Get control of your social media self with infographics

After years of spent effort, at last, a potion to control social media.
Now, I am ready to blog!

Social media is a conversation. Like any interaction, conversation relies on listening more than speaking. Social media. Connect. Social media infographics. Present a picture, with less words.

Social media is a commitment. Like any relationship, commitment relies on engaging not overwhelming. Infographics.

To get control of your social media self there are options and tools to listen, learn, apply, reflect, and manage social media infographics. Comfortably.

If anyone tells you they are a social media expert, the reality is there is no social media expert.

There are, however, people that commit to personal and professional lifelong learning with career-boosting benefits.

Those transparent about their lifelong learning tend to manage their social media identity and commit to support others in a virtuous giving, learning, providing, receiving cycle.

What does social media bring me? The very real and tangible social media:

• I interact with people around the world who are now friends, peers, mentors, and protagonists;
• I have forums to learn and discover more about my work, profession, passion, insight, and industries;
• I have community sources to curate information as a source for learning and development; and
• I have grown in areas I did not know I knew, let alone thought I knew I knew

Control Thyself

How to get control of your social media self is a topic that, for some, seems to mean there is a set of rules, or a prescription to follow, that will make it easy and deliver instant results, fame, and fortune.

Well, like losing weight or learning a skill, happily, there are no social media shortcuts.

There are however, lessons to learn and there are ways to accelerate how to do things. Not only from pioneers in the field committed to learn and share, but people at various stages of starting and learning themselves.

I am, in no way, an expert.

I have designed and delivered social media training for people and organizations. The objective is to help others gain confidence with practical, tactical steps. Other posts include those training presentations they may help you before, after, or instead of this one:

• How to launch and to manage your social media identity
• Rapid learning to manage social media in an Agile world
• New communication and engagement methods from social media’s shifting role on professionals

What helps the journey? Long before my social media start in 1999, I committed to lifelong learning. This commitment continues to excite me for what I will and can learn and who I learn from.

The reality is the more I continue to learn, the more I continue to learn.

Reply Hazy, Try Again

The biggest hangup people have with social media many times come from those who prefer to control relationships and control conversations. People with these behaviors attempt to control through this lens, or blind spot.

Controlling behaviors offline, very often, translate to actions, practices, and behaviors that try to control social media behaviors of others, online:

• Overbearing dictators,
• who lecture to others,
• dominate conversations,
• interrupt discussions,
• refuse to listen,
• demand hierarchy or power play (bullies) relationships, and
• exhibit passive/aggressive or aggressive/aggressive tactics.

These tactics fail in social media as they do in life.

One big difference with social media:  transparency.

When you exhibit repellent behaviors to others, behind closed doors, on the telephone, at work, in a meeting, no record of your bullying and abuse may exist. In social media the abuse remains as a digital fingerprint of your true character.

That is transparency. Transparency may cause some to fear social media.

Social Media Infographics

So, what’s in in for you? Learning.

People learn in various ways. That demands various channels to learn. Some prefer to learn by doing, some by hearing, some by seeing.

Visual learners prefer sequential or spatial information and data:

• Those who like to read text, word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence prefer sequential
• Those who like illustration, graphics, charts, flow diagrams, pictures, as analogous structures prefer spatial

Few people are 100% sequential or spatial. Content that combines both sequential and spatial information is most effective to convey and engage.

This post will focus on spatial preference sources to begin to sketch out your social media, content creation objectives.

Links for those who like further context to justify, validate, and source or are, happily, curious

First infographic on the list – select to open in new window to view or download.
source: TopDogSocialMedia.com

Function Over Form

Inbound marketing is a Web 2.0, technology shift. Make little no mistake Web 2.0 technology enables Web 2.0, engagement function.

Web 2.0 is about systems that harness collective intelligence. Tim O’Reilly

For those who prefer visual learning through process charts, checklists, and images, these infographics are good spatial resources. Below is a short list of infographics to launch and manage your social media presence and create content now.

Infographic links will each open in a new window:

1. 5 Step Content Marketing Checklist
2. Creating Good Social Content
3. A Quick Reference Guide to Content Creation
4. Content Marketing Matrix
5. Tips to create an effective email template … header to footer
6. 5 Steps to Make Your Social Content Great
7. Should I Gate Content [Flowchart]
8. Sample Social Media Plan for Events
9. Creating Valuable Content – A Step-by-Step Checklist
10. Sensible Blogging Checklist
11. How to Analyze Your Marketing in HubSpot [interactive .pdf]

I recommend you assemble a custom, learning kit, with items that work for you.

Bookmark items you like.

Subscribe to the people who inspire you.

Be curious.

If you have any other recommendations that the above, please provide them in the comments for me and others. There is a lot of great stuff out there and this is, by no means, a complete list.

Practice with your infographics, checklists, and blogs samples to create content, now.

2016 update: Best Times to Post to Social Networks