How To Bake A Yummy Social Media Souffle

I talk a lot about the need for the right “mix” when you promote your product, business, book, whatever it is – engaging in social media is no different. To get a good result you have to find the recipe that’s 100% ALL YOURS. But just like the hard-to-bake souffle, there are some ingredients I’ve seen in of the work of ALL successful social media contributors.   Here are the components I believe you should always use for your  social media recipe…and some of experts who cook it up just right. Feel free to add your favorite folks – let’s get a good list going!

- Content is SO important. But not YOUR content all the time. Go find some interesting info and share it – we like it when you do research for us. If you don’t have a ton of time, add some RSS feeds to your Google homepage. Mashable and Brian Solis always have daily  stuff you can show your readers. I add in weird stuff once in while just to keep it interesting – a little orange peel adds some zest to the recipe don’t you think?

- You gotta have a sense of humor,  especially if you have a ton of content and you post frequently. Copyblogger does a fantastic job of keeping humor in the mix almost all the time and yet it’s one of the most instructional social media sources I know. On the other hand, I love the content in Problogger but if we were talking cereal Copyblogger would be Raisin Bran and Problogger that fiber stuff.

- I love Mari Smith because she’s so approachable. Of course, she’s the Queen of Facebook so we expect that of her. But it’s not a given. I’ll leave unnamed a few social media snotties that  have great content but leave me feeling like I’m sitting at the nerd table in junior high all over again.  (Or if we’re still talking souffles,  eating at that posh French restaurant with the waiters staring disdainfully at my hush puppies .)

- I don’t know if editorial guidelines are needed  but consistency is really important. When you visit your favorite restaurant and order your favorite food, you want it to taste pretty much the same. Maybe there’s chocolate drizzled on it occasionally and perhaps you order cider instead of beer but you really want to know those ingredients you love are mixed together just the way you like ‘em.

All this goes toward one thing – building a unique voice in the social media world. Just like a great recipe it takes time to develop and sorry, not everyone will like it. For me there was a point suddenly when it was easy to stay connected in my social media world and it was an important part (if not ritual) of my day. That was when I found my voice.

I’m always trying to make my own personal souffle better but I’m still totally thrilled when people like it. Thanks for reading!

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You can always read more from Bonnie at Wax Blog.