Oh shiny! (it's really about community)

This is the time of year when we're surrounded by shiny objects. Everything glitters and attracts our attention. Like little children, we may find ourselves running from one shiny object to another. And while that's fun during the holiday season, that behavior when it comes to social media might be fun, but it isn't useful.

On February 10, I'm giving a presentation entitled "Social Media: Do's, Don'ts & Why Not's" for the Syracuse Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. I'm going to talk about the problems, pitfalls, joys, and benefits of social media and one of those is the "oh shiny" effect.

The "oh shiny" effect is what happens when people are attracted to the next social media tools (i.e., a shiny object) and continue to run from one tool to other. More productive is to be more selective. Yes, you need to try a few tools in order to know which ones are truly appropriate, but then make some decisions and don't feel like you need to use everything. Using everything means that you're splitting your time across many tools, rather than concentrating your efforts on a few tools.

It can be helpful to keep in mind your real goal. The goal isn't how many tools you can use. The goal is establishing or becoming part of an active community, and then interacting with that community so they value you and what you do. Oh...but you want to sell stuff. People will do business with you if they know you and value you. Use the tools to establish relationships and the money will come.