Record to Rendered

A brief break from your regularly scheduled [music] program:

I recently finished a course at Michigan State University called New Media Drivers License. After fifteen weeks of going over the basics of social media for those out of the know (and those trying to fulfill graduation credits), our instructor, an Online Sales & Operations manager at Google, left us with something to consider.

“Everything you’ve learned in social media, you’ll have to relearn in the next six to 12 months.”
- Michal Lorenc

Obvious considering the speed in which it has evolved so far, but it made me wonder: What have I learned so far in social media?

There is no golden strategy.
I cannot tell you how many blogs and articles I have read in which “social media experts” try to come up with a 10-step surefire equation to success. Well, there is no strategy. Success comes from creativity and unique ideas, so do some brainstorming of your own. Break the rules. What is your objective? What is the character of your strategy? What creative execution will you use?

Imitation is a launch pad at best.
Just because someone is famous on the ‘net does not mean you should do what they do. There may be a few key points to take away from their strategy (interaction, consistency, format), but what they are doing has been done – no one wants to follow the same person twice.
Example: Tina Chen (famous, but not a good idea to mimic)

Consistency is not negotiable.
When you create a vanity name, stick with it. Search engine optimization is very important if you want people to find you across different avenues. That means youtube.com/yourvanityname, twitter.com/yourvanityname, facebook.com/yourvanityname. Make sure your efforts can be found as easily as possible!

No personality? No risk? No one cares.
Seriously. It’s better to make a couple people angry expressing your sincere opinion than being one of the millions of “always happy, always working, no poor opinion of anything” droids crawling all over the web. You are human, your followers are human. Humans enjoy being entertained with colorful thoughts. Just try to stay within legal and job-safety guidelines.

You can’t make everyone happy.
So post things that make you happy. Unless you are a social media strategist (for a living), these are things you will be doing in your spare time, so make it fun. Seek out other bloggers that share your same passion. To make sure your content is entertaining, consider the sites you like to read when doing your own writing.

Maintain two-way conversations.
When writing for yourself, don’t forget to read and comment on others’ sources! It’s easy to get caught up in your own world, but connecting with other people will encourage traffic to your sites and make social media more enjoyable.

Don’t forget about your off-line life.
Being interesting in real life in turn makes your online persona attractive. If all you do is regurgitate articles you find online, you aren’t really contributing, are you? Go to an event, interview someone, take some photos. Remember the saying “If you’re bored, it’s because you’re boring”? It’s true – so make sure you’re taking steps to stir things up.

In the end, the determiner to SM victory depends on your social media goal. Very few people will ever be Ashton-Kutcher-successful, but that doesn’t mean that your own media niche isn’t awaiting your next brainstorm sesh.

You’re on the internet, you have experiences, what have you learned about social media?