Posted by Ann Bernard

I talked about The Social Media Train last month.  It was an analogy to help you understand the functions and various parts of social media.  Hopefully you understood what I was trying to say…it’s cool if you didn’t; we’re going to simplify it a little more in this post.

To it’s simplest form, social media is the act of leveraging the web (tools and applications) to engage in conversations with people.  People have been having conversation since Adam and Eve – the web just happened to have increased the size of the audience and slightly complicated the basics.

You can communicate with people on the web in five ways:

• Words (blogs, microblogging, and through comments)

• Audio (podcasts, internet radio)

• Video (from 12seconds.tv, Seesmic to YouTube, Viddler and Internet TV shows)

• Pictures (Flickr) 
  

• Presentations (mixtures of the above - Slideshare)
  

Basic Rules of Conversation

Who do you enjoy talking to and listening to?  Do you like being around interesting, engaging, funny and intelligent people?  Or do you prefer the dry, boring, snobbish, self-absorbed types?  Would you rather be lied to or told the truth?

Interaction online, in online communities, on your blog(s), other people’s blogs, is about decent conversation and human engagement.

Always remember that a conversation is a two way street. People don’t like being talked to or annoyingly sold to.  We’re all naturally more interested in what’s in it for us – so give people what they want and stop looking for what you want.

Where the Confusion Begins

The Technology
Under each method of communication are a plethora of means – as in, a crazy amount of applications, communities and sites a person can use to hold their conversations.  It’s a fact that some are better than other.  This is where people get confused, overwhelmed and lose it.

The Persona
Being that you are an entertainer and not a corporation, business, organization or association…deciphering your voice and who you are shouldn’t be difficult to do.  It’s the same voice you have at a show, when entertaining your fans or hanging out with your friends.

However, if you want to play a persona online – be it that of a playboy rocker, a-hole comedian, or lustful writer…that needs to be decided on and could add a layer of complications.

To alleviate confusion, one most PLAN.  The planning is called creating a social media campaign.  The complexity of social media resides in planning and executing a successful social media campaign…not in using the web to have conversations.

The Returns
Probably the MOST confusing aspect of (a) social media (campaign) is ensuring that it’s working.  This again gets into the use of tools and technology – the area where most people get totally lost.  We’ll work on changing that.

The take away from this blog post is this – you are more than likely already involved in social media on MySpace, YouTube, your own website and other places.  What you now need to do is create a social media campaign.  How to create a social media campaign is forth coming!!

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Posted by Ann Bernard

It’s pretty simple – YOU want to get on the social media train it will assist you:

• Improve communication and connection with your audience
• Increase your fan base and attendance to your events
• Create and increase fan loyalty and dedication
• Increase sales of your products

But What Is the Social Media Train?

If we use the analogy of comparing social media to an actual train…it looks something like this:

The Tracks:  Train need tracks to make their way across country – social media needs the internet (the web).  No internet…no social media.

Engine and Train Carts:  The engine and train carts in social media are the social networks, websites and social applications – the structures, the "tangibles".

The Fuel: Whether it’s an old fashion train or new train; trains run on fuel.  The fuel that makes social media run is content.  Content is the information, data, words, thoughts and stories that are fed to the engine and paint the train carts…that is, content is what feeds the web pages, social networks and social applications.

The Conductor and Other Operators:  A train needs a conductor to drive the train and other operators to run and maintain the train.  They all work in harmony to make sure the train leaves and arrives on time, safely and has a successful trip. In social media, you also need a conductor and various operators to ensure a successful trip.  Those people are creating the content, checking on passengers and ensuring the engine and train carts are properly maintained.

When trains leave their stations they know where they are heading, they know their destination and purpose…however, they don’t know who they are going to pick up along the way.  The passengers that get on the train bring with them their unique reasons for being on the train, their interests, life stories and needs.

When you put your social media train on its track, you need to have an idea of where that train (your social media campaign) is heading and what you’d like it to accomplish. However, you don’t know what passengers are going to get on, who they are and what they will do, bring and ask for!!

Also, once your social media train is on its track, you can always add carts, upgrade the engines, and give it more fuel to make it run faster and stronger so it can cover greater distances and pick up more passengers.

The complexity of social media is picking the best engine(s), ensuring a good source and quality of fuel, and understanding your passengers needs, wants, desires. 

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