Overcome the Overwhelm

By now, based on the hype, we are all somewhat aware of the potential that Web 2.0/Social Networks can offer you. However, after speaking to various groups of people, two things are becoming very apparent; many people are struggling to understand where to begin and just as many are simply trying to find out how to properly participate.  In this article, we will offer you "quick-start" guidance to help minimize your feeling of being overwhelmed, and guide you through the "participation puzzle."

Social networking opens up a whole new level of contact with your prospects, your customers, your business partners and your employees. The elegance of social networking is the way it enables constant yet non-intrusive communication regarding literally anything your business needs to communicate about. So the benefits are clear, yet many of us are struggling to come to terms with the following:

ISSUE - Not Sure How to Participate / Afraid of Being Blackballed – There are many nuances to participating on various social  networking sites, and they too seem to change daily. Most of these sites are communities where people have invested long hours into participating. You may even say, they've invested part of their lives into these sites. Given these investments, they don't take it lightly if someone jumps in and doesn't properly participate.

QUICK START GUIDANCE – Netiquette is important here. We advocate taking some time to get the lay of the land. Read through the FAQs, check out the "power users" and use the search engine to read up on what others say about the site.

ISSUE - Trying to Figure Out How to Get Positive Attention – Getting attention is probably the most important thing you can do in this Web 2.0 world and also the most competitive. Not only are you competing for attention from the social media world, but you are competing with the offline world as well. We've already estimated that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sites out there with thousands of users on each site. In addition to that, there are 225 billion pages of editorial content pumped out every year. Given this, how valuable is attention? Think of Paris Hilton. What exactly does she do? One thing is for certain and that is—she gets attention. According to Forbes, last year she made a cool $6.3 million, received 3,600,000 web hits and was mentioned in almost 18,000 press clippings. Clearly attention is valuable.

QUICK START GUIDANCE – We advocate following the CAP principle

ISSUE - You Don't Have the Time to Devote to This – It goes without saying that in today's fast-paced information age, everyone is multitasking and there is little time available for anything new. Need we say more on this topic? Can you identify with the phrase "I'm in overwhelm—have to get out of it fast?"

QUICK START GUIDANCE – So is this a deal breaker? Actually No—you can make time if you step back and think about this logically. Remember your first step? You were being strategic as to which sites you participated in. Some sites are more time-intensive than others. However, if you laid out your goals for these sites and supported them with realistic action plans, then all you need to do is "measure" your execution and continually tweak it to be more effective. Thus what you might be looking at is spending 15 minutes a day on LinkedIn, or five minutes a day on Twitter or an hour a week launching videos on YouTube. The point is if you understand what you are focusing on building, you can maximize your results without sacrificing more time.

© 2012 Chris Muccio, David Burns, Peggy Murrah.