Imagine it’s your freshman year of college. (Some of you may need to think back quite a bit.) Someone in your dorm has just told you about a huge party that all of the cool kids are going to be at. All of the hot older students who you want to hit on, all of the smart students who you want to cozy up to so you can get help studying, representatives from all the campus organizations clubs and sports teams you want to join. EVERYONE.
You show up. The party is PACKED. You don’t know anyone. You see people talking in clicks that formed well before you showed up to the party. No one comes up to you and you’re too intimated to jump in a conversation. You leave. The next day, you tell other people the party was lame.
But the party wasn’t lame. You never gave it a chance. You weren’t prepared, and you didn’t make the effort once you had arrived.
Doesn’t this sound a lot like newcomers to social media? Isn’t the cool party everyone is talking about Twitter, or Flickr, or YouTube, or whatever new site will come out tomorrow? And someone comes along and signs up for a site like Twitter because they heard it was fun, but doesn’t bother to input their bio (75.86% of Twitter users) or location (68.88% of Twitter users) , doesn’t follow anyone (55.5% of Twitter users), gets no followers in return (52.71%), posts zero updates (54.88% of Twitter users) and quits coming back to the site altogether. The numbers are very clear- most newbies AREN’T having fun at the party.
So how can these late adopters to social media fit in?
You wouldn’t show up to a real party in sweats and a hoodie and no makeup, and you should’t join a social network without putting a little bit of time into your profile. Upload a picture and plug in at least basic information.
2. Have something interesting to say
You don’t have to be a comedian to get people’s attention. But would you walk up to someone at a party and tell them you had a tasty bagel with your Starbucks that morning? (That’s every Twitter hater’s example of a Tweet.) Be authentic, but be interesting and authentic when at all possible, and be frequently interesting and authentic.
At parties, we call this peer pressure. Online, we call this savvy. If you pay attention to how other people are using social media - sharing information, polling peers, having conversations - you’ll know what’s expected to fit in.
4. Join a conversation
Your online presence is all dolled up. You’ve posted some interesting material to start. You’ve taken the time so see how others are using the site. So start talking! E-walk right up to that group of jocks and let them know you’re here and fun, too.
How else can newbies fit into the social media party?
kkreft says:
What a perfect analogy.
Jul 13, 2009, 12:55 pmBut now, can you take it one step farther and explain how the analogy fits in with social media get-togethers?
I’m thinking you’re going to have to mix some metaphors here, because to me, social media get-togethers are like a comic book convention.
Jacob Stoops says:
Is there room in social media for beer pong?
Jul 13, 2009, 1:26 pmCheryl says:
Karin: Having never been to a comic book convention, I’ll leave that blog to you, lol
Jacob: I hope so. Flip cup?
Jul 13, 2009, 2:05 pmvmdoug says:
Great article!
Jul 13, 2009, 2:06 pmJim Brochowski says:
Spot on analogy. I don’t understand the correlation to the comic book convention, but I am interested in your take on the social media get-togethers.
While some folks, like yourself are very approachable and make it easy to say “Hey, I know you…”
Not so much everyone - I know it’s difficult to meet new people, but…
What do you think?
Jul 13, 2009, 7:50 pmBrian Burson says:
Great article. One more aspect of a good party that applies to social media is the importance of bringing friends. When you’re invited to the party or someone you know shares with people not at the party, how great to party is, the people that come in are more apt to participate. In interactive terms, this means that we all play a role in the success of a social network by sharing outside of the network. That’s why we’re seeing more integration points between other 1:1 media into social networks (e.g. email to social). 13% of marketers integrated social media and email last year. 46% plan to do so in 2009 according to the following published study: http://tinyurl.com/cm75ab
Jul 13, 2009, 2:57 amSocial Media Links O’ The Week: July 12-17 | Being Cheryl says:
[...] Social Media is a kegger [...]
Jul 13, 2009, 1:39 pmJulie Castell says:
Sister, you have had no trouble coming to the partay! I love the analogy since i can relate. When I am absent from Twitter or FB (like right now) b/c I’m super busy I miss my “virtual” friends. I hope they miss me too.
P.S. are you picking your nose in the “Join the Conversation” photo?
Jul 13, 2009, 8:24 pm100th Post - Top 10 Best BeingCheryl Posts | Being Cheryl says:
[...] Social Media is a Kegger What is social media? It’s a huge frat party (so you can either sit in the corner by yourself [...]
Jul 13, 2009, 1:51 pm