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Tribes, Social Media, and Shah Rukh Khan: A Brief Case Study

The Indian film superstar Shah Rukh Khan (also known as SRK) has a huge tribe of fans and has been dubbed the "Baadshah of Bollywood." His fan base goes beyond India - can be found in throughout the world. By some estimates he has more than a billion fans (and counting).

Seth Godin might label his fans a Tribe. According to Godin, 

“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” 

Social media offers gives tribe members a seemingly direct connection to their leader, their inspiration, their power source. When the leader posts something in social media, the tribe takes notice, shares the information, and responds.

SRK's online tribe is fairly extensive. It includes the Bollywood press and marketers, the brands he holds - such as Red Chillies Entertainment and Kolkata Knight Riders, Brand-SRK. It extends to fan clubs around the world and individuals. Fans of Shah Rukh Khan often refer to themselves as "SRKians" and each claims to be SRK's biggest fan. Perform a search on any social media site for #SRK or "Shah Rukh Khan" and you will be astounded at the breadth of different tribe members out there.

Perhaps one reason SRK's tribe is so large is that he has respect for his tribe and the power his tribe gives him. In an Hindustan Times interview, he explained,

"You know, there is a story I have heard: a person was walking and somebody turned to him and said, ‘See how much power you have. You are walking in front and thousands of people are walking behind you.’ And as soon as he said that, the leader replied, ‘That’s not power. Power is not the ability to lead people, but to take them along.’ So he went to the end of the line and said, ‘Let everyone walk ahead and I will look after them from the back.’ That’s what power is. "

For his latest film, Chennai Express (released worldwide on August 8), SRK connected with his tribe via multiple social media channels - encouraging his fans to see the film and share in the fun. His fans eagerly obliged, enthusiastically sharing news and content related to the film as soon as it became available.

Besides periodically posting teaser trailers and item numbers from the upcoming film on youtube - something that has become standard practice for most films - additional online connections and content were made available. This included:

• Livestreaming

  • The Chennai Express music launch was livestreamed (and recorded) a month before the film was released.

  • On August 14, SRK and director Rohit Shetty participated in a Facebook live video chat based on question submitted via Facebook #hashtags.

• Extra Video Content. Several special videos featuring SRK and Chennai Express were posted, including: 

  • Shah Rukh Khan Teaches You How to be a Superstar (posted July 10) which is a humorous take on the life of a film superstar.

  • Lungi Dance - Full Video Song - "Chennai Express" (2013) Honey Singh "Shahrukh Khan" Deepika (posted July 29) which is a musical tribute to Rajinikanth, a Tamil film superstar.

  • Bollywood's Ultimate Romantic Hero - Rahul - Shah Rukh Khan (posted August 13) which features clips from previous SRK films and encourages people to fall in love with "Rahul" all over again as they watch Chennai Express.

  • SRK and Rohit Shetty visited several movie theaters showing Chennai Express shortly after its release and recorded snippets of the fun fan frenzy which were posted online.

• Twitter: 

  • Shah Rukh Khan, who had taken a hiatus from Twitter, started to tweet again along with Deepika Padukone and ChennaiExp2013. However, SRK's tweets weren't so much about Chennai Express. SRK's tweets tend to be more philosophical and reflective, focusing on his life, musings of the moment, and his family. 

  • Twitter India and ZipDial set up a collaborative service to allow everyone in India to follow and engage the superstar on Twitter via SMS.

  • While the main Twitter hashtag used for the film was #ChennaiExpress, several hashtags were added for special promotions such as #FamilyExpress #RohitShettyExpress #NumberOneExpress #ChennaiExpressWeekend and #CommonManExpress, among others.

Breaking News : #ChennaiExpress is Trending on Top Worldwide on Twitter pic.twitter.com/KfOgtuZyuK

— Bollywood 24x7 (@B24x7Official) August 8, 2013

• Contests. 

  • A contest was held as part of the Chennai Express Karaoke App launch. The winner would have the opportunity to meet Shah Rukh Khan in person in Mumbai. However, with the SRKian tribe covering the globe, the winner ended up being Bindia Patel from Texas, so SRK had resort to congratulating her via video on Facebook.

  • The #FamilyExpress contest was held the weekend of August 23-25 and SRK invited his social media fans to see the film again. For those who sent in photos of the ticket stubs and their families, he would make a short video. While there was a large response, SRK followed through on making the videos. You can view Shah Rukh Khan with the Dooleys here.

