When did you take the plunge to become active in social media?
Did you make carefully considered decision? Did you strategize and plan? Was your decision just-for-fun or all about business?
Or did you enter the scene reluctantly, begrudgingly?
Social media is permeating our society more and more. Billboards sport the Twitter and Facebook symbols; television commercials include information about how to connect with the business through social media.
Now, more than ever, it is impossible to deny that the internet and social media have changed the way we do business.
As a leader, you have several options for social media involvement, personally and professionally.
You can refuse to get involved. Picture this: Social media is a bowl of brussels sprouts. You are a ten year old. You sit, tight lipped, holding your nose, looking away, refusing to try even a bite. You know you don’t like it; you don’t care that it’s good for you. You will sit at the table until tomorrow if you have to, but you just. won’t. eat. Period.
You can delegate the responsibility of social media to someone else. Social media is grilled salmon and you don’t like seafood. You know it’s healthy, you just don’t want to eat it. So, you hand it across the table to your friend, who adores fish. And you sit happily nearby eating your favorite dinner.
You can do the bare minimum. Social media is a multivitamin and you take it every day, but you down it fast because it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
You can practice moderation. Social media is the best food that you’ve ever tasted, and the most nutritious,too. You see its benefits to you and enjoy it, too: within reason, measured, and counting every calorie.
You can embrace it. Social media is an all you can eat buffet, open 24 hours, and you plan to make your meal worth the price of admission. So, you try everything, eat as much as you can, and make the most of it.
Join the conversation!
What decision have you made about social media?
How is it affecting you personally and professionally?
Today’s artwork comes from Jeremy Shumate, a teammate at Mountain State University. Thanks, Jeremy! Well done.
This was originally posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk and is re-posted with permission.
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.
Becky,
As you define it above, when I first stepped up to the social media buffet, I gorged myself (#5); I’d say I “embraced” it too fully, without a strong business strategy. Over the past 12 months, I’ve moved towards #4– to “healthfully” feed my business and myself. As the saying goes, “anything, in moderation.”
Hi, Becky – nice post.
It strikes me that these guidelines can be generalized to be useful to anyone to determine their attitude toward social media involvement.
I love the image of the 10-year old refusing to eat something or even try it. Bulls-eye description of many of my peers attitudes toward SM.
I wonder how these relate to people’s experiences with SM after they have “taken a bite”. For example, does the person who sees the buffet dive in and continue to be a 24/7 SM user or does their “calorie intake” level off. How do people move between these approaches. What, if anything, motivates a person to venture into SM when they are firmly in that first category.
Great thought-provoking stuff – thanks!
John
I think I needed the support of a “real person” who used blogs and tweets to get me started. It appeared from outside to be annoying and “one more thing to do.” Now that I have joined Twitter and added a blog to my website, it is becoming clearer to me what I want to invest in and how much is “enough.”
Here’s my insight: just as I was required to use a laptop and therefore overcame my aversion to computers, so now I am discovering how rich the world of Social Media can be – not whipped cream on cheesecake rich, but Smoothie rich – helping me move ahead in goals of learning from and sharing with other.