March 4, 2011

Why Social Media

What's In It For Me?

I’m looking forward to working with a group of about a hundred people next weekend for my social media strategy workshop.

The executive director of the event was gracious enough to give me access to the list of attendees and I sent out a questionnaire. My goal is that each participate can pick up a few actionable ideas they can implement immediately.

There is no shortage of theory. Many assume everyone gets all this digital stuff. Some do, some don't, some are working on it, some are afraid to ask. And that includes small, medium and large companies. The exploration continues for all of us.

Human Networking

The essence of online social networking is what you bring to the equation. The choices of tools and sites can be overwhelming. No one has mastered them. It is an evolution for everyone. We are all cobblers in one way or another. I see far too much smugness on the social web from self-anointed experts touting everyone should be at some level. There are no levels, we are all learning. I have colleagues who are mortified that I still use Blogger while Seth Godin and David Armano grow large strong communities on TypePad. If it was about software, we'd all be rich.

This will be a workshop with professionals who have jumped into the social web and want some advice on how to navigate it better for their situation.

Here are some questions that came back from participants

• How can social media transform an organization?
• What are the limitations?
• How can I earn a living where standards and payment of content is low?
• What social networking sites should I consider using?
• How can I use social media more efficiently?
• Is the expense of reinventing my business worth it?
• How do I manage the time it takes to use social media?
• How can I find a new revenue stream?
• What can I do so social media doesn’t run my life?
• How important is blogging to my business?
• Where can I go to get information about sites and terms?
• How can social media best create new relationships?
• What's next?

What would you add?

Kneale Mann

image credit: noupe
 
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