October 5, 2011. The day that Steve Jobs left the World despite leaving quite a legacy. I said to myself I wouldn’t write a post on Steve Jobs.

Not because I didn’t want to, but because there would be plenty posts that pretty much summed up some of my thoughts on the man.

From thinking these last couple weeks, Jobs taught us a lot of things. And ironically, he can teach us some solid social media lessons.

Why ironic? Apple doesn’t have a social media presence, though if they ever need someone to head that up, give me a call.

Lesson Number One: Don’t Go The Mediocre Path

Steve Jobs was known to be a ruthless leader. He worked hard to go beyond mediocrity and create something amazing. If Apple focused on making okay products, they’d be a fraction of the company they are today. Same goes with your social media presence.

Go big or go home comes to mind. Work hard in creating something of great value and focus on giving great value in your content and conversations. There’s plenty of other businesses and individuals out there that do the same thing as you. What separates you from the rest is your work, the value you put out, and your personality.

Lesson Number Two: Keep It Simple

If there’s one thing about Apple products, it’s that they are simple. This simple design and process with all their products are what allows customers to connect on more levels than one. We can apply this simple philosophy to our social media profiles.

Ever see a Facebook page with a gazillion tabs and on more than one of these tabs, too much going on? Forget that. Keep it simple and people will be more likely to connect with you whether that’s follow you, “like” you, subscribe to your blog, or contact to do business with you.

Lesson Number Three: Acknowledge Failure And Move On

Steve Jobs failed on more than one occasion. There were many Apple products that never made it, but they weren’t forgotten. What went wrong and what didn’t work was looked at and they’d rebound to the next project.

This isn’t just a good social media lesson, but a good life lesson. Things won’t always go the way we want or anticipate and even potentially blow up in our face. It’s rebounding from failure that will get us to success and not dwelling too long on failures.