Make the most when social media kicks In

This week, I marveled at the power of social media:

• I posted a blog article about Laws of Client Work that got some link love, resulting in some nice traffic, new subscribers, and great connections.

• On eduStyle I got feedback from other higher ed web folks about some of our recently launched Notre Dame websites, revealing some browser quirks our team needed to fix.

• Brazen Careerist featured one my posts on their homepage, introducing me to new readership.

• Several of my friends and followers posted links to my stuff on Twitter, leading their followers to suddenly begin following me.

How to take advantage of the social media attention

1. Meet new followers. When I get a comment on my posts or a new follower on Twitter, I check out their profile or website. If they’re interested in me, I might be interested in them.

2. Subscribe to your new friends. I like to give a trial run on new blogs and twitter users… if I follow a user, it’s because I am want their contributions – not just another number on my profile. Twitter isn’t about a high score to me. If it doesn’t work out – if I find myself skipping past their content regularly, I’ll unsubscribe.

3. Listen. As I wrote in Shut Up and Listen to the Internet it’s easy to find conversations pretty much in real time. If you’re an active member of the community, no matter how small your role, you can be better prepared to respond if you know what’s going on.

3. Participate in the conversation. I try to post responses in my comments, but I also make an effort to comment on the new blogs I’m trying out. My network grew a little bit, and it helps to strengthen those new ties by reaching out.

4. Follow up with new, contextually relevant content that offers some value. My social media post did fairly well, so now I’m following up with my suggestions on what to do with it. It’s the second half of the story.

5. Suggest something else. I always hate landing on a blog with a fantastic article and then discovering that they’re a one hit wonder. I might want more of the same. If you have other good content, offer a route to those posts or that might interest your visitors. I added my table of contents page as a way to do that, but I’m already planning on reworking it to better introduce new visitors to my blog. I love the “related posts” approach on sites like RailsTips.

Keep the momentum

The biggest tip of all is that you have to be consistent and maintain your momentum. You’ve done a lot of work to build your network and brand so far, so don’t let it slide by taking a month off and disappearing. Keep writing, keep networking, and keep the conversation going.

Want to comment? Send me a note on Twitter or email me.