What’s the big deal about blogging and social media?
June 9th, 2010. By Kim Novak Proctor | Published under 10 items or less . No Comments.
“Blogging and Social Media… Why bother?”
I”m glad you asked…
Why Blog? Blogging is not to show everyone how smart or cute you are. If it’s going to be a part of an effective business strategy, you need to provide value, to help your customers solve problems, and establish yourself as a thought leader.
Why Social Media? It’s to connect with real people: friends, associates, affiliates, prospects, customers, and share your collection of great ideas (yours and others in your particular niche). If you are using social media, you get to build your own channel, and you are literally the Editorial Board, Editor in Chief, Writer/Anchor, and Ombudsman all in one person.
Why Blogging and Social Media? Quite simply, it’s a radical new opportunity to put yourself “out there” in front of your clients and prospects, to help them solve problems,and position yourself as a potential solution provider, so that when they have a problem they contact you to help them.
Don’t forget that Social Media is “Social”
One of the mistakes I see most often is when people confuse social media with broadcast media.
You should be working to genuinely connect with people because you genuinely care about connecting with people (**not to connect with them just so you can sell something**).
If you’re at a cocktail party, you are boorish if all you do is talk about yourself. Blah, blah, blah.
Like anything worth having, blogging and social media successfully requires some of your time and attention–not all of it but some of it. Follow others you look up to, see what they’re doing, follow the conversation, add value when you have value to add.
And one thing is for sure, if you don’t put anything into it, you can’t realistically expect to get anything out of it.
