When the online social networking boom began I was a total believer – I spent hours on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. As the months (which turned into years) passed I grew out of them and closed all but my LinkedIn accounts.
Back in those days social media was about, well, the social aspect. My friends would tweet about where we were and what interesting (at least to ourselves) things we were doing in hopes of enticing friends out to join us. We’d post photo after photo of ourselves in our Facebook accounts in an effort to prove to our friends (and the world) that we were leading active and appealing lives. Definitely one to be jealous of.
Now days, though, there’s a different face to these social media sites. It’s not just LinkedIn that provides your professional online face – I keep hearing of photographers (and freelancers of all persuasions) receiving referrals from their Twitter and Facebook sites. How are they doing this? Last time I looked at a Facebook account it was so full of inside joke comments and gifts thrown at each other I couldn’t differentiate between the professional and personal. And this was the site of a colleague!
Tonight I’m thinking about different types of marketing and, though I can’t bring myself to create a Facebook profile, I have broken down to create a twitter. I’m still lost as to the professional benefits, though. How do I use this thing?!
Leave your comments or direct twitter me at @tulipchain and please fill in the holes!
