You can’t drop in and out of social media any more than you can drop in and out of healthy eating, exercise or an in-person relationship. Showing up some of the time won’t cut it. What’s daunting to people about being present on social tools day in and day out is often the idea that they don’t have something brilliant or witty to say every day.
Most of us don’t. But that’s ok. You don’t have to dazzle every day with something original. In fact, what works best is when you spend more time promoting the work of others than you do promoting your own. A rule of thumb is 90% promoting others, 10% promoting yourself. You don’t have to start counting your tweets, the exact number isn’t important. What matters is that you share the work of others more than you share your own.
Here’s an example of how well that can work.
Christopher Penn’s #the5
I’m a big fan of Christopher S. Penn. I read his blog, I follow him on Twitter and on Google+. His posts are just my style – they’re easy to understand, logical, actionable and timely. He is on the edge of what’s happening without the annoying jargon. He offers just enough opinion but always plenty of actual data.
He does something called the #the5. It’s 5 items he finds each day that he thinks are important. Sometimes he includes his own stuff. More often it’s other people’s work. He starts out by introducing himself and #the5 with a link to a specific page on his site, so if you’re a new follower you can learn a little about him. If you’ve been following for a while you just know you don’t need to click that one.
#the5 is always good stuff. It’s so good that I have consistently read posts via #the5 written and shared by other people I follow, but that I had missed. I’m trained to look for #the5 every day and I know that the best stuff will be in it, even from people I already follow.
I don’t know how long it takes him to put #the5 together each day. I’m sure it’s a commitment. But by regularly sharing #the5 which is mostly the work of others in a reliable format, Christopher Penn has become one of the best sources for information I have online.
What Can You Highlight?
What can you do to highlight the good work other people are doing, while increasing your own consistent online presence? As a start, read. Read more than just the same posts that the people you follow are reading. Read articles related to your industry that not every person in your industry knows about. Find a new perspective on something. Retweeting the same post that has you’ve already seen in your stream 8 times isn’t going to offer the same value as sharing something new.
Show how one thing relates to something else. Maybe a new technology has implications for your industry that other people don’t see yet. Share that, and point out why it’s relevant. You might see connections that others don’t. Or maybe someone else has done a really detailed analysis that most people will gloss over because it’s complicated. Highlight it and point out why it matters.
Once in a while, change the subject. I follow Christopher Penn for internet marketing information, but when he shares economic news, I read it. People like a change every once in a while.
Take the focus off yourself. There’s lots of good work going on around you. Highlighting it helps other people and can make it a little easier for you to stay in touch on social networks.
[Image credit: Flavio Takemoto]
I'm an internet marketing consultant and a 16 year veteran of the internet marketing industry. My roles have spanned digital strategy, website management, search engine optimization, social media marketing and business process management. I'm fascinated by the way internet technologies change how we learn, share, shop and give. 
