I have been working more and more with nonprofits, solo entrepreneurs and small businesses around social media and the more research I do, the more experience I have with social media in my own business, I have decided on one monumental truth.

You have to be willing to suck at this…. for awhile.

Everyone starts out with zero friends or fans or followers, etc.  To gather together a group of people interested in the same thing, that are willing to talk about it, and willing to spend precious time and money on it is hard.  Very very hard.  Especially in the beginning.  An article on copyblogger (a good all around website on blogging) says that basically your content will suck for the first 6 months if you blog.  How long will it take before you get good at micro-blogging (status updates in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) is anybody’s guess. 

And if you start looking for a WowZah! return on your investment too soon you are going to be disappointed fast.  Creating value for your community, building and gaining their trust, and maintaining that on an ongoing religiously consistent basis is hard work and will take time before it pays off.  However, if you are a nonprofit looking to make long term systemic change then creating a cadre of like minded folks is invaluable to moving your agenda forward.  Engaging your community and educating them about your cause is something you do every day in a thousand ways – social media just extends and expands your reach.  And do I really have to say that if you are in a for-profit business that creating a long term relationship with your customers and could be customers is of ultimate benefit?

David Armano ,of Edelman Digital , says it best: “An inconvenient truth for many organizations is that the ROI argument can kill any initiative before it ever has the chance to see the light of day.” – so yes you must measure and evaluate your online work, but the purpose of measurement is to adjust what you are doing based on feedback from your community so you get better.  The point is not to kill the project in its infancy because it hasn’t changed the world, gone viral, or brought in a million new customers within 30 days.

And on this note, let’s not forget that trying something has value all its own – when did we all stop trying new things?  Isn’t this how we learned to do things as kids? Innovation requires intelligence, a great sense of timing, but also a fundamental willingness to look like an idiot – in public.  There is nothing wrong with being an amateur.  Being willing to learn and take a thoughtful risk or two is the characteristic that led many of you to start your own business or choose to work for a cause you believe in.  Just because you aren’t starting out with 10,000 fans or followers doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start out at all.  Just start…. and work on getting that first one.

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Blog by Joyce