Increasingly businesses are utilizing  multiple social media outlets to connect with and engage customers or potential business partners.  For a small business keeping up with all of the social media sites can be a daunting task. But it is possible to utilize multiple social network tools to provide a uniform face to the world.


Personally, my first problem is keeping fresh content on all of the sites my company is currently active on (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and my company blog). Here are a few ways you can manage your social media presence to minimize time spent and maximize your company's visibility and credibility online.

First: I maintain a company blog to establish myself and my company as experts in the special education data tracking domain (yes, I do two blogs).  The way I manage this is to use scheduling features for my blog which allows me to write posts one or two months in advance and have them appear at regular intervals.  I mix this up with writing "current" blog posts in response to events in the news to keep my content fresh and interesting.  I try to never go more than a week without posting something new to my blog.

Second: I use TwitterFeed to automatically send my blog post titles and shortened URLs to Twitter.  This helps me to keep my twitter feed current.

Third: I use Hoot Suite to schedule other types of posts to my twitter account including, retweets of interesting tweets I see from people I am following, re-posting the links to my past blog entries and commentary on current events that I think will be of interest to my followers.  I try to post to twitter every day.  Again my goal is to keep my content current - not to become one of the twitterers that posts multiple times an hour.

Fourth: I use a custom background on my twitter page to allow me to brand my twitter account and keep it consistent with the image portrayed on my company website. You can put a variety of company relevant information in the Twitter background, including logos and contact informaiton. See my Twitter profile (ddtracinfo) for an example.

Fifth: I keep my company Facebook page current using RSS Grafiti which grabs all of my blog posts and all of my Twitter tweets and puts them on the Wall for my company page.  Again this helps to keep my Facebook profile current - so all I have to do is check in on the discussion board to see if people are asking questions I need to answer.

Sixth: I use Twitter to help with my business networking.  I used Twitters search feature to find people interested in or involved in the disability community and followed them.  Many of these people then followed me back. It is possible to invite those that follow you back to connect with you on LinkedIn to enhance the relationship. You obviously need to put the information in your Twitter account about the fact you are on LinkedIn and that you would be happy to connect.

Seventh: On LinkedIn it technically against the rules to have any personal contact info in your profile and depending on where you put it you could get your account suspended. But you can put your Twitter name in your LinkedIn account with out risk and on your Twitter account you can give people the information to connect on LinkedIn.  In addition, you can invite you rLinkedIn connections to follow you on Twitter. Twitters more lenient policies on chatting with others allow you to communicate more easily.

These are very simple ideas but they do add tremendous power to your social media networking if you use them to your advantage.

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http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2009/07/using-twitter-to-help-your-linkedin-networking-and-vice-versa/

Labels: blogging, facebook, linkedin, social media, twitter

Once you have created your basic profile on LinkedIn and connected to the people you know there are a number of extra steps you can take to build your credibility within the site. The LinkedIn site allows you to do a few key things that will help you gain followers, show off your expertise and, possibly, find a new job or investors.

Start a group: Linked in allows you to create groups which can be an extremely powerful assets for your personal brand. If you start a group in an area you want to establish yourself as an expert in you are automatically portraying yourself as a leader. Groups can take time to establish, but if you deliver news content, promote helpful articles and regularly start discussions on topics that will be of interest to group members you can greatly enhance perceptions of your expertise on those topics (see Dave Taylor's Secret of Linkedin Groups for more info).

Create a Company Profile: As an entrepreneur, one of  your primary focuses must be on promoting and enhancing the credibility of your company.  LinkedIn supports this by allowing you to create a company profile.  While LinkedIn company profiles are generally short, simply having one does make your company appear to be a real company in the eyes of people evaluating you online.

Use LinkedIn Applications: If you have a blog, then you should definitely use either the “WordPress” or “Blog Link”applications.  This will show two or three of your recent blog posts on your profile. This helps you keep your profile current and (again) allows you to show off your expertise to the LinkedIn community.  Other applications that can be used to demonstrate your expertise are “Slideshare Presentations” and "Box.net Files." 


Update your status: Make sure that your LinkedIn status message is extremely professional because the audience is more career minded people and hiring managers.

Ask and answer questions: If someone in your network asks a question pertaining to an area that you have knowledge in, you should answer it.  By participating in these types of discussions, whether you’re asking or answering them, you are perceived as a valuable contributor to your network and someone to go to if people need help.

