In the second session, the Social Media Leadership Class Spring 2010 addressed the points of what social media tools are out there; how to deal with them/what do they mean to business, and how people using them can change brand association overnight.As discussed, the winning methodological approach to using social media to provide the best possible customer experience involves 3 Key Elements: 1) Network, 2) Contribution, and 3) Participation – NCP.
Rather than this being yet another review however, looking at this assignment forced me to ask:
What can I bring to the table here that is unique? What is my special contribution rather than just regurgitating the same information?
I decided to share a more personal application. What I have arrived at is to let you know where I was coming from when I began this process of building a social media presence. It made me realize some walls that I had around myself and around my life. I think it’s a great starting point to make the changes in myself so that I can then help others to relax their own fears and really to embrace the power of social media.
Here are a couple of examples. I did not have many social media presences when I first began, and those I did have were so tight even a mouse could not squeeze in. My personal Facebook site was created with stringent privacy settings. You could not write on my wall. I even had two different people comment that they were unable to, one to which I explained (thankfully they are still dear friends) that I had purposefully set it that way, very genuinely believing that this was perfectly acceptable. (Maybe, but it sends a definite message!)
Another example concerns how it is important to be OPEN to participating and to what others have to offer. Once or twice years ago one friend of mine gave me feedback regarding the length of my voice message. To look at it honestly, I did not enjoy that feedback although being diplomatic in nature and of course appreciating the person, I took it to consideration and thanked her on the outside with a happy face. A related and final example is my recent conversation with a previous co-worker who offered some valuable perceptions about me that relate to the topic of opening up my life, the topic of transparency.
In my favor, I will share that I am a gregarious and good person, who is traditionally well liked and according to my family, they love me too. :) However I have always kept private life at home and public life at work, so to speak. Is there anyone else out there like this? And so this process is forcing me in such a healthy way to examine that and to evolve for the BETTER. There is an old saying, “you will keep getting what you are getting if you keep doing what you are doing”. I have celebrated some wonderful achievements in my life, but I am not satisfied that this is as good as it gets. I know it can be better, and I believe this is how.
I need and want to get very active to change old feelings, practices that are not serving me well and to embrace the power of social media to change my brand overnight.
Some Immediate Strategies:
Network – Continue to think on who I most want to connect with that can help me to market myself. Look through my address books, phone, other peoples’ connections and think through areas of my life where I interact to give myself ideas of who get LinkedIn with. Spend a little bit of time daily to reach out to others.
Contribute – Begin posting more to the SMACAD blog , serve as a guest blogger on other blogs such as perhaps “SocialBusinessOne” and create my own blog (which hey! Here I am, I have done it!) On LinkedIn, participate in groups and discussions, raise questions, make comments. On Facebook, reach out more. Comment on others’ posts, make positive affirmation of their lives, posts, achievements, questions, which will build TRUST. Also, try to post things about my own activities and business or life. Further develop my bio on Twitter and have an address for a blog if that works for my goals. It is very important to find my unique area of contribution and to hone in on that.
Participate – Notice whether others are responding and if so, what kind of responses they are providing. Make more effort to creating engaging posts and opportunities for people to interact with me and to be part of the conversation. Am I evoking any responses, and if so, what kinds? If not, how can I improve? I need to know if my investment is paying back.
Ultimate Goal: Becoming Part of the Recommendation Chain! :) :) :)
When we apply NCP we will become part of the recommendation chain and herein lies our success, because customers of today rely on other customers through the recommendation chain to make purchasing and hiring among other choices.
Already a very interesting thing is happening as I have begun to apply aspects of this model: The energy is starting to move! Instead of “The Sky is falling!”, I can report that “The Chi is moving!”
In only the past couple of days I have heard from a handful of people suddenly with whom I had lost touch, strong business contacts. Once again, key driving influences should be to extend our reach, to intensify the depth of our network, to broaden our knowledge and I am experiencing the next step which is to revitalize our influence.
By the way, my social sites are listed using a great tool called Xeesm which can be found here: http:xeesm.com/JenniferSalisbury/. I hope you will visit me, leave a message and even write on my wall! Tell me it stinks if you don't like it! Thanks for participating, I promise, I do appreciate it.
All the best ...
Jennifer
