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Credibility: How to Connect with New Arrivals to the SocialSphere

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What We Do Well

Susan Reid’s thoughts on women entrepreneurs got me thinking about the SocialSphere and what makes us all successful when we are. It’s no surprise that those entrepreneurial traits that she outlines are found in familiar places online.

Susan points out that successful entrepreneurs have several traits in common. I found those traits alive and well online.

She added business leadership characteristics that seem to be found more often in women — an affinity for balanced, life-style businesses; a bias toward service-focused, customer care; values-led business leadership; faith in intuition, trust, and holistic decision-making; and a success definition that includes relationships. Great social media practitioners — men and women — work toward those same people-centered values. . . . This framework for measuring social media from Peter Kim points to the core of that likemindedness. The very word social in social media and social networking seems to make that people-centeredness an obvious trait.

When I read the last section, Top Five Mistakes Made by Women in Business, I began looking at our online conversation and and how we might handle it best for new people arriving in the SocialSphere. .

How to Connect with New Arrivals to the SocialSphere

Credibility comes from the “context and content.” People meet us and try to place us among what they already know. They use their experience and our first impression — how we look, what we say, what we do — to recognize signs that might validate our consistency, integrity, competence, and trustworthiness.

Every person measures those qualities based on measures of content and context they have used in the past. Note this example and the differences in context.

When did you start using social media tools beyond blogs?

Three years of experience with social media tools can be a lot.

Three years ago, social media wasn’t discussed.
Three years ago Twitter didn’t exist.

Three years experience is still entry level in offline contexts.

It’s a contextual gap.

To establish an authentic relationships, we need to communicate within their context. If, for example, we want to do business, a first impression needs to convey credibly that three years of social media experience is more than entry level. Credible first impressions are crucial to authentic relationships. Authentic relationships are crucial to strong reputations.

Here are six ways to credible first impressions and authentic, lasting relationships.

  • Never let ’em see you sweat.
    When we’re at our best we’re authentic without the gory details. After they’ve been processed, we debrief on learning situations with appropriate distance. When we greet new situations with confidence and direction, it’s natural to invite colleagues into partnerships and collaborations. Our ability to deliver with speed and accuracy increases. That’s visible and professional authenticity. When a job is being well executed, the amount of sweat is irrelevant.
  • Positive beats negative.
    When we’re positive, we naturally gravitate toward supporting common goals and positive outcomes. Positive situations and positive emotions are attractive. Social media tools are made for building connections. Connections happen when we take positive action, offer solutions, and raise others and their work above us.
  • Show up and take ownership — even when it’s not easy.
    When we make every promise, even those to ourselves, unbreakable, we build integrity and credibility. Things as simple as returning phone calls and emails elevates a relationship when everyone else is too busy. Showing people that you value them and their time is respectful — respect is a core component to thriving relationships.
  • BE a product of the level playing field.
    When we’re level — outside of a hierarchy — it’s easier to be calm, assertive, and personally invested without taking things personally. On a level field, every point of view is worthy. It’s a matter of making space to step back to listen actively and responding with integrity.
  • Think and answer for the long-term.
    When we give our best response, not our “first response,” it takes longer, but we show confidence, courage of conviction, and reflective wisdom. Slowing down to allow our best ideas to catch up identifies us as a professional.
  • Make everything about them.
    We do our best when we make a space and make it easy for folks to be themselves, be successful, and connect with other folks. People remember most how we make them feel and how we offer a chance to find purpose or meaning in their lives.

  • Value their experience.
    When we invite people in and find ways to align their goals with our own, we ignite the power of community. Communities accomplish what individuals cannot do alone. The opportunity to share ideas and learn from new arrivals is thrilling. If we listen to learn as well as teach, the potential is only limited by our ability to dream. When we invest in other people, they invest back.

We’ve built a highly collaborative social media culture — one that thrives on learning from each other openly, honestly, and with minimal hierarchy. We know how to meet, interact, and build communities with our customers / readers. That culture is what we value. It’s also what we have to offer.

New folks coming are potential. They will change a culture, just as we did when we got here. If we reach out in the best ways possible, they’ll be our new readers and our new clients. They’ll be the new members of our communities, and we’ll be theirs.

How can we help each other make credible connections with new arrivals? If you’re new to the SocialSphere, what advice do you have?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Comments

  1. You message is easily understood by the geek likes of me. Great round-up neatly wrapped and delivered. This may be off conversation, but do you have any reading recommendations whether book or site for those of us seeking to improve our writing?

