What do you do if you were born before the rise of the information age and have woken up to find yourself amidst a sea of blogs and tweets and acronyms that defy translation? The way we communicate has gone through yet another Kirkegardian leap and requires a bit of a mind shift for those of us used to the “old way” of keeping in touch.
Here is my short “to do” list for the over 40 crowd (or anyone really) trying to keep up with the pace of change.
The Mind Shift
Think of social media as a giant cocktail party in space. When you attend tradeshows, seminars, or simply go to the grocery store you meet and chat with perfect strangers all of the time. It might not be your natural inclination to be chatty but you can do it.
The halcyon days of privacy are virtually over. Get over the fact you do not want anyone to know anything about you. The next generation is an open environment of free association. Yes, you should put a picture of yourself out on LinkedIn or Facebook. I am thinking about using a picture of Tina Louise in the hey-day of Gilligan’s Island so that my former colleagues and classmates cannot determine my official weight gain.
Please note that you will be stalked by people you used to know looking for friends and contacts. You do have some control over who you accept in your personal network. From what I have determined, in my short tenure in space, there are two types of networkers – accept almost no one or accept anyone who asks. I am not sure if this is a “who gets the most wins” scenario or not . . .
Types of Social Media
I recently attended a social networking seminar that made me feel as if I could actually brave the social media world. It was where I finally realized I was not alone. Aside from delivering a great introduction to the medium the speaker boiled things down to six types of social media:
Social Networking – Creates communities and connections (Linked In, Facebook)
Blogs & Microblogs – Content used to drive SEO efforts (You are reading a blog! See it’s not as hard as you thought to participate, Twitter)
Social Broadcasting – Visual medium of interest used to drive SEO and promotion (UTube, Flicker)
Social News – Vote driven, SEO driver (Digg, Topix)
Social Bookmarking – Creates communities of similar interest (StumbleUpon, Delicious)
Social Pages – Create content about anything, keyword driven (Squidoo, Hubpages)
My life is now a much better place being in “the know”. Now, I write a blog, have online identity and visit all sorts of webinars and groups. I challenge you to check out some of the sites listed above. You don’t have to participate initially – but it will give you a good feel for what the experience is like. Be joyful and tweet!
The seminar I attended was called LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter … Now What?
Hosted by Caroline Melberg at Melberg Marketing at www.melberg.com
