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Marietta, OH

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Social Media Confessions of a Veteran Beginner

January 31, 2011 by Margie Clayman 14 Comments

This second fabulous post for the series is by Dawn Westerberg. Based in Austin, Texas, Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC serves companies from coast to coast and border to border. Dawn Westerberg is the president of Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC. An Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, she invites business owners to “Fall in Love with Your Business Again” through sound marketing strategy.

I have a series on my blog called Twitter for Beginners. As I write this post, I’ve got 15 installments in the series. When I posted Part 14, I got a tweet from an acquaintance who asked “If you’re on Part 14 are you really still a beginner?”

In all honesty, I’d have to say yes.

It was two years ago that I really began practicing social media. Prior to that I had seen it, heard about it, and was only registered with LinkedIn. I viewed LinkedIn as the ultimate contact management system with the great advantage of putting the onus of updating contact information on the contacts themselves – a truly great way to stay in touch with all you colleagues past and present. LinkedIn holds vastly more potential than the initial benefit that I saw in it – and that’s part of the reason that, in all social media platforms, I would describe myself as a veteran beginner. With every facet that you master, several new uses emerge.

The next realm I entered was Twitter. I was introduced to Twitter at a conference and several friends gave me a crash course and showed me how to utilize hash tags to see what other attendees were saying about the conference. I was hooked. A year later I was asked to speak on Social Media at that very same conference. I’ve learned so much more since that speaking gig, that it seems to me, I’m still a veteran beginner.

In my early days with Twitter, the more I toyed with it, the more I seemed behind the game and unable to get any critical mass. I seemed pretty stagnant at about 200 followers. I didn’t feel like I was really connecting. I would look at folks that had thousands of followers and wonder what I was doing wrong.

Let me break here and make a quick analogy – Twitter is a lot like XM radio, which I’ve got in my car. At first it was a little overwhelming. Of all the choices, how do you decide what to tune in to? One sunny Austin day, I sat out in my car with the XM station listing in hand and set about programming all of my radio buttons. First, I had to put down the listing and refer to the Honda’s owner’s manual to figure out how to program the buttons. Then, painstakingly, I read through the list and selected channels that I thought would be of interest to me.
How does this relate to Twitter? It’s kind of the same exercise – you need to plug into things that attract people with similar interests. Things started to move for me when I started to participate in Twitter chats. I started to utilize Twitter lists and used Tweetdeck to keep multiple lists open. Between chats and being a more responsive and encouraging follower, the needle started to move. I also thank people for retweeting my links and tweets. Today, I am well over 3,000 followers. I follow most of the people that follow me.

I have various tribes on Twitter. I’ve got my sports tribes – which I connect to via hashtags, e.g. #Longhorns, #Cowboys, etc. I’ve got my chat tribes – #tweetdiner, #imcchat, #blogchat, etc. I have friends that I check in on regularly via my lists.

The next frontier for me will be Facebook. I participate daily (Tweetdeck allows you to keep a column open on your Facebook and LinkedIn feeds, so that’s a big help) but I know that I am not as proficient on Facebook as I am on Twitter. My goal for 2011 is to become more knowledgeable and active on Facebook.

There are many more platforms than just LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (and I hope to explore more of them soon) but here’s how I differentiate the three (something I shared at a recent #tweetdiner chat): LinkedIn is a business network for me. Facebook is a collection of friends, family and friendly business associates. Twitter is more of an open house. Twitter, for me, is relaxed. It’s also a place for learning, sharing, asking questions – it’s raucous, educational and fun. In contrast, with Facebook and LinkedIn, I am very selective with whom I connect and the tone and frequency of communication is different.

In closing I’d like to share what has been the reward of persevering with Twitter:

1. Great friends. I have met some incredibly wonderful and generous and encouraging people on Twitter. In a couple of weeks, I will meet in person for the first time, someone I have had as a Twitter friend since my early days.

2. Collaborators. As my business has grown, I’ve had the need for outside help. My intern, a press release guru, and a copywriter/designer have all made money and helped me tremendously – all of whom I met through Twitter.

3. Education. I have learned so much about blogging and marketing and the industries that my clients serve through Twitter. Without Twitter, my learning curve would have been slower and less productive.

4. New business. I have actually made money as a result of businesses getting to me via Twitter.

5. Thrills. I’ve had authors I admire and who are active on Twitter comment on my blog!

6. An opportunity to give back. Through Twitter I’ve been able to help and encourage people. In that small way, I feel better about me because I can help as others have helped me.

It has been difficult at times, frustrating at times – but the rewards, as I hope you see, have been more than worth the effort.

