All talk and no action? Social Media Gumption

socialThis is a brief post about all the talk about "joining the conversation" and all the pontificating about it. As a lead in - this post is NOT about talking about "joining the conversation" but instead about actually getting involved.

Over and over again I hear people and so-called social media experts talking about "joining the conversation." Sometimes they're effusive, sometimes they're instructive, and other times they pragmatic. This subject, as it turns out, is exactly one where the debate of "do" vs. "teach" comes into play.

Ask these people how many of the following have they done?
- youtube videos uploaded
- youtube videos commented on
- blog posts they have written
- blog posts they have commented on
- twitter messages they have sent
- twitter @reply messages they have received

Then ask them how many of the following they have:
- total views on their youtube videos
- friends or subscribers on youtube, facebook, or myspace
- followers on twitter

If the answer to any of those items is less than 10, then there's alot of work to do. The actual absolute number of any of the above do not matter, but instead the participation does. Becoming part of the conversation and participating in social media is NOT about pontificating about what the benefits might be, but it is simply participating. I think it was either Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu who said " the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". Joining the conversation is not really as hard as you might think, and all it takes is one comment to get involved.

Just to be clear, though - there is a difference between social media and building your personal brand. I'll get into that in a later post.

That's all for now.