By Ronnie Rocket
With powerful social media tools in their hands people are interacting more than anytime in history. Governments are taken down with campaigns arranged and inspired by Facebook and Twitter on mobile phones.
People are now discovering that the social platform are indeed free soap boxes, where you can talk, shout even scream.
I primarily use Facebook for exchanging links and real-time communications with my friends. The wall is the killer app for me. (I hate that you can’t turn off the “who is friends with who” and “who likes what” feeds). I don’t user the calendar, the marketplace and I don’t like apps.
It is interesting to follow your friends on Facebook. In the beginning, they are usually silent, listening to others, but they soon discover how easy it is to post articles and videos. It is rarely ideas or thoughts.
That is what you can expect in the first phase of social media, but it is now time to stop and listen.
Listen to brilliant minds. Engage in discussions. Republish good ideas. Spread positive thinking.
I have been blogging for almost 10 years. It has mostly been experimental concepts and one-way outputs. Powered by my enthusiasm for certain matters, I published blog after blog with clips and snacks. Some were relatively popular, some were like a private diary.
My future blog concepts are more about listening and engaging.
I recently launched a social music blog. It is a simple idea. Collect cool music tips spread around different social media platforms on one blog site. Buzzed, categorized, tagged. It is only weeks old, but already has a loyal following of music buffs. The blogger as a listening editor.
My next blog concept is quite unique. It is a collection of social media parts from one industry. Not only collected, linked and commented, but also ranked. The blogger as an analytic.
These blogs are about listening to others and editing the data into a new social media product.
When you are on Facebook, try to listen and be more engaged in commenting. We are shouting too much (myself included, I am a case of FB-overload, but I have been forgiven so far — I don’t know how long that will last — anyone out there “hiding” me?) and not listening enough.
Commenting is the new black.
I plan to write a blog post about the art of commenting on blogs soon.
Until then, thanks for reading.
Please leave a comment.
PS. Remember this tip: always read your text before pressing “publish” or “share”.
Follow me on Twitter:
@ronnierocket (in English, one-way,140-characters exactly notes on current affairs, updated daily)
@ronniedk (in mixed Danish/English, used for “normal” Twitter-dialogue)
RONNIEROCKET.COM 