Best Practices in Social Media: Lift up others

Mitch Joel over at Six Pixels of Separation is asking for best practices for social media marketing. I got tagged by Liz and I’m in — how about you?

You don’t have to have a blog to play.  You can always answer here in the comments section. If you’re doing interesting social media stuff, specifically that you have some best practices for social media marketing, here’s how to join in:

  1. Blog it or add it to the comments here.
  2. Link to Mitch’s blog
  3. Tag it “social media marketing best practices project”
  4. And then tag someone else with the meme.

Drew’s social media best practice?  Lift up others!

I’m a very firm believer and to the best of my ability, practitioner of this philosophy.

I think we should share our time, resources, smarts, links — lifting others up and enjoying their success.  Just like in any offline neighborhood — there’s always a neighbor who’s ready to offer a helping hand.

I think we want to be that neighbor.

So reach out to new bloggers.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re the new blogger.  Why not give away some free books to promote a new author?  Or participate in Blogtipping to spotlight new bloggers?  Or how about inviting 200+ authors to contribute to a book you’re co-producing?

Create opportunities for others, applaud for their successes and genuinely serve both your readers and the community of bloggers and I promise, you’ll enjoy a long and rewarding social media existence.

Okay, tagging time.  Mike Sansone, Roberta Rosenberg, John Rosen, Gavin Heaton and David Reich.  Why did I pick them?  They are all expert practitioners of the give generously philosophy.

Drew’s comment:  I hope you’ll notice that this “social media” best practice is also an offline marketing best practice.  Sharing what you have and what you know….letting others “sample” you is a brilliant and too seldom used tactic.

I’ll bet if you go back and read the other best practices, (Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, Liz Strauss) you’ll discover that most of them work in any medium.  Social Media is just another tool for communicating.  But overall, the same rules apply.