Stop Trying To Figure Out Social Media

A friend wrote today:

"Social media" is the buzzword of the year, folks, and every professional is wondering if it's here to help, or here to destroy, their business. We've seen what the internet has done to so many industries, and it's good to be wary.

In my industry, recruiters, HR people, and staffing firms on one side, and job-seekers on the other, are also trying to figure it out. Some practitioners say that all social media is good for is wasting time on the internet, while others swear by its potential.

I replied:

I suggest to all to stop trying to figure it out (that is, social media). Just start getting connected, getting creative, and getting noticed.

Sure there is a bunch of learning and growing related to using social media for business and it will take tons of time, but really no figuring out or understanding is possible from my perspective.

This idea of trying to get it, understand it, or figure it out is what can waste people’s time or can keep them stuck in their current situations.

--Tom...

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Stop Trying To Figure Out Social Media

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Planning Your Personal Social Media Publishing

Lately, I have been talking to quite a few folks about how to setup your own personal publishing system.  There is no shortage of platforms for an individual to publish content on the web.  There is also no shortage of tools which can distribute your posts to other sites.  Without planning, the whole system becomes and echo chamber and your message gets bounced from one service to another.  Some services will get the same post multiple times, which leaves the message that you either don't know how to manage you publishing or don't care about wasting each constituent's time.   

The answer is to do an assessment of your publishing and distribution strategy. 

Publish 

Make sure you map out how you create original content.  For example, here is a generic process for publishing. 

Participate

Identify the properties that you want to participate in.  Each property has it's own audience and characteristics to consider. 

Facebook - Primary for personal interaction,  I try to only use Facebook for connecting with people that I know.  I keep the flow of business/technical items to a minimum.   Links in Facebook feed to Friendfeed. 

Twitter - Quick thoughts and links to interesting sites, feeds to Facebook and FriendFeed. 

Delicious , Digg, StumbleUpon - Quick bookmarks feeds to friendfeed

Posterous - Main blogging platform, where I post more in depth content feeds friendfeed. 

Distribution 

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Planning Your Personal Social Media Publishing

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Social Media Certification for Consultants is important, but …

Like everything else associated with social media, the issue of consultant certification is complex. So far, 67 people have voted (including the poll on LinkedIn) and the results are definitely trending towards a qualified dismissal of social media certification as a key criteria in awarding consulting projects. The general consensus seems to be that certification is OK, but that experience, references, and professional background are more important for consultants hired to help a client to achieve their business objectives. No surprise there.

However, several important issues about social media certification emerged in the discussion and I have attempted to summarize them below. (There were 24 excellent posts in the various spaces where this question was asked).

• “Social Media” is complex and changing. It would be impossible for any certification to be up-to-date on the latest hot site or technology.
  
• The characterization of a certification is not always clear.? Does it mean you have mastered Twitter and Blogger? Or that you can name the top analytic tools? Or that you can set up a good Facebook page for a client?
  
• Some certifications are more rigorous (and valuable) than others. Certification is more meaningful if students are tested on their skills and go on to apply the lessons learned in real-life business situations.
  
• The real value of a social media consultant is their ability to apply their understanding of how social media works to the bigger question of how to use social media to meet the strategic communication and marketing goals of clients.
  
• Certification is mostly for professionals that will be leaders of the “social media” discipline, not consultants using a tool casually or tactically. In other words, training is essentially worthless without application and no one needs to be certified to set up a Twitter account.

While few professionals describe social media as an art form, most would agree that there is a fluidity and lack of predictably that relegates social media education to a tactical realm. (Like learning how to use HTML to create a web site but not how to use the web site to attract customers.) It’s another way of saying that the industry is still a long way from having the social media methodologies, measurements, and established best practices that make certification meaningful for a large and disparate group of practitioners.

So get your certifications if you must. Use them in your marketing if you can. It won’t hurt. Just don’t expect that your next major project will happen if you are certified, but not experienced.

http://xeesm.com/mikedubrall

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