Have you ever walked into one of those networking/cocktail parties at a conference? You know, the one with a couple thousand people in the room all talking at the same time? It can be scary!
You probably look for someone you know and hang out with them. However, there are people in the room who could be interesting to talk to and others you’d like to get to know. The best way to do this is observe and listen.
Social media is no different. I’ve had company execs and PR folk tell me that they can’t do Twitter because there is just too much content coming in too fast. It’s all too much to digest. Well, yes. Imagine if you stood in the middle of that giant cocktail party and tried to listen to every conversation in the room? Impossible. You’d go nuts.
You have to stand back and observe. Pick the conversations you want to participate in.
There’s a magician doing tricks in one corner. He has a crowd around him and he’s engaging the audience with his skill. He’s in communication with them and they’re paying attention. The crowd is growing bigger all the time.
Over there is a woman who is telling stories about herself and her company in a loud voice. The stories are interesting, but the problem is no one else can get a word in edgeways. Her audience soon figures out she is not really interested in them and they move on.
A group by the fireplace is deep in conversation about a technical subject they all know a lot about. It’s a fast-flowing interchange of ideas. But it’s not for you. You don’t understand what the heck they’re talking about.
Ah! Finally, you find a group that’s talking about a subject you care about. The conversation is interesting, so you listen and, when it’s appropriate, you ask a question or offer an idea relevant to the discussion. And you become part of the group in a natural way. You’re exchanging ideas back and forth. You connect with everyone in the group. If you stay around long enough and consistently offer great ideas and share your expertise, you could find that you’ve become a thought leader for that group.
If someone at the party compliments you on your ideas – or even says something nice about how you look or what you do – it’s good manners to say thank you and talk to them. You would never just ignore them. Or worse, turn around to the people they’re with and say loudly, “Hey! Sally just said she likes my work.” And then ignore me and continue your conversation with your own group as though I were not even there. How rude is that?
But we do it all the time on social. Have you ever retweeted something without acknowledging the person who tweeted it?
Social media is a giant networking cocktail party online. The rules are no different. Use the social skills you learned as a child and you’ll find social media is not so scary after all.
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