Ryan Alford is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com, a global software provider with its U.S. headquarters in Denver. Ryan is also known for his snowshoeing expertise and owns the world’s foremost online publication for the sport: SnowshoeMagazine.com.  Connect with him on LinkedIn or via Twitter at @InsightSoftware and @SnowshoeMag. This is his first contribution to SmartBrief Insights.

I hated Twitter.  Facebook was an irritation.  LinkedIn was only useful if unemployed or job searching.  Even blogging was a chore.  Laziness aside, I’m always the one to stray from the mainstream and pursue the path less travelled.  I quickly discovered that the social media path was far more profitable and — although fraught with digital noise — easier to negotiate.  As I slowly absorbed a social media plan into my daily activities, I stopped kicking and screaming after I experienced immediate ROI.  The only investment I made was an investment of time.  No big deal.

I first entered the social media world via an online publication I created called Snowshoe Magazine.  My mission was fairly simple: Preach about the sport of snowshoeing via feature articles and unique online resources.  I aimed to have SnowshoeMag.com become the hub for all things related to the sport, which included a calendar of events and first-timer resources.  I printed and distributed one edition of the magazine, which proved extremely costly and nowhere near profitable.  After about five years of trying to make it work, I was about to give up and virtually fold the magazine.  Then, Twitter and Facebook came to the rescue.

In the beginning, my social media pursuits were experimental.  I became fixated on being involved for the sake of just being involved; I was aimlessly prodding along and tweeting/shooting at anything that moved.  “Retweeting” was not part of my vernacular.  However, like many things in life, I had to try by jumping in without knowing what was lurking in the water.

After a few months, I was fully engrossed with Twitter and Facebook.  My followers and fans were quickly growing and I was steadily morphing my social media strategy at the same time.  Nobody cared about what I was doing personally; they wanted quick links to resources and news articles.

As soon as I realized what it was my audience craved, I immediately jumped.  My snowshoeing social network was alive.  It was busy.  My website traffic was surging.

I quickly redesigned my site to incorporate my Twitter and Facebook pages.  It all seemed to finally come full circle.  I couldn’t be stopped.  My little basement operation – known as Snowshoe Magazine – was receiving mainstream attention.  Advertisers swooned and journalists searching for more information on the sport were knocking on my e-mail door.  My goal of introducing the sport to more people throughout the world was actually working.

Now that I tested the strategy, I had to apply it to a full-time job.  There was a catch: I had to morph it from a “business-to-consumer” strategy to “business-to-business.”

Note: Part 2 in this series will run May 26.

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