Proving Expertise

As discussed earlier in this blog, it is important to publish thoughts and ideas in order to exist on the social network. However, it is equally as important to know what to communicate and what not to communicate within these channels. If one writes simply to let others know they exist, it will be treated as the noise it is. If one wants to become a nanocelebrity, one needs to prove the areas of their expertise without looking like a complete idiot. The nanocelebrity should be able to get correct information to the subject at hand, be able to prove that information by cite credible source and (the most difficult part) not sound pompous with doing it within the limitations of the channel.

The issue becomes when to chime into the media stream and post information. The best answer that I give is that one should look at the amount of information being produced in a media channel (either Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, whatever) and see if the post is able to create more dialogue relevant to the conversation, quiet all of the information that is useless and/or create a point of agreement within the channel. If you are not able to do one of those three things, then you need to look at what value your comments or posts will have. If the answer is “none,” then you really would be better off waiting for a better time to interact or accept the fact that your input will be interpreted as noise and will easily be ignored.