I still believe in the value of social media as a business promotion tool, but I’m taking a long look at who I follow and why.

980+ people are hard to keep track of and it’s beginning to feel a lot  like a online networking group to me. I’m following a lot of people in hope that they’ll notice how awesome I am and they’ll throw some work my way. Unfortunately, instead of spending time actually being awesome, I’m wading through tweet after tweet of shameless self-promotion and auto posts from Mashable & Techcrunch.

I think the value of social media is the ability to be authentic and engage people on a personal level. You don’t always make a immediate buck on it, but the return on investment comes in the long haul. A little shameless self-promotion isn’t bad, but too much and it loses the personal touch. You might as well buy broadcast time if that’s all you’re gonna do.

My battle cry for social media has been, “Don’t tell me how great you are. Show me!”

I think it’s time I heeded my own call.

Congrats to all the guys at StarNewsOnline.com! The MyReporter.com website recently won the Citizen Media Award in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

And what can you take away from this? A little quote from their announcement says it all…

“Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin had noticed editors and reporters were connecting with readers on Twitter and other social networking sites, and she saw that readers appreciated the personal connection to people who reported the news.”**

Using social media isn’t about just blatantly promoting yourself. Tootin’ your own horn a bit is ok, but if you’re not making personal connections then you’re probably not going to get a whole lot out of it. In fact, if all you do is toot away, you’re probably going to come off doing a good bit of damage.

link: MyReporter.com wins national media award

** BTW, local TV stations should take note. Simply tweeting teases like you’re tossing to break isn’t going to cut it.

Craig Thomas & Sheila Brothers have made the jump from WGNI to mornings on the yet to be launched Sunny 104.5. They’ll be broadcasting on WILM-TV as well from 6-7.

Like, wow!

link: StarNewsOnline.com