This is part 4 of a 6 part series.

Social Media. You may have heard of the term or not. You may be an avid user of one of more of these web sites providing social media services or not. If you are congratulations. If you are not, you need to get networked.

How do Social Media web sites work?

Networks. There are many types of networks we all deal with.

• Road Networks
  Gets you from one place to another
• Computer Networks
  Get information from one place to another
• People Networks
  Open up opportunities from one person to another

Social Media makes use of people networks. When you participate in Social Media web sites you make connections to people you already know in the “real world” and you also make connections to people you meet online.

The power in these connections lies in not so much who you know, but who knows who you know. The people that are a second and third degree of separation from you. In this scenario if you are looking for something specific, or an opportunity you can put it out to your “social media network.” It is likely that someone you know knows someone who can help you out.

It is really a simple concept and a very powerful one yet I think many people dismiss the power of this type of communication. Some people think that using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter is a complete waste of time. I have to disagree. I have found help and answers to questions from tapping into my networks.

You Can’t Be Everywhere and Everything to Everyone.

You have to pick your networks. Some people chose to use one network exclusively where other people use multiple. I use three:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• and Facebook

These are just my preferences at the moment and I use each one for different networks and purposes. I have experimented with others but these are the tools I find myself using almost exclusively. The key is to try one and get started. One note: You should not feel compelled to be on every site.

Chris Brogan said it well in a post called Do You Have To Touch Every Conversation. Chris says: “There are gazillions of other conversations that I’m not touching, that Seth isn’t touching, that Scoble or Kawasaki or whoever the heck you want to put in the *.person.who.should.join.the.conversation should be touching. But is that really the goal? Or is the goal to fish where your fish are, to do what you plan to do, and to do it well?”

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments please share below.