Five Tips for Starting With New Media

I just got off the phone with Lisa Haneberg, author of Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, a book I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone looking make a breakthrough in their personal or professional lives. Lisa was interviewing me for her new book on hipness and sageness. During our conversation, Lisa asked me to think of the five things I would tell a “mature professional” who wanted to use new media to market themselves or their business.

Well, I know a good topic for a blog post when I hear one, so here is a first stab at a list. Actually, I’ve worked up two lists, one list for those getting started and another for those looking to drive the effectiveness and visibility of their efforts. Today, I’ll talk about getting started.

Here are five things a mature professional should consider when starting off with using new media to market themselves or their business:

1. Do you really need to do it? It’s one thing to dabble in new media because you think it might be fun on a personal level. It’s quite another to do it to support a professional or business need. I think the decision is driven by the needs of your target customers. Go where your customer are. If they’re online and expect to learn about you and your services and skills online, then you better be online.

2. Just start doing it. Forget theory. There is no substitute for just getting out and doing it yourself. It’s like learning a foreign language – learning it in class seldom works. You have to immerse yourself in it. So, set up your own Facebook page, start you own hosted blog on Blogger or WordPress. They’re all free.

3. Start small and build. You should have a rough idea of what you want to write about in your blog or what you want to put in your profile of Facebook, but don’t try to get it all planned out and perfect before you make your first post. Get it started and then be open to changing your focus as you discover new things you and your readers would like to explore.

4. Keep it short. No one says you have to post long screeds that cover everything anyone might ever want to know about your topic or, in your LinkedIn profile, everything you ever did. In fact, it works better if you keep it short and snappy. Do posts like “Five Things Everyone Should Know About…” Post a couple of sentences about a new web site you just discovered and give people the URL. Just put a few key bullet points in your LinkedIn profile.

5. Keep doing it. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a blog that has been allowed to go stale. Keep posting regularly. Yes, it’s tough. Things happen. You get sick. You get busy. You get writer’s block. Just keep coming back to it and keep it fresh. Note that “fresh” can mean a post every day or every so often. It depends on the topic.

There are lots of other things to consider (Get your own domain name. Learn from the experts. Optimize for search engines.), but this blog really isn’t about technology but rather how to use technology to enhance your visibility.

My next post will focus on what I would say to someone who wants to drive their new media efforts to the next level.