Geoff’s post, The Naturals, struck a nerve with me. No, not dealing with my personal viewpoint of Sarah Lacy’s presentation, but one of the post comments:
“Companies and individuals look at the benchmark bloggers like Scoble and think it’s just a matter of tossing some stuff out there to see what sticks. But I love your point about building a network being more than half the battle. A strong community can help drive, support, and even improve content. But no amount of content can build a community if that’s all there is.” –Amber Naslund
Last week, I spoke to the Southwest Leadership Boys and Girls Club of America and the majority of the audience was new to the social media space. One of the main concerns expressed (and is a typical question asked in forums I speak where there are many new to the space) is how do you have time to generate content across all of the social media tools employed? Geoff outlines four elements needed in content creation. No small task for many of us. Passion drives the content.
Communicators Anonymous began as part of my master thesis and grew to become a blog discussing industry improvements and integrated communications strategies. Much of the content is driven by community comments and networking. Your community can sniff out canned content versus genuine topics of discussion.
So, how do you build a community and get them interested in you long enough to generate content for you to ultimately deliver back to them? Gary Vaynerchuk reinforces the need to go beyond your charge and the need to do a lot of little things to make the big things happen. Gary states, “Anything is better than zero.” Business success in the social media space is a challenge for the determined and brave of heart…doesn’t hurt to have a thick skin and be willing to get dirty too.
