First Define Your Intention, Then Give Yourself the Freedom to Contribute and Listen

Nat Bourre asked, “Has your involvement in LinkedIn and other social networks helped you improve your marketing skills? Are there some social networks that you find more helpful than others?”

Truthfully I haven’t looked at LinkedIn or social networks to improve my marketing skills, or to create “reach” for potential marketing leverage. I use LinkedIn mainly to connect with professionals whose profile intrigue me or whose interests regardless of industry are common with mine. One of the results has been increased “reach” (as defined by # of followers), for example, of my @janechin twitter account, from diverse professions both within and outside healthcare.

Recently I’ve become extremely active in leadership-related LinkedIn groups and have created a leadership specific group of my own, specific to personal leadership. These have been the groups where I’ve seen deep sharing from diverse thinkers on various areas of leadership and leadership development. As a result, I decided to tailor a personal discovery / development program that I’ve been developing over the past 1.25 years to have a personal leadership component to it. Had I not been a part of those leadership groups, I’d not have thought of adding this dimension to this product.

Thus my take-away lesson is:

be clear about your intention of participating in any social network, and why you choose to spend how much of your precious time in which places.

It’s easy for these social networks to become a time-sucker otherwise.

Jane Chin