Conclusion

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool to demonstrate your expertise to individuals and companies that you might want to have a professional relationship with. Adding additional information to profile can help you expand your networks awareness of the scope of your talents. However there are some things you should think of before adding to your profile:

• When asking a question, make sure it is articulate, relevant and that it is note easily answered from other sources. Close you questions once you get a good response and be sure to rate responses you get so respondents know you value their input.
• When answering questions make sure that you take the time to give a thoughtful andswer that highlights your expertise.
• When contributing auxiliary informaiton (e.g. via Blog Link or SlideShare) make sure it is a professional blog that will be relevant to your connections.
  

As with creating you initial profile (see http://dawngregg.com/news/2009/09/enhancing-your-credibility-with-linkedin.html) it is important that all the auxiliary information you contribute to LinkedIn enhance your credibility (instead of detracting from it). 

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References:

• Using Linked In: http://www.avangate.com/articles/using-Linkedin-125.htm
• Creating your Personal Brand on Linked In: http://mashable.com/2009/07/27/linkedin-personal-brand/

Labels: linkedin, social media, tips

LinkedIn is all about developing your professional network that you can potentially use to improve your career or the success of your start-up. Once you have created your profile (see my last post on creating a credible profile) you will want to start to build a network of contacts that can help you build your company.

In LinkeIn your network consists of first, second and third degree connections.  First degree connections are  people you know and they are the center of your network. Each person connected to your direct connection makes a second degree connection and those who are linked to your second degree connections, make up your third degree connections.  Your first, second and third degree contacts are visible to you and can help you with career opportunities, answer your questions or help you connect with potential employees.

Building your Network

There are a number of things you can do to start building your network of connections:

• Import your contacts from  Windows Live, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! and AOL.  You can also search through lists of LinkenIn members that went to your college or had the same employer and invite those people to join your network.
• Invite professional contacts, business partners and clients who are not LinkedIn members to set up accounts, this way your network broadens.
• Get introduced. LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to contact somebody directly unless you have their email address or you hlist the same school or employer.  To connect with these people you have to find a mutual connection that could forward an Introduction on your behalf. There is a limit of five Introductions per month at the free basic account!
• Use InMail (if you have a paid account) to send private messages to any LinkedIn user without showing your email addresses. You can see these messages only if they are accepted by the recipient. 
• Promote your URL by taking your distinct LinkedIn profile URL and puting it  in your email signature, on your traditional resume, on your blog, your website, your presentations, and possibly on your business card.

When asking people to connect with you on  LinkedIn there are a number of best practices you should follow:

• Always include a personal message that offers good reasons for making the connection. 
• You can put value items, free reports, links, resources, tools, and even connections in this message.
• You should make sure the language of th message is professional and that it does not contain any spelling or grammar mistakes.
• You should never put anything in this message re selling your products or services.
  
• Avoid being intrusive.
• Don’t send invitations to people you don’t know and don’t accept invitations from people you really don’t know  (see LinkedIn Etiquette for best practices for connecting to people)
• If you invite someone to LinkedIn, remember to remind that particular person under what circumstances you two have met and then you can choose to connect.

If someone decides to connect with you it is always a good idea to thank them for connecting.  Again in this message you want an offer of value - what you can do for them, not a sales pitch or description of all the great products and services you think you have.

Getting References

Once you have begun to develop your network of contacts you are going to want to ask some of them to provide recommendations for you.  Recommendations allow people on LinkedIn to describe why you are a good person to work with - and they appear right in your profile. You have control over what recommendations appear in your profile so if you don’t agree with the things written about you, you can reject the recommendation. The more good recommendations you can get the better you will look in the eyes of recruiters and potential investors or business partners.

Note: the ability to reject recommendations is a feature you need to be aware of when evaluating people on LinkedIn as well.  Since negative information can easily be blocked by LinkedIn users, LinkedIn recommendations are a good place to start evaluating a candidate - but they are by no means a substitute for traditional channels for obtaining references.

Provide Value to Your Network

One of the principles of effective networking is to provide value to you network connections.  When creating your network you likely are focusing on those connections that can potentially be of value to you - but equally important is to think of how you can be of value to them.

Once you have linked to someone try  to connect with them to see if there is anything you can do for them. One way to do this is to look at their profile to see if you have any connections  that they might be interested in knowing.  You might also be able to identify a resource such as a website or a blog that would be of use to them. You may find that if you contact them with something that they might find useful - they will be more likely to think of you when a pottential opportunity arises.

