Why is interaction the key to social media?

I have written about social media interaction also known as engagement several times in the past but wanted to focus briefly on some specific examples. Recently I was asked some questions by a social media novice about my particular social networking stream. For instance, let’s look at the following three questions.

• What’s the point of dozens of tweets per hour?
• What percentage of that is noise?
• Is this strategy or boredom?

Each user of social media has to understand his audience in order to be able to successfully answer these questions. I have a truly global audience which is something difficult for someone just starting out to comprehend. Another concept that new users find troublesome is the life expectancy of a status update. Although each update will live on forever the visibility of the update in the average stream is approximately 5 minutes. This is not very useful if you are promoting an article or cause you are involved in. Obviously if all you updated was your content then your advocacy would surely be viewed a nothing but noise.

There is a fine line between noise and SPAM. The difference between the two is how your audience responds to your message. Do they retweet your content? More importantly do they ask you questions. These are true signs of value and one of the best metrics of your social media standing. Unfortunately none of the current ‘Vanity Meters’ effectively measure your true influence. They certainly do not measure your interactions with other people in a meaningful manner.

For a moment consider the some of my core social media topics. The first being technology especially phones and other hand held gadgets. Recently I as asked my opinion and prediction of quad core processors appearing in such devices. When some one out of the blue asks your advice or opinion it caries far more weight than any klout score. It means that they value your feed on this subject and ansering back quickly demonstrates that you are an approachable individual who values them as well.

Another example is coffee. I drink large amounts of the stuff and talk about the with other coffee junkies. I talk about coffee so often that people ask me questions about the substance. I recently was asked to recommend coffee makers. I pointed the individual to REI’s coffee press travel mug. The individual found this to be exactly what they were looking for.

One final example regarding my travels to China. Since traveling around the globe I get asked all the time about my opinion on subjects pertaining to that region. I know that I am by no means an expert in conducting business in the Pacific Rim but it is a connection to individuals that I have. Let’s face it that connections like this are the foundation of successful business relationships.

As you can see I have a method to my madness. I understand social networking at a level that eludes most tech types. As I have said many times it is the conversation that is important. Numerous updates are important to me for initiating critical conversations. These conversations lead to conversions which is critical for maintaining any sort of blog audience. Someday these converted readers may lead to enough traffic to sustain this site in particular through ad revenue. Yeah someday…;-S

 

 

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