Want to learn more tricks and tips? Become A Social Media Jane Goodall

Photo by Jeff Pulver

One of the best pieces of advice about how to learn good techniques for using social media comes from Chris Brogan.  He suggests observing a power user and how they use the tool.   So what he is suggesting that you become a sort of Social Media Jane Goodall.   She observed the chimps in the wild to learn from their behavior.

Chris Brogan is Social Media guru who I follow.  (No, I'm not calling him a monkey).  What's really wonderful about Chris is that he externalizes his social media learnings via his blog.    He wrote a post called "A Day Without Twitter" which is an excellent reflective process to figure out what value a tool or technique is doing for you.   He wonders at the end of his post whether the “a day without” technique might be a good learning experience with other services.

This post will publish while I'm enroute to Australia -- so I will be without the Web - or blogging.  I've packed like five books to read! 

With that said, there might be a little light blogging ahead until I recover.  I plan to do some live blogging and possibly streaming from OZ - so stay tuned.

Comments

[Chris Brogan...]

It's really funny. I thought you were calling me Jane, and I was thinking... hmm, well I've never been called a woman before, but no, I'm the ape. : )

Great post, Beth, and thanks.

[Beth Dunn]

I've been thinking along the lines of social media educator/evangelist=anthropoligist for a while now, what with all our talk of learning the culture being jumping in, observing how the power structure is different from (and similar to) that of Real Life, etc. etc.

Had a bit of a meditation on the topic back in January, using the Laura Bohannan essay on Shakespeare in the Bush as a starting point: http://snurl.com/2953b

Looking forward to your blogging from Oz -- have fun!

And I don't think Chris Brogan is an ape, either. :)

[Annaliese]

Great analogy/advice, Beth! Since I always wanted to BE Jane Goodall when I was growing up, I'm whole-heartedly going to apply your insight to my own social media self-education and practice! Social media is a specific outlet or set of tools of internet/mobile culture/behavior. Observing how the tech-savvy "tribe" is using those tools to interact is a good place to start for learners. I also like Beth Dunn's post about translating the work of an anthropologist to a Social Media coach. The key IS to find the common threads between the "tribe" and the "learner" - the needs or desires to connect, learn, laugh, gain support from for give support to others is where the "behavior" starts, and then it's a matter of learning how to pick up and manipulate the tools successfully for those ends.

Good luck on your trip, Beth - and thank you for the great insight!

[Beth Kanter]

@Chris .. well you're both!!

Beth Dunn - I love the anthropologist analogy also archeologcy
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/05/listening-with.html