Image from hollrahs.com

Filed Under: Marketing Talk

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Raul Colon says

    January 31, 2011 at 9:38 am

    Great analogy on the XM radio experience. I guess the most important part of this is the value we seen in XM twitter, and other new tools.

    I am going thru the same situation on Quora just like when I started with Twitter I don’t now where to start. I am sure there is a lot of value into it.

    The title fits everyone very well since you are always learning new things and new tools in SM. Even on twitter new tools can be used you find new uses to shift how you use it. It makes it great that these tools turn to be very effective in getting what you want but you are always learning no ways on how to use them.

    Reply
    • Dawn Westerberg says

      January 31, 2011 at 12:45 pm

      Raul,

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You’re right – I think the difference between the beginner and the veteran beginner is that the beginner believes that eventually it will slow down. The veteran beginner knows that isn’t the case. 🙂

      Dawn

      Reply
  2. Corinne Edwards says

    January 31, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    Dear Dawn –

    Funny thing. I met Margie on Twitter. She just wrote a guest post for me a couple of weeks ago.

    Now I am a fan – and we are friends.

    Love your post. The whole thing is still a little bewildering to me. But I am learning along with you.

    Reply
    • Dawn Westerberg says

      January 31, 2011 at 12:47 pm

      Hi Corinne,

      A veteran beginner knows that you can learn from friends and it’s always a smoother path to learn through friends. That’s why I’m a regular at #tweetdiner – want to be there to help someone if they need it.

      Dawn

      Reply
    • Paul Flanigan says

      January 31, 2011 at 2:06 pm

      Me too! I met Margie through Brogan. One of the best connections I have made yet.

      Reply
      • Margie Clayman says

        January 31, 2011 at 9:19 pm

        Why thanks, y’all 🙂

        Reply
  3. Paul Flanigan says

    January 31, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    Wanna hear something crazy? Ok.

    I have been to dozens of conferences, spoken at several of them, traded business cards, hob-nobbed with so many people, yet Twitter has given me more business and closer relationships that all the conferences put together.

    BUT…by no means does that exemplify a proficiency. If anything, it tells me that the more I work at Twitter, the more work I get from it.

    Solid post, Dawn. Thank you, Margie, for bringing Dawn to us.

    Reply
    • Dawn Westerberg says

      January 31, 2011 at 3:52 pm

      Paul,

      Thank you for commenting and for the kind words!

      Dawn

      Reply
  4. David Overos says

    January 31, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    Love the post, Dawn. I love to hear about other people’s journeys on the Twitter trail. I’m still learning, but each day I am amazed at the power of Twitter vs. some of the other platforms. It feels like a form of martial arts where you attain a new belt only to start anew on the next one. See you in the #tweetdiner.

    Reply
  5. Suzanne Vara says

    February 1, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Dawn

    I think we are all veteran beginners as the technology changes, the way that we interact change and those that we interact with changes. It has to or social media would become stagnant. There would be no growth as we would plateau and fall out. Sure there would be new people starting but if they knew that they would achieve the highest level of expert, they will go in and be gone. So we all have to keep learning and through helping one another and also challenging one another to do better and keep making social media a strong and viable marketing/advertising strategy.

    We have all gone on a journey in social media and blogging. It is one that when we read posts like this reminds us of where we started and how we evolved. We are building communities and able to reach out to people all over the world. It is a great medium that makes us want to be there to learn, grow and share.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Social Media Confessions of a Veteran Beginner | Margie's Library of Marketing Musings and Morsels -- Topsy.com says:
    January 31, 2011 at 8:37 am

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joseph Olewitz and naomi timperley, Marjorie Clayman. Marjorie Clayman said: 2nd in the Series – @dwesterberg rocks the house w/ SoMe confessions of a veteran beginner: http://bit.ly/hLYQDT Give this a read! […]

    Reply
  2. Twitter for Beginners Part 16 – Somewhere between Super Stars and Snake Oil | Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC says:
    February 4, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    […] for a long time.  Bits of it found their way to paper as I was jotting down some thoughts for a guest post I did for @margieclayman.  More of it accumulated during a dinner conversation I was having with […]

    Reply
  3. Social Media Confessions of a Veteran Beginner | Margie's Library ... says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    Social Media Confessions of a Veteran Beginner | Margie's Library ……

    […]An Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, she invites business owners to “Fall in Love with Your Business Again” through sound marketing strategy. I have a series on my blog called Twitter for Beginners. As I write this post, … It was two ye…

    Reply
  4. Twitter for Beginners Part 16 – Somewhere between Super Stars and Snake Oil says:
    July 17, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    […] for a long time.  Bits of it found their way to paper as I was jotting down some thoughts for a guest post I did for @margieclayman.  More of it accumulated during a dinner conversation I was having with […]

    Reply

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