What's your social media strategy?

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Summary: I use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn - and I actually have a little bit of a plan around how I use each.

A couple of weeks ago, I surprised someone by commenting that I was working on my "social media strategy". The reaction was along the lines of "who knew you'd need ... or even want ... a strategy".

As an online business person, I think it's important to not only be aware of, and participate in various social media venues, but to actually have a little bit of a plan.

Since that affects where and how I might show up, and if and when I might respond to you, I figured it's only prudent to lay out my current thinking.

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In order of how "accessible" I am:

Twitter - http://LeoOnTwitter.com

Anyone can follow me on twitter. In fact, you're more than welcome to.

When new articles are published on Ask Leo!, they're automatically "tweeted" as well, so it's a convenient way to stay on top of what's new here.

I'll also post entries that I think are of interest or relevant to you. Typically, that's a "re-tweet" of something I've stumbled across on Twitter itself, but it also includes links to articles and information that I find elsewhere as well.

I do not "tweat" (tweet what I eat), or post about getting out of bed, having a headache, or any of the other trivialities that most people associate with Twitter users. I try to actually add value. (One self-imposed constraint is that my last three tweets always show up on Ask Leo!, so if I'm not comfortable with it on every page of my site, I won't tweet it.)

That being said, I do occasionally post slightly personal comments, and my Flickr photostream is also automatically linked to my twitter account, so when I post a new photo it shows up there.

I do not auto-follow. Unlike some, I actually try to read the tweets of the people I follow, so I only follow those folks that I would find interesting or would want to read. To those of you who feel that it's rude not to follow everyone who follows you: sorry, but I disagree. Doing that would quickly make Twitter pretty useless to me.

I can't always keep up with the full twitter stream, but I do see and read every direct message.

Flickr - LeoOnFlickr.com

I share photos on Flickr.com. These are typically not business or Ask Leo! related, but if you care to see photos from my most recent trips, my dogs, or whatever else happened to be in front of my camera, this is the place to look.

For the record, while I'm careful to retain copyright and brand each photo - if there's a shot there you'd like to use just ask. I'll likely say yes, for the price of a mention.

Facebook (Ask Leo!) - ask-leo.com/fan

Ask Leo! has a fan page on Facebook, and I encourage those of you on Facebook to become a fan.

Here's the deal: as I write this, it's still "under construction", so I'm not 100% certain exactly how I'm going to use it.

But that's where you come in: I've enabled the "discussion group" application on the page, and you can tell me what you think this might be useful for. I do pay attention to the fan page, but it's also a good venue for you to exchange ideas with other fans as well.

Facebook (me) - LeoOnFacebook.com

I also have a personal Facebook page, and a bunch of information from my public profile is there for all to see.

My twitter, flickr and whatever else I can automate show up in my Facebook status. I've also found that it's easier to have a conversation about a particular status update on Facebook than it is, say, on Twitter. So I'll often comment on the comments on Facebook.

I don't accept all Facebook friend requests. Please don't be insulted, but in order to keep Facebook useful to me, I only accept friend request from people that I actually know or have some kind of business or other relationship with.

My apologies to my fans who would like to connect. Fortunately, that's exactly why the Ask Leo! fan page exists, so you can hook up with me there instead.

LinkedIn - LeoOnLinkedIn.com

I do maintain a personal profile on LinkedIn, however, once again, I only accept link requests from people that I actually know or have some kind of connection with. In fact, "the bar" is probably a tad higher on LinkedIn.

Other

I may have test accounts elsewhere, but pay them no mind until they're listed here.

And for the record, I abandoned my MySpace account long ago.

Of course right now the social media landscape seems like it's in constant flux. What's popular today may well fall by the wayside in a year or two. That's the nature of the internet.

But I'll try to keep this strategy somewhat up to date, if and when my own usage changes.

Related:

• Why shouldn't I include my email address in a Twitter post or 'tweet'? Twitter is fairly new and currently very popular communications tool. Along with popularity comes abuse in the form of spammers.

• What's so special about myspace? Folks are concerned about myspace.com. Should they be?

Article C3693 - April 8, 2009