Creating Different Social Networking Personas by John Leavy
No one would seriously think of visiting the President of the United States in the Oval office in jeans and their favorite rock concert T-shirt. The Office of the President itself deserves respect.
The different social networking communities on the Web have their own conventions as well. Think of socializing in LinkedIn, a business community for professionals. Some professionals are known to you while others are not. Think of meeting the boss for dinner at a fine restaurant downtown … formal … button down … reserved. One would dress well for the dinner engagement and leave the running clothes on a hook in the bathroom.
The Facebook community is more casual, think of having a social gathering of family and friends at your home. Everyone knows each other and would be sharing stories and photos. Twitter is similar to attending a neighborhood block party. Some of the people attending would be friends while others look unfamiliar.
Let’s look at how the dialogue might take place in these different social media/social networking communities.
- There is a Network Updates box of 140 characters on each member main page where brief messages can be sent out to first level connections.
- Anyone visiting another person’s profile will see the Network Updates at the top of the page.
- Messages of 7,000 characters, or about 1,000 words, can be sent out to first level connections – 50 at a time.
- There are other options to send messages to one’s second and third level connections.
- Videos and pictures can also be swapped.
- There is a “What’s on your mind?” section on each Facebook member’s main page. Seems like the person sending the message out can be pretty longwinded. I stopped counting at 1,000 words.
- Twenty Facebook friends at a time can receive a 1,000 word message as well.
- Videos and pictures can also be exchanged.
- Messages are 140 characters. The message needs to be clear, concise and to the point. If you consider adding in a shortened link to a landing page or blog (http://bit.ly/1237CIS) along with “Please RT” which stands for “Please ReTweet” or pass along this Tweet along to your followers. Now the message can only be approximately 110 characters. A lot of thought needs to go into the message before sending it out.
- Videos and pictures can also be traded.
Now we understand that the conversations in these social networking communities are similar yet they vary. We need to cover two more items; the timing and tone of the conversations within the various communities. Let’s cover timing first without getting too far into the weeds.
- As regular messages are received from LinkedIn members they will drop into your Inbox and also be routed to your email client if that is the way your settings are arranged. The messages will sit in the LinkedIn inbox until disposition. The only gap in communication is not logging into your LinkedIn account on some regular basis.
- Facebook works much the same way. Messages are received and routed to the inbox and the email client. The messages need to be disposed at some time. Again, the only gap in communication is not logging into your Facebook account on some regular basis.
- Three different types of messages can be sent or received. 1) DM or Direct Messages (D + handle + message) to you that no one else will see or be able to read. 2) Mentions where other Twitter followers mention your handle (@JohnLeavy mentioned somewhere within a message) in their message. 3) Messages sent out to the world that you will see if you are following that person or if you happen to be searching for some topical information and that’s what their message is about. The Direct Messages and Mentions stay available to you in folders along the right side column of your Twitter page.
- Think of the Twitter messages coming in to be much like a river of communication and thoughts. A standard Twitter page holds twenty messages. When the twenty-first message (tweet) is received the last message at the bottom of page 1 falls to page 2. If you have a few dozen followers, that chat occasionally, the chance of not seeing their message on page 1 is small. But think of having thousands of followers and receiving hundreds of tweets per day. If you do not have time to scroll to the back pages things people are talking about won’t be seen.
- Don’t worry about being out of the loop on some conversations. No one can keep up on every conversation at a business forum. People typically walk from group to group listening to what the conversation is about. When they hear something of interest they may hang around for some time. They may even join in the discussion. That’s the way the conversation on Twitter works. If a Twitter account is only accessed once or twice a week much of what their followers are talking about will not be seen.
The bottom line is that you need to be strategic in your use of social media. Keep business and personal friends and colleagues separate. Also remember that if you create phony social media personas you’ll be found out sooner than you think. We have lots more information about social media marketing at the Fusion Marketing Partners website.
Related posts:
- Manic Depressive or Social Media Maniac? – by John Leavy
- Getting Noticed – in a Good Way – by John Leavy
- Don’t Drop Your Drawers on the Web – by John Leavy
- Outbound Marketing versus Inbound Marketing by John Leavy
John, your post contains quite a bit of actionable information. Building a social media strategy based on the personas of your target audience (and speaking in terms thay can understand and appreciate) is an important component of B2B marketing.
Chris Ryan
http://www.fusionmarketingpartners.com