Can a Numbers Person Ignores the Numbers?

So do the numbers count in social networking?  Hmmm, well there are two distinct camps or matters of opinion on this subject.  A lot of people believe that the more followers you have on Twitter or friends/fans you have on Facebook or connections you have on LinkedIn the better.  So those people are out aggressively collecting, or maybe hunting would be a better word, people to add to their lists.  There are list builder programs you can purchase that guarantee certain numbers in a small amount of time and then there is the good old fashioned search and follow every one you find method.  Since this is my blog I can say that I do have a problem with just adding multitudes of people to your lists.  I can understand why Oprah has over 2 million Twitter followers or Ashton Kutcher has over 3 million Twitter followers, they are famous and obviously that many people feel like they know them already, much less by following them we feel a little more connected to them.  

Having a high follower count can be a big rush.  I must admit that the day my followers in Twitter hit 200 I did the happy dance. :))  I AM A NUMBERS PERSON!!!  I have a degree in Accounting - I love numbers.  I know you non-number people don't get it but I thrive on numbers.  So to teach myself not to focus on the numbers has been a exercise in self control.  So why not collect followers and friends like I collect shoes?
  

It was brought to my attention early on that social networking is much more than a way to connect with old friends and classmates, that it is truly the media of the future. This media can be and should be used to build lasting relationships with real people that share a common interest or who see value in something that you can provide.  It seems to me that adding followers, friends and connections should have a purpose.  If your purpose is to simply have huge numbers so you can say that lots of people want to hear what you have to say then go for it.  If your purpose is to provide some value to man kind then be more selective in the people you follow and thus the people that follow you.  I think it is much more important to have 500 followers who really want to hear what you have to say than to have 10,000 followers that don't care what you have to say.

So does all of this mean that I do not know my numbers - absolutely not.  I recently found this fantastic statistics site called Twitter Counter.  I can tell you at this moment that only 3 months into my social media project I have 488 quality followers and I follow 525 amazing people on Twitter, I have 95 friends on Facebook and 17 colleagues on LinkedIn.  My numbers are simply growing because I am hopefully providing quality information that people want to receive and I am building lasting relationships with people that I simply would not have met outside the world of social media. 

Mantra - Quality over Quantity!!!

      

My New Best Friend Twitter

I love you Twitter, oh yes I do, I love you Twitter, this much is true!!!  I was never a cheer leader but I think this is how that cheer starts.  I have fallen in deep love with Twitter.  I am in mini-blogger heavan.  The good news is you can love it too.  It is official, I have been using Twitter for 10 weeks now and I have learned a lot in that short amount of time.  So I thought I would tell you why I love my new best friend Twitter.

• I have met so many new friends, as of today 436 to be exact. I love to read their tweets and I hope they love mine.  I find myself gravitating to those who tweet about personal growth, inspiration or business.
• You are limited to 140 characters.  Short and sweet and I love that.  Nothing long winded and it is a challenge sometimes to limit those thoughts but so much fun to figure it out.  
• RT's - Retweets!  I love RT's - I actually retweet a lot of information.  When I find something someone else has said and that I like, I will quickly RT it.  When you retweet you are giving recognition to the person who originally tweeted it.  It feels awesome when someone gives you credit for your own thoughts or work and it really feels great to give someone the credit and kudos they deserve for their work.  Note - if you want to be retweeted try to keep your tweets to 120 or less characters to give the RT'r the room to add your user name when RT'ing.
• # - called a hashtag.  Usually tweets are individual thoughts that sometimes start a conversation but if you would like to create the community feel for a topic you can include it with a hashtag and watch the conversation unfold.  For example, one hashtag I follow is #LCTwitizens.  Just put that in the Twitter search box and you will see the stream of conversation.
• Using Twitter you can easily share files, photos and video as well as much more.  You can simply type the URL in your tweet (using a URL shortner if necessary)
• These last two I have not used personally but have watched them work for others.  First you can raise money for worthy causes.  The sheer size of twitters audience makes this possible.  Recently there was a Tweetathon to raise money to fight child hunger in the United States called 12for12K.  The idea was to raise $12,000 in 12 hours by passing along tweets and getting donations.  They actually ended up with a little over $14,000, a true success story.  Second if you are in business you can use Twitter as a customer service tool.  It is designed to have immediate results which is exactly what customer service should be.  You can resolve customers issue quickly with a personal touch and hopefully, if you are doing it right, build positive brand recognition at the same time.

These are just a few of the things I love about Twitter.  I could go on and on but won't.  OK maybe later but for now I will end with this - Twitter is a fast paced, I agree, but for me with a little focus I can see the huge potential for individuals and businesses alike. 

