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.
I try to keep up. Maybe I'm better than the average Joe(ette) with techno gizmos and social media stuff. But sometimes I feel woefully left behind. Thanks to new friend and followee on Twitter, Iyna, I learned about Google Alerts the other day. Where have I been!?
Since she's a PR maven, I told her how I'd been interviewed a couple of times recently and never knew if my comments made the cut. She showed me how to track alerts about me. So today, I check in...and voila! There was something about "branding by consultant E.B. Moss". Whaa?? Another brand marketer named E.B.? Hmmm...I click on the alert link and...Ce's t moi!
A few months ago, I spoke on branding, quite eloquently I thought, at the Alliance for Community Media International conference in D.C. I knew someone was taping it for their internal review, but didn't catch her name. Well, someone -- whether the woman shooting it or someone who downloaded it -- created two clips of me. Not so pretty clips. But a couple of my smarter comments, I must say! Now, I know I can be verbose, but I'm sad to say my brilliant 35-minute branding presentation got summarized pretty well in two thirty-five second clips!(But speaking of clips, who did my hair and makeup that day?)
If you want me to come do the long or short version on the basics of branding (OR my Appealing Shade of Green marketing schpiel) at YOUR next seminar or company meeting, let me know. (I'll get my blow-dryer ready.)
