Together with LMC, who is hosting the event at the Bertrand Crossing Campus in Niles Michigan, we at SocialMarketingExpert.org  were keen to share our enthusiasm for this new communications channel and highlight the opportunities for organizations and businesses of all sizes and in a range of industries.
Managing Director Lizz Clarke said:
“We’ve been working with social media for some time now and have been delivering real benefits to our clients. We wanted to get involved with Social Media Day and know that there are still so many people who want to know more about social media but are uncertain where to start, or what will work best for their business. Our morning seminar will help to demonstrate how to integrate social media into a communications strategy, and offer case studies of successful projects as well as provide a chance for delegates to ask questions and share their experiences.”

We are finalizing the dates for the four events, so if live around the South Bend Indiana area, and you are interested in attending these social media webinars, contact Wayne Clayton @ socialmarketingexpert.org – PH: 5764-514-5095

* Brand/promote your company to millions of people across the world

* Use it as a recruiting/human resources tool for your company – find new employees or clients

Plaxo makes it easy to connect with both new and established business contacts. Plaxo is similar to other social networking sites but offers unique features such as:

Pulse – Main dashboard page allows you to see and interact with your contacts. You can post status updates, messages, etc. This is the hub of Plaxo. Suggested friends and your contacts’ birthdays are also shown on your Pulse page.

Share photos, videos, links and reviews with your contacts. You can maintain your own privacy and control what others can and can’t see on your page.

In the Profile section, you can add and share websites that you frequently use (such as Flickr, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)

Set up your profile and you decide what to share with others. This is a great marketing tool because you can also add your company name and bio information.

In the More section, you can sync your address books to your Plaxo account and add your business contacts (you have the option of connecting them as either friend or business contact)

Add Calendars from Yahoo, Google Mail and Outlook to Plaxo – helps keep you on track during your busy work week! It’s also compatible with Mac.

Set up Pulse and the address book on your mobile phone – network while on the go!

Ryze is a great way to build business contacts and increase company sales.

Business networking home page

* Re-connect with business contacts/colleagues you already know

* Interact and send personal messages other Ryze members

* Join specialized Networks according to your niche/industry, location and/or interests.

* When you sign up, Ryze sends you links of other business contacts in your geographical area (country, state, etc) to check out.

* Over 500,000 members in 200 countries

* Publicize company events, products and services on Networks

Naymz boasts over million members to help expand your professional networks. If you want to expand your business or career, this dynamic professional social networking platform does it all!

* Exchange ideas, status updates, etc. in “real time”

* Reputation Assessment/RepScore – Asks members to fill out assessment of contacts and score each other – encourages trust and relationship building amongst members (add ONLY quality contacts)

* Network Activity – Sends updates any time your contacts make changes to their profiles, etc.

* Reputation Monitor – Keeps tabs on your reputation. Sends you updates when your name/company name is cited on blogs, websites, social networks, etc.

* Visitor Reporting – Alerts you when someone visits your profile and allows you to see who’s interested in you/your company.

BizNik appeals to entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to help each other succeed. Biznik puts business contacts face-to-face with other in the virtual sense.

Biznik’s features include:
* Members use their real names and company information – allows for a stronger, reputable online presence

* Join appropriate niche/industry-related groups – allows you to interact and send direct messages to group members

* Write professional articles and share with other members in your industry – position yourself as an expert in your field

* Connect with business contacts specifically in your city (based on geographical locations/regions)

* Add company events to the “Events” Section (cross-promote special events, etc.)

* Biz Talk forums allow you to introduce yourself to other members, ask questions and share your professional experiences.

If you liked this article, please tell your friends about it. If you really liked it, feel free to publish it on your blog or website (please don’t forget to mention www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog as the original source).

Small business owners know the value of networking – it increases awareness while enabling them to meet new clients, vendors, and potential employees.  As networking contacts evolve into business acquaintances and friendships, they become trusted sources for problem solving and introductions to a wider network.  And that’s what an online networking site helps you do.

