If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you take more advantage of social media than your average internet user. You’re likely on Facebook and maybe even Twitter. You might have a blog or check out Reddit and Digg once a day.
Do you simply use those tools? Or, do you participate with their communities?
Personally, my favorite internet tool is Twitter, but I have a hard time dealing with tweeple, who only tweet about what they’re doing and thinking without ever interacting with their followers or the tweeple they follow.
Take a look at Twitterholic. Even if you have something witty and insightful to contribute, you will be hard pressed to get a response from anyone on the first page. Now, many of them are extremely busy and simply cannot follow every tweet. However, the sheer numbers of people they follow or are followed by make it difficult for them to really interact.
As Chris Brogan has said before, there is constantly a torrent of tweets coming his way, and unfortunately, he cannot address them all. I applaud Chris for being as interactive as he is. However, check out some other twitterholics. See how often they @ reply people. Not often, right?
Now, let’s widen our scope. How many social networks are you a member of? If the answer is more than maybe 3 or 4, do you ever find it difficult to really take part?
I, for example, find it hard to get involved in Linkedin’s Answers section or my Ning group’s events. What does this mean? I take slight advantage of social media by being a member, but sometimes, I am just spread too thin to actually take part. Do I try? Yes. Do I always succeed? No.
In this sense, the social web is exactly like regular, old, face-to-face networking. If you cannot spend quality time in your network, people can tell, and they will take it as a sign that they are less important than whatever else you are doing. That is a turn off.
If they can see that you really are not trying to interact, but are instead just broadcasting your thoughts or selling/promoting yourself without end, they will again get turned off.
Often, I find that I build the best online relationships with people, who only interact in just one or two places. We can chat in depth and give thoughtful commentary to each others’ work because they do not have so much to deal with that they cannot focus on what we have in common.
It’s easy to explain to individuals that spreading yourself too thin waters you’re your ability to interact and meaningfully take advantage of social media. Now, if we could only find more companies that understood that we do not want them to simply use their Facebook pages, blogs, or Twitter accounts to just broadcast about their latest promotions. We want them to talk to us like they care about what we have to say.
Thoughts? Do you find yourself spread too thin? Or, do you get more out of being in lots of different places? What can companies do to actually take part in social media and not just take advantage of it?
Social media and the use of it for marketing is a business game changer! I just completed watching an interview with 2 writers that have detailed how President Obama used social media and extracted those lessons into a book called Barack 2.0 Check out this cool interview with them!http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2009/03/23/barack-20-social-media-lessons-for-business-the-tactics-that-won-the-white-house-part-1/
Ding ding ding! “If you cannot spend quality time in your network, people can tell, and they will take it as a sign that they are less important than whatever else you are doing.”
Very good point – that separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. In the long-run, it’s about building relationships…that in itself will affect who you do business with or conversely who does business with you in the future.
beyond timely!!
http://onlineodyssey.wordpress.com/
@Kate Yeah, the Obama campaign use of social media was quite impressive. It appears the Obama White House has toned it down a bit, but with the grassroots, campaign-style budget push, it looks like they’re still being pretty effective with the social aspect.
@Laurel Thank you. I even have to remind myself now and then that my online relationships are still with people… not unfeeling machines. If companies can dedicate enough time and thought into their online constituents/communities/etc, I think it’s rare that they won’t build advocates.