A few weeks ago I discovered Klout and this really started making me think (rethink) about how I interact with Social Media.  Previously I would simply follow / friend anyone who I wanted to get news from.  So for instance I would find a new band or artist who I wanted to know more about, and like them on Facebook as well as following them on twitter.  I got up to following about 300 accounts on twitter alone, let alone another 300 + on facebook.  I would look down at tweetdeck on my phone and I was getting hundreds of posts every hour, how in the world would I keep up with all that.  I do have work to do other than keeping up with marketing and social media trends.  What Klout has seemed to drive home for me especially when it comes to twitter is I should only be following people who I am going to interact with, or have hopes that I will interact with.  The first word in Social Media is obviously Social.  Its not news or updates.  If its not conversational how is that really Social.

Take a look at the header of my Klout page.  I don’t have a great Klout score yet, and I am not sure I ever will.  However I think this information is very useful to anyone interacting with Social Media.

My account is new and I have learned I am not influential to very many people yet.  But I already know why.  The issue is two fold.  1.) I was not conversational I was only absorbing information.  2.) I was not generating any content or commentary.  Retweeting the latest news about my favorite bands is not generating content.

Ok so by now I think you are thinking…” so what is your point?” and “what does this mean to me?”  Here are my recomendations for how you can as I like to say “Herd Cats” when navigating the landscape of Social Media.  If you are like me and use Social Media in order to get news or commentary on things you care about then I suggest you use Facebook to do this.  Anyone with anything to say that you care about is on Facebook, and will post all or repost their content to Facebook.  Facebook does a better job than twitter at organizing this information for you.  As for where to be “Social” this is what twitter was created to do.  That sounds easy enough, but this also means you need to go in and thin out what/who you follow on twitter.  I have been using Manageflitter in order to give me info on who I am following such as how long ago was their last tweet, or if they are following me back.  If someone isn’t following you its very tough to get them to converse with you.  It is import to engage those people that you want to converse with by mentioning them in your content.  This will encourage them to follow you as you are talking about them.

Most of this sounds like complete common sense however it goes against what most people will do.  Navigating all the different sites and lists can lead to the simple feeling of being overwhelmed with data and information.  Organizing this data and being able to respond to the appropriate information will lead to a more conversational experience.  I suggest using a client such as Tweetdeck in order to help you view all of your feeds at once and see the notifications on your desktop or mobile device.  I also recommend you keep it running all day.  It can sit in the background but if you see something that catches or eye it gives you the opportunity to quickly respond and begin a conversation.

If you only remember one word of this post it is “CONVERSATION”.  So if you want to converse with me in Social Media I recommend you follow me on twitter [twitter]anthonybest[/twitter].  If you want to show me pictures of cute cats who don’t speak english well or tell me about your new album.  Post it on facebook!