How to be a Social Media Player

Last Tuesday Accretive Solutions gave me the opportunity to present a social media 101 to a room full of about 250 to 300 CPAs. I have been getting some questions about the presentation so I thought I would do a quick post to complement the deck uploaded to SlideShare.

He was a player

I spend most of my time reading technical, project management and online marketing books. A little while back I took a break from my list to revisit one of my favorite general business strategy authors, Tom Peters. I started in on Re-Image: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. Ironically, Tom spends most of this book talking about the new web driven world and how companies need to respond to markets competing in web time. He describes his rationale for writing Re-imagine! as “ I didn’t have to write this book, yet I had to write this book”. He didn’t have to write the book. Peters’ first book is an all time best seller. It was the most widely held library book in the U.S. from 1989 to 2006. He had written nine others since then. Peters is deservedly called the “father of branding” and is a business management leader recognized the world over. He is in high demand for speaking and consulting engagements. He didn’t need any more authority, yet a new emerging economy drove him pen Re-imagine!. Insight to his motivation is found in the Tom's self-envisioned epitaph: He was a player Not he got rich. Not he became famous. Not even he got things right. Rather, he was a player. In other words, he did not sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by as it was undergoing the most profound shift of basic premises in the last several hundred years, if not the last thousand or so years. As Tom puts it, getting off the sidelines is not optional.

Social media for fun and profit

I think it is important for people to have the right mindset from the start. I personally believe that first social media should be fun. Hopefully it is something you enjoy doing. You will genuinely enjoy connecting and dialoging with others. Then the profitable part comes, hopefully – and if it doesn’t, at least you got on the field and had fun. Too many people approach the human network that is the web from an old world "what’s in it for me?" angle. They want profits quickly, generally by using old world corporate communication strategies. Just pedaling goods in the highly connected networks of trust economies won’t work. Even if you can get beyond pure selling, if your motivation is profit first, it is nearly impossible to come off as genuine and serving the interest of others. Without those things, you won’t be trusted. Without trust you have no influence.

Getting off the bench

Most people when getting started with social media want to know three things:

1. Where do I go
2. What do I do to get started once I get there
3. How should I act

This is the agenda of the presentation. I want to start with the last item of how to act first.

Netiquette

Netiquette is a set of norms for acceptable behaviors online. While each social community has its own set of norms, there are a set of prevailing ones across the majority of communities. I do have a secret. I studied under a social media coach for many years. Her name was Grayce. I more affectionately called her mom. All the basics needed for general netiquette I learned from my mom:

• Be yourself.
• You have two ears and one mouth. You should listen more than you speak.
• Don’t always talk about yourself. Ask others about themselves.
• Always say thank you.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Moving up the ranks

There are four stages to becoming a social media superstar

1. Be human - the prerequisite to be able to play well with others
2. Be one of us - you can't win by yourself, get on several solid teams with similar interests
3. Be trusted - become one of the go to players others trust with the ball
4. Be a game changer - become the a hall of fame legend by redefining the game

The trusted advisor

This presentation was for a group of CPA’s, lawyers and consultants. As professional experts we are ingrained with concept that subject area mastery is what matters. This leads to over emphasizing the creditability aspect of trust. While credibility is important it is only one element of the trust equation. The trust equation defined by David Maister et al in The Trusted Advisior is Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-orientation Each of the components can be described as:

component	realm	definition
credibility	words	subject mastery – can I trust what you say about…
reliability	actions	lives up to commitments – can I trust you to…
intimacy	emotions	comfort level – do I feel comfortable discussing…
self-orientation	motives	maintains others interests – can I trust you care about…

If you only focus on the creditability even the best subject matter experts can come off as irresponsible, too technical/unable to communicate or conniving.

Where to go and first steps

For this section I refer you to the presentation slides. The deck covers the purpose and initial steps for several of the most important social media communities:

• Facebook
• Meetup
• Blogging
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Flickr
• LinkedIn

The presentation goes a little deeper into LinkedIn. It is for a consulting audience where LinkedIn would be their primary playing field.

Power tip

The purpose of this presentation is to equip and motivate people to get off the bench and start playing. Don't worry about every community in the presentation and don't wait to become an expert. The journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step. Pick a community, follow the getting started steps. Then just play.