Reconnaissance key for communicators in a Web 2.0 world

Seek out and then woo your online audience, Solis advises pros at Ragan social media conference

If you’re overwhelmed by the ever-expanding array of social media sites, Brian Solis has words of comfort: You’ll have to put in a few 12-hour days.

Not feeling comforted? Well, the solace comes in finding where your online audience actually hangs out, and then focusing the bulk of your efforts there. That’s how to manage social media and make it work for you and your company.

“You don’t have to be everywhere,” said Solis, principal of FutureWorks and PR 2.0 blogger. “You just have to be at the places that are highly active with the people you want to reach. And the only way to know that is to go to those places and listen.”

Solis addressed the plight of harried communication professionals in his keynote address Thursday morning at Ragan’s Corporate Communications and the Social Media Revolution conference.

One member of the audience asked outright: With only eight hours in the common workday, how can I be everywhere at once? It’s a matter, Solis said, of informed selectivity born of online legwork.