I have a new scribe and I need to get him up to speed fast with social media. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he is not alone. I talked to him for 2 hours yesterday and felt like I dumped wayyy too much info on him. With that being said, I decided to quickly enlist the Twitter nation for the 3 things that they would suggest when first jumping into social media. Here are 7 responses I received in the span of 10 minutes:

@portentint: Learn Google Reader, Sign up for Twitter, Use LinkedIn

@spartanvikas: start a blog and learn to link, read a lot about the sub from net, and self brand online and see for urself

@leahjones: find a few blogs that matter to them personally and add to rss reader. Personal interests draw you in.

@mhames: join Facebook, then join a group, do a Twitter search for their brand/keyword, join LinkedIn, answer a question.

@kenburbary: 1) Listen first to what you care about (keywords – you, your company, etc) using blogsearch, technorati, G alerts, twtter search 2) start to talk – tools depend on the situation/person. Could lead w/blogging, or twitter for example. pick the 1 that works 4 u

@Adgenius: 1) Goals: what do you want to accomplish 2) Target group: who do you want to reach 3) Start listening.. Without 1&2, don’t start then I’d say: 1) Listen 2) Trial 3) Engage

@AmberCadabra: 1) Read blogs in their area of interest, comment often 2) Get on Twitter and play 3) Read the Cluetrain to understand the “why” A big part of getting “feet wet” in social media is about understanding what makes it unique.

Great advice here, don’t you think? So if you’re just starting out, don’t be intimidated. Take it slow, and most of all…Listen! Any other suggestions? Feel free to chime on in!