How to do "Social Networking"

This is all about "Why" you want to do this, NOT the Web 2.0 technology itself... 

Step One: Understand the different people online and their reasons for being online.  Forrester Research describes  us like this.

A.)Inactives - not on the Internet.

B.)Spectators - Read blogs and articles, listen to podcasts, watch videos - consume the content, contribute little or nothing.

C.)Joiners - Join social networking groups to socialize, interact with other people, no real purpose necessarily or objective other than just meeting people and holding conversations.

D.)Collectors - The editors of the Internet, they organize content, make lists for others to use.

E.)Critics - Actively commenting, providing opinions on one or more subjects and in many different areas of the Internet.

F.) Creators - Consistent content generator engines, blogging often, commenting often, building ways to generate even more content.   

Step Two:  Understanding who you are and where you fit in, then create a list of objectives.  "Why do you want to do this social networking thing at all?"  Create targeted lead generation, find friends and colleagues, research and learn by tracking conversations, marketing etc... 

These objectives should include you doing one of the following things.  I interpret them as follows:

A.)Listening to the market

B.)Talking with the market - two way conversation - most corporate websites currently are not set-up for this.

C.)Energizing - create interest and motivation

D.)Supporting - a way to support another community initiative

E.)Embracing - learning from customer feedback and embracing the change that is suggested 

Step Three: Building a Strategy or what I call a "Disruptor Blueprint".  Start with the idea of locating your key evangelist(s).  These are customers for example who cannot say enough about you and are willing to take action on your behalf. The strategy should also include how you intent to deliver, distribute you single message across several different social networking mediums.  Google Adsense may also be part of your plan, Craigslist, etc...map our your plans.

Step Four: Understanding the technology that you will be using is key as well...I can go into this in more detail at a later date...

more on my other blog www.fusedlogic.blogspot.com