Using Path to Streamline Your Social Media
Path is an app that is designed to change the “more connections are better” paradigm of most social media sites. The big focus on growing our audience and reach on social media is attracting more Facebook friends and likes, more followers on Twitter, and increasingly higher levels of broad engagement.
Yet this strategy begs the question of what goals this is helping us achieve? It also brings into focus some of the complications that arise with massive networks that bring together the various streams within your network, from personal to academic to professional.
But Path was constructed on a different model; this network is designed to help you recapture the intimacy factor of really being able to share your life with a select group of people. The app caps your friend limit at 50 friends. This could be used as a closed, private network comprised of friends, family, and colleagues. Or it can be strategically used in different professional contexts.
The app itself is constructed in a timeline fashion, allowing you to share important moments through images, video, and status updates. It also offers a variety of emotions that you can express in response to things that are posted, that go beyond the standard “like” or “+1.” It has aptly been described as a “less clinical” version of Facebook’s timeline.
What’s the core value proposition?
Path was designed to create a safe space for you to actively network and share openly, but in an environment where privacy is guaranteed and questions of using complex gating strategies to determine who sees what content are not relevant.
Because many of us have various circles that we walk in, using Facebook or Twitter is often a balancing act. We want to share things with our families that we don’t want to share with our clients, and there is content that’s professional relevant that bores our friends and family. By using Path to focus your private social media activities, you create an environment where you can relate openly and honestly.
Other ways to use Path professionally
There are also creative ways that Path can integrate into your professional social media strategy.
Journaling: Another specific way to use Path is as more of a journal. The Automatic feature of Path enables Smart Journaling – it records when you visit neighborhoods and other events as they happen real time. This can be specifically true for capturing your business and entrepreneurial narrative, as well as your personal one.
Masterminding: Do you have a group of high impact colleagues or peers that you’d like to network with intensely such as those in your mastermind group? Perhaps you’re part of an established professional group and are trying to find a way to increase engagement? Path can be used as a tool for intensive interaction, including sharing specific project details and for things like accountability.
Colleague Circles: Are you part of a virtual team or company, and want to create a more immediate presence than Skype, Basecamp and email allow? Creative teams are using Path to document their professional experiences, and looking at them as collective virtual environments.
About Author:
“This is a guest post, written by Elizabeth Hooper on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk. Visit us for mobile broadband option to enhance your social media connectivity.”
