Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Glass half-full vs. half-empty? I
am a half-full guy and I do my best to stay positive in an economic
climate that is challenging us to redefine ourselves. This not easy,
but it is absolutely an opportunity.
So how am I staying positive? I am learning, sharing and making friends using social media. Facebook, Twitter , Squidoo , YouTube , Typepad : these are all tools that I have been using for a year now to build "Social Me". Right now this is very inexpensive to do. My total cost is $100, but you can do it for less. Let me show you how to get started, or accelerate what you are doing already.
- First search your name on Google and Yahoo. What do you find? Disappointed? Try a search on Scott Moroney, Nick O'Neil, Perry Belcher, Seth Godin. You will see that we own our names in terms of search results. This is the fastest growing tactic to find out quickly who you are, for good and bad motives.
- Start
with Facebook - establish your base camp. Everything integrates with
Facebook fairly well. If it doesn't integrate already add a "Share on
Facebook" link in your browser.
Don't forget to integrate with LinkedIn.
- Go to Twitter - Register a simple account, best in your name. Make it easy to spell on a mobile phone. Watch the video, add a feed from it to Facebook. Avoid the #1 Twitter mistake.
- Go to a blog tool - What are you so passionate
about or an expert in that you can share with people? Choose it, get a
blog from Google, TypePad, Wordpress or others. Stick with it and add
a feed to Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Go to Squidoo - A bit like a blog, but you don't have the same uphill climb since you are already in a blog network. If you do it well, you can generate a little cash to direct to a charity.
- Go to YouTube and Flickr - Do you have some interesting videos and photos to share? Do it. Share it on Facebook and Twitter. This is what fuels these two communities.
This
recipe above takes time. It is not a "get up to speed quick" elixer,
but it is a reasonable method to establish who you are in a new world.
I firmly believe in the coming years that whether or not you work as a
social media or marketing craftsperson or not that you will see the
minimum threshold raised in the job market. If you are not easily
found in these social communities, you will not be found. Next!
One final thought to test yourself along the way. GoogleBattle.com
is a web-based tool that allows you to pit keywords against
one-another. I did this earlier today to get a better sense of the web
search trend about the general climate in the world. I ran "Positive
vs. Negative". Guess who won? POSITIVE! Before you start this plan
above, choose a list of five names of people who you would like to
compare yourself to in a social world. Choose a range of social
Luddites to social mavens to see how your activity is progressing. If
you select Seth Godin as you top milestone, you will likely fail but
please, please prove me wrong.
If you would like to learn more, you can follow me at @scottmoroney on Twitter or read my rants at http://scottmoroney.typepad.com
If not me, there are so many great social media practitioners. Get involved and get to know some people.
Images are used from Flickr. Please click on the images to see the original photographer credits and other works.
