MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Hellooo, it's called Social Media

Social media is turning marketing and public relations upside down. The rules of the game are changing and shifting, and amidst all of this wonderful, innovation-driven chaos, many get into social media without keeping a focus on the "social" in social media.

How many times have you gotten onboard a social media website, went on an "adding friends" wild spree, starting sending links to these new so-called friends and wished for the best? I don't know about you but I've had several attempts with different social media sites. Many failed, and some succeeded.

Don't Just Add, Interact

Don't succumb to laziness and evil shortcut-ish temptations. Social media is a long-term effort which requires patience.

Come up with goals that can easily be broken down into small, very achievable steps. For example, everyday, genuinely make 3 or 5 acquaintances.

Adding many "friends" alone and immediately sending content to them in hopes of getting them to vote for it is not the right approach.

1. Add a few people at a time - preferably like-minded people and power users.
2. Interact with them, and make it a daily goal.
3. Meanwhile, keep in touch with those you've already added.
4. Maintain your focus on power users and
5. Turn acquaintances into friends.

Using a spreadsheet will be helpful to keep track of who are new/old acquaintances and friends.

Keep It Human

I graduated university with a major in Knowledge Management and before joining MindValley, that is pretty much what I used to focus on during my previous professional working life.

From my experience, when Knowledge Management initiatives fail, they mostly do because of too much focus on a techno-centric view.

There is a related and important lesson here.

Social media sites provide innovative technologies which merely act as enablers for communication and social interaction, so ultimately it's not really about the technology. I repeat, communication technologies are merely enablers. They don't and won't replace common patterns of human psychology which exist in the real world and which are also behind successful and healthy social media efforts. Don't fall for a techno-centric view.

Keep it human.

Last 5 posts by

• The 5 Profit-Exploding Secrets of "Passion-Based Integrated Social Media Marketing" - January 1st, 2009
• Valleywag Amuses MindValley - November 27th, 2008
• McAfee Magic: How One Tiny Tweak Boosted Sales by 15% - November 20th, 2008
• The Key to a Winning Sales Angle - November 5th, 2008
• Testimonials Sell. Email Them. - September 9th, 2008

About the Author

Having been invited for conferences co-organized by Harvard University and attended international ones, Amir is a blogaholic and a passionate observer of the blogosphere who's built a number of successful blogs. On top of that, he's obviously a full-time web junkie at MindValley where he focuses on blogging, SEO and social media marketing trends.

Check out other posts by Amir Ahmad

If you want to see what's in the private lab...

Ask yourself... which part of your business would you most like to improve?

I can send you 7 tactics related to your specific needs, if you like.

You don't have to buy anything, just take it as a backstage pass into our private course.

Will it give you the solution you've been waiting for?

There's only one way to find out.