What it is:  Remember the expression ” It’s not what you know but who you know”?  Online networking sites are designed specifically to help businesses and jobseekers make connections. In other words, they help you leverage ‘who you know’.

LinkedIn has 20 million users, according to their website.  The site’s concept is much like “Six Degrees of Separation”.  You create a list of your trusted connections on the site.  Many of them will likewise have a list of their own connections.   And so on.  You have access to your direct connections as well as their connections (two levels deep).  So, the site offers a way to tap into the people you know, and also get access to the people that THEY know. Here are some ideas for how you can use those contacts.

Sales leads. For example, suppose you know the name of a business that you would like to call on. But you don’t know have a contact within the business. You can search your network of connections to see if anyone currently or previously worked for that target company. They can help you with that contact information. Even better, your contact may be willing to make an introduction.

Service providers and partners. If you’ve got a project and you’re not sure who the right vendor for the job might be, you can use your network to get recommendations.

Promotion. There are a couple of ways you might promote yourself via the site. When you join LinkedIn you create a profile. It includes your work history, affiliations, etc. Naturally, you’ll want to list your achievements, experience, and areas of expertise. Others will find you when keywords they search for are found in your profile. LinkedIn also has a space for contacts to recommend you. It’s visible and accessible by visitors. A third way to self-promote is by providing answers to questions posed by others. That can boost your credibility and establish your status as a subject matter expert. Reestablish former contacts. Include the names of your employers, colleges, and professional associations in your profile. You will then automatically be informed of possible connections to contact. It’s a nice way to quickly reestablish relationships and fill them in on your current business. Get answers. Business people can pose questions, so consider asking a question to find a new vendor, ask for new ideas, or test the market for your product concept. Company research. For example, if you’d like to understand a company’s buying policies, you might contact current or former employees of a company to get the scoop. LinkedIn can also be used to find or fill a job.

What you should do:

Take some time when creating your profile. Choose words to describe you and your business carefully for a complete, accurate and favorable impression. Care should be taken when creating the profiles to include meaningful key words, so that people can easily find you when they search.  The profile is the on-line equivalent of your 30-second “elevator speech”. Make sure the contacts you have a good relationship with the contacts you list in your network. Allocate time to work it. At first, expect to spend 30 minutes or more to create a solid profile. Then, spend a few minutes per day checking out your contacts and learning the power of the site.  Building your network will take several visits. Ask for recommendations.  The system makes it easy to ask for testimonials.  And that will significantly strengthen your profile.

This video from LinkedIn Success Stories shows Sasha Strauss, CEO of brand strategy consulting firm Innovation Partners, talking about how he used LinkedIn to hire everyone in his agency – through trusted referrals.

There is no doubt that LinkedIn is widely used in the business community as a type of “online resume.”  Anyone that has conducted a successful LinkedIn job search can tell you, it’s so much more than that. It’s a powerful tool to reach out to your industry in a new and credible way.  Follow these steps and  you’ll be one step closer to making strong connections to employers and industry recruiters on LinkedIn.

Step 1
Complete Your Profile
Your profile is like your online resume, only better, because people can endorse your work right on your profile.  If you haven’t fully completed your profile, you aren’t giving anyone enough information to determine if you are a person they would want to share networks with.  You are asking for people to open their rolodex to you, so to speak.  You must have a complete profile that shows them you are worthy networking partner.

Profile description with personality – this is the place where you need to sell yourself. Think “cover letter meets 30 second elevator pitch.”

List all positions – Listing all your past positions allows the system to find more people who you may already know or who have a workplace or school in common.  LinkedIn suggests people to network with based on information in your profile.

Education – For the same reason, list all the schools you attended.  It may seem silly to list your high school in a resume, but LinkedIn is different.  Since it uses this information to help bring people together, it’s important to include everything.  You never know where your fellow classmates ended up that may help your career.

Recommendations – Endorsements are always important.  LinkedIn is no exception.  Ask people from each sector of your worklife to endorse the work you did when they knew you.  Make sure you get clients, bosses, employees, vendors, etc.