• Fan Generated Content. Fan-made artwork made the rounds. Polls were taken as to who is the greatest Bollywood star ever, SRK or [add name here]. People were encouraged to show their love for SRK by sharing photos of the star. While some content came from Chennai Express, a great deal of content also came from other sources.  Fans find and post photos from SRK's films, photo shoots, and personal life. Youtube.com has a plethora of film and video snippets about SRK. There is also a thriving PlanetSRK community forum where members share stories and answer questions about SRK's films and his life.

• Multiple Channels. Just as there are multiple profiles, pages, and groups on Facebook and Twitter, there are quite a few profiles, pages, posts, and boards about SRK on Google+, Pinterest and other social media sites - not to mention mainstream news and blogging sites. It is no wonder that SRK won the IIFA Digital Star of the Year Award in 2013.

Of course, SRK's in person visits also helped to fuel the enthusiasm of his tribe to push Chennai Express into the "400 crore club" to become the highest grossing Bollywood film ever.

It will be interesting to see how the SRK tribes sustain enthusiasm through this upcoming year as his next film, Happy New Year, is not scheduled for release until the latter part of 2014. 

UPDATE 22 October 2013: 

The 2013 Social Media Leadership Awards today announced finalists, among which are notable brands and organizations on the forefront of social media.

Proud to announce : Chennai Express Digital Campaign @ChennaiExp2013 & Humble Me chosen as finalists at SMLA awards http://t.co/7aCU8zhJNa

— Shailja Gupta (@Shailja) October 23, 2013

Find out more:

• From Chennai Express to "Record Breaking Express": A spot-on social media strategy for extended reach
• Social media strategy that significantly increased social reach and buzz, contributing to the success of "Chennai Express"

UPDATE 31 October 2013:

• CASE STUDY: The Role of Digital Marketing & Social Media in the Phenomenal Success of Chennai Express

 Update 13 December 2013:

• The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania honours SRK's Chennai Express

Update 25 January 2013:

• Filmfare 2014: Shahrukh’s Chennai Express Bags Sony Trendsetter of the Year Award

Update 9 February 2013:

• Zee Cine Awards 2014: Shahrukh Khan’s Chennai Express Bags Best Marketed Film of the Year

5 Things to Think About Before Launching Multiple Twitter Accounts

In a recent Twitter training session, I was asked if people should create two accounts - one for personal use and one for professional use. 

My initial response was mixed. For someone new to Twitter, I am inclined to encourage them to get up-to-speed with one Twitter account before trying to manage more. However, if you have multiple reasons for using Twitter that don't fit neatly into one account, it makes sense to consider setting up multiple accounts.

Before going this route you should consider five key factors to keep in mind when launching any Twitter presence:

1. Building Your Listening Post

Creating twitter account that is useful to you requires that you spend the time to identify and follow people who post tweets you want to read. You can segment your audience by having multiple Twitter accounts or you can set up one account and segment by leveraging Twitter Lists or tools like Paper.li.

2. Establishing Your Voice

What kind of information do you want to share? What do you want to say? What original resources (blogs, infographics, videos, powerpoints) do you plan to provide about a specific topic? How does what you have to say reflect on your brand? Does your organization have social media policies that provide guidance to employees in the social media space? You can set up different accounts to reflect your different voices or set up one account describing what you tweet about. If what you have to say is vastly different 

3. Building Your Community

The idea "if you build it, they will come" only works on Twitter if you are some type of celebrity or tweet about really useful content on a consistent basis. Just because you set up a Twitter account doesn't mean you'll get the right followers. While Twitter is an easy online tool to set up, make sure you are willing to participate in the online conversation. Just like growing a garden, you need to spend the time to feed and build the community.  If you set up more than one Twitter account, assume you'll have to spend that much more time to build community around each.

4. Managing Your Accounts

Each Twitter account requires a unique email address. So, if you manage multiple Twitter accounts, you will need to setup and manage multiple email accounts as well. You will also want to select an easy-to-remember username for your Twitter account that reflects you, your brand, or the content you are tweeting about.

