Translating Reality TV to Social Media

Why are so many people (myself included) enthralled by Reality TV? The answer is really quite simple and it translates amazingly well to today's popularity of Social Media. I want to help you think about how you can empower your own social media mission by adapting some of the basic Reality TV truths and using these to bolster your own attraction.

The number one reason that people watch, is the fantasy of gaining personal status. On television, ordinary people can become so important that millions will watch them. Sometimes it is a genuine likability that certain people have and yes, sometimes it is their infuriating nature or stupidity. But whatever the case, millions of people tune in every episode to see what these ordinary people will do next. It is obvious that people fantasize about status on social media as well. Just think for a moment about the obsession some people have over the number of friends and followers they have.

Another reason people watch is for the allegiances that are built and the reality that allies will betray one another. If you want to use social media as a building block for your business, I would suggest not betraying your allies. Building allegiances though is really what it is all about. People will gravitate towards you when they feel as though they can relate to you on some level. Building allegiances on social media will lead to success regardless of what type of business you are in.

You may be wondering how you develop this attraction to create allies. That leads to my last reason that people watch reality TV. People want good water cooler conversation. Remember this when you post and try to provide interesting and beneficial content.

Twitter Experiment

To Tweet or not to Tweet

I was resisting Twitter for a long time. Then I began following Kristen Darkenwald's www.socialmediarescuelive.com and was finally convinced to join.

She gave away the secret to getting lots of followers without having to pay for an application. Most people will follow you if you follow them. So I decided to try it and the first day I found a well known RE guru and followed all of his followers, 289 to be exact. I now have 124 followers. I intended to go back the next day and un-follow those that did not follow me but Twitter does not make that very easy.

Faced with the unappealing tasks of comparing lists and searching one name at a time, I made a discovery. If you look at your list of those that you are following, there is a drop down menu for options next to each name. If the person is following you, you will have the option to send them a direct message. So, now I just need to go through my list and check each one and remove those that I cannot send a message to.

It is still a daunting task. If anyone knows an easier way please let me know.