Our Social Media Experience

Tom GibbonsSocial Media, TMS News1 Comment

Social Media – it’s all the buzz right now.  Do you use it?  Is it valuable?  Is it a time waster?  Are you really working?  Who really cares what you are eating for lunch?

 Prior to the end of April, 2009, we at TMS Americas weren’t really involved with social media.  Oh, we knew that Oprah had discovered Twitter; that kids shared everything on Facebook; and that we should probably increase our presence on LinkedIn because that’s where the professional people hang out.  And, then we attended Podcamp!  We discovered we were in good company trying to understand social media, that it was okay to jump in and play, test things out, create your own rules, experiment, and that there are a lot of people out there willing to share their thoughts, expertise and experiences on a whole world of topics.  And, so began our journey in to Social Media and Social Networking.Blog Photo

 Right now, there are not many rules.  The purpose, for us, behind our activities is to connect with and become a part of communities.  Those communities vary in their focus as do the reasons for our actively becoming contributing members.  But, the common goal behind every action and interaction is to learn, share, connect and collaborate.  And, we are – with people we would have never had the opportunity to meet through traditional methods. 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/doniannone/3329913281/

A couple of weeks ago, we officially announced that TMS Americas was Tweeting on Twitter and that a Corporate Facebook page had been launched.  And, that generated responses:  Congratulations!! Way to go!!  Best of Luck!! Why would you pick Facebook over LinkedIn – that’s unprofessional!  What are you doing on Twitter – who really cares what you are doing right now?  Response is a great thing.  It means you have engaged people and that is our intent.  We each tweet about topics that are of interest to us and our respective roles.  More often we share tweets from others – we may not always have a lot to say but others we are connecting with do and we are happy to share their thoughts, ideas, requests, and questions. 

We have built TMS Americas’ Facebook as a corporate page (very different from a personal profile) as a dynamic site allowing us to quickly and easily share what our TMS accredited network members are thinking and doing because people are thinking and doing amazing things.  We are on LinkedIn but in a different way – connecting one to one.   We find it a great way to locate and connect with specific people, quickly and directly.  These are our reasons for actively participating and learning in the forums we have chosen.  They have been chosen specifically and strategically, through on-going dialogue, as a team.  And, right now they work for our organization – they might for you, they might not.  But, to know if they work, you have to explore, play, stay open, have some fun, be ready to be frustrated and excited (sometimes all at the same time) and to admit that you have a huge learning curve ahead, that the game will change and that’s okay.  And, you will meet a lot of really amazing people along the way.

 Our October Web Meeting will give you the opportunity to tell us about your experiences, we can share our journey to date and we can all learn, share, connect and collaborate.  We’d love if you could join us!  Help us build the content for that meeting.

 What are your experiences with Social Media?

Author – Kathi

One Comment on “Our Social Media Experience”

  1. Great post about your social media experience and set up. At my company, we’re at about the same level as you are with this new medium (ok, truth be told, you’re probably a little bit ahead). One thing our marketing person here taught us was to think about social media the same way you think about a business reception – when you go to receptions, you don’t start out by jumping into a sales mode, rather you introduce yourself, get to know people first, find common interest, etc. That piece of advice really helped me with my approach to social media.

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