The Worst Thing You Can Do With Social Media

Just when we got comfortable with attaching files to an email, along comes social media and everything changed. In just a few short years we started signing up for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and host of other social media platforms.

Most of us didn't even get it, at first. Twitter seemed about as useless as those early bloggers a decade ago. Slowly, but surely, it's making more sense.

And yet, many of us are still not fully engaged. Life is handing us a soap box and a microphone, and many people are content to let others worry about social media. "The young people on staff can do that," we say. That's just foolish.

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The worst thing you can do with social media is to ignore it. We have crossed into a new era of public interaction. Email is still a vital part of how we do business, but Twitter and other forms of social media enable us to glean insights from others and share our own content that go far beyond what email allows.

You don't have to figure it all out before you start getting involved. Pretend you're back on the playground as a kid. Start playing on the monkey bars or the swing set. Pretty soon, someone will invite you to play on the teeter-totter. Someone else may invite you to a game of tag.

So, don't leave your Twitter account to your intern. Have fun with it. It will open whole new worlds and expand your own visibility and marketability in the process.

Follow me on Twitter. Invite me to speak to your next meeting or conference.