Things to unlearn about social media.

In a couple weeks, I’m presenting at the 2010 Career Summit.  My session is all about taking control of what you’re doing online, unlearning bad habits and being smarter with your time.  It’s something I’ve struggled with a lot as a Community Manager and I’m hoping that I can help people avoid some of the core mistakes that I’ve made.

Social media is great, but there are also a lot of things that social media is not good for.  Here are are few that I have learned over the years:

Blogs don’t generate money.

Plenty of talented individuals have made a small fortune from blogging, but most of us aren’t them.  Posts that talk about how easy it is to set up a blog (like this one) and make lots of passive income are stupid.  You should ignore them.  It’s not that easy.

Passive income is a joke.  Ramit Sethi compares passive-income seekers to people with bad taste.  They’re easy to pick out in a crowd.  I think this is particularly true for bloggers seeking passive income.  Their blogs remind me of used-car lots.

And WTF is passive income anyway?  Selling eBooks?  Advertising?  Webinars?  Most of the people who are doing this well (Chris Guillebeau is a great example) have made managing their online presence a big part of their life in order to make it work.

The better way to get value out of your blog is to focus on selling your offline skills because that’s where most of us have the best chance of making lots of money anyways.  I never made a dime off of my blog, but I did start a company with two other brilliant people because of blogging.

Twitter probably won’t get you a job.

I realized this was true after Jamie Varon didn’t get a job at Twitter and instead got the attention she needed to start her own company.  Twitter isn’t for job seekers.  Twitter is for entrepreneurs.

Twitter worked well for Jamie because she came up with a creative way to showcase her talent.  And Twitter is a great way to showcase your talent to a lot of strangers at once.  The problem is that most people who use Twitter aren’t being creative like that..

Unless you’re tweeting for recreational reasons, tweeting seems worthless without something else compelling to share with people.  Not to mention the fact that 71 percent of tweets are ignored anyway.  Nobody gives a damn about what you have to say in 140 characters or less unless they know that you’re interesting beyond your tweets.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time online.

We’ve been programmed to believe that more equals better, but this is wrong.  What I’m discovering is that the most talented people are being exclusive about who they network with.  There are only a handful of people out there who can significantly help you out anyway.  So this seems smart.

Being stingy about the amount of time that you spend online is a good thing because while you’re ogling down your Google reader for hours on end top performers are out there getting all of the real work done.  A good rule of thumb is that top performers spend about 15 percent of their time online and 85 percent of their time doing behind-the-scenes stuff.  I read this on Ryan Rancatore’s blog.

This makes a lot of sense to me because if I ever have a day where I just want to idly surf the web from the comfort of my own bed it doesn’t take long for me to get an email from my teammates in DC. It’s easy to identify who is doing real work versus who is just screwing around all day.

The Bar Scene Teaches Us About Using Social Media The Right Way

The coolest thing about being a community manager is that I get to socialize all day. It’s a big part of my job to create genuine conversation. And it reminds me a lot of starting good conversations at the bar.

Social media is a lot like being out in the bar scene. And being an effective social media user is a lot like being an effective bar crawler. It takes enthusiasm and it takes endurance—and all of us have a off-putting experience that we wish we could forget.

Don’t call me alcoholic. I’m not. I’m just being allegorical. And what better to turn into a metaphor than two of my favorite things? (more…)

Kickin’ It Twitter Style: The 10-Step Guide To Tweet-Up Success

I’m impressed by how many ways people can use 140 characters of text. Nothing in social media is as captivating to me as the Twitter phenomenon.

My most recent Twitter obsession? The Tweet Up.

Two weeks ago Brazen Dan put together a killer Tweet Up for Team Brazen and other local Twitterers in the Madison area. The turnout was amazing.

With Twitter’s high-speed approach to consuming information, it’s only a matter of time before Tweet Ups start sprouting up in every major city around the country. (more…)

10 Tips for Successfully Managing Online Communities

When I first became the community manager at Brazen Careerist, I was less than enthused. Nobody could tell me exactly what the title meant, exactly what the job was, and so I had no idea where to start.

Five months later, the work has become the reason I get up in the morning. And the reason I keep working late at night. I also feel confident explaining what I can do for a startup in one word—bridge.

When companies, especially startups, get caught up in the hustle of post-funding mayhem, a sturdy bridge is what will keep you aligned with your loyal, pre-funding customers. And those loyal customers are important when you’re community building. It’s a messy and erratic job, but somebody’s gotta do it. (more…)