If you are working with multiple Twitter accounts you may also want to leverage some online tools to help you manage them. Here are two to start with:

• Twitterfeed.com will automatically feed your blog posts to your Twitter account and provides some configuration on how those feeds are posted.
• Hootsuite.com can help you manage multiple twitter accounts by providing a URL shortener, ability to schedule tweets, and analytics. There are also a number add-ons to expand this management suite of tools.

Finally, you will want to identify milestones to analyze the success of your account - growth rate of follows, retweets, clickthroughs, follower type, etc. On the issue of follow-to-folllower ratio, it is best to have your followers number close to or higher than the number of accounts you follow. This will help you avoid the dreaded 2000 follow limit.

5. Developing a Strategy that Considers Other Social Media Platforms

While this is listed last, you should begin developing your strategy first. And be prepared to modify your strategy as your online presence evolves.

You should being by acknowledging that Twitter should be just one of your tools in your online communications strategy.

Before you you jump into any social network, consider your audience: Who are you trying to reach? What social networks are they most likely to already be using? What do you want them to do? Are there existing social networks you can feed content to? Facebook (the largest social network out there), LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest are all viable platforms for communicating your message. And don't forget the opportunity to leverage email, the first online social network. 

Once you consider these five points, the decision on whether you set up one Twitter account or several is up to you. Just make sure you have a strategy in place for long-term participation in the online conversation so that your account(s) don't go fallow.

Did You Know? LinkedIn Mentions

We're excited to introduce ability to mention your connections & companies in conversations on LinkedIn. linkd.in/Xg5SVr

— LinkedIn (@LinkedIn) April 4, 2013

In April, LinkedIn announced that you can now mention connections and companies in your updates using the "@" prefix.

This is a feature that was introduced by Twitter as a way to reply to or mention another user on the social network. In 2009, Facebook introduced a similar tagging feature using the "@" sign.

Here's how it works: Type the "@" sign before you begin typing the name of the person or company you want to mention. A drop-down will appear highlighting those in your connections which meet the criteria of the name you are entering. As you continue typing, the drop-down menu will update to provide you a better list of relevant connections. You can continue typing out the whole name or leverage the drop-down menu shortcut by clicking on the relevant connection.

Once the name is selected, it will have a gray background to indicate that it is a mention.

When you "Share" your update, the mention will become a link with a dotted underline, it will link to the company's page, and the link will enable a tool-tip pop-up to appear with summary information about the company.

Pretty neat, huh? A word of warning, though. Make sure you select a connection from the drop-down menu when using the @ prefix. If you don't select from that menu, the post may interpret the @Name as a Twitter username (and will link you to Twitter. So, if I hadn't selected "World Resources Institute" from the drop down, the update would have interpreted the mention as "@World Resources Institute" and the link would have taken me to user "world" on Twitter.

According to LinkedIn, this feature enables you to connect with a broader range of LinkedIn users - 

In addition to first-degree connections, you can also mention other LinkedIn members engaged in conversations in the comment sections of posts on the LinkedIn Homepage. Mentions will make it easier for you to start conversations with your network while also enabling you to respond in real-time when someone begins a conversation with you.

You can find more information about this feature on LinkedIn's blog.

 

Related Tweets

What do you think about this Facebook-style @ mention capability for LinkedIn updates? hub.am/Xq5aF7 via @thenextweb

— HubSpot (@HubSpot) April 10, 2013

 

LinkedIn Adds Twitter-Like Mention Feature To Boost Engagement trib.al/iQotz26

— Fast Company (@FastCompany) April 5, 2013

 

Why the Twitter Decoupling from LinkedIn Just Made My Life Easier

With a weekend of a derecho storm and a leap second that sent several online sites into a tizzy, I was suddenly also faced with the prospect of having to work harder at sharing online. But it seems to be quite the opposite.

 

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It was a wild weekend for many

Like many of my colleagues who use social media as a main source of interaction, I was deeply dismayed when it was announced on June 29 that Twitter would unlink from LinkedIn on June 30.

As I opened my LinkedIn home page that Saturday, it was as if the derecho had blown away all the interesting updates coming from my colleagues.

June 29 derecho took down powerlines with a tree in my neighborhood. Power outages continue for many in the community.

Sure, it was interesting that Person-A connected with Person-B, Person-C and also Person-D on my LinkedIn home page.

But a whole page of that? Phooey.

I missed the real content: the news I got from people's twitter feeds.