Link to Website – You can provide up to 3 websites that relate to your work, either an online resume or your website if you have one, or one that you worked on.

SEO your profile – Always think “keywords, keywords, keywords” in everything you do online.  Make sure you that are using the same words when you write your profile that someone would use to search for someone like you.

LinkedIn Applications – Utilize the applications that are relevant, integrating blogs, presentations, etc.

Step 2
Reach Out – Build Your Network
When you make a first level connection with someone, it means you know them directly.  When you connect with someone, you gain a broader reach than just that person because all of the people that they know are now part of your network as 2nd level connections.  Similarly, all of the second level’s connections now become your third level connections.  What all this means is that you can exponentially grow your network by making smart connections to people you already know or strategic people in your industry. 

Building your network is helpful if you want to ask an industry question to your connections.  Your entire network is posed the question, so the more people you are connected to the more brains you are reaching.  When you get ready to search jobs, the broader your network is, the greater your access to jobs posted by your network.

Connect to people you already know – Import your address book to see who you know that is already on LinkedIn.  Reach out to colleagues, friends, classmates, vendors, etc.

Strategic new connections – See who your connections know.  Do you also know them?  Should you know them?  If so, invite them to connect with a personal message of why it would be beneficial for them to share networks with you.

Step 3
Build Credibility
http://www.linkedin.com/answers

LinkedIn’s Answers section is a great way to build your industry credibility in your online community.  If you have strategically connected with people in your industry, they will see your posed questions, or see that you have answered questions and come to realize that you are someone who has something meaningful to contribute. This can help you in a job search, or for general industry networking.

Step 4
Research
Once your profile has been built and you have begun your quest for online industry credibility, you are ready to start searching for positions posted by people in your network.

Search Jobs
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs
LinkedIn Jobs has openings posted by people in your network.  You can search LinkedIn only or you can search throughout the web for any jobs posted online that fit your search criteria.

JobsInsider tool
This LinkedIn tool allows you to see who you know at any company who has listed open jobs, request an introduction to the hiring manager and see open job postings at Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, SimplyHired, Dice, or Vault.  The link to download the tool is located at the bottom of each LinkedIn page:
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=jobsinsider_download&trk=hb_ft_jobsins

Companies Section
This section of LinkedIn contains information about various companies whose employees are on LinkedIn.  It will show you who is in your network at that company, who has recently been hired or promoted there and will list their open positions. It also shows you where people who work there used to work, and where they went after they worked there.  Knowing what’s up at a company is important for networking your way in.

Step 5
Request Introductions
When you are ready, you can request an introduction to someone in a company that either has an opening, or one that you wish you target.  Professionally request the introduction, letting them know why it would benefit the receiver to know you, so the referrer feels confident in making the introduction.  Make sure you have something to contribute. If it’s all about you, there is a chance your request will be ignored.    Once the introduction has been made, be sure to thank the referrer.  Make contact with the person and show them why connecting with you is a great career move for you both. 

Get Started!
Now you are well on your way to a successful job search via LinkedIn.  Be sure to commit time and effort to growing and maintaining your network.  Help put others in touch so they will help you in return.  Networking has always been a strong career development practice.  It hasn’t changed, we just have more tools available to help make it easier.  But just because it’s easier, doesn’t make it any less important.  Now get out there and network!

I’m only four months old in the social networking arena, and I admit that I’ve become less inhibited about requesting connections on Linkedin than when I started. I believe my Facebook participation has made me believe that anyone should be approachable. However, I do see the value in the Linkedin guidelines because it’s more of a business oriented site. FB is driven by social etiquette, and Linkedin is driven by business etiquette.

Because of the business etiquette on Linkedin, I ignore the invitations from people who look like they are mass marketers. I think they are using the wrong networking service. Facebook has built more of a culture on quantity, and I like that you can follow anyone…ANYONE; your favorite author, your favorite tennis player, favorite artist (as a fan.) It appears to break down any barriers and brings the world together. Finding new people to connect with and reading their profiles, comments, etc is addicting too, but is it worse than vegging in front of a TV for hours?

