David Jones on Entering Social Media

My good friend Arieh Singer posted a short video interview he did with David Jones (SVP at Fleishman-Hillard) over at One Degree. In the video, Arieh asks Jones about how to determine if entering the world of social media is right for your brand.

While a lot of what David Jones speaks about in the video is targeted to internet marketers and companies that are considering going into online marketing through blogging and podcasting, I have to admit that a lot of what he talks about here is particularly relevant for the individual social blogger — like you and me — who hopes to find an audience for their thoughts online:

Monitor
It may not be necessary to track over 1,000 blogs and 100 podcasts like I do, but before jumping into any kind of medium (blogging, podcasting, videologging), it doesn’t only make sense to know what other people are saying, but also understand how they say it. While being original is important, you also want your audience to relate to what you are doing.

Analyze
Most of my favorite blogs take content that exists already and analyze, repurpose, and comment upon them in an original way. The whole concept of personal publishing is dependent on the notion of ‘personality’: the ability to analyze content rather than simply regurgitate what has already been said.

Interaction
Want to find an audience for your weblog? Become a vital member of the audience of another. If you have insightful things to say in response to other people’s comments, people will want to read your own content. Spamming and linkbaiting only works to a certain extent: people want value, and that value comes through your ideas.

Lead
The concept of leadership online is fluid: you don’t have to constantly be better than anyone else and do things that no one else is doing to gain a critical audience. What you do need to do is make yourself relevant in the spheres where you do have skill and interest. When you are relevant, you naturally lead: your opinions matter, and therefore you have a valid stake in any discussion of the topics you address.

There’s a great article (that I found via WBD) by Wendy Marx on Fast Company about Constructing a Personal Brand. Important reading, even if you are just a casual blogger or podcaster that does this for fun, like me.