Afer the decoupling, I discovered sites that claimed they had ways to work around this decoupling - but did I really want to invest in managing another posting tool right now? And even when I tried some of these tools I was unsuccessful in implementing them as LinkedIn was experiencing down time due to the addition of a leap second to our clock.

How to calibrate a leap second on a standard clock.

Now, one thing that LinkedIn's Ryan Roslansky did say in his blog post was that while we couldn't feed our Twitter updates through Linkedin, we could still continue to share updates on both LinkedIn and Twitter by reversing the process.

Initiate the conversation on LinkedIn. Simply compose your update, check the box with the Twitter icon, and click “Share.” This will automatically push your update to both your LinkedIn connections and your Twitter followers just as you’ve been able to do previously.

I was a bit hesitant to try this method because:

• Fear of multiplex postings: I've discovered that when you feed one social media update stream to another social media network, you need to make sure you aren't creating an update loop of multiple postings of the same content (yes, I've been guilty of this). I already have give-and-take posting relationship established between Twitter and Facebook - whichever of these two I post on first is set up to migrate to the other network. What havoc would be wreaked by adding LinkedIn to this interactive equation?

• Lack of interaction with existing communities. I need to make sure I'm not just feeding updates to my social networks, but am really listening to and engaging with my community online. How would this triple-posting impact that?

 

How the LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook posting works

My strong belief in embracing change with a big bearhug overtook my hesitation and I jumped in.

I posted an update on LinkedIn - and here are the updates that were generated:

 

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STEP 1: LINKEDIN. Making sure Twitter sharing box is checked, post update on LinkedIn. Note: The checkbox will default to the setting of your last post, so make sure you have it checked or unchecked accordingly for each post.

 

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STEP 2: TWITTER. LinkedIn update posts to Twitter. While the shortened link looks like you will go to LinkedIn, the link actually takes you to the original article through a redirect from LinkedIn. 

 

 

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STEP 3. FACEBOOK. Autopost from Facebook to Twitter. If your Twitter feed is set up to autopost on Facebook (you can set this up through Twitter Settings > Profile), you get a nicely formatted update, graphic and all. This time the link to the original article is a Twitter-shortened URL which leads to the URL (though the LinkedIn redirect is used in the story).

 

To other posts, I've also tried adding @profiles and #hashtags to the post title - they do carry over to Twitter and to the Facebook status line (rather than the title which is pulled from the story link).

One downside of this is that you can't control what graphic or text gets posted over to Facebook. So if you do care about how a particular link is posted, you might want to hide from your Facebook timeline then repost the link by hand. You could also decouple posts from Twitter-to-Facebook and just do posts from Facebook-to-Twitter.

Tracking all of this in terms of metrics for posts from your blog/website may get complicated unless you use some kind of campaign tracking code such as that leveraged by Google Analytics. Because you are passing the link through multiple URL shorteners, it may be worth revising the Google Analytics campaign code a bit:

• utm_campaign=LinkedIn-Twitter-Facebook
• utm_source (don't include as it will be generated via the URL shortener)
• utm_medium=LauraLeeDooley (name of poster)
• utm_content (optional)
• utm_term (optional)

Why does this Twitter-LinkedIn decoupling make my life easier?

• It encourages me to spend less time on posting and more time on listening. Reversing the Twitter-to-LinkedIn connection to LinkedIn-to-Twitter allows me to post once and reach three networks. Yes, it is important to have a conversation with your audience on social networks, but sometimes you have something to share that you want to get out to as many of your touchpoints as possible. Making LinkedIn a resource that enables you to post to Twitter and Facebook for those posts you want to share via all three networks cuts down on the time needed to craft each posting. This gives me more time to "listen" to what others are saying.

• It facilitates more engagement with LinkedIn connections. While I am constantly posting content to Twitter and LinkedIn, I have found it more difficult to actively and thoughtfully post content to LinkedIn beyond the group that I manage. This forces me to take the opportunity to craft posts that meet that are more engaging and targeted at my audience on LinkedIn, with the added benefit of also posting to Twitter and Facebook.

• It decouples all Twitter/Facebook posts from LinkedIn. Sometimes I want to post something that might not be as relevant for my community on LinkedIn. So I can target Twitter and Facebook with these humorous or off-topic posts without carrying over to my professional network of LinkedIn.

