It's a Credibility thing...

I admit, I am new to the Facebook Fanpage and Twitter Marketing world. Frankly I am new to facebook and myspace in a way.  It's not that I do not see the merits of social media--certainly most people out there with a product or service do.

But I wonder--even with all the how-to's of social media marketing, are we as people losing sight of what we are trying to accomplish?

Some how-to's tell us to follow those who are like us on twitter, so that they will in turn follow us back.  Yes, Okay I can admit, a community may be built in this fashion.  But how deeply entrenched of a community is it?

An example:  I made jewelry by hand for a friend of mine at Fort Lewis.  She was Irish and I loved that woman like a second mother by the end of my time there.  She had some hard times with her mother back in Ireland--and even though she was there visiting for not happy reasons, after all we had been through together, she would still bring me back fantastic Irish exclusive beads to work with.  And another woman would bring me back fancy Hawaiian KaKui nuts to play with.

That was a community I built by really taking care to understand and grasp what everyone who paid attention to my jewelry loved.  I had learned how to set stones so that I could make Tiana a set of salt water pearl earrings to match her pearls she wore at her wedding when she was not as monetarily stable--and she wore them all the time.   That is the reason why I got into Etsy now--for that community involvement.

But, even new at this--I see us following each other, watching for #etsy tags on tweet deck or whatever program we use.  I see us telling each other what is beautiful in our pieces--but I do not see us opening ourselves up to a greater community.

I see exclusivity limiting our creative outlet because that is sort of what we are told to do.

I am currently reading a book on "Credibility" for my Masters Program.  It's pretty interesting escpecially if you take some of the ideas in there and transform them to your personal relationships in selling your product.

"Until we all, consituients and leaders alike, grab our picks and shovels and work to repair our interpersonal infrastructure, style will continue to succeed over substance, and technique will continue to triumph over truth." (From "Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose it and Why People Demand it," by, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, 2003, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.).

Now take that thought above and change it to your etsy shop--or any online business.  How can we repair this issue before the social media explosion implodes--or is it destined to end, leaving only those with big bucks to be able to afford high quality, targeted marketing of products or services?

Can we as individuals still market our products--AND build community that is not dominated by what we are taught now.  I don't know the answers yet, I just linger over the questions.

For Further reading, I found this from another social media marketer on Facebook Fan Pages: Enterpreneuers Question Value of Social Media


And now it's time to make more jewelry, ponder these questions and prepare for another Jewelry show this weekend.