I always hated the idea of Social Networking because publishing personal information to the public frightened me. We’re living in the times of Too Much Information (TMI). In the 1990′s I would laugh at those who consistently changed their “away” message on AOL Instant Messenger. A friend of mine was so infatuated that every time he showered, he would update his auto responder to “I’m hoping in the shower, be back in 20 minutes”.
So you can see my sarcasm when I chuckle at those who constantly login to their profiles making updates throughout the day-giving up-to-the-minute statements of their activities, commenting on photos, and installing profile applications that further invade their privacy. But make no mistake; this is marketplace that should be tapped into. It is a great opportunity to keep up with marketing trends and find new relevant leads.
LinkedIn is a network every business should be involved in. It is an excellent way to associate connections, find people you’ve worked for in the past, collect valid testimonials, and analyze the size and capabilities of competing companies. It also features groups so you can collaborate with others in your field. You can also recruit new employees based on the profiles of its members.
Here are a few tips to make the most of LinkedIn:
- Require all of your employees to have an updated-well written-resume. Try not to think of the negative impact of an employee possibly leaving if they are found by a recruiter. Most likely, they keep an updated resume anyways.
- Require employees to solicit testimonials/recommendations from past employers or clients. This adds confidence to your to other companies that choose to work with you.
- Require each member of your staff to make their profile public and allow it to accept any incoming connection request.
- Create a company profile page and require all employees to be added as a “current employee”. This will link each profile to your corporate LinkedIn page.
- Be sure your web address is included on your company page and on the pages of each member of your staff. This is likely to increase your website’s PageRank.
- Integrate your company’s blog into your staff’s profiles using Bloglink or WordPress.
- Integrate feeds using the “Company Buzz” application.
- Get creative. Create groups and associations and invite people to join. This is about building a network.
Facebook is another system every business should use to expand their network. Not only can you see personalities of people within your network, you can use that data across the entire website to advertise products and services based on their profile data. Another benefit to using this service is the size of its user base. It is very likely that 8/10 people you know already have profiles.
Here are a few tips to make the most of Facebook:
- Go to Pages and create a company presence. This can be found in the advertising section at the bottom on the screen. Creating a page is free.
- Include your company’s logo, biography, hours of operation, and contact information within the page.
- Be sure your web address is included on your company page and on the pages of each member of your staff. This is likely to increase your website’s PageRank.
- Have each member of your staff become a “fan” of your company. This will link their profile to your company page.
- Write OpenSocial applications to make it more interactive.
- Consider adding applications that get more data from friends in your network. You would be surprised how birthdays, favorite movies, books, and places they’ve visited can greatly help your relationships.
- If you sell a product or service in a niche market, consider paying for advertising to benefit from their highly targeted and relevant sales tool.
Just like Facebook, Twitter was one of those services I swore I’d never use-until one day I tried it and got hooked. It allows you to make status updates throughout the day. Your connections are called “followers” and they are able to see your status and make replies. While this sounds like an impractical and ridiculous activity, I have found so much useful advice and tools here that I would have never found elsewhere.
Here are a few tips to make the most of Twitter:
- Create a Twitter profile with your company name, logo, and web address
- Create a custom theme that matches the colors and brand you use in your marketing materials.
- Install the Twitter app on Facebook and other Social Networking sites to keep your status in sync everywhere.
- Don’t go crazy with the Twitter updates, but try to Tweet at least twice per day to stay relevant.
- Only tweet about professional topics. Nobody needs to know that you’re doing the dishes.
- Invite friends and clients to use Twitter so they can become followers.
- Install Twitterific on your company and iPhone to make these updates easier.
