UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging

Chapter 11. Social Media Platforming

THERE ARE TOO many choices when it comes to social media. You've got the networking style sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs (yours and others), social bookmarking (Digg, Reddit, Delicious), and video sharing (YouTube). No one can possibly use all of them all the time and create any sort of presence. Which is why you need to build a social media platform.

A decade ago,^[29] I used to manage bands in Toronto and it was always said, "Before you can fill a stadium, you have to fill a club." So even though your dream is to play in front of thousands, try filling a club with a hundred first. Same goes for social media. Most people want the million views on YouTube, 100,000 followers on Twitter, and to be hitting the front page of Digg every week, but that's not going to happen right away and it will never happen if you try to do it all at once.

Build a small stage—your platform—that you're going to stand on and get people to come to. Pick one place where you want people to find you and play your best "show" there for as long as it takes to build a solid following. If you tell people to come find you on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, read your blog, and watch your videos on YouTube when you first encounter them, they're going to run the other way.

There are three steps to successfully building your platform: Traction, momentum, and expansion. You have to start by building traction. Social media can be a very challenging tool to use when you ...