Most Successful Social Media Use Requires Effort and Time
When I was in fourth grade, I was certain that I had invented a perpetual motion machine. From clay, I had fashioned a device that would cause water to circulate continuously. You can imagine my disappointment when my teacher informed me that all I had created was a rather unattractive paperweight.
People have always searched for shortcuts. There has always been a quest for easier ways to get things done. In the world of social media it seems that there is a disproportionate number of people looking for a free ride — a perpetual motion machine of sorts that will build communities and drive business to their website or through their doors.
Social media is a great collection of tools that can change your life and alter the trajectory of your business, but for the vast majority, there is no free ride. Like anything worth having, a social media presence is dependent on the content and value you are able to provide. Successful social media programs are fueled by content, and they need to be managed properly in order to grow.
Social media is changing the lives of regular people every day. I say that with all sincerity, yet it’s probably not as dramatic as it sounds. Social media is not magic — it’s not a one-step solution to all of your problems, and it’s not even easy. In fact, it can be quite challenging.
Social media got me my job. It got my son’s high school marching band $50,000 for new uniforms. It has led to marriages and new businesses right here in Westchester — and it’s found homes for dogs and cats that might have otherwise been destroyed. Social media has raised money to battle cancer and other diseases, and it helps scores of businesses right here in Westchester communicate with current and future customers.
A social media plan is a long-term process of building a little bit each day, but it pays dividends when you’re willing to make it an integral part of your life and business. Every business owner and most people I know want to build connections, establish networks and form relationships.
When it comes to fueling your social media machine, remember that some of the best-spent time and effort is helping people in your network get what they need. Once you’ve engaged in social media for a while, and your networks begin to grow, you’ll see opportunities to help others out at little or no cost to you. You’ll see a job opening that is perfect for someone who has helped you out in the past. Not only will you tell the person, you’ll send a killer recommendation to the hiring contact and you’ll change the future for both.
Social media will present you with opportunities to share new products with people you know will benefit from them. Just yesterday, Westchester social media and marketing professional Rhonda Hurwitz recommended I try a couple of new apps. A few minutes later, I installed one of them — a dictation app called Dragon Dictation — on my iPhone, and I wrote this column on my drive home from work (hands-free, of course).
Social media is frequently the subject of news stories when it helps people topple governments, it turns an entrepreneur into a billionaire, or it ruins a business overnight. This causes the perception that social media is always swift and decisive, when in fact, it is most often neither.
Most of what we call social media is not really that new, and it doesn’t bring too many completely new concepts to the table. Life has always been about building relationships, strengthening networks, providing value and bringing the right people together at the right times. Social media just provides opportunities to speed up the process and to become alerted to more of those opportunities before they pass us by.
Chris S. Cornell is the Director of Social Media at Thompson & Bender — a Westchester-based public relations, advertising and marketing firm. He manages several online communities, and consults, speaks and writes about social media. You can follow Chris on Twitter, or join the community he manages on the Westchester Social Media Facebook page.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.