How To Create Community Using Social Media
December 3, 2009
Alright I’m the first to admit that I thought Twitter was the most ridiculous thing in the world and completely irrelevant for my business. I remember saying to my colleagues, “Don’t even tell me about it!” I wrote it off as one of those Hollywood fads that was made for those who enjoy silly snippets of conversation.
But much to my complete surprise, social media forums like Twitter and Facebook have become a central pillar of my business communications. Who knew!
What I love about Twitter and Facebook is that we can now have conversations with just about anyone in the world, about anything. Personally I don’t write those posts that tell people what I’m having for breakfast or the fact that my dog just went out and “did potty.” But those aren’t things that I talk about anyway, so why would I post them on Twitter!
Many people get put off by these kinds of conversations but what I say to you is if you don’t enjoy those kinds of conversations, then find ones that you do enjoy. Seek out what is relevant and interesting to you and then start to connect. Now how do you do that?
Well if you’re like me I get overwhelmed easily by too much data and there is no way that I want to be reading 9 million status updates a day. So I just trust that wherever I land is where I’m meant to connect, or I search out certain types of people and start to follow them. But my personal secret to fulfillment in social media is that I make all of my connections very personal, or at least as much as I can.
I’m not an anonymous type person, so why should I want thousands of people following me that I don’t care about? I wouldn’t. As much as I can, I try to connect with people individually because that alone makes me feel like I’m building community.
Personal, individual contact is the key to feeling like you’re part of something. We all want to feel connected and we need to be part of the bigger human family, so I make that my personal goal rather than just racking up the numbers.
And I’ve had great success at this. I have a wonderful following both on Twitter and Facebook but more than that, I have built connections with interesting people from all over the world.
I’ve spoken on the phone to several that I met on Twitter and in a few weeks I will be hosting a special Radio Show with two wonderful storytelling colleagues from Barcelona, Spain whom I met on Twitter. Who would have ever thought!
So can you have fun and fulfillment on social media? The answer is yes. No it’s never as good as in person contact and obviously I don’t want to be dating this way or having all of my social life online, but hey, the bigger the global family the better.
Try it today and see if you aren’t Tweeting a Happy Tune sooner than you thought and if you need any tips, feel free to contact me!
Yours in building community connections,
Annie
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Thank you Annie for continuing to add value to my/our lives… You have one Year to get on OPRAH so we need to move fast…
Best, Brian-
Thank you for the insight. I always wanted to find out more and how to leverage this media.
Social media is not going away anytime soon. Most people fear change because they don’t understand. Knowledge is not power, application of knowledge is power!
Start with a few social media sites then build from there. You can overwhelm yourself if you have 10 or 20 different sites.