SOCIAL NETWORKING 101 – Guru Tips & Guidelines | Thebigtip: Brutally honest sports news, opinions, insights and tips!

SOCIAL NETWORKING 101 – Guru Tips & Guidelines

“How social networking can make or break your sports writing career”

So you have plunged into the world of online social network journalism, the distance an online writers views can travel via the internet superhighway is endless!

I’m sure everybody that is reading this at one stage or another has been on the receiving end of some kind of an online campaign, viral message, watched a You Tube video with Millions of views, joined/been invited to a Facebook group or even created one themselves.

Would you name your son Batman if a group you created received 1,000,000 fans??? Do we really believe the creator of that group would actually name their son Batman if the group were to reach their target of fans????

This is an example of what people do to build up social network viral databases & broaden their personal reach which they can target with whatever the message they are really intending on relaying.

As a journalist writing content specifically for the web, you should be aware of the tools web 2.0 offers and the best way to utilize them not only to gain the attention of your contacts and their ongoing interest in interacting with you but also continually attract more and have them captivated in what you have to offer from the moment they become part of your network.

What I will further share with you does not require any commitments to the likes of naming your kids after superheroes, so need not panic!

A good social networker should always demonstrate that they are just that, my first main guideline for a super blogger is to master the art of the “Micro Blog”.

You’re a journalist writing articles which is time consuming and at the end of it all, after grinding and pouring passion into the keyboard the result is a portrait in the form of words every writer should always be proud of, as we are here once your work is submitted at The Big Tip, so naturally we want as many people to show appreciation for your efforts as much if not more than you do.

So, why is Micro Blogging important??

Once an article is published the audience which we can guarantee to capture is that which relates to the nature of the topic within, we can agree this is limited to a degree as a particular topic is generally a niche, as a regular micro blogger in-between posting your own work you can grab the attention of those whom may not be responding to your “topic” based articles due to not sharing interest in them by offering and sharing such things as and not limited to broad thoughts & views, distractions, viral videos, wisdom, humour & importantly commentary on your specialized field of interest & working sector.

In this instalment of my Guru tips & Guidelines I will be putting a focus on sharing content already posted within your feed but none the less will be touching on all the above elements throughout my further future insights.

The foundation tool we all use being Facebook is in fact designed and constantly evolving to make such process easier to implement and execute. So for example when surfing your Facebook home page and you see a YouTube post which grabs your attention naturally you will slow down your scan and have a view of the video, now your watching a video which may be completely unrelated to the person who posted it but will potentially trigger a curiosity to delve into their profile to see (a) what else they have been posting (b) do a general recon of what that individual has been up to.

So our first example is to re-post/re-tweet. Beneath anything a person shares within Facebook appears a link named “share” if you have not experimented with this feature yet, by clicking it gives you an option to repost the feed directly to your profile & also add a comment which can include “@” symbol followed by other contacts names which when included will automatically post content on multiple profiles you select.

So if it is for example a sports blooper video you are re-posting, for this example let us say it is Tennis Bloopers adding “@” with the names of other contacts who may appreciate Tennis or simply a laugh at some bloopers will potentially create traffic to your page via the same process discussed earlier when we were navigating through the homepage and having a sticky beak at the seed that got our attention.

We don’t need to limit this to reseeding/sharing i’m sure you all have some sites you trawl and habitually frequent daily/weekly such as www.news.com.au – www.afl.com.au – www.mashable.com – www.youtube.com and so on... not only do such sites all offer direct integration instantly linking to your social network for sharing with the purpose of achieving exactly what we just discussed, but gives you the chance to share and discuss topics which you find important with the contacts in your network giving them slightly more of a broad insight into yourself and unbiased in the nature that it isn’t compiled by you, but has interested you enough to find value in sharing which further leaves your contacts with a better insight into what you may share in common and making the opinions you share in your own writing more credible for some of whom you may not have known personally & for future developing a foundation of curiosity.

A few major benefits of implementing a broader sharing of topics that interest to you:

-    creating flattery towards another by re-posting their links and showing you share mutual interests
-    giving your contacts a chance to comment on broader topics
-    give you some insight as to what people within your network are interested in
-    demonstrating to people scanning past your content the broad interest of your network and readers
-    creating a circle of interaction and discussion on your wall which always relays a message of solidarity
-    when posting & sharing on others walls a chance to acquire new contacts is born

When Sharing on others walls & implementing the use of “@” link in posts:

-    Exposure to new networks
-    Potentially creating discussions with new contacts
-    Creating a platform to drive contacts interested in your content to add you and grow your network organically

So in conclusion to my first instalment of a social networkers guru guidelines I would like to demystify the concept of “Micro Blogging” and high light the importance of breaking up your posts and commentary with media and content of all sorts not just specifically your own.

Don’t panic if re-seeding/sharing a link which a mutual friend has posted, that is not plagiarizing, it was already on the web to be shared & more frequently than not the amount of contacts you would share with any given person rarely would be an overlap of more than 20%, so the target demographic you may reach when re-posting will not necessarily be that of which the persons content you are sharing had reached.  

So in close, re-share often, express and vocalize your interests via existing web 2.0 content whether discovering it yourself or showing interest in friends post and expressing common interest by reposting as you explore and discover always remember “Sharing is Caring” and the interactions you will receive in return will be bring endless value.

Happy Seeding!!!

With Love
Brian Berger
TBT Digital Marketing Executive