One of the first things I realized in my quest to conquer social media is that the way to learn is to follow those who already have conquered. After setting up the Social Nooby Twitter account, I immediately came across a Twitter guide of sorts. And the most important tip that I got from this guide was “follow the leaders in your field.” Now this seemed to me like obvious step, but I got way more out of it than I ever anticipated. You see, from following one particular social media expert – and yes, I said expert as you’ll see why in a bit – I discovered a few more incredible individuals and their blogs that I, as a budding socialist (no, not that kind) have already gained a tremendous amount from.
I had already stumbled upon Jay Baer (@jaybaer) from a Youtube clip someone had tweeted a few months ago and I find myself consistently looking out for his tweets as they are always extremely informational and enlightening. Well yesterday Jay retweeted a post from a blog called The Sales Lion entitled “The 3 Essential Qualities of a TRUE Social Media Expert.” Now I want to be a social media expert (that’s the purpose of this blog, right?) so of course I instantly went to check it out. And BAM, I was sold on this guy. Marcus Sheridan doesn’t necessarily focus on Facebook and Twitter, but more on content marketing through blogging. Now, if you read my first post, you would see that I always thought of blogging as somewhat of a lame thing my friends tried to start and quit after five posts (I’m up to two, so let’s see how I do). I downloaded his eBook and have thrown myself into his words of wisdom. Just to be clear – I am by no means a hired gun to gain publicity for this guy as he doesn’t need it. And besides that, so far my blog has had about eight or so reads, but I digress.
In order to become a social media expert, you need to see what the TRUE experts are doing. Guys like Jay and Marcus are experts and for me, following their lead is a huge step to becoming a true social media expert myself. In some sense, it reminds me of a classic saying from Ethics of the Fathers: “Let your house be a meetinghouse for the sages and sit amid the dust of their feet and drink in their words with thirst.” In the social space, your RSS, Twitter, and Facebook feeds are the houses and gather in the various sages and take their words in. Simply put – Follow the Leaders.”