5 Steps to Social Media Relationship Building

Hello All - In my last post I told you that I am starting to learn about the world of social media. I am in the process of taking a class from www.SelfGrowth.com called Social Media University. 1st I should say that the class has been amazing and well worth the money but this is not a promo for the class - just an observation. We have had about 6 class so far and have learned a lot about Twitter and Facebook as well as why we should be using social media. I find it amazing how quickly social media has sky rocketed in the last year or two. We are a society in love with immediate gratification and social connection and social media gives us both. But what I have learned in the past couple of weeks is that the most important aspect of Social Media is building a personal relationships.

A relationship is defined as a connection between two people or objects - the dealings and feelings that exist between those two people. So how do you build a relationship with total strangers in cyberspace? People need to first know you, then they can like you and only then they will trust you. Building that trust is the key to success in social media. So again how do you build that relationship?

1. Put yourself out there! Are you making yourself available to meet people? What does your bio say about you? It is important that your bio be interesting and intriguing so as to create the desire for someone to take the time to find out more about you. Are you smiling in your profile picture? Yes you MUST have a profile picture.


2. Reach out to others! Are you following people on Twitter or are you a friend or fan on Facebook? You must extend the first hand, get out of your comfort zone and make the first move. You will actually find some interesting and exciting people out there. Do not go crazy and add hundreds of people at one time because that could actually get you banned from some sites instead you should have a plan. How many people do you want to add each week? How many would that be each day? What you will find is that a lot of those people will start to follow you as well.


3. Share information about yourself and your passions! On a daily basis you should post something that you find to be relevant to your life. That may be an inspirational quote, a comment on something newsworthy or it may just be a statement about your day but it should be something that lets people get a feel for who you are. You can do this multiple times a day but note there is such a thing as too much.


4. Interact with people! There are multiple ways you can interact with people. On Twitter you could re-tweet something someone said that you found interesting, direct message or @reply people to ask them questions or make a statement about something they said. On Facebook you could comment on something they posted or write on their wall. The important thing is that you took the time to engage them in conversation, although it may be a short conversation.


5. Help people - don't spam them! Take the time to provide them with information that is relevant and important in their lives. For example, if you read a great article about personal growth you could share that link so that your followers could read it. If you have experience in a certain area provide people with tips that can improve that area of their life. Do not continuously send them information and links promoting your products or services. A great rule of thumb is 10 non-sales contacts for each sales contact according to Social Media expert Nancy Marmolejo.

At this point you will have given them the opportunity to know you, by providing them information about you, then like you, by providing them with valuable and helpful information for their life, and then and only then will they trust you. Now you have to focus on keeping their trust! It is not as hard as it seems. Be genuine, kind and helpful and you will be amazed how many people will want to trust you.

SCARED

OK I'll admit it - I am scared. At this moment a little more scared about blogging than the actual subject but if you had asked me yesterday before I decided to blog about my experiences I would have been more scared about social media. I don't know about you but a month ago I thought social media was for teenagers. Every kid I know has a My Space account and that is what I thought social media was - a place for teenagers to hook up.

Then about a month ago I started thinking about writing something, a book, a pamphlet, a letter - anything I could do to express some of these thoughts I have all the time. I have spent 40+ years absorbing all the information the world would give me and have now decided that it is time for me to share. I am going to give you the fast forward version of how I got to this particular point in time - Write a book? How to publish? OK how to self-publish? How to promote? What the heck is social media? - OK now these 5 steps took me several weeks but I woke up one morning and realized there is a whole world out there I knew nothing about and anyone who knows me knows I can't stand that. I have to know at least something about everything - how else can I form my opinion and I am very full of opinion. LOL

Over the previous months a couple of my friends had joined Facebook and asked me to join but I declined. I told one of them when she asked why I hadn't joined that I didn't want to have to talk to other people on my computer which, of course, was why my yahoo address was always on invisible. Not that I am not social just that I stay pretty busy and I didn't want anyone to be offended if they saw me online and I didn't speak to them. Then I saw an article about twitter and that looked like something I would like. Short and sweet messages from me to the outer world. People would hear what I have to say but I wouldn't have to hold a conversation with anyone. So on June 14, 2009 I opened a twitter account, www.twitter.com/RUInspired, and sent my first tweet. It said "Wow! 1st twitter comment - what to say? Inspire - to affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence. I want to be inspirational!". I was hooked but still confused. I started following different people and had people start following me but I wasn't sure how to use it to my advantage.

My search for help took me to a site I had in my favorites but I have to be honest was not visiting on a regular basis http://www.selfgrowth.com/. I had signed up for a member account (not as an expert yet) and was receiving a few emails and newsletters but had really not paid much attention to them. One of the messages I got from Self Growth said they were going to have a teleseminar about how to use social media - it's amazing - exactly what I was looking for. I will stop here but be sure to come back to read about what I started learning in the class.......