5 Step Quick Start Guide To Social Media

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Disclaimer: Let me say this, I am about as far from being a Social Media “expert” as anybody you are likely to encounter. But I do know enough to be dangerous. Some might say, very dangerous (smile). So, this is by no means the only way, or the right way, to get involved with Social Media. What it is is my way and how I did it. I do need to give some props to Jen Harris over at Caffeinated Marketing. Jen did the same thing for me and for our group, NetWorks!, which I now repackage and pass on to you. This will get you started, and started only,  if you have not already done so. It is more of a how to than a why do. There are millions of resources out there, including this site, that can tell you more.

Step #1 – Get Educated: There is just a huge and overwhelming amount of information out there on the web and trying to find it and keep track of it can easily exceed a full-time position. I would suggest you do the following:

1. Get a Gmail account. This will also allow you to set up an iGoogle page which I use as my home page. Already have other email accounts and maybe too many? No problem. One: you don’t have to use it and, Two: you may want to use it to track just your social media efforts. Kind of like a folder. Your iGoogle page will allow you to display tools and feeds that are important to you. I have various news feeds, my Gmail inbox, the weather, other goodies, and my Google Reader.
2. Set up Google Reader: Google reader will allow you to subscribe to, and automatically get new posts from, information sources you find to be of value. It eliminates the need to constantly check back on these sites to see if anything is new. Your reader box will show you a title and source which you can then click on to see a simplified version of the article and then will also allow you to go to the site, if desired, to see the original complete article. I would start by subscribing to two invaluable resources: Mashable and………..this blog (smile). Once you have reader set up, many sites including this one, will have a subscribe to entries box somewhere visible on the site. You can also add sites manually to your reader if a subscribe to option is not available.  Mashable is all things social media. I call it the “bible”.

Step #2 – Become Visible: Make it easy for others to find you.

1. Create accounts on what I am going to call “The Big Three”: LinkedIn (your business face), FaceBook (your personal face), and Twitter (your public face). These are sites where your profile will tell folks more about you, your background, your career, and the kind of mischief that you might be up to at any given time (smile).
2. Be sure to complete your profiles as completely as possible and include a photo. This lets folks know that you are a real person. It helps to build trust and, on the internet and especially with social media, trust is paramount.

Step #3 – Connect With Others: This is called networking.

1. Find friends and associates who currently use LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter. Before I tell you this next step, you need to know that I am extremely paranoid about things like identity theft. I will not bank on the internet and not one shred of financial information can be found on my computer. However, just because I am paranoid does not, I repeat, does not mean that somebody is not out to screw me (smile). Ready? Allow these three sites to scan your email address databases and they will determine who you know that is already using these services. It is simple to do and I am convinced that it is secure. Finally, each of these sites have privacy settings that will allow you to control just who out there is able to see what.
2. Send out invitations to connect. LinkedIn calls it just that. On FaceBook it is a Friend Request. On Twitter, you elect to stalk, I mean follow (smile), someone else. You can now see what these folks are sharing in a very public arena. They can choose to follow you back if they wish. You can choose to block anybody you do not want to have follow you. You will be notified when anybody chooses to follow you and will have those options available.

Step #4 – Promote and Brand: Help others to find you.

1. Create links to your profiles and place these on: each of the other sites and your email signature lines. This will allow folks to easily learn more about you.
2. Comment on other sites. This would include: commenting on another blog you found interesting, starting a discussion or answering a question on LinkedIn, or writing on a friend’s wall in FaceBook. All of these actions help to create your personal brand and will continue to make you more visible to others.
3. Tweet. Tweeting is the Twitter term used to describe a message that you send out. Each message is limited to 140 characters. I would suggest that you look into using either Tweet Deck or Seesmic to help to manage your account and those you follow. This is way too vast a topic to address in this post. You can tweet about what you are doing at any given time or share an article, for example, through a link that you found to be of interest. Be forewarned, anything you tweet has the potential to reach literally millions of people. You may wish to be careful about what you say (smile).

Step #5 – Contribute & Share: Become a part of the greater community.

1. Consider starting your own blog. This one has been created on WordPress.com. As you can see, you can even give your blog the appearance of a complete website and who is to say that it isn’t? Finally, it is so easy that literally anybody can do it. Even a sales weasel (smile).

Thanks, good luck,  and have a great holiday weekend!

Craig

Craig M. Jamieson  (296 Posts)

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. NetWorks! Boise Valley is a business to business networking organization for the most serious sales and marketing professionals only.