As you can probably tell, I am still  new to the online social media scene.  I’m not a complete novice, but I was not participating much before.  That all changed when I decided to face my fears (being ridiculed, laughed at, scorned, etc.) and just dive in full speed ahead.  My goal:  get online and participate.

That was three weeks ago.

Now, I am happy to report that, other than a few pieces of icky spam, I’ve survived unscathed – so far.  (I’m sure the hate mail will be coming soon, I’m just praying that it’s mostly untrue and that I will be able to handle it without cracking and crying like some miserable spoiled child.)

So, I thought it would be a good idea to see how much progress I’ve made so far and help anyone who’s still scared senseless about online profiles and social media sites.

Follow me, as I show you what I’ve learned so far about the online social media scene.  (For those of you who already know this stuff, please just smile and let me grab your hand like a cute-faced child and show you my silly drawing and you can tell me how cute it is, ok? )

For those of you who haven’t started your online social media experience beyond creeping like a ghost through chatrooms and blogs, this will help you see what to expect along your journey to the online society.

Let’s begin at the beginning.

Blogs

Bottom line here is:  get one.  Period.  It is your homebase.  This is where you begin the building process for your online self.

I chose the most popular blogging platform:  WordPress.

Here’s a brief overview of why you should use WordPress & GoDaddy:

• You don’t need to know HTML, CSS, Javascript, or any other web programming language or database program, like SQL.  WordPress lets you do virtually everything inside a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) tool called simply the Dashboard (See figure 1).
• You can easily purchase and install a custom theme (think cool clothes for your blog to wear.  You got to be fashionable remember!  Coolness counts online too!)  I chose the Thesis theme by DIYThemes.  You can get it here.  It is well worth the price.  Remember, cool clothes cost money.  Free stuff just doesn’t look good!
• Get a host for your blog.  The thing I decided to do here was go with the industry leader, GoDaddy, for a simple reason:  market share.  From my research I determined that the larger the marketshare, the more likely that the host company will actually be around tomorrow.  An especially important aspect in this fragile economy.
• GoDaddy is also a good choice because they have a large array of domains (your online address) and other products (which you may not need now, like dedicated servers, but it’s nice to be able to do upgrades later without having to re-shop for a company who can help you.)

Facebook

Again, as with a blog, you should really be on Facebook (or FB for short).  Over a hundred million users = if you’re not on here then you’re going to be out of touch.  And as we all should know by now out-of-touch can quickly translate into out-dated, obsolete – not a great to position to be in if you’re looking for work, which odds are you are or know someone who is.  Don’t lose out on a great opportunity to network.  There’s no time like the present to fix your previous lax networking behavior.

Important things to remember on FB:

• When setting up your profile for the first time, be aware of the privacy settings.  There are a lot of them.  For now, just leave them as is.  You can always increase or decrease security settings based on how you actually use your profile.
• It is called Facebook for a reason.  You should upload your picture – with your face in it.  No one is going to say, “yes, I’ll friend this person without a picture who could be an axe murderer!”  You usually don’t need to worry about axe murderers you don’t know (it’s the one’s you do know that you need to worry about!)
• Profile pictures of your children, babies, dogs, cats, favorite activity in a mask don’t count as your face!  That is impersonation of another person, a fraud-like activity you should not engage in.   Well, the dog/cat picture isn’t, but it’s still disturbing.
• Facebook uses the term “Friend” as ‘a person that you know.’  This does not mean that you need to be BFF’s (a Paris Hilton-ism, meaning Best Friend Forever… ick, excuse me while I barf.  Can’t take much of that), it simply means you know that person – somehow.  Don’t worry, you’re not going to be inundated with contacts, at least not at first.  Just remember, you can always change virtually every setting after you get the hang of the program.  It’s pretty intuitive, so don’t worry, have fun finding people you lost contact with long ago!
• A final word of caution with FB:  don’t start playing games.  It’s tacky, and people will respect you less if that’s all you post about.  Start by finding friends, usually high school and college work best, then ease yourself into the rest.  Some of the applications and games are simply a waste of time, and others are virtually spam.  Don’t get sucked in.  Take it easy and look around.  Say “Hi” to a few people and get comfortable.  Later you can learn about different groups, fan pages, applications, games, etc.

Then, like me, you can feel good that after about a week and a half of intense self-promotion, you too can have over 100 friends!

Well, that’s enough for now.  Stay tuned for Part 2:  Twitter.

Until next time.

Peace.

-Ryan.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. If you don’t have a blog yet, why not?  What’s holding you back?
2. If you don’t have Facebook yet, why not?  What’s holding you back?
3. If you do have a blog and/or Facebook, what do you think of my tips for newbies?  Clear?  If not, or if you have different view of how to get started, let me know!
4. If you consider yourself a guru:  how did I do on my first explanation post?  Tell me your thoughts, I may just tell you you’re smart and implement what you say.  Wouldn’t that be cool for you? 

Tagged as: awesome, Communication, Facebook, Goals, GoDaddy, Marketing, me, Networking, New Media, Online, WordPress, WYSIWYG

{ 1 comment }