Day 12: Using Social Media Tools like a Rockstar
I have a question for you web users out there: How much does your use of your devices and your web profiles to express your interesting little self COMPARE to how much you use all that to screw around?
Folks be forewarned – I am one opinionated little missy but I say this all out of LOVE: *steps onto soapbox
Ahem.
Being in this here Information Age is a real challenge. An exciting one mind you – at least depending on how you look at it. I think those of us that are thriving within it know just how to rock the social media. Everyone else may just be cluttering up the net with virtual chatter. People we love too! It’s so freakin sad sometimes! I know it bums me out when I read more about a friend’s Farmville status reports then their actual life! Let me be a little voice of sense and reason here okay? Just because you are awesome at growing pixelated vegetables doesn’t mean all your friends care to know… each and every time you get a new sprout or rutabaga spouts up from the virtual ground. Does Oprah rock at Farmville? Hell. If. I. Know! Thankfully she doesn’t share those precious little updates with her fans on her web profiles.
what the hell is that??
I know I’m gettin on my high horse here but I just find it ridiculous reading about stuff that DON’T MEAN SHIT! So instead let me tell you how you can share somethin REAL and how it’s really not all that hard.
Things to Post: Links
This is the easiest type of content to post and it can still be unique to you. So go ahead and post links to all sorts of great stuff:
*Movies
*Events
*Clothing
*Toys
*Software
*Music
Things to Post: YOU-ness
You can also share the unique and weird stuff about YOU:
*Your wacky philosophies
*Your silly adventures
*Even your wisdom
*I suggest postin little 1 to 2 line blurbs in most things and then spilling all the juicy details in a big wordy blog post. NOTE: formatting things with headers and bolded text is FANTASTIC.
Things to Post: Comment Lovin
Share the love okay? Tell your friends you are thinking about them or compliment them or somethin. Believe me they need to know and it’s just super nice and cool.
*Wall Comments
*Blog Comments
*Share a link just for them
*Refer some cool resource
*Tell them their photos are cute and you want to see more
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
SHARE SHARE SHARE!
And THROW SOME MUD ON THE WALL. Do not get all preciously perfectionist about it. Otherwise you won’t learn anything and nothing will progress into something truly valuable. Chances are you won’t say, post, or upload the most perfect thing at first. But you will learn if you practice and allow yourself to get some golden feedback :)
Take me for example. I’ve decided to put my goofy ass out there and produce content at the most basic freakin level possible with this whole project.
*I’ve uploaded the most amateur photos from my sorry ass little webcam.
*I wrote my first blog posts on the generic little wordpress template EVERYONE starts with.
*And I’ve posted my videos with the lamest lighting I have available – including the creepy blue glow of my laptop.
All with the intent to show you fabulous people what this whole journey starts out like. And I have learned every step of the way and produce better content each time! Half the time it’s from people that are just wanting to be helpful and lend their expertise:
“Can I show you how to not take Myspace photos?” -says Anomaly Boy who is a genius with Photoshop.
Let me get back to Oprah here – she’s nearly Queen of the Universe right? Her first Twitter post was all in caps and Shaq had to be the well meaning jerkface to tell her that she was SHOUTING on the web. Maybe a tad embarrassing but INSTANTLY fixable. Just by pressing a button.
So Here’s Your ACTION List:
1. Do.
2. Screw Up.
3. Learn!
4. Make something Prettier next time!
Or you could be one of those fortunate souls that produces something brilliant your first try and everyone wants more more more!
Either way it’s easy as pie :)
Okay I’ll get off my soapbox here and get back to work.
Tags: blogging, facebook, farmville, friends, information age, oprah, personal branding, Social Networking, twitter, web 2.0, web celebrity, web ettiquette, Work&Play
Ioannis
Question: Why would anyone put so much effort in branding him-herself ? Why is socoial networking that important ? It sounds to me that even trying to update all those different accounts is a fulltime job. Needless to mention i am feeling a bit philosophical today :-)
admin
Great Question Ioannis/amyntas77! Thank you for asking! I’ll answer a bit in brief here and then I’ll post a blog and vlog addressing the question more in depth! For now let me tell you as the “herself” in question that now that I’ve been doing this for 12 days I’m finding that yes, it IS a bit of a challenge just uploading daily content on my main accounts: Youtube, Wordpress, and Flickr. But it has already been worth in terms of accelerating my learning on how to utilize these tools to ENHANCE my life both personally AND professionally. It isn’t a full time job so much in that I’m doing this for 40 hours a week since to be honest I’m having a lot of fun producing the content and I don’t really track the hours I spend. What I am learning are principles that I can extend to my work, my interactions with new people, how I share value with my relationships, and ways to express myself powerfully and concisely. That alone is worth the challenge of getting stuff up for every day of the project. And the effort really isn’t exhausting or taxing, just challenging. It’s great fun.
Rob
Question: Why would anyone put so much effort in branding him-herself ? Why is socoial networking that important ?
Why? Because everyone has their own voice and sometimes people want to have their voice heard and not get “lost in the crowd,” so to speak. And this is nothing new. As long as there have been media to give people outlets for expressing their creativity, people have used them. As the media grew and changed, so too have the methods through which people express themselves and/or share their talents.
On a more personal note: I’ve never really thought of my blog in terms of “social networking.” It started as a means to get used to writing again. I began by just noting things that happened in my day. Or things that annoyed me. Or things that I found interesting. In the eight years that I’ve continued to blog, it’s become part-brain dump/part-journal/part-soapbox. I write for me… but it’s also open for people to read and comment on.
As far as “social networking” goes, however, I have met a number of people (including Ms. 365 Day Girl, herself) who share common interests and who also bring differing and refreshing viewpoints to the table.
yes, it IS a bit of a challenge just uploading daily content on my main accounts: Youtube, Wordpress, and Flickr. But it has already been worth in terms of accelerating my learning on how to utilize these tools to ENHANCE my life both personally AND professionally… What I am learning are principles that I can extend to my work, my interactions with new people, how I share value with my relationships, and ways to express myself powerfully and concisely.
Have you checked to see if there are any crossposting tools available? I use a couple of WordPress plugins to crosspost from my WP blog to LJ and to Facebook.
Namaste,
Rob
Manny
Believe it or not, some companies are actually hiring people to do just that, keep track of their social online presence, in addition sites like Facebook have been suggested as great places to self promote small business. Just saying.
Evervescence
I so love that you are hatin’ on the farmville posts. I wish somehow we could just ignore anything from any of those games that we are not interested in. BARF! I want to know what is on your mind, what you’re wearing, eating, thinking, feeling, dreaming, imagining, where you’re going, where you just went, where you want to go, you name it, I want to know and likewise I share all those same things no matter how random. From time to time I get complaints that I “post too much” or this or that, to which I make no apologies and can only say, if you don’t like it then block my updates because you don’t have to get my updates. I do this for me- and for whomever out there might enjoy it too and for those who don’t or those who want to grow their pixel crops have at it but I don’t care about that. I want to know about YOU!
Jed Pouche
Yo, just found your site on google. You have a ton of good posts!
Arnulfo Krouse
Sup, just found your site on google. You have some awesome posts!