What Is Social Media?

What is social media?

It is truly something new, or it is a communication technology that is misunderstood and miss-applied because these new broadcasting and networking platforms have commoditized messaging by allowing the masses to have access to broadcast capacities and influence that were only available to a few years ago.

The answer is very basic. It starts with being meaningful and relevant to those that find you.

And where should they find you?

Everywhere that they are looking. Social media allows you to be everywhere, talking to everybody and listening to everything.

First, you have to be where people are looking. Second, you have to know how to engage by being interesting to and interested in the audience.

The problem with new media and the access to an abundance of data is that people don’t need to you to bring them any new information. Your prospects want you to be useful, meaningful and valuable. And your clients want to find value instantly. If you are valuable, you can’t be found if you are not there. So you must first show up and then deliver.

Sitting on the sidelines and not being in the market is not a strong strategy.

These search engines allow us to find data about just about anything we can identify by name. The problem is that data, in and of itself, is meaningless, unless it is framed within the proper context. Case in point, the 2008 Presidential Campaign at any other time would have not been framed powerfully without the other issues that were looming in the background of the United States, such as the economy and the current state of the government. This speaks to timing and relevance as it relates to value assessment.

The key is to show up, saying the right thing and having others saying good things about you.