Oh my gosh. We just read about yet another “How To” seminar for LinkedIn – for a couple hundred bucks! And there are just as many “Getting Started” workshops for Twitter and Facebook. Imagine paying money when it’s all out there for free. In fact, the personal coaching is out there for free, too. Just ask Jim Storer. We did.
You see, they call it “social” networking for a reason. It’s not just a place to upload your contacts (although, believe me, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all covet your Outlook and GMail folders) and then wait for hordes of admirers to start nudging, poking and friending you. If you’re new to social networking, you can ask for help from other social networkers. How do we know? That’s what we did.
We met Jim Storer from Mzinga (@JimStorer) at a conference and got to talking about Twitter. He offered to help us learn. Since his company helps corporations connect the social networking dots, what were we to do?! Say no?!!
And, Jim was not the only one who helped us. We kind of had a Board of Learning Directors. You should do the same. That way you don’t put just one person on the spot. They have a life, you know!
Our Board of Learning Directors consisted semi-officially of five main people – Claire Wadlington @wadlington; Jim Storer @jimstorer; Mike Keliher @mjkeliher; Ellen Mrja @ellenm53; and Rob Johnson @robjohnson.
Two of them we knew already, the other three we met on Twitter.
Most of the help they gave us happened right there on Twitter. Yes, go ahead, ask your questions in front of Twitter and everyone. People won’t mind. They may even volunteer to help.
Or, take the conversation off of Twitter and go back to one of those archaic forms of communication like email or the telephone. Everyone on our Board helped us that way, too.
People like to help – as long as you aren’t a pest.
Get Your Own Board
But, this is important. If you’re going to use this approach, you can’t have Jim – or Claire, or Mike, or Ellen or Rob. They’re ours.
And, stop paying hundreds of bucks to learn the basics of free stuff. Paying for “social” networking is downright “anti-social.”
Now, get out there and find your own social learning guys.
7 comments ↓
it’s been fun watching you guys go from skeptics to advocates
That’s the great thing about social media; the ’social’ part. People volunteer to help out of enlightened self-interest. It’s a pay it forward philosophy that, in the end, creates relationships and opportunity from that relationship.
After all, Michael & Sheryl are both key members of my Learning Board of Directors.
Michael and Shery: How kind you are to thank your Learning Board of Directors. Wonderful description. And I’m honored to be on that board.
Here’s the great part of being in the social media swim: getting to “meet” and work with people such as you two.
Regards,
Ellen
Hello Rob, Tom and Ellen,
I think one of the things about some of the social networking sites is that it can even help you get to know even better people you already know. You start comparing notes about new things – and often you only see the people you already know at meetings or events – and there’s usually not enough time to talk.
Thanks to all of you – we learn a lot from all three.
I’m so lucky to be part of your Learning Board of Directors. This is definitely a two way street. I learned about Twitter Advanced Search features through one of your posts, and am right now searching for an article on multi-tasking and clutter that I think you posted in December. It is fascinating that the Internet can allow faster connection than via other means – connections that might not otherwise happen due to the “blocks” of screening secretaries or brick buildings. It does require finding a way to slice through all the noise and clutter. I was sympathetic when Jim Connolly one day dumped everyone he was following and started over. As I understand it there were just too many posts hurtling through his twitter stream. He will now respond to anyone who sends him a tweet at @jimconnolly but pared down who he follows (on his second time around) to just clients and friends.
Hi Claire,
I think Claire is the Twitter relationship I value the most from our short Twitter “experiment.” Her approach to Twitter is so multi-faceted that it goes way beyond business to friendship, like right away. Cool person to follow.
[...] we asked Mike Keliher, one of our “Board of Learning Directors“, to help us explain what was going on here. He pointed out: Well, you’ll notice that [...]
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