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References:

• Using Linked In: http://www.avangate.com/articles/using-Linkedin-125.htm
• Creating your Personal Brand on Linked In: http://mashable.com/2009/07/27/linkedin-personal-brand/
• How to Use the LinkedIn Profiles of Others to Improve Your Network: http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2009/07/how-to-use-linkedin-the-profiles-of-others-to-improve-your-network/

Labels: linkedin, social media, tips

LinkedIn is currently the premier professional online networking site.  Currently the site has  over 47 million registered users in over 200 countries and territories around the world. According to the LinedIn website, executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies are members.

However, in conversations with many people in my personal LinkedIn network, it is apparent many of them joined LinkedIn because it is the "thing to do" and are uncertain how to leverage the site for personal and professional gain. Many people think that you should be on LinkedIn if you  are looking for a job or are interested in doing hiring.  But LinkedIn offers a number of benefits beyond recruiting that entrepreneurs can use to build their business, including:

• Manage the information that’s publicly available about you or your company
• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject area experts who can help you grow your company
  
• Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
• Discover inside connections that can help you close deals

There are really three primary steps to building your personal credibility with LinkedIn, today I am going to talk about how to build a credible profile.

Creating your profile

Your LinkedIn profile summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. Your profile is your calling card on LinkeIn and many business professionals indicate it is one of the first places they check when looking for informaiton on potential employees or business partners.  So, it is essential that your LinkedIn profile create a positive first impression.

To create a profile you first need to create a free LinkedIn account, then you can add a variety of information to your profile

• Snapshot: An overview of your name, location, past positions, education, recommendations, and links to your websites. Use a meanigful headline under your name, this is what members see first. It defaults to your current title, but you can change this.
  
• Status: Your status message allows you to share professional updates with your network. 
• Photo: Be sure to include a professional photo
• Summary: This is intended to be a short paragraph summarizing your professional experience and goals.  It should be engaging and short. In the first paragraph of your summary, try to say a few words about you, as well as talking about your professional experience. Be sure to include your unique abilities and differentiators, such as industry awards and honors.Include a second paragraph that discusses your career aspirations.
  
• Specialties: List your areas of expertise.
• Experience: List your professional experience, include position descriptions, what the company does, and what your main responsibilities and accomplishments were. 
• Education: List all of the schools you ateended, degrees received along with associated activities and honors.
• Additional Information: Often overlooked, the additional informationsection can provide a richer picture of you as a person and should definitely be completed along with the other parts of the profile.  It includes:
  
  
  
  • Websites: link to up to 3 websites (e.g. personal blog, company website). Instead of leaving each title (for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL.
    
  • Interests: list the things that you enjoy doing, learning about, etc
  • Groups and Associations: either list professional organizations or display badges of LinkedIn groups that you are a part of
  • Honors and Award
  
  

When creating your profile there ate a few things you can do to enhance your credibility and make it easier for people to find you.

Create a Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.”  To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, you’ll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial.

Change your Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job you’ve had, unless you change it manually.  I recommend that you revise your headline provide the information you most want LinkedIn members to see.  This can be the name of the job you want to have or a unique ability you want to highlight (e.g. Social Networking Expert).

Do not use your email address in your profile: It is advisable not to put your email address under your name on your profile. Putting the email address there, make people aware that you are willing to connect with just about anyone which could damage your credibility.  It also makes your email address available to spam emailers, something most people want to avoid doing. It is better to leave the email address out and have people interested in contacting your go through InMail or a mutual friend in order to get in contact with you.

Maximize your Specialties Section of your Profile: The summary section of your LinkedIn profile is the one place where you get to showcase your (our your business's) talents. The secret to maximizing your summary is use the “specialties” section of the summary to list any unique or extensive skills that may be superior to your competition. Use this section to set yourself (and your company) apart.

As an example, check out my LinkedIn profile: View Dawn Gregg's profile

Conclusion

Your LinkedIn profile needs to be completely professional and absolutely flawless because people will be using it to evaluate you and your company.  It is essential to keep your profile up-to-date so you are always creating the best possible impression on anyone that may want to do business with you.

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References:

• Using Linked In: http://www.avangate.com/articles/using-Linkedin-125.htm
• Creating your Personal Brand on Linked In: http://mashable.com/2009/07/27/linkedin-personal-brand/
• Maximizing the Specialties Section of Your LinkedIn Profile http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2009/09/maximizing-the-specialties-section-of-your-linkedin-profile/

Labels: eimage, linkedin, social media