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Now that we have over 550 members, and have generated some “groundswell”, I would like to officially welcome you all to the Social Media Graffiti club on ecademy and give you a few pointers of how to make the most of your membership and benefit from being part of a community dedicated to social media innovation.  The whole point of social networks, and indeed this club, is to join, participate and benefit from the shared knowledge of the group.

Let’s give a wider context to this:  Business is entering a new era of the “network” or “linked” economy where the more connections added, the more powerful and far-reaching the network and the more it can influence the on-line world. In this new style of economy, small efforts can lead to surprisingly large results as they are amplified through the network, or, in this case, club. Social media allows individuals to harness the power of networks by tapping into shared-interest communities on-line and leveraging business exposure and business expertise of others through these many different connections. Those who ignore valuable information do so to the benefit of their competitors. Networks and clubs encourage and support the successful to be more successful and your business can grow exponentially as a result.  That is why it is beneficial to you to be part of ecademy, and our community!

According to one of the world’s most brilliant marketing minds, Seth Godin:  “Social media, in fact, is a basic human need, revealed digitally online. We all want to be connected, to make a difference, to matter, to be missed. We want to belong, and yes, we want to be led”.

Membership of a club serves all those needs … and more.

It may also be that you are in a transition phase of moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 interaction?  It is my belief that many people are still stuck in Web 1.0 mentality, i.e. downloading, where all they did was go and look at a website.  There was no physical interaction with the computer other than “searching” and “scrolling”.  Web 2.0, as we all know, is about engagement and self-publication.  This means physically that you have to create sites/blogs/profiles/accounts and understand basic web practices such as uploading photos, up-loading video, embedding code, hyperlinking etc.  The subtleties of understanding social media may be lost on you, or overwhelm you if you have not yet grasped how to work a computer.  That is completely understandable, which is why I have put together my Social Media Training Course and Unleash the Blog within Course,  to help you.  Being a member of this club will also assist in making the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 as painless as possible, provided that you engage with the information and start using it in your work-a-day world.  Again, just joining up to a club, and sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, serves no purpose to you whatsoever.  Engagement is where the magic occurs!

It stands to reason that any type of community – on or off-line – only thrives if people consistently contribute to it.  Being a passive member does not serve you or the community.   It holds true to that old saying of “you get out what you put in”.  It’s not enough to just join a club and sit back and expect something to come out of it.  You must engage!

I thought I would therefore share with you how you can engage with the club and benefit yourself, the club, and your business as a result of that participation.

First of all, remember that an on-line community is a place where people get to know each other. It’s no different to an off-line meeting place like a pub, club, or meeting around the coffee machine at work, or around the tribal camp fire.  If you are new to the club, please go on the forum and introduce yourself on the New Members thread, just like you would if you walked into a real room full of people! It makes for good netiquette and gives other members an idea of what you are all about.  It’s also helps to build trust. It’s simply a case of making friends with the locals and learning to speak their language. They will have to make adjustments to you as well, eventually accepting your value proposition, but that will come later, sometime after you have earned your stripes through contributing.   Once you have introduced yourself, then you can start joining in on the forum.

The forum is the place to share knowledge, opinion, and experience and engage in authentic and valuable discussion with other like-minded individuals. Ecademy is a site whose members have made an investment in establishing consistent and reliable profiles, so it’s not a good idea to come onto the forum and immediately spam them!   In fact, spam is potentially damaging to your brand.  Try and contribute value to every post that you engage with.  Please join in the discussions and let the community know your views.  A by-product of this is that people learn to trust your opinion, and then you become known within the community.  This reflects positively on your business as you become a respected member.   As this “contribution currency” grows, you can expect increased business transactions between the members of this club.  As new people join, the value and benefits of being in the club increase exponentially!  You can also post questions if you need help with any aspect of social media in your business.  Ask for assistance, and you will be surprised as the generosity of others who are willing to share their knowledge! 

Use the forum to leverage other people’s time and expertise.  I personally spend hours trawling the internet looking for interesting and relevant content, and you can read the results of all my efforts on the forum.  Consider the posts on the forum as the “cream of the crop” on the subject of social media – a “one stop shop” for everything you need to know about his rapidly evolving phenomenon.

The forum is up-dating daily with new content, so please check back in regularly to see which topics are “hot”. 

It is an official statistic now that more people are communicating via social networks than via email!   In business, everything starts with a conversation. Social media provides the tools and platforms to start those conversations, and then build deeper and meaningful business relationships as a result of that sustained and consistent interaction. Best of all, most of these tools are free to use giving you an infinite return on the investment of little more than your time.  By being a member of this club, you will be kept up to date with the latest tools and methods for leveraging your social media presence.  Why not feed back to the club what has achieved results for you in your business?  Again, you will be adding to the knowledge base and contributing to the value of being a member of the club!

Social media in the U.K. is in its infancy.  You have a tremendous window of opportunity, through this club, to get a head-start on the masses and start implementing social media strategies to increase your business exposure on line.

It is the belief of myself, Thomas Power, and Penny Power that 21st century business is about understanding open, random and supportive business practices and future-proofing your business against the next generation as they move from Social Networking to Social Business Networking.  Your active participation in this club and social media implementation is your passport to a successful business future.

Ecademy has given us the ability to create our own tribe … the tribes are gathering, come and add fuel to the fire.

N