The OTHER Countdown

Image via Wikipedia

The countdown to the start of a new year gets all the press. But there’s another one. One that people talk about all year round. It’s the countdown to the moment you say to yourself, “I’ve been putting this off long enough, it’s time to…”

Now all of us will finish that sentence in many different ways – some personal, some professional.

If you’ve arrived at this, my own little online “Time’s Square” [sic], and are still reading this far down into the post, I’d like to think the virtual ball has dropped for you already. (Happy New Year!!!) You’ve taken another step into the sea of online social (or new) media gatherings that are happening all around us where people are communicating in dot-com venues whose best uses may have yet to be uncovered.

Getty Images via Daylife

What matters is that you see it coming. So before you wave a dismissive hand at “all that social media stuff,” remember that a lot of other innovations began with a question mark and then evolved into indispensable tools that help us communicate more effectively and/or productively.

Remember there were telegrams before text messages, shortwaves before satellites and projectors before plasmas, to say nothing of where technology has yet to take us still.

So when it comes to social media, you can close your eyes to it. Or you can be the first one in your neighborhood to have a color TV, or a microwave, or a VCR, or surround sound, or a laser disc, or a web cam, or a blog, or a solar-paneled roof…

And the cost of “acquisition” in this case, is nothing but your time and attention (since you clearly already have the computer and the Internet connection).

So tell me, where will you take your social media question mark in 2009?

I invite you to post your Top Three Social Media Goals for the New Year right here. Whether it’s as simple as setting up a LinkedIn page or subscribing to this blog. Write it down. Make it happen. And we’ll check back in on each other next year to see how far we’ve come. (Even if I have to pick up the “oh-so-outdated” telephone to do so.)

Thank you 2008, you finally gave New Media a name

Tags: countdown, innovations, LinkedIn, New Year, Social Media, Social Media Goals, Time

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Social Media, Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “The OTHER Countdown”

1. Renee Says:
   December 31st, 2008 at 7:18 pm

   Ok. I’ll go first.

   1.) Post to my blog more frequently (3x/week)
   2.) Move http://www.graypixposts.com over to the WordPress platform with less pain and suffering than I endured while moving THIS blog over to the WordPress platform
   3.) Write a brief e-book on an incredibly useful topic that will be free to download and provide a helpful “starter guide” for anyone ready to take the new media plunge in the new year

   (Was going to make #3: Rid the world of Internet Explorer (IE). But I’m a big believer in achievable goals and I think that one might take me more than a year. So instead, I simply provided a link to download Mozilla Firefox, a far superior browser for both MAC and PC people, at the bottom of the far right column on this blog. I cannot express how a move from IE to Firefox could revolutionize the way you browse the Internet. There just aren’t words. At least none that don’t include expletives to truly underscore the depths of my feelings on this matter. Give it a go. You won’t be sorry. You have my word on that.)

2. William Says:
   January 1st, 2009 at 2:10 pm

   1.) I will post more frequently on FaceBook, my blog and Flickr.com.
   2.) I will give a little more respect to all of my friends who pester me about Linkedin and Twitter.
   3.) (And this one is the most important, of course) I will read my wife’s blog, as she’s worked so hard to help promote mine.

3. rjleaman Says:
   January 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   Sure, I’ll play along!
   1.) Create a new product to help small nonprofits use social media more effectively to reach their goals;
   2.) Use the groups feature on TweetDeck to make more effective use of Twitter (i.e., to miss fewer of the important conversations around topics of interest, by people I admire and can learn from); and
   3.) Stop saying how frustrating I find the “closed doors” of Facebook and, instead, find new ways to open it up for meaningful outreach.
   … Does all that sound sufficiently ambitious and/or pompous for Top Three Social Media Goals for the New Year?

4. Renee Says:
   January 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm

   What would this blog be without you, RJL? I’ll tell you: empty of comments.
   
   (You know we have the same initials…how funny.)
   Anyway, I think your goals strike a nice balance. #1 sounds like quite the undertaking while #2 and #3 sound quite manageable.

   I’ve found the groups feature on Facebook a good way to open up a few new doors. I think their Networked Blog app is helpful toward that end, as well.

   Thanks again for playing. (And what a relief you weren’t on the opposing team!)
   

5. Natalia Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

   1. Get my personal/fiction blog going again, this time with gusto.
   2. Get a website with my portfolio up and running.
   3. Continue to prioritize and simplify my social media ”intake,” e.g. RSS feeds.

   I’m looking forward to that ebook, Renee.

Leave a Reply