Recently, my friend Roy Wells of Triad Strategies started a blog intended to promote the use of social media. Make sure to check it out at www.RoyWells.com. His blog has made me think seriously about the role of Social Media in life, my job and society as a whole. There has been one main issue that I cannot reconcile, however. Where are the followers? How does one build a successful network in order for their Social Media campaign to be successful?

Social media comes in various shapes and sizes. You can use a professional medium in LinkedIn, you have the option of a 140 character post on Twitter, and don’t forget the catch all which is Facebook. I take advantage of all three of these mediums to communicate with friends, colleagues, and Rep. O’Brien’s constituents. The feedback has always been amazing and never ceases to surprise me. Typically the responses are positive, often not, but the benefit of these forums is they are comprised of people who actually care what I have to say! I can write what I want and they will follow. Now, my best friends and family find this preposterous at best. Why would anyone care what I have to say? Well, I don’t know. That question, however, leads me to one that has been my main social media concern over the past few years. Do enough people care to hear, not just my message, but the musings of any given individual or group on social media. At present, I do have over 200 Twitter followers, over 1,000 friends on Facebook and a little over 100 connections on LinkedIn. What does that all mean, though? This equates to just over 1,000 people who may read what I have to say. If I’m attempting to send a message to my friends, that’s fine as most are on Facebook, but suppose I need to reach an audience much larger? Well, the only time I need to do that is for my job. If Rep. O’Brien has an important piece of legislation on which he feels a message needs to be disseminated, I turn to his blast email list and Facebook page. As of this post, 352 people “like” Rep. O’Brien. We have a couple thousand email addresses. In a district of approximately 59,000 constituents, how does social media provide an effective medium for message distribution?

That is a question that has bugged me for quite some time now and I am still attempting to find an answer. Does the old adage of  ”ya tell 1, you told 10″ work here or is it more complicated than that? How do we attract followers? In a district comprised of a large senior citizen population, how do we reconcile that constituency with this modern use of communications? These are all questions that need to be answered. I have my theories but they’re just theories at this point. The intent of this post was not to inform, but to be informed. I welcome your responses and suggestions on how to build a following. Through RoyWells.com, we’ve learned that three keys to a successful social media campaign is 1. a solid message, 2. keep the conversation going and 3. building a network. The first two points appear obvious to me — it’s the third that has me hanging.