My First 'Social Letter'
- The 'Social Letter' will only come out once per month
- If after reading it you don’t believe there is any value in it, just unsubscribe at any time
- And I will share just 3 topics with 3 tips each month around my own learning in Social Media and Social Learning
Anything in this 'Social Letter' is based on my own personal opinion and has been developed through my own research and daily experiences.
This month my 3 topics are;
Social Language
Personal Exposure
Social Tools
Social Language
Michael, do you agree that the Internet appears to have found its niche? Social Networking has exploded across it like a tsunami and instead of sinking we have all taken to our boats and are exploring the high seas to see what effect it will have on our daily personal and business lives. Why is it then that I still hear such outdated language via email, blogs, press etc? Why is our language not changing or are we just afraid of letting our guard down? Here in the UK I believe it is going to be particularly difficult for us to speak in a different (social) language, we just seem to be afraid of being more social in our discussions. A ‘Social Language’ that is more engaging, more holistic, more inviting and asking both clients and friends to join the discussion.
My 3 tips for a new Social Language are:
- Stop promoting yourself or your business (people do not like being sold to on Social Media)
- Start listening and communicating
- Become more engaging by asking great questions and sharing views
Personal Exposure
Are you worried Michael about your own personal exposure on Social Networks? Let’s turn the clock forward, let’s say to 2020. A lot of teenagers will be well out of University, looking for jobs. Guess what their employers will be looking at? Their Social Network footprint and their language in those networks. There is no better way to get to know a person, then to look at their Social Networking sites and see what they have been up to.
Sure lots of students will be trying to hide their profiles from their employers with the fear of being ridiculed for the games they play, their chats with their friends, the apps they use, the places they check-in to and much more. Now, it's not that difficult to learn about someone, so much of what you say or do on Social Networks is indexed by Google. Good luck to those students who will be trying to hide 10 years of social media exposure! This infographic (to download click the link) illustrates nicely the case for transparency versus the case for anonymity.
I know you are happy Michael for your business profile to be in the social domain, but what about your personal profile? Why do we say, I want to keep my private life separate from my business life? I don’t want people to know that much about me, but very happy to share what I do for my work, because I could earn from that.
Well I have some news for you. People buy people first and when we are in a business lunch or networking event and after we finished talking about what we do for a living, we start asking questions like...where do you live?...where are you going on holiday?...how many kids do you have?...what sports do you follow?...who do you support?...and so on.
I think you are probably getting my message, we all need to start getting used to the idea that you need to be more personal on social networks and share something about yourself.
My 3 tips for creating Personal Exposure are:
- Make your profile open, so that anyone can find you on Social Networks and can get to know you
- Consider the view that everyone is a personal contact, don't consider them to be different, just because you met them in the workplace
- Be careful to judge people that blend their personal and business lives (this is done regularly on Twitter)
By the way here is a great blog post by Social Media Examiner; http://bit.ly/mGyaCU
Its called Facebook 101 for Business: Your Complete Guide. Some great learning in there for you and how to develop a more personal relationship with everyone!
Social Tools
Certainly in my research and learning, I have come across so many different sites, tools and apps that can help me in my social media endeavours. So, Michael I decided to share a couple of tools with you, that help me keep track of all of these.
The first one is Google Bookmarks. A great way to have all your bookmarks available on the Internet (Or do we now say the Cloud?). I found that having these in the 'Cloud' is really beneficial. You can also install a plug-in to your browser, which then allows you to quickly add them when you are on a site that you need to bookmark. You can also keep bookmarks organised by list for easy retrieval.
Start creating your bookmarks here: https://www.google.com/bookmarks.
The other tool I use is www.oneforty.com. Here I can record all the different Social Media tools I use, currently I use 58 different ones, whether through the web, desktop or mobile. They have a library of all the different tools and its a great way to learn about what they can do for you and keep track of all the different ones you have signed up to. I have looked at many other tools too but these two for me have made life a lot simpler. Plus you can share it with your colleagues too. 
My 3 tips for managing Social Media Tools are:
- Save all your bookmarks inside Google Bookmarks, for easy sharing or retrieval. And get the plug-in for your browser.
- Create a spreadsheet on your personal computer and record all the urls, usernames and passwords and make the sheet password protected.
- Use a tool like oneforty to record all the tools you use and also find other tools.
For next month I have in mind to cover the following 3 topics:
Are you ready to go back to school?
Does using video to teach your colleagues work?
Do you really understand Social Media?
Michael, if you have time to discuss this 'Social Letter', ask more questions and engage with me, please stop by on www.facebook.com/stayingaliveuk Let me know if I met my promises and any suggestions on how could I make it even greater for you next time?
Have a great month and I hope to catch up with some of you either face to face or in those amazing social networks.
Michael