Twitter, Blogs, and E-mail — Do You Have To?

“Everyone says I need to be tweeting and blogging — Is this true? Do I have to do both? If I can only do one, which should it be?”

Does that sound like you? These questions get posed time and time again at admin panels, showcases and conferences. Oddly, sometimes these questions come from the younger set, studets and the like. Isn’t social networking and blogging supposed to be hardwired to their brains? After all, it does help land jobs, not to mention secure social contracts. Conventional wisdom dictates this anyways. Conventional wisdom can be slippery, however.

Of course, one must answer this question with another question. Very zen, yeah. So, if you are wondering if you should be tweeting, blogging and the like, answer yourself this “What would you Tweet or blog about?”

Listen. Blogging, tweeting and the like. They are just forms of publishing. Micro-publishing, sure. Unless you are writing for CNN’s blog, your words aren’t gonna be read by a macrocosm of people. Still, you are gonna need a strategy. You can’t just start babbling out any old nonsense. That’s not good for you and it’s not good for business. You must have a clearly defined and well-executed content strategy.

Remember the words of Jim Rome, the renowned sports broadcaster. He used to say in his radio show, “Have a take and don’t s*ck.” Strong words, sure, but it’s an apt way to describe a good content strategy. Know what the audience wants and provide it.

Can you deliver content that will have prospective customers reading for days and then, after that, weeks? Can you draft the kinds of newsletters and blog entries that will pique interest and get people to follow you on their RSS feeds? These are all things you must consider before entering into a social networking life.

In short, content is king, no matter what the channel. This applies to blogging, Twitter, Facebook and just about anything else. Remember that.

If you are an MBA student, think about the kinds of things employers would want to read. Always consider your audience. Are they employers, customers, friends or all three? Perhaps a combination of the above.

Think of the daily newsletters you get e-mailed to you from companies you are interested in. They always seem to know where they are going, don’t they? They always have a plan. If seeds of stories are planted one day, sure enough they sprout the day after that. This kind of thing encourages and rewards long time readers. Long time readers convert into customers or employers.

Also, a popular content stream is highlighting and calling attention to other content you’ve found around the Internet. This can be done effectively but be careful. You don’t want to illicit a “Been there, done that” response. If you are not absolutely sure you can find stuff the reader hasn’t seen before, perhaps you should develop your own content.

Sure, there can be a value in aggregating content. The best blogs do it. Doing it right, however, is a tall order. You’ll have to do a ton of reading. You’ll have to read pretty much every single word that is written about your chosen field. It can be quite the dedication. More than writing original content. The idea that aggregation somehow saves you time is a commonly held misnomer.

If you don’t think you have it in you right now to deliver quality content? Hold off. No content is better than bad content. A lot of people and companies make this mistake. Don’t be one of them.

Until next time. Remember, have fun with it. Social networking is a new facet of the business world, but it need not be a cross to bear.