Some great points here.

Within my lawyer profession we have all got LinkedIn accounts… and yet only a handful of us use them to join discussions, ask or answer questions, join groups or post content. And they wonder why their LinkedIn accounts are not working…?

In a recent talk I gave one delegate sweetly pointed out that no sooner had he opened his LinkedIn account than people started to want to connect and, well, you know, Link In with him. That proved too disconcerting for him.

I recall discussing the illusion that the internet, and social media/networking in particular, can feel very alluring, as if it has all the answers if only we can solve the riddle.

That is not the case. It is just another means of communicating – but for all of that, wow, what a means for those who are curious, patient and consistent.

I love the JFDI point. It took me two hours last night to set up a web presence for a venture, with its own URL and wordpress.com providing an adequate level of online representation.

We need to find ways to carry over the excitement and sense of achievement that comes from the immediacy of those initial account opening experiences into the more demanding aspects of ongoing content creation and maintenance.

As I write it occurs to me that we can do that perhaps by celebrating the smaller milestones more. A strategised approach with bite sized goals can allow for this.

Your first hundred followers? Doesn’t mean a thing in isolation, but it shows growth. You’re headed in the right direction. Encourage that, nurture that growth and celebrate it.

Once you have got momentum, then you can start pruning back, refining and distilling the following and followers, fine-tuning content and the like.

But you are still going to have to do it and keep at it. Stay encouraged.