Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Business

The main purpose of LinkedIn is networking. When starting up or trying to expand your business your network is the best place start. There are a few simple steps to take to get this process rolling.

1. Your Profile is where you should start:

• Make sure to make it as complete as possible, profile picture, work history and include the company link (if they are listed in the Company portion, it will populate for you), work history description (this is similar to what your resume should look like)
• Education information - this is another way to connect, through your schools so list them
• Websites - use good descriptions (not the generic ones given) then list all websites, social networks that you would want potential partners, employers or customers to view
• Twitter - connect to your twitter page (your business should have one of these) you may have a personal one as well, they allow multiple Twitter links
• Post Updates - you can automatically post these to Twitter at the same time, include links, share news about your business. This is a great tool to utilize.

2.  Connect to as many people you know as possible:

• Start with using the utility which allows you to search your email address book.
• Next go to the "People You May Know" section on your home page
• Finally if you want to look into specific companies, search the company and see the degree of connection you are to employees there.  You can contact them via email for an introduction.

3.  The Companies section is your next step:

• Search the companies you are interested in connecting with
• You can follow them to receive updates, when they post them
• You can look through connections to try to get introduced (this is an option button as well)

4.  Your Company Listing - make sure you create a listing for your company as well and complete it with description of services.  Have all of your employees creat profiles and link to the company as well.

5.  Groups, join them!  Find industry related groups and join them, start discussions, participate in discussions and follow them.  This is also a very good way to create new connections, through common interest and sharing of knowledge.

Here is another great resource for further detail on how to utilize LinkedIn:
http://linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/

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5 Signs You Need a Social Media Break

Social media is about interaction, conversations, networking, sharing. Those of us who partake in it enjoy it and usually contribute but everyone needs a break from time to time. We need a break from work, family and most things in life, including our Twitter and Facebook accounts. At least I hope you need a break occassionally. Here are some signs it might be time!

1. You wake up and the first thing you need to do is check your email, facebook, linkedin... all or any of your accounts.

2. You keep your phone next to you at all times, even while sleeping and if you hear the familiar ring that you have a new message you even occassionally wake up to check it.

3. People in your life start to complain or tune out when you constantly check your phone or give them only half of your attention.

4. You are finding out major life news about babies, weddings and more via posts instead of phone or face-to-face conversations.

5. Your network knows more about what's going on with you on a daily basis then your own family and close friends.

If any of these sounds familiar then get ready to take a break. How do you do this? I'm not sure what works for you, to each their own right? I have recently decided to do this and social media is my business. It started with a long weekend and has extended into an open-ended absence. Maybe just lightening my load and lessening my involvement for a while.

Should you pre-schedule tweets and posts?
Should you draft blog entries in advance?
Should you notify people what is going on?

These things are all up to you. Think about it and remember: The world is not nearly as obsessed with you as you are.

What do you think, have you taken a break? Do you have some tips to share?

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How to plan a vacation using social media

Summer is almost here and along with it will be lots of travel plans. Long weekends or weeks away. Whether your destination involves beaches, countryside or mountains social media can help! There are 4 simples steps:

1. Research - Look into the many useful resources that provide information, reviews and insight into any destination.  Make sure you check out a variety of resources.  A few popular places to start would be:

• Wikitravel - "Open source travel guide featuring up-to-date information on attractions, hotels, restaurants, travel tips and more."
• TripAdvisor - "is dedicated to providing you with honest, unbiased reviews of cities, hotels, resorts and attractions throughout the world."
• Vacations To Go - A website that "helped more than two million travelers save hundreds of millions of dollars on discount cruises!"
• Concierge.com - "is the ultimate site for vacation ideas, travel guides and trip planning tools, with maps, photos, and videos; restaurant and hotel reviews"

2. Planning - Now it's time to get organize.  The trip is booked, what activities will you do, what is your timeline, how to get feedback from everyone going?  Where to start, here are a few choices:

• Facebook - Use your social network for some input, if your traveling partners have profiles, contact each other and share information via your page.
• Google Docs - Email is an easy, private or shared communication then move to documents in Google docs, you can start your itinerary and share it with traveling companions.
• Tripit - " Create a vacation itinerary online. Simply forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and watch as TripIt creates a master vacation itinerary with flight and hotel details, maps, directions, and local weather."

3. Go Mobile - Use your iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, laptop or whatever tool you prefer to stay connected while on the go.

• Most phones now come with a mapping or GPS system that can help you get around, check it out and learn how to use it before you head out to your vacation destination.
• Yelp & Zagat to go - Both provide reviews of area restaurants, attractions and more.  If you change up your itinerary or want to include something spontanious check it out first.
• Foursquare - If you are in a location that is actively involved you can get ahead and find useful information.

4. Have FUN and Share - Now that you are living your vacation dream take pictures, let friends and family know what you are doing and share your thoughts of new experiences.

• Flickr & Picasa - Allows you to upload and share photos easily
• YouTube - Allows you to share video clips easily
• Facebook & Twitter - Share status updates, pics and more with friends and family

These are just a few of the many resources in our social media landscape that can enhance your vacation planning experience.  Do you have more recommendations?

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3 Tips for Social Media Etiquette

Social Media continues to have a significant influence on our society. Many people participate and have profiles on the online communities and platforms. Being a part of them is great but we should all be smart and consider our manners, just like we would in networking face-to-face. Helpful hints for your online etiquette:

1. Be honest - Start when filling out your profile information. Whether for fun or business, sharing information about yourself is your choice. How much to share, what to share, but be honest when sharing. Nobody is happy to find out they have been tricked or lied to. When commenting and participating be honest as well, these platforms are for us to communicate and get to know or help each other out so be true to their form.

