Last week I gave a speech at the Red Bank Toastmasters club about social media. I started by asking the audience a simple question, “Who here is involved with social media?” 

Now, how many questions outside of, “Who here breathes air?” do you think you could ask where every single hand in the room goes up?

Apparently social media is as common these days as the air we breathe…crazy! 

After my speech I had a few people approach me with questions about how to get better at social media. One person didn’t have a company, but wanted to work on his personal brand. I gave them a few ideas such as registering his name (URL), starting a blog and completing his LinkedIn profile.

I had another gentleman tell me that his company actually frowned upon their employees engaging in social media. I gave him a few ideas to bring back to his boss, and then showed him how to set his privacy on Facebook so that he can still mingle socially online, because let’s face it, with a boss like that who knows when he may be looking for a new job…of course that was a joke, but he understood the point, that you need to stay connected because you never really know, right?

So even if you don’t completely get it yet, start “social”-izing…it’s the only way to stay relevant…The Time Is Now!

John Zalepka

We have all heard the many success stories about how average everyday people are just crushing it (you know making million$) with social media. The great news is that these average everyday people are using the very same social media platforms that we all have access to, and the best part is that most of them are FREE!

However, just having access to them for FREE! does not guarantee you anything.

It is the equivalent of having a FREE! gym membership and expecting to have six-pack abs because you go to the gym once or twice a month. You need to put in the hard work necessary to really get in shape.

Similarly, your FREE! social media membership will only benefit you in direct proportion to the amount of hard work you put in.

This is how I’m getting started…

I believe that the best way to get started is to concentrate on your core. Much in the same way it is important to have a strong core when working out, it is important to have a strong core when starting out in social media…my Core 4:

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube

Studies have shown that people only believe about 15% of online advertising, while they believe 90% of their peer reviews.

Get your accounts up and running and start connecting with people. But whatever you do, don’t start selling (adverting) right away. Instead, start posting great information (content). Information that your customers and prospective customers will find useful. Try to become THE source for when people need information about something in your industry. Become the local celebrity expert! We’ve all seen people become famous recently just because of something “crazy” they posted on social media. But really aren’t they just positioning themselves as the expert of ‘how not to jump off your roof onto a trampoline while riding a bicycle’?

After you have connected and engaged your friends / readers / followers / subscribers by providing great content, they will start to give you back their information and hopefully start to refer you to others who may find your product or services useful by retweeting, reposting, liking, etc, etc, etc.

Make sure to put links back to your website where people can get more information and make a purchase; only then will you be able to capitalize on your hard work on the Core 4: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & YouTube.

So let’s get started!

John Zalepka