Guest post by Frédéric Harper
First of all, let me thank Fabrice for giving me the opportunitiy to write a guest post on his blog. Second thing, my English isn’t so good, so please be indulgent.
Fabrice asked me to talk about my experience with the social media vs my new way of life: freelancing! Social Media like my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn (sorry all in french) are in my life as if they have always been there. I use these a lot in a day to read, but also to create content on the Web. Since I’m on my own in the mobile development, I still use it for personals things, but now, more for business. I have more than one way to see the help of social media tools (they are not in any order, all of these are important for me):
- Promote me: since i’m a freelancer, my company is me, so people need to know me. Never underestimate the power of contacts in real life or on the Internet.
- Promote my service offering: it’s not enough that people know Frédéric Harper, they have to know that I do mobile development for any major platform (Android, iPhone/iPad, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry). This way, if someone needs a mobile application or see an opportunity that could interest me, they know I’m the man for the job.
- Share: I want to share my expertise, but also anything that I love that could help others. For example, my blog is not only about businesses, but about people, about my opinions, about how I feel and the most important, to promote people that do great jobs. I think that a company should not be only there to take money; they need to give to the community.
- Communicate and fill my social needs: in french, people always tell me that “J’ai une grand yeule et que je suis une bébitte sociale”. That means that I talk a lot and that I’m very social. Social Media helps me talk to people, communicate, exchange with them… I like to meet new people in life or online. I do it on my own, but in the end, that could help a lot my business too.
So these things that I do with social media is not the absolute truth but my own way to use them. You, how do you use social media? What benefits do you think that businesses have to gain from it?
(Photo credit: deanmeyersnet)
