On The Campaign Trail

For politicians, social media can be an extremely important outlet to get reaction from followers, communicate ideas and engage with people. However, I’ve seen a certain trend with many politicians. It seems that some politicians and their teams utilize social media heavily while campaigning. However, once said campaign is over, some politicians tend to stop using social media and completely ignore it. This use of social media should not and cannot continue.

This does not include everyone; many politicians utilize social media in their every day lives and I applaud this. I understand that social media can be daunting and leaves many people shaking their head, but if you are going to do it, do it well. Here are some quick tips:

• Talk about relevant and/or local content
• Engage your followers
• Answer questions they may have

I’ve seen too many people use social media and then drop it after being elected/not elected/etc. These people don’t get social media, they don’t get how great a tool it can be to achieve many goals whether political in nature or not. If they did “get” it, they would be using it.

Let me know what you think by giving me a comment!

 

King of the Hill

“Content is King”

This is very important for most people when designing websites, but how important is this concept for social media? I was in Toronto on a conference last fall and one of the keynote speakers was discussing on how to maximize social media. He was hammering the point home that content was the most important thing for you  to consider when using social media. He did not murmur a word about conversation. As he was continuing his presentation, I couldn’t help but think to myself, this guy is completely missing the point.

While content is quite important in what you do in social media, it’s the conversations and the interactivity that feeds this social media machine. If you don’t converse back with the people you “friend” or “follow” , you usually aren’t going to get much interaction.  You see many brands and individuals putting out tons and tons of content, but without conversation going back and forth. On the flip side, you see many people having the conversations with fans and they are reaping the benefits.

People enjoy engagement. If you were calling people on the phone and not responding to what they have to say, most people would not be that receptive to you. You don’t talk this way on the phone, why would you do it on Twitter or Facebook? Think of how you use social media and what you are receptive to and make those changes accordingly. Find your own voice and play with it.

Whether it’s on your personal or business side, take a few minutes out of your day and have a conversation. Don’t think too much into it and have a good time.

-joelserious

Beginning

I’ve decided to blog on what I have to say about social media and e-marketing. For me, the goal of this blog is demonstrate my growth as a person, but also, to demonstrate that the supposed “rules” of this sector don’t always hold true. I’m not sure if many people are interested in what I have to say, but I figured I would give it a shot anyway.

I’ve found that a lot of people claim to be experts in the field of social media, but haven’t proven to me that they are experts whatsoever. Despite what some claim, I honestly believe that there isn’t a right way to “do” social media.  Those intereste in social media should be trying to find their voice instead of asking “what do I do?”. This isn’t rocket science, so don’t make it complicated.

-joelserious

Tags: joelserious, social media, social media experts