social web, you need to know the same kinds of things before you start ? how what you’re doing fits and balances with your company culture, your overall marketing strategy, and your customers needs and desires.

It’s easy to be wildly successful at social ? to get it to take you exactly where you want to go. But it takes a bit of learning at first — like biking does. It’s no fun learning by falling down. Still staying off the bike isn’t the answer, when the kids you want to reach are across town in a park where only a bike can go.

Here’s how to get started on that wildly successful social web presence that you keep hearing folks talk about.

Learn from someone who already knows. Almost every really successful new blogger learned how from some one who’s blogged before. Twitter is way easier to “get” if you work with someone who knows it first. Learn from a social media oldtimer and you’ll raise the speed at which you’ll connect with people and leverage the tools most useful to your business.

Social media is about conversation and community. It’s a chance to talk with customers everyday as you do at a trade show ? only longer, more relaxed, and without the lower back pain that comes with standing on a concrete floor. It’s ongoing discussions with customers about the business. It’s getting close to where your audience, or at least a part of them, thinks and lives. AND it’s inviting them to get to know you and your business in the same way. It’s hard not to like a company, when you interact everyday with someone who works there that you like a lot.

Read some blogs. Join a social network. Follow Twitter before you start. Make a few blog comments too. It’s like getting to know the neighborhood you’re thinking of moving into. You’ll learn a lot from watching and interacting with the folks who are already blogging. Bloggers and social media folks are incredibly friendly, helpful people. You’ll have a network going as soon as you’ve commented on the same blog or in the same Twitterstream for a week or two.

Be a social person people can trust. You don’t need to be from any special department or to have any special title. Be passionate, curious, and happy to learn from others. Reach out to people to learn what they’re about.

Don’t worry if customers have issues. Issues are opportunities to make authentic and human connections. Customers know that things go wrong sometimes. Let them know someone is listening. Invite customers to be part of the team, and products can get better because of it.

Give customers great content — a reason to follow you. That’s what search engine want too. Great interest and great content are great value to folks who meet you. Become a source of content and pay attention. You can pick up the latest trends by interacting on the scale of the web.

Once you get the hang of the social web culture, you’ll be seeing how much your friends and customers can invest in what you’re doing. They can become your eyes and ears for you. They can become your biggest evangelists. They’ll be doing it because you opened the lines of communication to talk to them. ? one human to another.

Grab a bike. Rent one if you have to … the social part is getting to where the people are.

Are you having trouble explaining social media? What analogy do you use?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!