Social Media Baby Steps Don’t Have To Be Difficult
Yesterday evening I gave a presentation on “Maximising Social Media for Business” to a diverse group of communicators with the Halton-Peel Communicators’ Association.
As I moved through the presentation, I saw signs that people might be getting a little overwhelmed by the volume of information and tools I was throwing at them.
My message to them, and to anyone dipping their toe into the social media waters, is:
It doesn’t have to be difficult.
While I like to recommend a gradual process of listening, then engaging, then developing and publishing, the first of those steps can be accomplished in just a few minutes per day and in a few simple steps.
- Go to Google Reader (or any RSS reader) and sign up for an account (it’s free!)
- Go to Technorati or Google Blogsearch and plug in your name, your company’s name, your hobby or anything that interests you
- Subscribe to the results of that search in Google Reader (in Technorati the link is at the top-right of the results column; in Google Blog Search it’s on the left of the results)
- Spend a few minutes every day reading what people are saying on your topics. Learn who the key influencers are; where they are present; and what they are talking about
- Once you’re comfortable, begin to comment on influencers’ sites
There – in just a few minutes per day, you’ve taken your first steps into social media.
Make sense?
