RIDING THE WAVE: How to not lose your mind while staying on top of all the social media trends and tools

Submitted by Kelly Lynch on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 20:58

Let’s face it, there is not enough time in the day to follow all that is happening in the social media space from tools to apps to syncing to sharing. Feels less like a wave, but more like a Tsunami!

How is one meant to stay current with launches like Boxee, Hulu Desktop, Bing, Androids for iPhone, 12seconds and phonevite to name a handful—and that was just last week?? Don’t even get me started on Google Wave and Twave—think our communication world is about to get rocked!!

To stop the madness and maintain at least some sense of control (because it is only going to exponentially grow) I recommend the following:

If social media is your business, make sure you have one dedicated person on your team who is in charge of monitoring, processing and reporting back on trends and tools—we call it “the geek factor” here at BBC. If you are leading the charge you need sound bytes on what is new and emerging in order to make good decisions and update your clients
Read top social media sites like mashable.com and techcrunch.com for the latest and greatest information. These guys are SUPER SMART in this space and report back what is most relevant to the average cyber Joe or Jane
Follow top social media/tech tweeters for news and reviews as they happen. I recommend: @ev, @socialmediaweek, @technorati, @crunchgear, @adamostrow, @brett, @mashable, @publicityguru, @xavierv

Last but not least, take a deep breath. If you try to become an expert in every “newest” “hottest” “coolest” thing you are going to find it hard to gain any real traction and momentum. So sit back for a second, do a little reading, feel out the real benefits as they line up to your client’s goals—then, go for it!

Source for the second photo: http://gregverdino.typepad.com