The answer to this is the key to your social media success. We all recently came together in an event for one purpose. The event was to help entrepreneurial businesses flourish. The combination was Mark Rollo of The Puget Sound Business Journal, DIY Public Relations expert Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy, growth strategist Tammy Redmon of Redmon & Associates and myself, Steven MacDonald representing Practical Social Media.
We also combined forces for an article earlier this month entitled, “How Your Business Can Take Advantage of Social Media Sites.” This combination of media, marketing and consulting is becoming more common as the trend continues towards finding meaningful partnerships that can provide more value than you can on your own. And who benefits? All the partners and all those connected. It is truly the social media way of a win-win for everyone. The goal is to find more and more ways to add value to your audiences. Don’t worry about giving too much away, worry about how much am I giving. The rewards will come.
The fact is that your proprietary content is the currency for extending value, establishing relationships and winning over new clients. Wikipedia said it best, social media is about technology, social interaction and content. And so yes, you are in the content business. Fast Company recently wrote about the 10 Commandments of Social Media and had blogging at the top of the list. In fact I think they put it like this, “Though Shalt Blog (like crazy).”
The Ten Commandments of Social Media
People now blog about topics that you use to have to pay them hundreds of dollars an hour for as consultants just to hear what they have to say. Take advantage of this new trend towards value both as receiver and a giver. This is the key to your business success in the world of Web 2.0.
On this point, Nancy Juetten (a prolific blogger at her DIY Publicity Blog and in her workshops) talks about three important factors to blogging that I thought were well worth sharing.
1. Don’t Be Insular In Your Posts – In other words share the wealth. Give credit to others, with links to their content and proper attribution to their value. They will recognize that your are helping their cause and others and most likely help your back. This is even a great way to create relationships with other bloggers in your industry or outside that you don’t know personally, but would like to start a new relationship. And by the way, your readers will benefit too.
2. A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats – Or what we were talking about earlier in this post. That you should be generous with your content. Generous to the point of maybe even feeling a bit uneasy about it. Now your are in the right spot. Where you know that anyone that receives your content is going to benefit tremendously and want to be a part of your ongoing conversations online.
3. Content Over Cuteness – In other words, clever words don’t replace real value. You have an expertise that you have developed. You have success under your belt, loyal followers and a point-of-view that is uniquely yours. Share it. Don’t be the best at saying nothing. Be the best at saying something meaningful.
