This Is Social Media: Are You Listening?

If you need to know anything about social media, this is it:  All social media is a conversation.

And a conversation with only one participant is a dead conversation. (Or a crazy dude on the corner, talking to himself.)

I have had client upon client stare at me blankly, in horror, when asked to begin tweeting, or posting on Facebook.  If you’re similarly horrified, or in a  social media rut, consider these three questions:

 

1) Why do I stay in a conversation?

2) Who do I choose to talk to, and why?

3) When I’m having a conversation, don’t I expect to be listened to?

 

The last one is the most often overlooked by conversationalists, and new users of social media.  Whatever your community, and whomever your audience is, they’re part of a conversation.  Are you asking questions? Are you listening?

 A recent Business Insider article discussed the key coin for social media platforms, and it’s engagement.  Essentially, engagement means time-spent.  So next time you take to the social media hemisphere, remind yourself that you’re in a conversation: it goes both ways.

Engage.