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Everything, today tells you that you need to listen and listen more to people online. In addition, we keep hearing that we need a presence on a regular basis on social media. These statements are both true, but we also need to do more asking. I am not talking about selling here. I am talking about asking.
People want to by nature tell their success story or share a particular incident where they overcame obstacles and achieved success. We as readers and listeners want to hear about these experiences, but too many times we are afraid to ask for this information.
I think the next part for me on social media is to take engagement to a new level and really ask the right questions of people. Here are some examples of recent discussions I have had online.
- Is it just me or is there a resurgence in activity on Google+ – I asked this question on Twitter and received several responses affirming my intuition that Google+ is getting better and gaining more popularity.
- Are we out of a drought in this part of the country? – I posted this question on the Midwest Labs Facebook Company Page and received some mixed reactions. All, good information and it helps me gain a better perspective of who actually reads our information and who doesn’t.
- Social Media ROI – Are you seeing a return on your investment in social media? Posted this question on Linkedin and received some comments and a couple of phone calls from people who saw this post and wanted more information on this topic.
Asking for people’s input will be the next wave of communication on social media. You used to be able to go to Linkedin Answers and post questions. That functionality has been removed. I used to use Linkedin Answers to post various business questions and I received some helpful information. Quora is another place to go to where people can view and answer questions.
I guess for me, it comes down to “Asking Questions” is becoming a part of who I am on social media. I don’t need to go to a particular site to do this. I need to do this as a part of myself trying to learn new ideas. If you look at it this way, you will see that “asking questions” really is a part of engaging, learning and gaining new followers. It is definitely something to incorporate into your own social media plan. You will see results from these efforts and you will learn in the process.
