Stack - Digital quicksand avoiding social media OCD

Digital Media Avoiding Social Media OCD

By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP

Social Media has become another huge obsessive-compulsivedisorder! Like it or not, sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter are hereto stay. I know that many businesses and individuals are finding interestingways to use these social networks and interactive online types of media to dopretty amazing things. They use them to build their brands and to get to knowtheir customers. What about you? Where do you stand in this whole worldcalled Web 2.0? Perhaps, you have avoided it all together or maybe youre anaddict. It could be really wasting your time at work. Possibly, you aresomewhere in between. Most technology, like email and social networking, canbe great tools but lousy masters!

What is social media for you? Is it a useful way to spendyour time OR is it a sinkhole of what I call attractive distraction? Youcould literally spend all day going from site to site, updating yourinformation and connecting with people all over the world. How does thatreally add to your daily productivity? I am going to share a few tips on howto deal with all the types of interactive media out there.

My audiences are from a variety of backgrounds. If you areconsultant in social media or an internet marketer, your reasons and uses wouldbe very different than other people. If youre trying to build a brand as Iam, it could really make sense. Therefore, its really important to understandexactly what youre trying to do. The biggest reason that otherwiseproductive, well-intentioned people end up wasting a ton of time is that theynever really sat down and figured out what they were trying to accomplish. Areyou trying to build a brand, interact with clients, or reach out to newprospects? It isnt really about how many new friends or followers or readersyou have. You have to establish reasonable, meaningful goals. If there isabsolutely no reason for you to be on social media during the day, then youshouldnt even log in to it, unless its your lunch hour, or youve been givenpermission to check in on certain sites on your off time. If you have goals,such as if you are in Sales, you need to establish What is this going to meanfor me? Maybe it means you have the goal of establishing one new lead perweek. Perhaps you are trying to generate awareness and your goal could be,Im going to post industry-related content once a day. You might want toextend your brand and your goal would be, I want to be the online resource forcustomers and prospects and determine how to reach out to people. These arejust examples, but you need to know what this means to you.

Once you have your goal established, you can go out andchoose a few key targets that make sense to you. One of my favorites isLinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great site that allows you to create a professionalprofile for the purpose of making business contacts online. Most users seethis site as a relatively no-nonsense one. It is a great resource for buildingprofessional relationships and reaching out to people you need to meetvirtually to assist you in your work. I have 1000+ contacts currently, all ofwhom I have either met, networked with, done business with or would be willingto refer to others. When you first look at LinkedIn, youll see it has yourpicture, any status updates you have inputted, your current job, your past job,your education, your recommendations and your websites. You can go through andsee using mine as an example at www.linkedin.com/in/laurastack . You can summarize your background andexperience and explain your specialties. Whats powerful about LinkedIn is howit relates to other types of social media that you employ, such as blogs. Ihave my blog content posting on my LinkedIn page. I have the books I wrote onmy profile, linked to Amazon.com. You can make polls. I have my travel statusthrough TripIt, so I can connect to people who live in other cities and letthem know when Im there live. You can use SlideShare to put up presentations,as I have done about my books. You can also share files. There are so manyuses. I would highly encourage you if you have not done so already, to createa professional profile on LinkedIn and build it out.

Next is Facebook, which is used for both personal andbusiness purposes. A business profile is called a Fan page or just Pages. Ihave a personal profile, www.facebook.com/LauraStack , which were all my friends and family and speaker buddies go, but www.facebook.com/ProductivityPro is where all of my business contacts will go. You have to be very careful about which presence you are trying toestablish because that is going to make a difference later when you go to useyour social media as to whether it will be a waste of time or a productivemarketing effort for your business.

Twitter is a micro-blog, as people follow you or subscribeto your feed like a blog, but only 144 characters are permitted per post. Itis quite similar to a regular blog. You can share a link to an article youvebeen reading, something that you found interesting or a person that you wantpeople to be on the lookout for. The concept is the simplest of any socialnetworking site. Throughout the day, you are simply posting answers to themost straightforward question: What are you doing? Others can elect tofollow you, which is basically subscribing to your feed. Its no differentthan any other blog. The nice thing is that a lot of other companies andapplications have figured out how to link in to Twitter and build networks. Its a very fast-paced and growing way to meet people and update people on yourbusiness practices. In Twitter, if you go to www.twitter.com/LauraStack you will find my Twitter page and you can follow my poststhat I make every day, a Productivity Pro tip of the day. I currently havealmost 4000 followers who have found me through Twitter who simply like to getmy tip of the day. If this is an application that would be productive for youin your work, this is a way to build an online reputation and actually createawareness of you and your brand.

The last one I would highly recommend is a blog. If youhave not done a blog, such as TypePad or WordPress, which is what we use aspart of our site, this is a great way to share your expertise with the worldand build your corporate brand or your personal brand. If you go to www.TheProductivityPro.com/blog you will find my blog and can subscribe to myfeed. This allows me to share productivity news and insights in a veryinformal, impromptu way. On my blog, every time I post an article or a video,all of my subscribers are alerted to the new content that Ive added. The nicething is that anytime I post to my blog, I can set up my fan page on Facebookto also display that content. Anytime I have a video, I can have that onYouTube and simply embed the code there.

I wouldrecommend if you are going to get started with social media to try LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter and a blog. Use all of those pieces to keep up with eachother. When you are looking at your sites, you have to be careful to separateyour business life from your productivity at work. Make sure you keep themseparated. Ive been really careful not to invite friends and family into myworkday by going into my personal Facebook because then I would getdistracted. So, if I am at work and Im trying to focus on marketing myselfand I go to my Facebook profile, Im certainly going to be distracted fromupdates and messages from my family and friends. This is where you have to becareful to separate them.

In the same way, I dont want my clients to have my regular,personal Facebook profile; I want them to be on my fan page. That way, youdont have to worry about what you are posting on your personal page that youdont want others to read. You have to be very careful about maintainingprofessionalism and not comingling your personal social network with yourprofessional social network. I want to put my personal updates on Facebook andI dont want to worry about what a client might think. Instead of friendingthese contacts, I invite my clients, vendors, colleagues and prospects tobecome fans. This way I can choose which business items to post separate frommy regular wall.