Week 2: Social Media

Welcome to all the folks who joined us last week! So glad to make such great connections so that we can collaborate and learn along with each other.  This week we’ll turn our attention towards social media.

Social media can be a bit overwhelming at first. Don’t worry though, that is a totally normal feeling just dive in and give it a chance. Social media is definitely something you have to DO in order to understand. Even the best explanations can’t replace the experience of participating. Heck, I had a Twitter account for over 2 years before I knew what to do with it.

If you’re just getting started with social media—as an individual or an organization—the potential of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms can generate a lot of questions.

• Where do I start?
• What do I share?
• Who do I follow?
• How do I keep up with it all?
• Who has time for all this?

Over the next several weeks we’ll help you answer these and other questions. But before we dive into the details, you should give some consideration to what you want achieve. As Stephen Covey, says “begin with the end in mind”.

1.   Which sites should you use?

You don’t have to be on all social media site, just the ones that work best for you. The ones that typically work best are those where you’ll find your colleagues and other people you want to connect with.

2   Create a personable profile?

Take a few minutes complete your profile including avatars, cover photos, and a personable bio.  A completed profile gives you the best chance to gain followers and build a solid reputation on social media

Visual content attracts more attention. The quickest, easiest way to create great-looking visuals for your profile is to use a tool like Canva, which comes with prebuilt templates right-sized for each platform.

I don’t claim to have the world’s greatest social media presence, but if you want to see what I’ve got going on you can find me here:
(please feel free to connect with me while you’re there and mention how you got there)

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• My Personal Blog
• My Weekly Tech Tips Blog
• Presentation Slide Decks & Handouts
• Google+
• Pinterest

To help you create your social media profile, here is a helpful checklist from Buffer’s Social Media Kit that covers the major channels:

How to Complete Your Social Media Profile

Other things you should think about is how you plan to fit your social media participation into your schedule. Will you dedicate 15 minutes a day to social media over your morning coffee? During you commute? (As long as you’re not driving of course!) Only on weekends? What works best for you?

Activity 1:

Complete your social media profile worksheet online .  or you can print a copy to work with offline. 

If you already have social media accounts, take this opportunity to review it for completeness and think about how you can improve it. For example, are you using the same profile picture across platforms, are you linking to your personal website or LinkedIn profile and do you have appealing visual headers.

Activity 2:

Take 2 minutes a day this week to learn by  subscribing to this Social Media 101 email course from Buffer. It is a quick, easy way to get a good foundation for the things to come over the next few weeks.

Tweet this!

Leave a comment below or tweet anything you learn that you find valuable.

Extra Credit:

Share which platforms you are already on so others can connect with you. If you like, feel free to ask for feedback on your personal profile(s) in the comments below.