Good face-to-face conversation involves listening more than you talk. Likewise in social media. You want to spend more time listening to what it already being said, and seeing where you can contribute to the dialogue, rather than shouting overtop of existing conversations or trying to monopolise the bandwidth.
This is true at all times, but especially when you are new to social media. Don‘t set up a new account and immediately dive in. Like attending a cocktail party, you‘re better served to grab a drink and take a few minutes to feel the vibe of the cocktail party. You‘ll get the flavour of conversation and begin to take in the faces of the people around you. Then you can look to join in. It works the same way in the social world. You want to take the time to listen and see who is already talking and what they are discussing. Opportunities to participate will become apparent.
You want to come up with a target list of people and companies you want to follow. You should also list groups, organisations, topics, keywords and trends which you want to monitor. Now you want to set up searches to keep track of the items on your list. Tweetdeck is a great tool for this, it handles your Twitter account and allows you to set up a number of different searches so you can follow multiple conversations. For example, you can set up a search which includes the term ―casting director‖ so everytime those keywords come up on Twitter you can follow the thread. This can provide you with useful information. You can set up similar searches for any terms which might be of value to you.
Google searches are a great tool to track any of the items from your follow list. Set up a separate search for each keyword or group of keywords and never miss anything which covers those terms again. I recommend you set up a separate Gmail account to handle the emails from these searches otherwise your existing email will get flooded. Having an email you set up for listening purposes allows all of the data you collect to be received in one place which you can dip in and out of when you have the time.
Set up your listening posts and follow those conversations which are relevant to you. Look for opportunities where you can contribute in a positive way and that will be your opening to engage with new networks with relevant and timely observations which are far more likely to receive a positive reaction than random statements which come out of nowhere.
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