I am constantly blown away by the quality and quantity of good information that’s available on the web. I have been studying the use of social media for some time; initially for use within the firewall of a large organization and, more recently, for small business marketing. One channel I think many businesses, especially those that experience high foot traffic, e.g. restaurants, bars, retail stores, is Facebook. I will never refer to myself as an expert, but I have been gaining some expertise in both the strategy and the mechanics of taking advantage of their fan pages.
Unfortunately, I can’t keep track of all the good information that keeps being thrust my way! I want to share just one of them. I like what Jordan Julien has to say, though I find myself wondering why he’s not including mobile now in his assessments. Perhaps he is and I need to dig a little deeper but, for now I just want to share one post he’s written that I think is quite useful. It’s entitled “How Should I Use Social Media” and you can find it at http://bit.ly/ge2vwl. Check it out and see if it doesn’t clarify some things for you. Study the graphics carefully. There’s a lot of info packed into them.
So, by my title I mean . . . I sometimes wonder why I blog at all, since there’s so much information out there; much of it far more knowledgeable than what I have to offer. I know there’s got to be a good reason, else why do I bother?
April 6th, 2011 at 10:05 am
Trisha – First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to read my posts and to comment now and again. It’s one of the things that keeps me writing. As I told you elsewhere (Twitter & Facebook), I was going to delete two of these comments because they were somehow grabbed by WordPress’s spam filter and you were trying to get a point across.
However, I’ve decided to leave them all here because I think they are each a little bit different and they each have something important to say in response to my question. I hope you don’t mind.
April 5th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
We bother because we care! And caring is sharing!
April 5th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Oh… I was feeling this way just today! I was offering some suggestions about employee communities and why allowing non-work topics (such as hobbies) is a good idea. As I was typing my response, I was thinking ‘Am I offering anything new? Aren’t I just regurgitating all the fabulous information and wisdom that I learn from my friends on Twitter and the interwebs?’
April 5th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Oh….. I had a similar thought today! I was responding to a question about ‘why to allow non-business related discussions (such as hobbies) in an employee community.’ And I was giving myself a hard time about, ‘Well, this information I am sharing – I learned it from all the other fabulous people that I read via Twitter, LinkedIn groups, other communities, etc.’ So, my question more like ‘Do my comments really help?’
And I think the answer is yes. So, for all my trepidation and doubts, for me the answer to the question ‘Why do I bother?’ is I bother because I can still help someone in that moment. Are we all (those of us that care about all this social stuff) saying similar things? Yes? Are we repeating each other? Yes / maybe. I was having lunch with a friend last week and she said, ‘When are the success stories about social going to move to the next level?’ I don’t know the answer to that. But my response was, ‘We are still telling these stories because there are still people out there that don’t *get* it, don’t *get* social, that still need to hear these stories.’
That’s why I bother. That, and I like to hear myself talk. 😉