I teach workshops that help people understand and acquire business networking skills. I start by defining stages of relationship building, and add that according to our research (Contacts Count program; 17 years of research) it takes about six contacts to get to know someone’s character and competence. Hopefully this is done in person, but social networking sites can help us get to know someone….Help. We wouldn’t want to substitute online communication with person to person communication, I hope. There is research from the Stanford University’s Shyness Center that shows Americans are getting more shy- will the networking sites feed this trend by encouraging people to hide behind the computer screen?

Who would I recommend, or not recommend from a Linkedin contact? If I have never met someone in person, I might be able to see online activity that shows a sense of honesty, intelligence, politeness, and consideration (expressions used in writing, interests, work history, and how they contribute and help others.) Good character and competence are characteristics that I would think any hiring manager would like to see in a candidate.  Interview questions can predict future behavior based on answers which show historical behavior, right? So wouldn’t there be a good value attached to seeing someone on Linkedin who is proving to be a good source of information in their field? How quickly could I really learn about their character and competence and begin to trust them enough to go out on a limb and recommend them? It would depend on geography, groups and associations in common; frequency of contacts. Is meeting someone in person the deal breaker? Can I recommend someone based on their showing good character online rather than actually working with them? Can I assume the “all or nothing rule- if they succeed in their personal life they will succeed in their work life.” Last point to make- if we network by teaching and giving, we can develop relationships both online and in person. Thanks for the first contact.
Susan

Networking, both traditional and online, takes work. LinkedIn has given you a posted profile to talk about yourself and your business. Have you finished your profile? Did you post your picture? Please make sure your have a professional headshot. Seeing you doing gardening or working on your car will not give your potential clients trust in your business abilities- unless of course you are a gardener or mechanic!

Your LinkedIn profile is the first place to begin your LinkedIn experience. You must be informative when writing your business description. Explain why a client would want to chose you over your competition. Show your experience and background clearly. Make certain to add your contact information as well as your website address. This profile is your 30 second elevator speech, however, without your personality. Make sure readers get a sense of who you are through your words.

After your profile is complete, the fun begins. Imagine that you have your business cards in hand and are about to walk into a networking meeting with complete strangers. Are you nervous or excited? LinkedIn takes some of the anxiety away from approaching new prospects, but as described before, takes the “human” touch out of the initial meeting. You can’t give a warm smile when approaching a new online contact. Instead, you must use your words to convey your confidence and personality. But where do you find people to “talk” to?

The first and easiest place to begin is your own email accounts. LinkedIn has an application which will search your address books on certain accounts to find current friends or business associated whom are already on LinkedIn. You simply send them an invitation to add you as a connection. Once they are added, you can then examine their connections for possible introductions. Just like you use your current “ins” to get an introduction now, so you will do the same with LinkedIn. You can ask your current connections for an introduction to someone within their connections whom you would like to “meet”. It’s that simple.

Being on LinkedIn does not mean you will not network traditionally. As you meet your new contacts outside of the computer, ask them upfront if they are on LinkedIn. Many of them are, but they too may be confused on how to use their account. You can use this as an opportunity to become an expert to them. When they tell you that they do have an account with LinkedIn, ask if you can add them as a connection. By doing this, your connections will increase dramatically.

Once you have your feet wet with navigating adding connections as well as asking for introductions through your connections, venture now into joining relevant Groups. LinkedIn has a large selection of industry Groups  to which you may request to be added. What profession or professionals would be a good referal network for your buisness. Do you want to target a certain industry. Joining LinkedIn Groups allows you to do just that- find a targeted audience. For instance, your target may be women-owned businesses. They are various Groups for women business owners. If marketing companies are a better fit for you, they are many LinkedIn marketing groups to which to join. All you have to do is request to be added to your chosen Groups, then await your approval. However, you must create a “buzz” for yourself within the Groups once approved. You can do this by either starting or responding to various discussion which other members have begun. By doing this, you will become an instant expert. It is another opportunity to show your experience and “personality”.

