Well, first you need to know it thoroughly yourself, so this assumes you are active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs.
- Show her people who are using these tools successfully. I showed my boss Beth’s Blog, Beth’s Blog’s Facebook Fan Page, and Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents Fan Page.
- Show her how to grab RSS feeds and add them to Google Reader.
- Show her how to search for topics of her interest that blogs write about to get her used to blogs. Do this by showing her how to use Technorati and Google Blog Search.
- Teach her how RTs, @ replies, shortened URLs, and advanced search work on Twitter.
- Give her Chris and Julien’s new book Trust Agents after you’ve finished it.
I’ve done all of these things with my boss, and it was a great success. Now that he understands what social media can do, we can start brainstorming how to use it to meet our organization’s goals. That’s going to be the hard part.