I feel like I’ve known Chris Brogan for years. I’ve been following his tweets. I’ve been watching his Brightkite entries. And I’ve been seeing his feeds on Friendfeed. I even wrote about him in my book, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media but were afraid to ask… Building Your Business Using Consumer Generated Media.”
So, who is Chris Brogan?
He is a recently published author, a marketing guy, social media enthusiast and cofounder of PodCamp, a popular new media conference series focused on the use of social media to build business and personal relationships. Plus, Brogan has tens of thousands of followers and friends across all of his social networking sites.
Once you are involved with social media, you feel a connection with people before you actually meet them. That is why when I saw Brogan last night at EO24 (Entrepreneurs’ Organization NYC Chapter), I felt compelled to tell him how I felt…
“Hi Chris, I’m Hilary Topper (@hilary25),” I said. “I’ve written to you, I’ve responded to some of your tweets and I’ve even posted stuff on your blog and I never got a response from you.”
“You know, I have thousands of people who reach out to me every day…”
“Wait a second,” I interrupted, “didn’t you say in your book, Trust Agents, that it’s important to engage and acknowledge people who seek you out?”
As I said that, I saw Chris Brogan tweet something on his mobile device… later when I had access to a computer again (my iphone died — I’m not having luck with technology lately!), I saw that he posted:
chrisbrogan
I just got called out by @hilary25. She’s right. I don’t always answer everyone.
6:07 PM Nov 19th from Swift
Brogan has a lot to offer. In his new book, Trust Agents, he offers the following tips when using social media:
- Ask about others first
- Understand the culture between different sites
- Promote others more than you promote yourself
- Use a photo as your avatar on your profile
- If you “mess up,” acknowledge, apologize and act
- Share your personal life not just professional life
- Remember that social media is about building relationships not campaigns
To be honest, I was excited to meet Chris Brogan. It’s amazing how people on social media sites become celebrities and to me and tens of thousands of others, Chris Brogan is a celebrity. (But don’t tell him I said so…)
Related articles by Zemanta
- PodCamp NH, November 7th and 8th, 2009 (offonatangent.blogspot.com)
- Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – Rise of the Trust Agents (chris.pirillo.com)
- FIR Interview: Chris Brogan, “Trust Agents” co-author and president, New Marketing Labs (nevillehobson.com)
