SPWD

Soon after becoming unemployed, and Tweeting about it I began to realize that Social Media could have the effect to change lives, to change people and to change a story. I began to finally search out those who have been using it that are finding opportunities in it for personal and professional growth, finding ways to exploit it for business purposes, finding ways to monetize and earn from it, finding ways to change peoples lives with it and telling others their views on what works best.

It started by interacting with people such as John Reese, Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse on Twitter and other places. First, I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a business again, and John Reese stated it was a great time to do so. Then with Chris Garrett we discussed saving the weekend and doing other activities offline. That led into some discussion about guitar playing with him….Darren and I have emailed a few times, and I even was able to write a guest post on his TwitTip blog and am very thankful for that opportunity.

That leads me into this idea from Chris Garrett – he had tweeted to make one think, “Thought for the day – Before un-following a bunch of people, ask yourself if your own tweets have been good value lately” to which my reply was, “good though – of course my tweets are rarely of good value.” Chris’s response to that (along with to a few others), “That’s partly my point – you have attention, what DO you provide to make people want to listen?”

At this point, something started to click. I had been merely broadcasting on Twitter, and not very much, didn’t have many followers (still don’t, and I am okay with that) and really was not being “social” nor caring if what I was writing had any “value”. Value…….

At any point in our lives, we are interacting with people since most of us have family, friends, associates, colleagues and what not. So the interaction with social media takes place online, that’s about the only difference. In the real world, do we keep friends that are of little to no value in our lives? For how long? Do we continue to interact with the associate or colleague that does nothing but whine, promote how awesome they were on the last project or try to destroy other colleagues out of jealousy, envy or plain meanness? Not really, most people I know don’t anyway. Do we stay in contact with those who are always trying to get us to try something new, say AmWay, Quixtar or some other “latest, greatest make money” pyramid? Not usually, not unless they add “value” in some other form or area of our life.

And so it goes with social media, Twitter in particular being the one focused on here. Blogs, and other media will be discussed later. But that simple comment by Chris Garrett made me think – what value to I provide to the people following me on Twitter? Up until that point, I can say I probably didn’t provide much value at all….in fact Chris Garrett is not following me, though others in the industry are. Hmmm…you see I follow Chris and reply when I the following occurs A) his tweet hit a nerve in me B) I fell I can provide value in a reply to him C) to simply interact to learn from him. I don’t care that he doesn’t follow me, nor should you care about who follows you, but you should care about WHY they follow you, and WHY you follow someone else. You should also care WHY people don’t follow you, simply because if you are not getting followers as you would like, you are probably not providing any value to potential followers.

One great article I read this past week by Ben Bleikamp, was How and Why I Use Twitter to Build Relationships. He starts the article by talking about what Seth Godin says about networking – that it basically comes down to helping people achieve their goals. He then talks about why he follows a smaller number, and that unfollowing on Twitter should and can be done. Why keep following someone if they do not provide value to you, or as it was put, help you achieve your goals? It is mud in your lane on the road of life, and nothing more at that point, and will do nothing but slow you down.

Twitter is just one tool, albeit probably one of the more popular tools at this time, for social interaction on the web. How can you harness it to expand opportunities? I have been able to write a guest post, have that post tweeted to many thousands of followers, which then has lead to more traffic to this here little blog I attempt to operate. I have interacted with several of the top people associated with social media, even though I am a little person, a nobody. The fact that several of the “big dogs” have interacted with a little dog is amazing, yet is it really? That topic is coming next – a look at social media value networks – what is value as we talked about in this post, and how to you create value, and how do you find value? I have several resources lined up for the next in this series about value, and what it really means – and helping people achieve their goals without giving away all your secrets, something I have recently learned I am far too guilty of doing.