LinkedIn is an excellent avenue to expand your networking reach into geographic areas otherwise unreachable. However, you must dedicate time and effort to your online networking efforts. Once you commit yourself to working your LinkedIn account as described above, you will dramatically broaden you sphere of influence. The ultimate goal of networking is to find either potential clients or referral partners. LinkedIn allows you one more way to accomplish this.                          

When you think about it, there are only 2 things that people are looking for in Social Media. It does not matter if you are in real estate, mortgage banking, insurance, or even in marketing of some type. People are always looking for something.

You just need to make sure that you know what those things are.

Most people in the Social Media arena are progressive thinkers and progressive people. Most are ahead of the curve in the web 2.0 world, and most have a focus of being ahead of the pack. The early adopters of Social Media, which I am one, started on the Social media scene 5 years ago. There as not much there, but what was there, was used as best as it could be used.

People then, and people now, are still the same. They always will be. But in the Social media arena, they are looking for 2 things that will help them.

Help them feel better about whom they are. Help them feel better about what they do. And help them feel better about where their life is going. All people are in some way looking for that forward focus. That is why in the social scene, there are 2 things people seem to be seeking more than anything.

Only two.

1) CONNECTION.

Most people in Web 2.0 ville are looking for Connection. They want to connect with people, information, new ideas, new trainings, new events, new groups, new videos, but whatever they are looking for, they want to CONNECT.

Connection is part of the culture we grew up in. People in real estate understand the person want to feel emotionally connected to a house before they purchase it. People want to feel connected to a car before they decide to buy it. And people want to feel connected to something before they start building that bridge of trust with you. You must make an effort to connect in a way that they will respond to in social media.

IN Social Media Marketing, Connection is NOT Correction as so many people think. They are NOT looking to be told that their life is not any good, or is lacking. They are not looking to be told their home is too small for them. They want to Connect to something or someone that will make them feel better about themselves and where their life is headed. You do that in conversations on twitter, facebook, myspace, orkut, moli, LinkedIn, and the like.

They want to feel GOOD about a conversation with you, no matter the social network. They want to feel FOCUSED ON and Tied into a conversation that will help them feel more a part of something that can increase and enlarge their life and future.

CONNECTING with people is simply reaching out and taking their hand over the internet and letting them feel PLUGGED IN to something and someone that can help you connect to new possibilities and to new destinies.

THAT is simple and the truth. Keep the Connection authentic and real, and they will listen to what your conversation is about and start drawing closer to you and your message.

2) Elevation.

People want to feel like they are being lifted higher in their life. They want to feel like their life is going somewhere and means something. We all do. We all are looking for that special feeling that we are special, and as trite as that sounds, it is the truth.

What can you do to create that feeling that they truly believe they are walking on air?

Life them up by noticing something g they said that has helped you.

Compliment them.

Give them a kind remark about their efforts in what they are doing in Social Media.

Ask questions they might know the answer to show you appreciate their knowledge..

Send them new ideas on their passion.

Notice something about their conversation that you can totally appreciate and let them know about it.

Empower them with encouragement.

Thank them for learning something from them.

WHY?

It will make them glad they talked to you in Social Media. And they will remember you the next message, tweet, or conversation. They will move from the Awareness stage, to the Appreciation stage in Social Media.

As a realtor, you will see that they can start to trust you, and even start referring possible clients to you as people they know are moving out or into – your area.

Remember- it is NOT what you said. But how you made them feel by Connecting with them and Elevating their hope and future in the Social media Marketing arena.

blessings…doug

While not all companies use social media sites in the hiring process, the numbers are growing. According to a recent survey (June, 2009) by CareerBuilder, the number of employers using social networking sites to screen candidates has more than doubled since 2008. Out of more than 2,600 hiring managers, 45 percent reported using social networking sites to research job candidates’ backgrounds for information — up from 22% in 2008.

