Remember a few weeks back when everyone was blogging and talking about how this year was going to be different for them? They were going to try new things, work hard at being better at others and all around turn a corner they didn’t turn in 2007.
Now that all that crazy New Year’s talk is over, let’s all focus and get down to business to make 2008 a great year for everyone.
You want to build up your product, service, company or self, right? You want to raise sales, exposure or brand recognition? All great things and great goals. None of it is going to be handed to you, so get to work and start figuring out where the people you want to reach are.
Here are some easy, quick hits you can try to get exposed to the new media community and begin to figure out where you fit into the whole puzzle.
- Set up a micro blogging account
I have accounts on both Jaiku and Pownce, but the only one I really use is Twitter. For me, that is where my community is and where I can connect with the most people with whom I want to chat. If you’ve only got time for one, my personal opinion would be to give Twitter a try, as it has the most adoption at this point. That is not based on hard and fast numbers because companies don’t tend to share those these days. It is based on what I have seen and experienced. - Get a Facebook profile
It is impossible to miss hearing someone talk about this these days. That is because everyone is jumping in to see where he or she fits in this space. I’ve had my account for years from my days working at Babson College, when Facebook was locked down to only people with .edu e-mail addresses. Every day more and more companies are setting up shop and trying to figure out how best to interact with this diverse community. Just be warned that it could get a little weird when old friends from high school and college start sending you vampire and zombie requests. Don’t worry, you’ll understand soon enough what that means. - Start reading blogs
If you are here reading this, then you are already into blogs. But I want to encourage you to read more of them. If you go out to Technorati and search on any given topic of interest, you can see what some of the bigger blogs in that arena are and figure out which ones work for you. I currently subscribe to roughly 300 different blogs and, thanks to tools such as Bloglines and Google Reader, you can keep these organized and updated so it is not impossible to keep up with the ones that are most important to you. - Start listening to podcasts
As many of you know, I do two podcasts. One is on marketing and new media, called Managing the Gray. The other focuses on independent music, and it’s called Accident Hash. But these are only two of the thousands out there. Every day people are creating new audio and video content that you can subscribe to and watch/listen on your device of choice. I guarantee that someone has created something in your field of interest. If they haven’t, then this could be a perfect opportunity for you to grow by starting a podcast about it. To find great content, I’d recommend iTunes, Podcast Alley and Podcast Pickle.
The key is to get out there and try these. If you are ever going to market in these spaces, you need to first be familiar with them. Don’t worry about completely comprehending and understanding them. You can hire agencies and others to help you with that, but you must have at least played with a tool before you start debunking it or deciding you want to bet your business on it.
2008 still has 11 months in it. That is time to get a lot done. Stay focused and keep playing with the new tools to figure out which ones work for you and which ones don’t. As I find ones that I think will help build up communities, I’ll be sure to share them here.
I look forward to making this a successful year.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 6:26 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “A Whole Year Ahead”
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January 29th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I’ve got 1, 2 and 3 covered, but I’m still a bit iffy on the podcasting front. Not that I don’t know how to do it or dont think it’s valuable. I’ve subscribed to quite a few in the past, but find that I never listen. I think I’m a more visual learner. Great advice, though. And I find that with what I’ve been doing, I’ve already received an incredible new media education, met a lot of interesting people and increased traffic to my sites.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:06 am
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