Recently I was invited to join my first social networking site. I thought I’d blog about it - you always remember the “first time”. Joining was something I’d been putting off for ages. (Do I sound like a reluctant virgin?) Seriously, I can barely keep up with my emails as it is.
Where would I find the time? There was too much to do to spend hours lounging about with a bunch of cyber mates.
So I bowed to the inevitable and started with Facebook, Twitter and a study group on Ning. After all, there was no value in being the only one missing out. Particularly as social media is shaping up to be the driving force in website traffic for years to come.
Google’s search market growth has peaked. Newer competing technologies are on the rise. With each one there are also new challenges to face.
Employers hate the thought of their staff squandering precious work time on social networking. But they can’t afford to stand apart from it either. Offline it is said that an unhappy customer will tell 10 people about it. If he rants in social media, the complaint is instantly broadcast to 1000’s if not tens of thousands of people.
But that much leverage can work in a company’s favour too. By delivering good value and service, the benefit of that can be multiplied many times via the web. Combine that with clever traffic strategies and a website could become your biggest cash register. Thanks to social media it’s possible to do remarkable amounts of business without ever needing to get a page 1 search rank. (Though it certainly helps).
Web 2.0 is here to stay. We might as well use it to our advantage. So how does one cope with a dozen different profiles without drowning in the minutae of day to day trivia?
Simple. Treat it like you would any other business exercise.
• Know EXACTLY what you want out of it
• Have a social media PLAN
• SCHEDULE time to work the plan
• Be DISIPLINED and avoid all distractions
This last point is probably the hardest. Social media is neither good or bad. Just like guns or fire, it’s all about how you use it.
