Socially Transmitted Dis-Ease

I've been putting together a How-to deck on participating in social media at the request of a client. I feel like the guy on that commercial whose wife comes downstairs in the morning to find him up all night, sitting slack-jawed and messy-haired. He tells her that he just got to the end of the internet.

Only we, of course, never do.

It's an addiction. A compulsion. A necessity. As an advisor or resource, staying one, or preferably three, steps ahead of the average guy's knowledge is like being in a constant race to a never approaching finish line. So over the next few days or weeks, I'll try to share some of the elements I'm going to share with my client as I pull together reframe some of the basics for them.

Overarching Rules for Social Networking Participation Part 1:

• If you don’t know anyone, but want them to know you, blog
• If you don’t know them, don’t friend them on Facebook
• If you don’t know them, but wish you did, try to connect with them on LinkedIn
• If you don’t know them, but they are a good resource, do follow them on Twitter (@mossappeal )
• If you don't know what they're saying about you and want to know (which we all need to know before diving in for business reasons), by all means, ask. And I do mean "by all means," like Google yourself, set Google alerts, Monitorr yourself, and pose some questions!
  

Have at it.