Jul
9
When diving into the Social Web, one of the first things to do is consider your objectives: Are you looking to connect with family or friends? Establish business connections and uncover networking opportunities? Participate in online conversations on hiking, finance, etc.? Whatever your intentions, there are a myriad of ways in which to do so in both personal and professional networks. More importantly, you can leverage those specific networks to achieve your overall goal of being an executive marketer in the social space.
Personal social networks allow you to engage in an open dialogue with friends, whether that is through the sharing of photos/videos, status updates or the promotion of groups/brands/organizations you support. In addition, you can search for former classmates, colleagues and those sharing similar interests.
What’s your primary use for social media in the personal space? Meeting up? Reconnecting with old friends or classmates?
Facebook is one of the most popular social networks, with over 400 million active users, but it’s far from the only personal social network. Many other communities exist to help you connect with family/friends, identify others who share your interests or concerns and follow companies/organizations. Some of these other popular personal social networking communities include: MySpace, Bebo, and Eons.com. Do you use these alternates? Why or why not?
One of the reasons Facebook has caught on so well is because it offers a place for people to connect with one another, share accomplishments and experiences, all while providing them with the ability to customize privacy settings. We’ve seen a significant increase in the past several years of a brand presence on Facebook – brands positioning themselves as a resource to their followers, leveraging followers as ambassadors and allowing for peers to engage with one another. In fact, the average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events and more than 25 billion pieces of content (links, news items, blog posts, discussions, photos, etc.) are shared each month.
Personal social networking certainly doesn’t need to be an end goal of contributing to your marketing objectives, but you may want to think of it as a way to add additional value to your life. Do you use Twitter to check sports scores or are you the tech maven of your friends when you get ESPN updates via SMS? Any way you utilize it, personal social networking helps contribute to your online persona and may want to be construed in an integrated effort with your professional social marketing involvement.
Stay tuned next week for Park Two of how to establish a marketer’s social network presence, where I’ll focus on professional networks.