Social Media: Making it Work for You

Have you ever stopped to think about the importance of social media nowadays? Just a few short years ago, social media didn’t even exist and yet today we could not see ourselves without social media.

Written by Catherine Adenle

Today social networking is so much more than just reading the article on a static website. Everybody from big business to independent business owners and professionals are using some form of social media in their day-to-day lives.

Therefore the importance of social media should never be overlooked or underestimated as part of your social media branding.

Most Social Media tools and platforms are free. So, why not take an advantage of them to further network and connect with subject matter experts? By using the different platforms you can start to brand yourself as somebody different from the rest of the crowd especially as a professional or a job seeker.

You can share valuable content in many different formats, like using Blogger or WordPress to blog posts and articles. You can also use LinkedIn to connect with the businesses you like.  You can easily connect with many people from around the world sharing ideas and forging professional relationships that could last a life time.

You can really let people know who you are so that they like and trust you and would want to collaborate with you. You can showcase your skills, product or company using fan pages or groups that you will find on social media sites.

As you can see, social media is not just a tool that you can use to catch up on friends; it can also build your brand or business. However you must use this tool with respect, one false move, and you could find yourself in a pickle.

Remember, the social media content that you put out will determine your success or failure using the social networking sites. You want people to like and trust you so be sure to share good content – content is king!

The importance of social media has really made the world a smaller place; we can now do business and connect with people from all over the world so much easier and quicker than ever before. Social media is here to stay and you should start learning how to use it to its full potential.

See Tips For Good Social Media Karma.

If you need further evidence that social media is here to stay in the corporate world, look no further than Telstra, the Australian telecom giant. The 40,000+ person company makes social media training mandatory for its employees and formalized a policy of “3Rs” – responsibility, respect and representation. Taking things a step further, today the company is trying something about as transparent as it gets – publishing their entire social media training guide online, so that anyone can check it out, learn and critique.

You can take a look at the guide, which takes the form of a comic book but also includes narration from a speaker. It starts with the very basics – like “what is Facebook?” – but eventually moves into much more complex issues like “what if my [personal] blog post is critical of Telstra?” According to Mashable, to-date, the company says that 12,000 of Telstra’s employees have completed the course. Here’s a quick introduction:

If you are one of the doubters, hopefully, by the end of this presentation, you will understand how social media can be used in your profession or career to achieve even greater success than for you to go without it.

So, what are your views about Social Networking? Let’s hear from you.