Try A Little Social Media In 2008
Make a resolution: Try participating in social media next year. While your site remains important, your visitors aren’t only finding you through typical search engines. There’s definitely enough audience ready to discover you and search for more through social connections.
Why bother? “The Internet lets all stuff fall apart in really useful ways” says David Weinberger, the author of Content Is Miscellaneous.
Your success depends on thinking more like Weinberger. All your stuff has already fallen apart, when people find you on search engines. When your content gets further disaggregated and shared through social media, there are additional social search opportunities.
Publishing 2.0 created this visual to describe challenges that print publishers face when they go online. Replace “print” with “site,” and it’s an apt metaphor for all web publishers:
We all battle against other destinations that appeal to common readers and interests, and need to reach out behind our domains. Thus the opportunities to link or distribute your web content should be on your agenda.
Consider all the places where you’d like to be found and consumed. For next year, look at your visitors who blog or communicate on Facebook/MySpace. Decide how to engage and share content via containers, widgets and places where they live online.
My gentle resolution doesn’t mean you have to change your business models — only include social media in your mix.