September 24, 2010

It's All Social Media

The medium in which we socialize.

It has very little to do with a web portal, zero to do with anything electronic, nada to do with any gadget or interface without one important ingredient - us!

Anyone with an Internet connect can publish thoughts online and build an audience.

I am not a social media expert and neither are you.
I am a social media expert and so are you
.

This is not to suggest that everyone must have a blog or a podcast but we all have the ability to have them. Technorati tracks upwards of 140 million blogs and that number is probably still a fraction of the number of online spaces that offer someone’s opinion.

Monumental shift in how we communicate.

I often hear from colleagues and friends that all this social media stuff is a big time waster with no results. Before you make that summation, look at how much quality time you really are giving these activities. My treadmill continues to collect dust and will never lose me weight by osmosis.

We are all customers, providers, consumers, producers, buyers and facilitators. Life has always been about residing on either side of the proverbial counter but now the control is in all of our hands. If you run a business, you must be aware of that.

We give up too quickly.

It takes years to master the sales process, decades to learn the fine art of professional chess, thousands of hours to perfect the 3-point shot yet some feel we can hop onto online channels, chat with strangers and with very little get the sale.

Once we realize there is no particular right way, we quickly discover that a blog, podcast, email, phone call or lunch meeting all have one imperative common element - people.

Take a closer look at all of your communication avenues. Don’t just focus on the multitude social networking websites, look at all media. Look at the people you deem to be navigating those channels well and ask questions. With some clarity, you will quickly realize it's all media shared socially.

None of us has this mastered, you in?

knealemann

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