If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for reading.

Millions of people are currently making forays into social media, but the large majority are not leveraging the benefits that can be attained. Why?

There are certainly many stories of people being creative or strategic in their use of social media but not millions. One very creative approach we’ve seen is here http://bit.ly/bIskL4.  This is for a job seeker. If you take a thorough look at what he has done, he has chosen a strategic path to guide his use of social media and has integrated it.

However, for every creative and strategic use of social media, we’ve personally heard numerous stories about the challenges and unknowns that prevent those from using it.

These range from:

• “I have to do WHAT?” After a successful 20 year career as a Senior VP at a fortune 100 company now I have to learn social media as one of the necessary tools to business? In the years leading up to this point, I had systematically rejected every invitation to join Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. etc. etc.  The last thing I needed was another ‘email address’ to keep up with daily.
• It just doesn’t work – “I want to go online and receive specific benefits – but it doesn’t seem to work like that”
• It takes time to learn, and I’m not clear on the optimum way to use a particular social media outlet. e.g. Determining the answer to “What is the best way to use Twitter or LinkedIn to further me and my business?
• It’s too personal. If you have a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, the link to person’s views, politics, religious affiliations, and other areas of interest are too far in the public eye.
• Reluctance to try something new / confusion about the “correct use of these tools” – For example, Twitter has gotten so much PR as a communication vehicle for celebrities and much less as a business or job search resource.

This is natural.  In some ways, it’s akin to the pleasure and pain concept.  People will seek to avoid pain rather than accept some pain to achieve a greater pleasure.  So what are you doing to make sure you are benefiting from.  For some more ideas check out this link – LinkedIn for Business – 51 Ways to Benefit  – http://bit.ly/cfGKt5