There are a few blogs I read that I absolutely love and Seth Godin is one of them. Everything he writes is so simple and yet completely mind blowing. He wrote a post yesterday entitled, The Secret of the Web (hint: it’s a virtue).
Patience.
The main problem people have with social media is the time involvement.
“You are meaning to tell me I have to spend an hour a day on four different sites? Plus my blog?”
“It can be a half-hour but if you want to succeed. Yes”
Seth brought it all into perspective for me this morning by writing:The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang! But the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.
A teaser. You can have all the friends in the world on Facebook but if you don’t have a strategy to cultivate the relationships, it is a waste of time. You can check out my post on how to be productive in Social Media here. But the main purpose of the post is this:
Don’t get caught up in the instant gratification of someone following you, commenting on your blog, or adding you to friendfeed. The fleeting moment of importance will be good for a day and then it will vanish. You will be swallowed up into the hole of web turnover. Whether personal or business make sure you have goals set before entering the social media arena.
It is like everything in life, more often than not, purpose can justify chaos. The web is chaotic and a tease. Tame the beast with patience and strategy.
Stephan Miller
I sometimes get caught in that trap. I check my email. “Only 3 new followers on Twitter today. Damn. I’m slipping” And then I lose sight of what I am doing in the first place.