05.15.07
Social Media - Making us not so Social?
This post has unfortunately nothing to do with the new Google Analytics interface (although I’m finding it more and more user-friendly the more I play with it)..neither does it have anything to do with MSN’s almost purchase of Yahoo! Nor does it have anything to do with the Microsoft outburst against Open Source!
It is all about me, kind of. Well, it’s all about Social Media and how I (and well you) should be setting aside more time for it.
I was recently approached by Jo Duxbury of Freelancentral who requested that I become a regular columnist for her monthly newsletter. My first article was well received last month, but writing this month’s article on Social Media, it became very, very evident that I need to start taking my own advice! Funny how one’s own site’s needs are always placed behind that of your clients…but then again what a catch-22, as prospective clients potentially evaluate you on your own web presence…!
Of late I’ve been finding myself more and more enveloped in my laptop. I often joke that I need to employ a reader (and not the GoogleReader type) to read my RSS feeds for me – sad, but true!
This got me thinking that trying to stay on top of one’s Social Media Marketing (SMM) / or SMOptimsation makes one less social in the “real worldâ€. Then again there are also social networks that are using a combination of both to try and network online as well as off. A few such networks (here in Cape Town) are 27Dinners, OpenCoffee and BarCampCapeTown (well we’ve only had the one so far…).
But I am really enjoying this concept, although it is somewhat awkward. I was talking with fellow Bloggers at the last 27 Dinner about how strangely comfortable it all seems. Think about it. We read each other’s blogs, don’t know anyone from a bar of soap (or at least not from more than what we’ve read on each other’s blogs) and here we are thrown together at a dinner table where we all feel like old friends. It’s a bit bizarre, but it’s working.
What is your take on the whole SMO and is it working for you (if it’s currently a strategy) ?