Remember when, in my last post, I said my goodbyes? Wellll…just kidding! I’m such a jokester har har!
But seriously, I came out of semi-hiatus because I had a few closing notes/parting words that I wanted to share with y’all.
In growing your business via social media, there are a few things you can do for yourself to help you personally grow and direct your business in a direction that it wants to go. This is taking away growth tactics and audience engagement off the table…it’s just for you! What am I talking about?
a PLN.
This stands for “Personal Learning Network.” Throughout this semester and the duration of this blog, I have had one myself. It consisted of people who were experts in the fields about the products and tools I talked with y’all about. A PLN can consist of many different things or people…it all depends on which ways you want to grow. For me, I followed individuals and companies on Twitter and social bookmarking sites that I felt would provide insight into the materials I wanted to talk with y’all about. I also had a secret “notice me” list on Twitter to get influential people to eventually follow me.
So for now, I am going to explain a little bit about the point of a PLN, using my personal experience as a reference point. For the sake of my Social Media & PR class, me and three other group members had to come up with a social media plan and tips for a client we were working with throughout the semester who did not know a lot about the different options available to him. To get ready for that presentation, we were required to set up a PLN. In all honesty, I definitely could have utilized my PLN a bit more, but I did broader searches outside the scope of my PLN to find information and influential people/articles/tips for all my posts. This is not because PLNs don’t work, it is just a matter of personal preference for me. I personally do not like to be connected to so many different outlets all the time, but if I were a business owner focused on expansion and optimizing customer-brand interaction, I understand the importance of and see the need for a PLN.
In saying that, I see the need for PLNs in different areas outside the parameters of my class. For example, Advertising is a very viable career goal that seems to be the direction I am heading down. For advertising, especially today, social media is becoming an ever present reality that needs to be faced. I think having a PLN notice me list and following execs and people who inspire me would be a good use of this type of network in future endeavors.
Finally, a PLN really did help for working with a client. Working with a client creating a social media plan was a lot of fun due to the real world experience/application of the theories. I feel as if it is the first step to preparing me for real life scenarios and actual working environments. The only thing I wish my group and I were able to do was actually implement this plan over the course of the semester and chart the progress from start to finish. It would have been exciting to see if we influenced any growth and whether or not our ideas, once put into practice, would have actually worked. However, I really really enjoyed the experience it gave me.
So signing off for real this time! I want to leave y’all with two infographs that help you visualize how and what PLNs work/are.
Goodbye, y’all!