At the Social Media Jungle gathering in New York, November 13th, hosted by Jeff Pulver, the question of survival in the Social Media Jungle is being raised.
It seems to me that if we looked at our ancestors survival strategies and compared them to the uncharted landscape we’re living in with social media, we might benefit from a few handy survival instincts that likely served our ancestors well:
1. Learn the Customs of New Tribes
We wouldn’t go looking to hang out with other tribes just because we shared the same jungle. In many cases, getting involved with tribe members you don’t know can be scary or even life-threatening. You might end up in a stew if you wade in without knowing the customs of the tribe. It’s widely known that first nations people in the America’s figured Europeans thought snot was sacred. After all, when their own noses got congested, they simply covered one side of their nose and blew the plugged snot onto the ground. Europeans on the other hand, would blow their sacred liquids into a frilly handkerchief and place it in their pocket next to their heart!
Lurk and Learn before jumping fully into the next social media tribe. You’ll appear more normal if your behavior blends in with social norms of each social tribe you share ideas with.
2. Search is your Friend
Finding food in the social media jungle requires persistence and dedication and knowing what you are looking for. As the jungle gets more and more crowded, seek out the people who speak your language or have social customs that you are comfortable with. Use the search tools available in social media to find people that are a lot like you. How do you know they are like you? In the jungle, friendly tribe members will likely walk, talk and share ideas that are similar to yours. The topics of conversation will be topics you are interested in. It may be a common place, like the Rascal House, like Jeff Sass talked about or any of the W questions – Who? Where? Why? When? What? How? Lurk and watch for places, topics, and ideas that seem familiar. Follow links and read blog posts, watch video posts and learn who is talking about things you are interested in.
Join in the conversation and leave tracks.
3. The community will find value in your content – or not!
Wherever you go in the jungle, you are leaving tracks. People will come across your tracks and identify you as an authentic tribe member, or ignore you. Don’t worry about hiding your tracks. The comments you leave and content you post will only be interested in people who share your interest. These are your ideal social contacts. You want these people to come across your blog posts, videos, podcasts, photos! They will value your social interactions based on the contributions you make to the tribe.
Remember, it’s better to have 6 raving fans following you, than 6000 who passively are interested in your contributions.
4. Find someone to watch your back – earn their trust
Earn the trust of people in the social media jungle by nurturing relationships and following leaders. There are many people in the social landscape who are tribal leaders like Chris Brogan. It is best to be a follower, before attempting to grab a seat on the throne for yourself. Relationships take time to develop. Earn the trust and participation of valued social media community members by nurturing relationships. You can do that by commenting on the posts, videos, photos, tweets of others. Comment without expectation of the favour being returned. Comment without the expectation of making an instant sale. Comment without the expectation of link-juice increasing your popularity with search engines. Comment when you have something valid to add to the conversation, even if you disagree with ideas being shared.
The quality of your contribution to the dialogue will earn you the respect and admiration of other tribe members and boost your status in the jungle.
5. The time will be right for your tribe to awaken to your wisdom and follow you!
It has taken the better part of two years for tools like Twitter to gain a wider acceptance as other media refer to it in the reporting of the news. When an earthquake happened last year in Iceland, CNN turned to Twitter to get a contact they could interview for a first hand news report. It took television news reporters looking for disaster photos to happen upon Flickr and make it a popular place for sharing photos. It will take a live news report via cell phone – an on the scene report from a bystander to make Qik hit the big time – again it will gain free wide media coverage when it it hits television. Qik doesn’t have to work hard for media to discover their incredible application, it will just happen when the time is right. Time and again, simple blog posts have resulted in mainstream media calling on my expertise in the area of marketing tourism – mostly because of my social presence in this area.
Mainstream media looks to new media for value-added coverage when the value provided by these new media benefits their audience. Currently, the new media landscape is awash with techie types, but the time is right for all types of people to position their role as a thought leader in whatever topic you are passionate about! Start sharing photos, videos, audio podcasts, text (whatever you feel is your best medium!). Tell stories that matter, discuss issues that matter, focus on concerns that matter – to you. Your audience and mainstream media will find you.
Will you be ready for your closeup?
In the spirit of being there, it’s time for some pizza!
