Last Sunday, I got the chance to play kickball.
Yes, that’s right. You know the sport. The one with the red rubber balls with which you used to play dodgeball.
And I must say that it was the best time I’ve had in a while.
I bring this up because I didn’t get to go this week and I REALLY wanted to go back. Even if it meant another week of being sore for not having worked out certain torso muscles in quite some time. And I spent most of the day Sunday thinking about it my experience and how much it really reminded me of my experiences with social media.
1) Low/No admission cost – Now, while the league that I played with usually asks a couple bucks (which is donated to a local animal shelter), kickball is accessible to just about everyone. Even though I live out in the boonies, I made it.
The same with social media – As long as you’ve got a computer, you can get a Gmail address and go. Yes, just that easy.
2) Awkward at first, but once you start going… – I’m used to being in awkward situations and for about 2 minutes, I was there as well. But the people where very nice, introduced themselves and once the game started, it was like I had been playing for weeks.
The same with social media – Once you sign up for Twitter or Facebookm you have that awkward “what the hell am I doing” feeling. That is, till you find someone who either shows you around, or you know and shows you the ropes. The awkwardness starts to disappear pretty quickly after that
3) Competitive, but friendly – What made it so much fun was that the game was competitive. Well, not the first game when we were 2 players short and ended up about 14 runs down in 2 innings. And while the second game was very competitive, it never lost it’s fun. It was never lost on anyone that it was just a game and that everyone was there to have fun.
The same with social media – There are a lot of people in the SM space right now trying to figure out what to do with SM and how to leverage it to their advantage. However, everyone in the “core” community is very friendly and willing help others.
4) Building Relationships – That Sunday I met 13 new people that I didn’t even know existed. Only 2 of them I had ever “met” over Twitter. And I can say that I must have learned just a little something about each once of them. From what they she said, or how he handled the kickball like a soccer ball, I could tell you something about pretty much every one of them.
The same with social media – After attending Social South, I can tell you that meeting all those people for the first time was just like picking up with old friends. I could have told you a little something about just about everyone who I had been conversing with for months. That just reinforces that SM is more about building relationships than getting customers.
5) Satisfying, if you make the effort – I can tell you that
The same with social media – As long as you make the effort to be yourself, people will take you for you. You may lose some people, but you will gain others. And those others will help you build your following. Your message will get out. You just have to have be satisfied with being yourself.
