Social media seems to have taken the internet by storm in the last year. With tweeting on Twitter, connecting on Linked In, hanging out in Facebook, it’s a wonder we get any work done anymore. You can update your social media sites from your computers, and even on your cell phones. I have an iphone and have already downloaded the Facebook app and Twitter app, allowing me to update everyone while I’m on the go.
But is this information really useful? Do we really want to know what you’re having for dinner, or what movie you watched last night? is it appropriate to connect with both clients and family under one account? If you’re like most you probably have lots of questions about social media, and for many of you I bet you’re staying away from it out of fear of the unknown. Well I’m here to tell you – jump on the bandwagon, everyone’s doing it!
Okay, so for a little mini lesson.
Linked In has been out for alot longer than most other social media websites. Linked In is strictly for business. You can easily create an account, add your job history, even have some clients and colleagues recommend you on your public profile. How it works — you connect your Linked In account with those that you know. Once you have become friends, you can each see each others’ cirlce of friends. For instance, let’s say you have 50 connections on Linked In (your colleagues, clients, other biz related folks). Then you connect with Johnny and he has 350 connections. You can now go look at everyone Johnny is connected to, and even see the peole Johnny’s connections are connected to. The point? To connect of course. Use Linked In to network for business! You can ask your connections to connect you with a specific person they are connected to – or you can reach out to them yourself. Consider Linked In your virtual networking group.
Twitter is a relatively new player in the social media game. Twitter is very differnet from the other social networking sites that are available, as twitter only allows you to post 140 characters of text at a time. After you post your 140 characters, you end up with a running list of all the posts you’ve made. It’s almost like a mini blog. When you get an account with Twitter, you have your own page and your friends and colleagues can “follow” you on Twitter. They then will see all the “tweets” that everyone they are following has posted, right on their own home page.
Facebook is by far the largest and fastest growing social media website online. Facebook allows users to create their own profile (that you can hide from everyone that you are not friends with), you can also create fan pages and groups. When you update something on Facebook, your entire circle of friends (that you have accepted) can see what you wrote, uploaded, etc). Facebook really is the all inclusive way of staying connected. There is so much you can do on Facebook that at first it can seem overwhelming. But let me tell you – my grandma is on Facebook, and if she can do it – you can do it!
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Okay – so now what? You have the basic idea of how the 3 main social sites work, but what do you do with them? Do you use them all? Those are just a few of the questions you may be asking yourself right now. And the answer I recommend is yes. Linked In can be very helpful in creating new business connections, as well as increasing your credibility among your colleagues/clients. Twitter I have personally found the least effective, but for those that want a way to hava a quick little blurb sent out to colleagues/clients then it works perfectly, and I have several clients using it effectively. For me Facebook is the most robust. I am connected to colleagues, clients, family and friends all in one place. I can send out alerts about specials I’m running in the business, updates on the family, etc.
A bit of caution before you jump in to social media. Read articles and blogs, and consider enrolling in a social media class (in person or online) to understand how to best use social media for business if that is what you are looking to do. I have many clients successfully using Facebook to land new business, and they are disciplined enough to not mix business with their personal. Me on the other hand, I am certainly guilty of playing a few of the Facebook games (Farmville in particular), which will post your status on your wall for the world to see. So, I make sure I don’t goof off in Facebook during the day, and save playtime for after hours!
However you use social media – we now have opened up a world of endless possibilities. Reconnecting with old highschool friends, or making a connection to that fortune 100 company that you’ve been trying to interview with – social media puts power in our fingers!