• It has the potential to increase my Twitter following. I've reached the 2,000 Twitter following limit and have been working to build my followers to be able to get over that hump. While Twitter has decoupled from LinkedIn, LinkedIn has not removed the "Follow @Twittername" button on individual profiles. Since updates will now be crafted for the LinkedIn community, if people are interested in my posts they may have more interest in connecting via Twitter (since they won't automagically get my twitterfeed via LinkedIn). While not a proven theory, this is definitely something to monitor.

All of this is based on connecting your personal profiles together. You have to hand-post content to any Company and Group page you maintain. 

What are your thoughts on the Twitter-LinkedIn decoupling?

#140Conf NYC- Day One

Live tweets from this conference - watch live on ustream.

 

Networked Nonprofits: "I've Found My Free Agent - Now What?" (#11NTCfa)

According to Beth Kanter, there are two different types of nonprofits:

• Fortressed Nonprofits. These type of organizations try to maintain total control of medium, message, spokespeople. They limit their audiences to a small of constituents identified by the organization. And they don't necessarily get social media.

Fortressed organizations. Source: Rob Cottingham.

• Networked Nonprofits. Consider everyone inside and outside of the organization resources for helping them to achieve their goals.

Beth believes nonprofits can unleash the power of social good by transitioning from stand-alone fortressed institutions to networks energized by abundant resources in their ecosystem. In order to do this, they need to work with free agents.

Free agents are individuals working outside of organizations to organize, mobilize, raise funds, and communicate with constituents. They are hyper-connected people passionate about social change without being an employee of the organization(s) they support.  Free agents use social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and can create social movements in the palms of their hands.

Leading a session at the annual NonProfits and Technology Conference, Beth brought together organization representatives who had learned first-hand the opportunities and challenges of working with free agents.

The relationship between the organization and free agents is sort of like marriage. The partnership has to be mutually beneficial and not coercive. Important characteristics of this partnership includes:

• Trust. Free agents must be worth trusting and able to support in mutually beneficial ways.
• Transparency. Trust and honesty are important for organizations to have to make the relationship work. It is important to build a relationship that doesn’t change based on what free agents do.
• Empathy. Organizations and free agents need to understand each others’ motives.
• Enthusiasm. This helps to sell a concept.

In thinking about "economy" between organizations and free agents, both have to get value from relationship. What's valuable for your free agents?

Free agents like Shawn Ahmed (@uncultured) are promiscuous for good!
Free Agent. Source; Rob Cottingham.

To take this metaphor a bit further, Beth set up her panelists as “couples” in a newlywed game format

First couple - Kat Johnson (100KHomes) and Mark Horvath (Free agent and founder of @invisiblepeople.tv)

Kat and Mark were aware of each other’s existence via Twitter; they met in person when Mark interviewed the Executive Director of 100k homes. Mark describes free agents as "the marketing plan that the organization can’t afford. They want to help you tell your story, and they are connected with stakeholders you would otherwise not reach." When asked, "How do you resolve conflict?", they responded "You commit and work through it." Mark explained, “The worst thing you can do to me is censor me. Free agents share goals and won't intentionally hurt the organization." Based on their experience working together, Kat and Mark believe that organizations need to empower free agents. "Take a leap of faith. Encourage your staff...create Evangelists." said Mark. It helps if the organization is ready to reach out and embrace the free agent. Kat said, "I am lucky to work for a director of a campaign...that is willing to take risks."  Mark added that organizations are good at "navigating his passions" to focus his agenting.

The Newlywed Game! Beth Kanter with Kat Johnson (100KHomes) and Mark Horvath discuss the relationship between organizations and free agents. Source: Michael Dougherty

Second couple (triple?) – Ettore Rossetti (Save the Children) and Matt Morgan (Red Cross) and Shawn Ahmed (Free agent @uncultured)

Shawn describes himself as a "Former Notre Dame grad student who dropped everything to start an unplanned, unexpected, & 'uncultured' journey to help the poor." He heard good things about Save the Children, so he investigated and liked their work so much he sought out ways to promote the organization. "A free agent is a bridge maker for nonprofits," explained Shawn. "American people want to KNOW who they are giving money to." He added, "The last aspect of bridge making is bridging cultures." To demonstrate, he showed the following video about "The Boy Who Lived."

Free agents at work. VIDEO of community efforts – The Boy Who Lived.