Michele Porfilio, a strategic sourcing director for Crowe Horwath LLP, a public accounting and consulting firm, says “We leverage social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for our information security hiring needs.” Based on the skill set in need, Crowe implements the tools for target search and outreach and “within LinkedIn, we continue our visibility in creating an information security professionals pipeline,” she adds.

Read the complete article at http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=1957

I’m lazy by nature and like to do as little work as possible. Therefore, when I have the opportunity to automate tasks, I jump at it. As I started getting heavily involved in social networking, I quickly became frustrated with having to update my status at several sites, as well as trying to figure out how to introduce my blog, my articles, and my ezine to my social networking audiences.

After much trial and error, here’s how I connect and repurpose all of my social marketing strategies:

1. Set up accounts. Make sure that you have current accounts with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, and any other social networking platforms you regularly use.

2. Open an account at Ping.fm. The Ping.fm service automatically updates your status on all of your social networking sites, 21 of them at the current count. Depending on the number of networks you use, it will take you 10-50 minutes to connect your Ping.fm account to your various social network accounts. However, once everything is set up, you simply log into your Ping account, post your status update (no more than 140 characters), and your status is automatically updated on all of your social networking profiles. Rather than posting updates directly on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace, I instead use Ping.fm as the starting place for my daily status updates.

3. Display Twitters on other accounts. If you go to your Setting tab in your Twitter account and then down to “More Info URL”, you will see a link to “Add Twitter to Your Site.” By clicking on this link, you’ll be taken to a page where you can add your tweets in a separate box (not the Status updates area) in your MySpace and Facebook profiles, on your blogger or Typepad blogs, or get the Flash or HTML widgets to add to other sites like Squidoo lenses or to your website. Just follow the instructions connected to each application. If you use Typepad for your blog, you can also do this through the Widget gallery by finding Twitter widget in the “Publishing Tools” section.

4. Connect your blogposts to Twitter. Twitter Feed, http://www.twitterfeed.com/, enables you to feed your blog posts to your Twitter account. Simply create an account, go to “Create New Twitter Feed”, and enter the RSS feed of your blog. You can control the frequency with which Twitter displays your blog post, as well as the text used to preface your blog feed. I use “Blog update” to preface my posts.

5. Connect your blogposts to Facebook. I use Typepad for my blogs, so if you use a Wordpress blog, there are probably plugins that handle this, as well. When you create a new blog post, you can choose to send a link to that post into Facebook. These links will appear in your Mini-Feed on your Facebook profile, and may appear in your friends’ News Feeds.

In your Typepad account, go to Weblogs > Configure > Publicity, select “Prompt me to share new posts on Facebook.” When this item is selected, TypePad will automatically display a prompt from Facebook when you create and publish a new post on TypePad. The Facebook prompt will only appear if you have selected the option in your weblog’s publicity settings, and only when you create and publish a new post. The prompt will not appear when you save a post as draft, when you edit a post, or when you change the status of a post from Draft to Published.

6. Update your EzineArticles.com account. Article marketing is a smart and easy way to drive traffic to your site. If you’re submitting articles online to article directories, you definitely want to be using EzineArticles.com, the biggest and most popular article directory online. To connect to Twitter, click on “Profile Manager” in your account, then “Edit Author Bio” in your Author’s Area. Add your Twitter account information here. Each time a new article is accepted and published at EzineArticles, a post is automatically made to your Twitter account.

7. Update your aWeber account: I use aWeber as my email marketing service. You can now send an automatic Twitter post to all your followers on Twitter with a link to the HTML version of your ezine. When you create a broadcast in aWeber, select the option to publish a broadcast via RSS feed or to an archive, and then enter your Twitter account info, When your ezine is published, all of your Twitter followers will be notified.

There are probably others ways to connect the social networks and to repurpose content on social networks, but these 7 steps are all I need at the moment. Take 30 minutes out of your day to connect and repurpose your social networking, and watch your traffic and list begin to grow!