The INOV8 blog tracks the latest news and trends in technology and innovation throughout the world
Entrepreneurs and social media — a match made in Heaven, right?
Absolutely right, say the folks at Mashable, who point out the ways in which social media can enable entrepreneurs to connect with other startups, find local events and simply get their name out.
Here’s an excerpt:
A few months ago, Twitter launched a feature called “Lists,” which gave users the power to create lists of their favorite users. Many have used this to create Twitter lists of top entrepreneurs and startup founders.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by innovateAR: INOV8 blog: Entrepreneurs and Social Media http://bit.ly/8t9kZ4…
Mashable is great.
Huffingtonpost had a great list of “ultimate game changers”, and mashable was featured:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/huffpost-game-changers-yo_b_363624.html
Matt,
I live in the Internet space as an entrepreneur 24/7 and I can’t say enough about social media. The only issue is that while the platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc…) are free there is a considerable cost in time and labor in executing your business’ social media plan. So make sure you are using your time wisely. But it is worth losing some sleep over. And a word of caution, we’ve seen several businesses step out into social media and make mistakes that harm their brand more than help it.
All things equal, I think the best places for entrepreneurs to be in social media are Twitter and LinkedIn. But please remember, on these platforms people don’t want to know about how your day is going or if your children sleep walk. They want you to add value to the ongoing conversation. Ask yourself, do you read, watch and know things others would like to see if they knew about? Tweet that. Participate in LinkedIn discussions, not from a sales perspective, but actually offer value/help – no strings attached.
If nothing else, use social media as a resource for yourself. Since I am high on it right now I want to pass along this video I watched on YouTube. It is from the Stanford MBA program (the founders of Google are alumni). Jim Goetz, a partner at super VC Sequoia Capital, presents on how to think through issues in your business plan if you want to raise investment capital… http://bit.ly/79O5eu. This is the best stuff I’ve ever seen on the topic.