Ettore added, "The moral of the story is the connection to Shawn  (a free agent) has opened the door to other supporters."  Save the Children considers some free agents "citizen journalists", thus precedent for paying for travel - so other organizations may want to consider free agents as citizen journalist, citizen or philanthropist to be able to afford to bring them to events/efforts. Shawn explained, "To move a volunteer to a Free Agent means to move them from single activity to multiple activities."  Ettore's suggested, “If you work for an nonprofit organization, discover the free agent experience by being one for your own organization.”

One of the concerns that many organizations worry about when opening themselves up to social media is negative publicity. Panelists recommended that if there is someone out there speaking against you, bring them on the team. Embrace them. Turn them from an enemy into an ally by listening and responding.

Finally, one untapped resource of free agents for many NGOs is the whole blogging community. What should you do with a potential blogger? Engage them to see if there is a fit because they are going to talk about you anyway.

Posterboard of discussion by Jonny Goldstein, envisualize. Source: Michael Dougherty.

#11NTC Raw - Mixing Business and Pleasure: Managing Your Personal and Professional Brand in Social Media (11NTCbrand)

DESCRIPTION:

Who are you and how do you represent yourself online? As our personal and professional lives blend together, how can you shape your own brand online and reconcile it with your organization's brand? As the communications landscape changes, every staff member serves as the organization's spokesperson, not just the executive director or board chair. How you and your colleagues use social media can greatly impact your organization's reputation with key stakeholders. In this workshop, a panel of nonprofit leaders will share how they manage their own brands online--including helpful tips and tools you can put in to practice immediately.

Session Takeaways:

1. Understanding how the online "you" may or may not differ from the offline/real "you" and your organization
2. Development of a personal positioning statement (or big idea)
3. Guidelines you might set for your organization to help set policies for everyone who works for (and therefore represents) you online

Personal+ Professional Brand in Social Media - Trompeter

View more presentations from Farra Trompeter, Big Duck

Tweets re House Energy & Commerce Hearing to Examine Climate Science, EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulations

Press release from http://energycommerce.house.gov - The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), will hold a hearing on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Climate Science and EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulations.” Full Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Whitfield have joined Democratic leaders in the U.S. House in authoring the Energy Tax Prevention Act (H.R. 910), a bill to block EPA’s controversial backdoor climate change agenda that would further drive up the price of energy for American consumers and job creators at a time when gas prices are already spiking and job creation remains weak.

Following EPA Clean Air Act Hearing on Hill

(Updated: 5:34pm; Feb 9, 2011) I wanted to test what was involved in capturing a large conversation from a number of different twitter accounts on a broad issue. So, today I used Cover It Live to find out. View the results:

Watch Webcast of Hill Hearing LIVE

Mistletoe and Social Media

Ancient Greeks felt mistletoe bestowed fertility. Scandinavians believed it brought peace. The English believed kissing under the mistletoe indicated deep romance, friendship or goodwill. Social media provides all these benefits.

Norman Rockwell's Cousin Reginald Under the Mistletoe (1917) Copyright © 1917 The Country Gentleman and Curtis Publishing Company

When the holidays come, the threat of getting caught under the mistletoe is a reminder that not everyone is comfortable with all forms of social intercourse.

This may be a key reason it is often difficult to convince colleagues that they should get on social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

No matter how valuable you may find these networks you may have difficulty convincing skeptics of the value of sharing online and connecting with their colleagues, friends and acquaintances in public forums.

Often, it is not until people see the success of social media that they begin understanding the benefits of active participation in social media.

• Social media is a fertile place to create connections. By virtue of just being on social media you will grow a following of people and connect with those who are interested in the same things you are interested in. And you don’t require an email or street address to share resources with these connections. Metrics: Growth of followers, fans, friends.

• Social media deepens existing relationships. By sharing your professional and personal life via social media others learn more about your personality and what is important in your life. Ultimately, this shared information builds connections with others that cannot be created through formal settings. Metrics: Conversations, comments and feedback via social media.

• Social media helps you identify your audiences. While we often feel we know our target audiences, social media enables audiences to self identify. And we can identify people’s background and interests. Furthermore, you can identify the multiple connections others have with you to determine who is most strongly connected with you (and why!). Metrics: Short biosketches about key audience members that are connected to you.

So next time you have a conversation about social media with a skeptic, consider providing these tips and metrics about your social media experience. This might encourage them to “pucker-up”.