photo by quartermane

As I was working on a presentation on social media for a group of independent schools communication professionals this weekend, it occurred to me that I might be asked the “best tool” question: What’s the best tool for monitoring my Twitter stream? What’s the best tool for embedding media in my blog posts? What’s the best tool for social bookmarking of the websites I want to track?

The short answer is that I have no friggin’ clue what the best tool for anything is. On any one of those (and many other) questions, I’ve spent a lot of time doing background research, looking at what people whose work I respect are using, trying and discarding and replacing various tools, etc.

For example, I just started using Seesmic Desktop to keep on eye on Twitter after starting out with TweetDeck. I find the interface to be a lot cleaner, more intuitive and just more attractive to look at. Who knows how long that will last? There’s always the next shiny toy right around the corner.

I briefly tried Zemanta for embedding multimedia in my site (and still use it a little), but right now I’m using Apture because I’ve found it simpler for me to use. I’m still trying to find the right balance between too little and too much content-rich linking, though.

I love using Delicious for bookmarking, although I know I’m only using it to a fraction of its potential. But I’m learning.

The issue for most people just starting out isn’t choosing the right tools. It’s getting started. It’s so easy to paralyze yourself with the search for just the right tool or process or word or whatever. Writers in particular fall easy prey to this notion that it needs to be flawless. That’s one reason a novelist can take decades to finish a book and I may never finish mine.

Starting this blog could have easily taken me several more months as I tried to understand and master everything I’d need to make it perfect. Guess what? It’s nowhere near what I envision it will be. I don’t have all the skills … yet. But my choice was between putting out something that I think has some value and not being out there at all.

Don’t let the overwhelming complexity of social media tools and practices prevent you from getting started. Take baby steps. Get it wrong. Go down the wrong road, turn around and take another path. Trial and error isn’t a bad thing. Failure isn’t the worst thing that can happen. It’s how we learn. And believe me, I’m learning something new every day.

art by carrotcreative

Copyblogger has a good post on how Twitter can help develop your writing skills.

Twitter poses a great challenge: how to communicate something of value in 140 characters or less. Unfortunately there are a lot of twits out there who use it as a stream-of-consciousness sharing of their every thought. That’s also the problem I have with Facebook, by the way—too much sharing without thinking. Repeat after me: Not every thought I have is worth sharing.

Whether you’re promoting a  business, a cause or just yourself, Twitter can be a powerful tool … but only if you’re offering content of value. Otherwise you’re just adding more noise to the cacophony.