    Geek thoughts work up to the point of having to translate to text at which point I see garblygoo stream of thought. Previously, in providing Ubuntu Linux tutorials my to the point style worked, however, recently (last year or so) the need for improvement keeps creeping in.

    Any suggestions are welcomed when/if you get a chance. Thanks.

    Reply

  2. Hi Robert!
    Thanks for letting me know that my message came across.

    If you want something short and specific to blogging, buy my ebook. It’s all right there. You’ll find it in the sidebar.

    Meanwhile, if you want more:
    An all-time clasic that both I and Matt Mullenweg recommend is

    On Writing Well by William Zinsser

    http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548/ref=pd_ts_b_21?ie=UTF8&s=books

    another popular writer’s book is
    Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
    (I’m not sure it’s geeky enough)

    http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Down-Bones-Freeing-Writer/dp/1590302613/ref=pd_ts_b_31?ie=UTF8&s=books

    Reply

  3. Hi Liz – I appreciate this perspective from the vantage point of a social media newbie. I think it’s important in any field not to inadvertently exclude with the use of jargon or technical competence, and this venue is no exception.

    Another aspect is that new users may tend to be wary of getting in too deep, because there’s always a “next best thing” around the bend. So, it’s important to deliver value and extend longevity within the application that way via user relevancy on user terms.

    Or, in other words, “wait for me, I’m trying to catch up!” 🙂

    Reply

  4. I took a little heat last week for using the word “social media expert” in a blog post on Social Media Explorer. But what I was really circling around is the idea of credibility. People know what “expert” means even if they don’t know what “social media” means: someone who knows their way around.

    Thanks for helping me to pinpoint what I was trying to convey; the idea that new folks need to know who is actually a credible guide in this often-overwhelming SocialSphere.

    Reply

  5. Hi Betsy!
    I’m so glad I got to read your comment before I had to leave.

    Your point that newbies can have many reasons for standing back is one that is easily overlooked. I think what’s really important is that we follow our own advice and listen, listen, listen to hear what people think.

    Reply

  6. Hi Kat,
    I understand what you’re saying. It took me hours and hours to get the ideas together for this post. I, too, circled around plenty of others until I got here — feeling like the road would never end.

    I’m grateful for your comment. It makes it worth every minute I spent.

    Reply

  7. Hi Liz,

    Thanks for including LA in such great company! So your six principles go way beyond the social sphere (exciting as that is) — they should be fundamentals for anyone in business. If we all acted on them life would be SOOOO much easier for all concerned! 🙂

    Reply

  8. Good advice Liz for new people looking to create online presence and those already established.
    A word I would add would be “be approachable always” you don’t know who is going to come your way.
    Very early on in my blogging career I promoted and linked to a conference in my area.The blog owner responded that adequate research wasn’t done as my link appeared on the date concerned. My post got lots of comments of people who were interested and promoted the person concerned.
    Later an apology followed. But I never forgot it, and for awhile became weary as a then- newbie of promoting others events.

    Lesson
    It’s just dumb to complain or not notice when people are promoting your blog, event or name for free. Don’t be a primadonna. Support and traffic may come from places you never imagined it would.

    A web wizard taught me to shine the light on others and then a little shines on you too, your turn will come.
    Thanks for another good discusion Liz.

    Reply

  9. An excellent, straight forward, universal set of principals applicable to online (and offline) credibility. And is it me, or does this seem like a parallel paradigm shift in a way of being, interacting, confirmed successful by Obama’s campaign and current way of working? What if this is how it is across the board? For most everyone, a standard way of solving problems and doing business? Very exciting set of standards to bringing out our best.

    Reply

  10. Great post Liz! (no surprise!)

    We are *all* new to these tools and environment at some point, aren’t we?
    Newness to the platforms and the people doesn’t indicate that someone doesn’t have a lot to offer, it just means we haven’t met them yet.

    Today’s ‘newbie’ can be tomorrow’s best resource…

    Thanks for helping to provide such a clear cut description of why it’s important to be genuine and sharing.

    Reply

  11. Hi Mark!
    I chose carefully the examples I wanted to include. If we all could get on board with thinking about what context other folks are living in. Things would make more sense for all of us. Yeah. 🙂

    Reply

  12. Hi Donna,
    You advice to be “approachable always” is well worth keeping close to my heart. Sometimes the way we view things isn’t the way it has to be or the way that even would be best for us, as your example shows. Thanks for bringing that here.

    When we stop listening, we stop hearing. 🙂

    Reply

  14. Hi Lucretia!
    What a quote …

    Today’s ‘newbie’ can be tomorrow’s best resource…

    We think that about ourselves, if we think that about everyone else, it could get interesting. 🙂

    Reply

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