Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: Social Media - It's Time

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading...If you’re like me, you've been trying to avoid social media at all costs. It’s not that I think it’s unimportant. It’s not that I think it has no value; it’s not that I think that it is a passing fad that will soon run its course. It’s none of those things. The real reason I've been trying to bury my head in the sand about social media is that I have no idea how to do it. It all sounds like one big confusing ball of electronic yarn to me. It all sounds so complicated that the more people tell me how easy it is the more scared I get that I have some kind of social media mental block--or worse, some kind of learning disability--and I will never get what is so easy about it.

Like some of you, I know that social media is something that I need to get involved in, but just don’t know how to get started.

When faced with similar situations in the past, I've read my way out of it. Whatever the subject, I've always been able to find a book that will explain things to me. I always find a book that will clear the clouds from my thinking and allow me to see that clear blue sky of understanding.

For months now I've been searching for that book, but finding a good book on the subject has been difficult--not because there are no books about social media, because there are possibly thousands of books on the subject. Each one claims to make things easier than the next; each claims that in less than an hour a day I can become a social media maven. The simple act of finding a good book on social media has become almost as confusing and complicated as the subject itself.

Last week I finally found a book that explained in simple, clear details at least one facet of social media: blogging. This book told me everything I need to know about blogging, from what exactly blogging is to why I would want to blog, how to set up my own blog, what I should blog about, how often I should blog, and, most importantly, how to make money blogging.

Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time by Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A Smith is available on Amazon.com. I think this book cost me less than $9, but, from the very first page, I realized this was the book that was going to do it for me when it came to blogging.

These guys, like you and I, have been there. They understand what we are going through, so they understand what we need to know and explain it in such a way that we will get it.

Being the simple-minded soul that I am, I need things explained to me in a way that I can easily understand. My eyes glaze over when someone starts taking to me about HTML and PDFs and the like. I like things in plain English and this book delivers in just that way.

From the first chapter on being a successful blogger to the chapters on how to attract readers and making your blog pay, these guys get it. I felt like they were talking to me and that they were my personal coaches taking me through the step-by-step process of becoming a successful blogger. They even write about making blogging a consistent habit with quotes like: “Having the courage to be good instead of perfect is part of blogging success and the trade-off you have to make to be consistent.” And then this little gem: “Respect your readers and their precious time. Get in, make your point and get out.” And: “Headlines are the most important part of a blog. Without a scintillating, compelling, tweetable headline, your hard work will never see the light of day.”

Get the idea? Simple, direct, and comprehensive. I read this book in just one evening. If I had not been so busy taking notes and highlighting cogent ideas, I would have read it in about an hour and still understood everything they were teaching.

And did it work? Well, I have set up my blog on www.wordpress.com, and you are now reading what will become my first-ever blog. It worked! Get this book, read it, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. You may even be inspired to create a blog of your own. It’s only common sense.