PRSA Colorado hosted an event last week with social media guru Sarah Evans, and I left feeling really refreshed on social media. It wasn’t one specific piece of the shared content that had me jazzed (and there were lots of great takeaways), but rather Sarah’s open attitude toward social media and its role—from which all the helpful tips and advice flowed.
What Sarah conveyed is that there isn’t one “right” way to approach social media or a magic formula that will turn a company into a social media ruler. Nor is social media all about doing what everyone else is doing. In fact, she is an advocate of sticking your neck out to try new things and much of her success has come from that philosophy. For example, instead of joining the most popular Twitter chats on the iPad announcement, which were filled with noise and so many conversations that you couldn’t keep up, Sarah tweeted an invite to anyone who was interested to join a separate chat on the topic— the chatroom quickly filled up and a more intimate dialogue ensued.
It’s not about getting the most Twitter followers or thousands of random people on Facebook who “Like” your company—it’s about the quality of relationships and engaged conversations/connections that are formed as a result. Those types of social communications are the real keys to brand building and long-term visibility in social media.