Why Social Media Doesn’t Work For Most People
Welcome To The Social Media Party
Imagine for a moment that you’re in a room full of people you don’t know and you’re not quite sure who to attempt to connect with or what conversations are going on.
The conversations are everywhere and all over the place from what you can tell and you’re anxiety level is much higher than your level of comfort.
Your first thought may be, “why am I here and where’s the exit door?!”
It’s all very over whelming and you get the fight or flight syndrome.
Becoming a Conversation Sniper
Now imagine a much more different scenario.
You walk into the very same room and you have a device that allows you to be able to laser in on each conversation in the room individually and know exactly what groups of people are saying. Would this be of benefit to you?
You’re able to target exactly what conversation is going on and if in fact you want to participate in it.
You’re level of anxiety is non existent because you’re able to tap directly into conversations that you have something in common with and are able to bring value to!
This is the secret of saving online marketers and social media moguls. They aren’t camped out in front of their Twitter or Facebook accounts and just watching and waiting for relevant stuff to comment on.
Social Media Filters
So how do you snipe out the right conversations for you and your online business niche? Filters are the secret.
My friend Kyle Graham nails it on the head in the video above. I believe this concept should be part of a new persons curriculum when opening the door on social media.
You’re at your highest level of anxiety when it comes to using social media because you’re at your lowest level of knowledge. Or worse yet you’re like me when I first started and you’re just learning by nearly spamming people with your thoughts ideas and/or services.
Ok I wasn’t a spammer however I could have introduced myself at the party a much better way. 🙂
Let’s turn that around or even give you a new perspective.
Oh that little “sniper device,” yeah I’m going to give you a few of those devices right now that will allow you to eaves drop on any conversation going on in the web 2.0 world so that you can crash any party with confidence and know you have something in common with everyone. 🙂
Examples of Social Media Filters
So here are a few of the party favors that you can use to know where and by who your niche topics are being talked about:
Google Alerts -Google alerts allows you to know what is being said, where it’s said and by who on the web. Just input your topics keywords or phrases and let it rip. You’ll get updates daily weekly or monthly. I prefer daily myself.
I use it actually also as an online reputation management tool. Any time my name or my online ID’s are being used I get a report once a day. I want to know if my name is being mentioned somewhere or my ID names and what they are being associated with.
It’s critical to put out a fire if your name is being used improperly by someone or something is being said that’s not true. On the other hand it’s important to reply or respond to a blog post where someone gives you some love.
Twhirl or TweetDeck– Both of these tools have the ability to monitor specific keywords or phrases in their applications that come from Twitter.
If you’re topic is on personal development for example then you can have a separate incoming tweet stream that only has conversations appear that have those key words or phrase in them.
This handles the information overload and gives you the ability to connect with only those individuals that have something to do with your niche or interests.
Sidenote: Which Twitter application is best for you? Robert Scoble compares Tweetdeck & Twhirl and after reading maybe you can decide for yourself. (I’m betting he’ll know I’ve made mention of him here 🙂 )
Facebook– With the new version of Facebook that has been released you’re able to have a more real time feed of your friends comments. However even with the small amount of people I have friended on Facebook (Nearly 600) I’m can find myself with conversations going on that I have no interest in.
Let’s face it, if you’re like me I run in a few different social networks even within Facebook. You have the ability to segregate and have separate incoming feeds for friends, businesses acquaintances and any other niche relationships you may have.
Again this allows you to not run into that dreaded information overload Kyle mentioned in the video.
How Do You Eat An Elephant
Social Media is not only the cocktail party as Seth Godin puts it but it can also have the daunting task of seeming as large as an elephant when considering how to approach it correctly.
Hopefully this post gives you a 30,000 foot overview and that yes, it may take a minute or two to set up a few of these filters but when you can specifically see the target and only the target your chances of hitting it are much better than being in a dark room and firing blindly.
This concept allows you to more effectively maneuver in the world of social media with those you have something in common such as friends, people and prospects.
Along with the 5 Steps for creating cash and this post you’ll have a much better chance of making it in the online world than with out. Make sure you share it with a friend.
If you have any other resources or insights you’d like to share please do. 🙂