You need to get someone to notice you. Planes sometimes fly overhead, large ships navigate in the sea, and many different types of people use the river: fishermen, kayakers, tubers, etc. How are you going to make the best use of your index cards to get noticed?

1. You could lay them out on your cliff to spell HELP and hope passing planes (web surfers) see it. (Message on website)
2. You could write HELP on the cards and throw them into the sea, hoping a ship picks one up. (Press release)
3. You could write on the cards and throw them into the river, hoping one of the many river users sees one. (Social media strategy)

If you could pick only one option, #3 would most likely get you noticed the soonest. Ideally, you should be doing all three, portioning your cards to get the best results for your message. But the person who will most likely climb that mountain to help you down will be someone from the river. Make sure you respond appropriately when that happens.

As a social network without the internet, it’s simple to retrace how our network was built. Our central node was the annual pro-am skateboarding contest held each summer at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the only east coast opportunity for us to meet the pro skaters that we saw in the pages of Thrasher Magazine each month.

More importantly, we meet each other. In 1983, the same year that Transworld Skateboarding Magazine began publication, each major metropolitan area in the non-coastal east boasted maybe 5-10 hardcore skateboarders. In the summer of 1983, there were about a dozen skate ‘zines published: Squid Meat from Dayton, OH, Rolling Papers from Oak Ridge, TN, The Monthly Shredder from Huntington, WV, to name a few.

We built the network by traveling thousands of miles each year to skate each other’s ramps, hold contests, and hang out with like-minded individuals. We built it. We shared it. No one owned it. Out of it came a lesson in social media that is relevant today as PR professionals seek to understand the occasional backlash against their incursion into social media.

As I mentioned earlier, Transworld Skateboarding Magazine (TWS) entered the market at a bad time for skateboarding (much to their credit). Their main competitor, Thrasher, spoke to skaters who understood the Skate or Die mentality that was reinforced by the mainstream press declaring their favorite pastime dead or a passing fad, like disco.

Transworld tried to differentiate itself by rejecting the Skate or Die attitude and pursuing more of a boy scout image for skateboarding. It wasn’t the most popular move but it got some dialogue going. In an effort to further grab some street cred, TWS posted a list of all the ‘zines it had received, without asking permission from the owners of the ‘zines. This created a backlash from some ‘zine publishers.

TWS thought it was doing a good thing by helping to get the word out, but ‘zine publishers prided themselves on building their own networks and choosing who could be in it. Now they were being flooded with requests for subscriptions for a ‘zine that they spent their hard-earned dollars creating and mailing.

Thrasher had maintained a list of ‘zines but it had already established itself as part of the network by hiring Garry Davis, the creator of one of the first skate ‘zines (Skate Fate). TWS thought it could instantly join the network but learned otherwise.

A few years later, I became the managing editor for TWS. I dealt with that betrayal of trust for a couple more years, even though I was well respected in the skateboarding world.

If you’re looking to join a network in order to promote a product or service, take the time to learn about it before taking any action.

Takes too much time should never be an excuse when finding the best way to communicate with your audience. People said the same thing about bringing email into the organization. I’ll bet some people said the same thing about phones way back in the day.

The sooner you start using and understanding new tools, the easier it is for your employees and your organization to adapt. The longer you wait, the more frustrated your employees and your audience will become.

There are many people doing the research for you. Take a little time to learn what they have to say.