Social media has changed everything. When the Web first took off, it wasn\’t clear how anyone could make money by putting words on a Web page. Then Google brought out AdSense, competitors rushed in with their own programs and people who produced good content, paid attention to their ads and worked hard and patiently at building their sites got to see their incomes take off.
But it was all pretty impersonal. Early websites provided information but there was no connection between the publisher and the reader. Blogging brought the two sides closer together. Blog posts – which could be about anything from the writer\’s life to baking the perfect soufflé – carried the voice of the person behind them.
But even that\’s largely a one-way conversation. Bloggers write, readers comment, and sometimes the blogger might join the discussion. But there\’s little sense of a real conversation between the publisher and the people who read what he or she publishes.
Social media has brought down that barrier, and the different sites have done it in different ways.
Facebook limits me to 5,000 friends but it gives a broad picture of who I am. Those friends can see my updates, they can look at videos and they can see photos of me at talks and conferences. They can also comment on my posts, and because they\’re informed when other people also comment, the conversation is active. They can come back and respond to someone else\’s comment.
Twitter takes that active conversation even further. Anyone can contact me through Twitter, ask me questions and contact me directly. More importantly, it\’s completely open which gives it huge viral power. When other people see my conversations, they\’re free to join them. Chatting on Twitter helps to cement my community and to build it too.
And LinkedIn has a more professional feel. It\’s a place that shows off my experience and my qualifications. It tells people who I am, who I\’ve worked with, and what I love to do. It\’s a place that helps to build trust, the glue that holds communities together.
Each of those services helps me to build a relationship with people who want to know me and the kind of information I can supply. It\’s that relationship that social media sells — and it\’s that relationship that can produce sales for any savvy entrepreneur.