Just like in real life, you do not want to be that person that only comes around when they need something.
Over the last week (since i have been laid off) I find an amazing shift (maybe it is an obvious one for most) in the way that I find/read/learn from information on the web.
Prior to last Thursday, my daily activity – outside of working – was checking in with Facebook to see what my friends were up to, reviewing my Google reader to check up on the blogs that I subscribe to, and getting on Twitter for a little while to make sure that I was not too out of touch and keeping up with the key leaders out there. Linkedin was truly an afterthought and took a major back seat. Yea, I may read the weekly status updates emails that they send, but they did not interest me that much.
Before:
- Google Reader
Now:
- Google Reader
Future:
- Equal distribution
I have began a major shift in my activity within the above services, and I feel bad for the ones that I had ignored in the past, and feel bad for the ones that I am temporarily ignoring at the moment.
The fact of the matter is that you really need to think about the Networks that you have and leverage them all equally – within reason. There are many people in all of the above areas that can help you out. I have had at least 1 person in each of these areas reach out to me over the past week to discuss a potential opportunity. Thankfully!
Thoughts?
Mike
Social Media Strategy, Moderation & Management Musings 
3 comments
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March 27, 2009 at 3:09 am
Stefano Maggi
This action plan makes a lot or sense to me. Using aggregators might help only for the “reading” phase, but not much in the interaction phase. I’m currently in your “before” phase except that I use FriendFeed more than LinkedIn, but much more for reading purposes.
Question about moderation: do you have expeince of live online events moderation? What examples of live events have you found more successful or remarkable?
March 27, 2009 at 8:27 am
mikepascucci
Stefano,
Thanks for the comment. I totally agree with you on the “reading phase”, and that is really how I initially leveraged Twitter. It is important that people do not jump right in, but rather observe the behavior of any online community first. Following blog updates and subscribing assisted me in learning about the people behind the blog, so that you ave a better understanding of who the people are that you are following.
I have managed “live” events, some where the questions and interactions were “pre-screened” and some where it was open and immediate. There are positives and negatives to both.
In order for live events to be successful, you need to make sure that you Market them and target the appropriate audience. That is just the beginning though. Participants need to have the ability to add the event to their calendar, and reminders should also be sent out in advance – but not “spamming” them.
It really depends on the topic, person and purpose of the event whether it should be managed and pre-screened or open and immediate.
Mike
March 27, 2009 at 11:55 am
Jun
Yup, all the services are competing for the users time… there are so many networks out there and while they all do provide value, the user just doesn’t have the time to manage them all. Fundamentally most of these social networks are siloed in their own world, With the exception of maybe twitter. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but id like to see cross collaboration with some of these social media sites.