Ben Israel on all things conversational
I attribute this success to his remarkable footwork, which is one of the basic and essential skills in the professional game of tennis. Sure, casual players can live without it and run around like a headless chicken across the courts at the club. But to excel in the game, footwork is fundamental. In fact to excel in any area of skill or art, fundamentals are crucial. Footwork in tennis (and boxing - remember Ali?), scales in music, breathing techniques in singing, grammar in writing, ... you get the point. None of these are terribly sexy on its own, but nonetheless important.
So as I was thinking about this, I asked myself: "what are the fundamentals for those of us who work in this relatively new area of social media?" - consultants, in-house executives, client servicing executives, trainers, community managers, etc. What are the basic skills set one must have to succeed in this business? What are the footwork, scales, breathing techniques, and grammar of the social media industry? Well, the two that I find important are: (1) communication skills, which I define as not the ability to speak, but the genius of being heard. There are many organisations, companies and brands out there that are competing for the little attention span that people have left. The ones that succeed knows how to engage and interact "real" people with relevance, authenticity and value-added conversations. (2) ethics, and not just don't lie, steal and cheat, but also being transparent in each aspect of your social media interaction. Be transparent with your sponsored content, ads, links, privacy policies, and engagement activities. What other fundamentals do you find important to have in this business?
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
