My Twitter Dilemma

By admin on December 30, 2008

Ever since attending Ross Goldberg’s virtual seminar, I’ve grown to love twitter. As someone who spends a lot of time alone, it’s nice to have that little window onto the world, to share thoughts, meet people, and develop the type of relationships that I would find really hard to do in person. As a marketer, I really love that I can connect with other marketers to share and learn, and to have the opportunity to enhance my own business in the way that is only possible on a social site such as twitter.

Sounds like heaven, right? And it may well be to people who are outgoing and find it easy to be around other people. I watch in awe as people I admire and respect banter back and forth. I make my own little tweets and my heart soars when I get a reply or a direct message. And yeah, I realize how pathetic that sounds, but you have no idea how much courage it takes for me to hit that send button. I can write no problem, but actually sharing that writing in a place where there’s a chance that someone’s not gonna like it… that’s one of the hardest things for me to do. And while I’m getting better at it and it gets a little easier every time, there are still too many days when I would much rather crawl into my little hidey-hole and stay there.

Therein lies my dilemma. I know that to have an effective presence on twitter or any other social network I need to be there interacting with people on a regular basis. I also know that I need to be sharing at least some of what I’m doing and thinking so that people can get to know me better, and lemme tell ya, that idea is almost a deal breaker here. I’m so used to being in the background, and living basically alone that I telling people what I’m up to is a totally foreign concept.

So my question is this…

If your natural inclination is to be more isolationist than social, how do you do it? How do you overcome those anti-social tendencies and interact with others on those days when you just can’t handle the thought of talking to another person?

If I’m coming across as melodramatic, I’m sorry. It sounds over the top even to me, but I really want to know. More like need to know because this is something that I struggle with on a daily basis, and it’s something that I really want to overcome.

Please leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments. I’d love to hear your take on this, and as always, introvert and extrovert points of view are welcome. :)

Posted in social networking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Responses

Social Marketing Explained

By admin on December 16, 2008

There are a lot of people selling a lot of stuff that tries to explain social marketing. And I’m not knocking any of them because I’ve bought a lot of it, and it does the trick for bits and pieces. But if you want to get – and I mean really GET – the whole point of social marketing, then you have to watch this video. This is the absolute best explanation I’ve ever seen.

Thanks to Jason Anderson for swiping this off Ryan Deiss‘ blog and reposting it, and for tweeting it. And a big thanks to Perry Belcher for turning the lights on! If you want to follow any of these guys on twitter (and I highly recommend that you do), just click on their names. If you want to follow me, click this.

Posted in social marketing, videos | Tagged , , , , | Leave a response

Why I Changed My Mind About Giveaways

By admin on December 1, 2008

After my last couple of posts telling you that I would be playing in several giveaways over the holiday season, you’re probably wondering why I changed my mind. Even if you’re not, I’m gonna tell you anyways. :)

I was getting ready yesterday and putting a gift package together, and nothing was going right. I couldn’t find the things I needed to get the job done. (I learned I really need to organize my hard drives in the process, but that’s beside the point.) The more frustrated I got, the more I realized that I really wasn’t having fun, and that the idea of participating in these giveaways was not making me feel good.

It doesn’t have anything to do with giving stuff away. I love giving away information because I know what it’s like to want to get started and not have the money to shell out. I get a real sense of satisfaction when something I say or write is helpful to someone else. And yes, I’d love to have one of those huge lists that the big dogs brag about, but I’m not convinced that being part of these massive giveaways is the best way to go about it.

The bottom line is that after spending a week of getting ready it didn’t feel right. And I’m learning, finally, that if something doesn’t feel right, then I should trust my instincts and not do it. That’s not to say I’m good with staying in my comfort zone and never stretching or doing something new. There’s a big difference in saying no because you’re scared to change (I’ve done that too) and saying no because your gut is screaming at you to stop and think about it.

Does this mean that I’ll never give anything away again? Nope, it doesn’t. I will always have free information available for anyone who wants or needs it. It also doesn’t mean that I’ll never play in a giveaway again. If one comes along that feels right to me then I’ll play along, and be happy doing it.

For now it just means that I’ll be looking for alternative ways to grow the readership of The Introverted Marketer, ways that fit my style and leave me feeling happy with my choices.

Posted in general updates | Tagged , | 1 Response

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