Personal Media - Nah - Social Media Sounds Better

Tonight on Twitter I was reviewing profiles of new connections made throughout the day.  I always check out profiles of those following me, and read their tweets before following them.  I generally try to RT at least one post for each new person that I follow.  I came across this one tonight:

@joelcomm tweets to @GrowMap "Without personal touch, you limit the social in social media" 

And to that I say... 

Really!  SOCIAL Media... Say that again... SOCIAL Media.  Be personal - be social!

I have to say, I'm very much enjoying really digging into Twitter and getting to know some really fabulous people!  Once you engage others in conversation and take a genuine interest in what other people have to say - rather than what you can get out of it - you'll be hooked!

I almost feel bad - I seem to get out of it, more than I feel I give, but at the same time, others are ReTweeting my goodies, and I got some great shout outs today for #followfriday!  It's humbling and so very much appreciated.  I only hope I can give back ten-fold!

I really don't know what I have to offer, but I know that I enjoy chatting with and listening to what others have to share.  I'm finding the more I listen, the more I am heard.  Amazing really.

Your personal touches can go such a long way in Social Media, so long as they are sincere.  Insincerity in social networking is spotted a mile away!  Maybe you do have something to sell on Twitter, and that's okay - but that will come in time if you are passionate about building real relationships - those relationships will build your brand and drive your business.

A few points I struggle with that I have run into in Social Media networks:

-->  You follow me on Twitter, so naturally I want to learn more about you and what makes you tick, and perhaps what I might be able to share with you - but your Tweets are blocked?  How the heck am I supposed to get to know you?

-->  On LinkedIn... You have a public profile on a business networking site, but when I express a sincere interest in networking with you, I'm told "I only accept connection requests from people I've already done business with" - Now to me that defeats the entire purpose of LinkedIn and Social Media.

--> On Facebook...  I send you a friend request because perhaps we work in the same industry, we have a similar interest, or common connections - and am told "I only connect with people I have met face to face".  Again - Facebook with 160,000,000 users... I use FB for personal and for business.  And I purposely do not keep those profiles separate, after all I am a person, so my personality is personal, and I am who I am personally and professionaly and they are the same person!  Make sense?  Why would you NOT want to connect and get know a potential information sharing source?

I understand the privacy thing - but in some regards, and on some networks, it defeats the purpose of SOCIAL MEDIA.

I will continue to remind everyone to #payitforward in all you do (Twitter and beyond)!  Give more than you want to receive and you'll get far more than you ever imagined possible - but BE SINCERE!

Thanks for the inspiration @joelcomm - I truly look forward to following you!  

LinkedIn Networking Group

LinkedIn Groups... Useful or Useless?

Just a short post to share my insight...  

LinkedIn Groups if properly managed can be a very effective tool for sharing information and insights on a particular subject matter.  Within these groups, you can network with folks, post related jobs, invite group members to events, share blog posts and discuss relevant topics.

The other thing you can currently do is post spam in group discussion boards.  This drives me absolutely batty!   I have been spending endless hours digging in to Facebook as viable tool for marketing businesses online and additionally - what toolset and features are available to business owners, and how to appeal to demographics, etc...

So I turned to the Facebook.com group in LinkedIn thinking I could gather up some useful morsels of information - only to find spam after spam after spam post - and sprinkled in there was a post to the effect of "Does anyone at all post anything related to Facebook on here"?  As I read through the thread on that post, I found the answer to be... well... "No".  So along comes my next experiment...

Social Media Experiment #2

I have created a new group in LinkedIn called Facebook Information Sharing Group.  I have enlisted the help of a new contact whom I have made through my networking in recent weeks.   He has graciously agreed to help me manage this group.  It is my intent to gather up all kinds of people from all industries who currently use Facebook for business or who want to use Facebook for business - and start sharing revelent information. 

I hope you'll check out this new group - join it - connect with me and others, and share real and viable information and experiences you have had related to doing business and networking for business through Facebook.

FYI... If you are not on LinkedIn - you should be!   Connect with me on LinkedIn.