2. Learn to Listen - Social media is a multi-way communication for listening, sharing and spreading information. If you only do the sharing and talking people will probably stop listening to you after a while. Follow the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time listen, help, share, 20% of the time promote yourself.


3. Be respectful of the community - Listen, read and learn how the platform you are joining works.  There will be a natural etiquette on different sites and you should respect it.  LinkedIn tends to be more professional and focused for networking.  Facebook is more casual and personal.  When joining groups, or smaller niches of a larger platform this is a strong consideration, some even have rules to follow.

Go out there and enjoy, exude the class you have while doing it!  Any other etiquette suggestions?

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10 Tips for Promoting your YouTube video

You have spent time making your video clip, uploading it to YouTube and you are ready to see the view numbers starting climbing right? How do you make that happen... 

1.  Add your YouTube video to video search engines.  Some great places to start would include, blinks.com, truveo.com, en.fooooo.com, clipblast.com, dobble.com.

2.  Make sure titles, tags and descriptions are optimized for search engines (SEO).  Think of how your target audience would search to find the video, carefull choose your words.

3.  Include your brand on video.  Introduction, credits, wherever you find appropriate include your companies logo, name and website.

4.  Investigate top video trends.  See what videos are at the top and get ideas from what has made them successful.

5.  Include links to your YouTube account in email signatures. 

6.  Share it with friends and family and encourage them to forward and spread the word.

7.  Include links and discuss your video in your blog, RSS feed always helps with SEO.

8.  Make video responses on YouTube.  Find popular videos, comment and you have created a link to your page.  Stay relevant with your comments as well as positive.

9.  Create playlists, this can help to organize your videos as well as make it easier for people to find them.

10.  Take advantage of YouTube emails and bulletins.  Email other users and create bulletins from your profile to other users' channel pages.

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5 Tips for a Safe Facebook Profile

Facebook is for networking, sharing things about yourself, staying connected easily with friends and family... right? Sadly this is still a world were people use the Internet to gather information and use it for harm. So let's be smart and always safe. I've made many of the mistakes I'm about to list on my personal page, it's easy to share too much without thinking about it. So here it goes, let's all be more aware...

1. Don't share your full birthday on your profile - This is valuable information for identity thefts that can gather further information based off this date and your name.

2. Do use a strong password - Make sure it's not too personal including names, numbers or words that could be easily connected to you. Mix it up, include numbers and symbols.

3. Don't provide your location - Don't let people know where you are, then they also know where you are not, which could be at home and allows to much information for potential theft.

4. Don't mention your child's name - Not only should you be careful where you have it on your page (if you have people who are not close friends) but also in picture captions. If that photo is tagged then many people outside your network have the potential to learn your child's name.

5. Do fine tune privacy controls - They are there to help, so go in and set them up. Also, set up groups so only certain people in your network can see your photo and personal information.  Then use the controls so nobody outside your network can access any of your information.

Be smart, Be safe and have fun. Facebook is a great, just make sure you use it right.  Do you have other helpful tips to share on being safe?

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Top 20 Social Media Quotes

There are so many, I chose the 20 that made an impact on me or made me laugh, after reading them. Please enjoy and feel free to add more.

"Social Media is the new black." - Annie Heckenberger


"The only way to put out a social-media fire is with social-media water.” – Ramon DeLeon, managing partner of six Domino’s stores in Chicago


“Privacy is dead, and social media hold the smoking gun.” – Pete Cashmore, Mashable CEO


“Twitter is like a tragically hip New York night club. It is a cool, easy way for companies to engage customers in social media. But the experience can be loud and crowded.” – Bob Warfield, CEO of Helpstream


“It’s hard to get lice out of your head, and there’s no easy cure for shaking off campaign-based thinking, either.” – David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media at 360i


“Quit counting fans, followers and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.” – Amber Naslund, Social Media Today


“You can be professional while also ‘keeping it real’ with your customers. By interacting with customers in a less formal way, you’ll build a strong human connection that helps build brand loyalty.” David Hauser, co-founder of Grasshopper


“The hardest thing for marketers is to turn over the brand experience to the community and let them define it.” – Eric Erwin, VP of marketing and product development at Wilton


“There’s a reason there’s only one Times Square and only one Las Vegas. We don’t want to be swimming in ads.” – David Spark, Socialmedia.biz


“The difference between PR and social media is that PR is about positioning, and social media is about becoming, being and improving.” – Chris Brogan, author of “Trust Agents”


"We no longer search for the news, the news finds us." Erik Qualman, author of "Socialnomics"


"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks." - Unknown


“I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super-social media site – YouTwitFace.” – Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show


“If content is king, then conversion is queen.” -John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka


“This isn’t a direct marketing tool, this is human communication.” -Rob Key, CEO of Converseon


“Social media should improve your life, not become your life!” - Patrick Driessen, CEO of Seed Accelerator


“I think the internet will help bring about world peace. If you have 10 facebook friends in a country, would you feel a bit different about bombing it? The line between "us" and "them" is getting blurry, and for many, it's already disappeared.” - Dan O'Donnell


"People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.” – Seth Godin

“Stop looking at the Web as merely a display opportunity and not a way to interact. That does not create a new business model, it just shifts one that isn’t growing and is outdated. The reason sites like Google are stealing advertisers from daily newspapers is not because Google has more eyeballs. It’s because Google used the interactivity of the Web to deliver a new, better way to advertise.“ – Sarah Lacy

“Social networks aren’t about Web sites. They’re about experiences.” – Mike DiLorenzo, social media marketing director of NHL

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