So, I’m guiding one of my clients down the road of Web 2.0 – and she turns to me and says, ‘This feels like dating 101.” And it’s true…but more specifically, I think, like dating 101 for a seasoned & divorced person.
Why? Because we already know how to do the basics – we can read & write, we can do the elevator speech, we can network, we can self-promote, we can buy, sell & trade. But the scenery has changed, so we have to learn how to apply all that we know to this new venue. Think of it this way, she worked it just fine at the drive-in and now I’m taking her to a rave.
So, the important things to remember are these:
- You’ve still got the moves.
- Yes, you have to learn a new language with words like Squidoo, post, WordPress, comments, Google, Digg, blog and de.licio.us.
- Yes, you have to type it all in.
- No, no one cares what you’re wearing because they can’t see you…though a good picture will help.
- Still, now you have to put all of that fashion sense and primping into your blog & site design.
- Networking is networking (dating is dating), sometimes you have be forward and make the first move, other times you’ll play hard to get – you’ll know which is which and when is when.
- People are frequently attracted to ‘the someone’ that everyone else likes – so highlight your client list, your achievements, your traffic, your subscribers and how many people friended you on Facebook and follow you on Twitter, etc.
Total aside (though tangently related to the post above): Speaking of dating and new technology, I’ve been wanting to bring this up for awhile now: when I was in junior high, we used to call the boys that we had crushes on and hang up after they answered. I’ve got to know, what are girls doing these days? You can’t do that now…everyone has caller ID. My best guess is that they visit their crush’s MySpace page where they have more anonymity…ooh, and pictures. Okay, I guess there may be life after caller-ID…