Who are your social media knights in shining armour?
This blog post is not really a blog post. It’s actually a bit of market research in disguise. Very. bad. disguise.
We’ve been thinking a lot about social media celebrities and heroes lately (and heroines) and we wondered who café followers looked up to and would recommend. Do you have a favourite ‘go-to’ person or a blogger that’s always got valuable SM advice?
No self promotion please. We want honest opinions about who you think knows their stuff! And don’t worry if your answer seems obvious, or obscure, or if you’re genuinely agreeing with the six people who commented before you. Think of it as an early (or belated) #FF.
We look forward to reading your responses.
Personally, I find it can all be a bit confusing – so many people offering so much advice/guidance on how to use SM, all of which with a slightly different ‘take’ on who, what, when, where, how, etc, etc, etc.
It all depends on what you are aiming to get out of SM.
If it’s for business, give people the chance to find out what you do (but not too often), build a reputation, be reliable, have integrity, help other users out with your expertise (etc), and so on.
If it’s for pleasure/personal/social use, then just enjoy yourself – share your interests and thoughts with others – you may well meet new friends with similar interests.
Years ago, there was a popular tune which went (something like), “Don’t push it, Don’t force it, Let it happen naturally”.
Very, very good advice in the SM world!
I am fortunate to work with my long term uni friend and colleague, Mark Plunkett (@Mark_Plunkett). We use each other as sound boards when it comes to Social Media and always have.
But of late we have both discovered an erstwhile SM guru in Jonathon Pollinger aka @jonnop. This chap knows his stuff.
Listen, absorb and do. You can’t go far wrong!
I am inclined to agree with Luke Edwards. Mr Jonathan Pollinger (@jonnop) does know his stuff.
Always remember who your audience is when using SM. Obviously facebook will be here to stay and it makes sense to try and use it for business purposes.
I turn to the participants of #GlosTweetDrinks. Not only are “guru’s” as a group derided, it is recognised that everyone has something to offer and something to learn. It is run by the brilliant Andrew Burgess (@glos365) and following the many people I’ve met there has taught me loads. Two noteworthy people are Howard Moorey (@hojomo) and Jonathon Pollinger (@jonnop).
I can’t praise Jonathan Pollinger @ Intranet Future enough! I had been muddling through FB and didn’t even have a twitter account. I knew both had the capacity to raise awareness about our business but I just needed some direction. It wasn’t until I hatched the idea to really commit to using twitter for customer service that I knew I needed to get serious. I came to Intranet Future via a referral and was absolutely charmed by Jonathan from the word go. That guy hustles like no other. Work. Work. Work. I’d send him an email at 11pm expecting an answer in the morning and bam! 10 minutes later, I’d have something in my Inbox from him.
Apart from knowing the SM landscape like an impressionist painter, Jonathan’s biggest strength is the fact that our project became HIS project. HIS baby. Before long we were the #1 business of our kind on FB and we hadn’t even launched yet! And twitter…I barely know what a ‘list’ is but I’m on various people’s lists and gaining followers everyday.
And even though his work is technically done for the time-being, he’s still around, checking in us. A gentle nudge here and there.
Jonathan has a rare but killer combo: know-how while being just a fantastic guy.
Wow – loads of support for Jonathan. He’ll be thrilled!
Thanks for all the comments, feel free to keep them coming!
As Rachel says…Wow! Just wow. I am humbled by the kind comments. Thank you everyone for your support which is much appreciated. For me, Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan has been a great inspiration. Chris has loads of ideas and has a great talent for making people debate and think. Whether you’re in business or in social media I’d recommend his (and Julien Smith’s) book, Trust Agents.
Andrew Burgess (@glos365) Howard Moorey (@hojomo) and Jonathon Pollinger (@jonnop) are all good. JP esp posts some very good techie type links.