How to Learn Online Social Media

I was speaking before a terrific group at George Washington University recently – Professor Steve Lawrence’s graduate level class on Media Relations. The focus was understanding social media. The students could easily be described as among the best of the best – White House staffers, current and former; rising stars at government agencies, NGOs and other organizations. Quick, intelligent, probing, curious individuals.

The class is comprised of professionals who really want to understand today’s media, and the nuance and subtleties of communications in the digital era. None worked for a communications agency, and when I asked, none indicated any interest in doing so. They were more interested in achieving significant results in today’s new world of communications. Steve, a veteran journalist, is among the best to point the direction.

One student, however, brought up a good question – how do you get social media experience. She cited, with amusement, a help-wanted ad from an organization that wanted to hire a social media expert with at least 10 years experience. We agreed that it would not be a meaningful place to work because today’s online social media has only been around a couple of years and continues to morph each day.

My advice for jumping in to learn social media is to start a personal blog. You need five things, and it will cost about $125 the first year … less in subsequent years:

1. Domain name or Web site address – Visit Godaddy.com to find something clever. The cost is about $10 a year.
2. Web hosting (this is your portal to the Internet) – I recommend ThisWebHost.com which will cost $3 a month.
3. WordPress blog software – It is the most common blog software in the world and free. Click WordPress.org.
4. Blog theme (the look and feel of your blog) – There are literally thousands of themes available for WordPress. Just Google “WordPress themes.” The best and easiest themes I’ve found are from Solostream.com. A good theme costs about $79.
5. Imagination and creativity – A winning blog is only limited by your own imagination and cleverness.

You need no technical or code skills to launch your own WordPress blog but I recommend reading the blog start-up tutorial at WordPress.org. The only tricky part is configuring a WordPress blog database but the people at TheWebHost.com will help. Also check BlogStrategies.net for free advice on WordPress blogs.

By the way, I suggest forgetting about free blog services, like Blogger and the free version of WordPress. If you want to make an impression, be distinctive!

That’s it. Then, just start writing, posting photos and video and join the online conversation!