A salute to social media

As I commence my journey from Platform No. 26, I felt it only appropriate to salute social media. I first took notice three years ago by the works of Robert Scoble and Shel Israel who wrote Naked Conversations. Today we have other writers like Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff who break it down even further with their book Groundswell.

Social media and user generated content is a breakthrough in communication, no doubt. But, for as much acceptance it has received, there are still a few folks that are yet to enter the arena…in fact, until about two years ago, I was one of them. It started with Myspace, then Facebook, Twitter and of course now my own Blog. And me tell ya, after ALOT of unnecessary anxiety questioning “What to write?,” let me tell you I am thrilled to get started!

With that, i’ll lead into an article I read on WSJ.com about the use of social media in business. It broke the use of social media down to the basics. At first I said, “no duh” because the article was so generic and seemingly obvious news…but then I read more carefully and realized that the three very rudimentary steps the article listed were ones I had yet to conquer! While the article was intended for small businesses, I had to question my own involvement.

Step 1. –Experimentation. Well, you could say I’d done this with my very first Myspace, but was that enough? Or, is this Blog my true entrance and cry for official acceptance into the social media world.

Step 2 – Build Usage. Well, Facebooks and Myspace are innately programed to build usage — I barely had to do anything once I signed on. But this Blog, well this poses a challenge. Hopefully with you reading this I am well on my way through this step.

Step 3 – Keep it fresh – Here I go:

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121771259615507585.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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