1. Hover over ‘more’ on your LinkedIn profile toolbar at the top.
2. Select companies.
3. Click on ‘Add A Company’ in the upper right.
4. LinkedIn will then take you to an area where you can add your company logo, type of industry and overview. Plus other information like number of employees, year founded, company website, etc.
5. Update as your company grows.

Part 3: Networking Using LinkedIn

Out of all the online social networking websites LinkedIn is considered the most professional. This is a network that you definitely want to be on. Individuals on LinkedIn are looking to network with other professionals and companies. How can you start making powerful connections right away with this platform?

Below I describe five strategies to network effectively using LinkedIn.

1. The best way to start out your network is to search your gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com and aol.com email accounts on LinkedIn. You can do this by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab and clicking on ‘Add Connections’. Here you will add your email and password for one of the above email accounts. LinkedIn will automatically scan your address book and find people from your contacts to connect with on LinkedIn. They understand you may not want to connect with all the connections it finds so it let’s you uncheck a box next to their name if you do not want to connect. Adding people this way is the best way to initially begin your networking process on LinkedIn.

2. Use the advanced search feature by clicking ‘Advanced’ next to the search field box in the upper right. Here you will find a variety of ways to seek out the individuals in your specific market. For example, you can search by company and find individuals in specific roles that way (CEO’s, COO’s etc.). Using the ‘Keywords’ box is also a great way to locate potential connections in you field that can eventually lead to greater opportunities. I recommend exploring all the search options you can perform in the Advanced People Search.

3. Search groups on LinkedIn and find some that have to do with your market. Join these groups and begin answering/asking questions and getting involved in the discussions. Within these groups you will most likely find people to connect with in addition to people finding you. Gradually build your strong network this way.

4. On your ‘Home’ page on LinkedIn you will see a section to the right titled ‘People you may know’ click ‘see more’. Here you will find a list of people LinkedIn thinks you could possibly know based on your current connections. Search and you might find some interesting people to connect with. If you don’t know the person or don’t have the persons email address, LinkedIn won’t let you request a connection. This is another reason you will want to join groups. LinkedIn does allow you to connect with people by requesting a connection based on being in the same group. This person does have to accept your connection on their end in order to make it complete.

5. Build up your recommendations by sending a client an invite to recommend you on LinkedIn. You can do this by going to ‘Recommendations’ under Profile in the top bar and then selecting ‘Request Recommendations’. If people are happy with your services they will be glad to recommend you. This is a great way to build up your credibility as a professional in your industry on LinkedIn and will set you apart from others in your same field.

Start Rockin’!

Eric

4 Main points covered:

1. How to get in the social media game and use it to play with the big guys
2. Start using social media to brand yourself, your own business or the company you work for.
3. If you are looking for a job you can increase your chances of getting the job you want by using social media websites productively.
4. Cast your net huge! Get on the social media wave and make it a goal to expand yourself effectively in 2010!

Here is a video on how to create a screen shot and a custom twitter background.

How to send automatic one time direct messages (DM) to new followers on Twitter.

Before I go into how to set up an automatic DM, I’d like to share a few of my thoughts.

First, I do NOT believe in using this feature for sending people directly to sales pages, ads, videos, etc. NO ONE LIKES RECEIVING THESE! IT’S INCREDIBLY ANNOYING AND PEOPLE WILL BLOCK YOU.. INCLUDING ME. It’s called Twitter etiquette : )

Secondly, I DO believe in using this service as a time saver in order to connect further with your audience by reaching out to them through a DM, which gives an added message so you are not forgotten in the mix. It’s another chance for your audience to connect further with you.

An example auto DM could be “Looking forward to your tweets and connecting further! Enjoy your day.” Simple and not a sales pitch. The whole point is to show them your excitement about getting to know them more.

Please keep in mind these are my opinions. I’m not telling you to set up an automatic DM for your account. Do what you feel comfortable with.

Here are the steps to create an automatic direct message that people will receive once they follow you. You can set these up with multiple Twitter accounts if you would like.

1. Create a FREE account with http://socialoomph.com

2. Go to Social Accounts –> Add New Account –> Add Twitter

3. Enter your Twitter user name and password.

4. The new Twitter account will now be added to (Social Accounts).

5. Go to Manage Accounts then click on ‘edit’ next to the account you
created.

6. Click and check the box next to ‘Auto Welcome’ to activate and send
messages automatically.

7. Edit the ‘Send This Message’ box with your personal automated DM
message that you want sent from that account when someone
follows you. The automatic DM can only be 140 characters
max (including spaces)

8. Click  ‘Save’ and you are done!

Enjoy your day. -Eric

A glimpse at social media coming into 2010. A slide-show by DreamGrow.
Get prepared and start jumping on social media now!

Some of the most important social media trends in my opinion for the year 2010 from the slide-show:

1. “The fact that audience has the control starts to sink in.” (This is becoming very obvious over the past year)

2. “Social Media will get real budgets.” WoooHOOOO!!! = )

3. “Measuring online activities and their effect on offline sales will become increasingly important.”

4. “Media will fragment even more and smaller communities can be hyper-targeted.”

5. “All search will be real time. Web, blogs, social, networks.” Already kicking into gear big time by Google, Bing, Yahoo and others!

6. “Social networks will become more commercial.” Definitely!

7. “Shopping will be integrated into social networking sites.”

Part 2: Networking Using Twitter

Why Twitter?  Believe it or not, your interests, desires, talents are actually important and interesting to others in the world.  Twitter limits you to 140 characters to express whatever you want through what is called a ‘tweet’. So why should I use this service? Read on…

Why should I be active on both Facebook and Twitter?

• It’s even easier and faster to build a following with twitter than it is with Facebook.

• Only view ‘tweets’ from specific people and topics you find interesting and informative.

• More of an instant communication with people. Think of it as your own public and private mini instant email.

• Twitter is like a fire hose of morsel size information coming constantly at you. Keeping the tweets limited to a certain number of characters forces users to think about the most important point they want to share rather than being able to blab on and on finally getting to a point later in a paragraph robbing us of our time.

How to network using twitter:

• Search and find people to add using either search.twitter.com or tweetgrid.com

• Type out and send a personal DM or use socialoomph.com to automatically send your DM to connect more and also increase the likelihood they will follow you back.

• Make sure your Twitter bio description has specific keywords that explain your services.  People can find you this way using tweepsearch.com

• Use TweetDeck to communicate.

• Categorize your twitter friends in columns with TweetDeck

• Create relationships with your community by @ replying to questions and comments.

Even though Facebook has come closer to developing more of a platform like twitter by having a ‘view live feed’ and ‘view news feed’ options it is still has yet to reach the same functionality as twitter. Imagine if you had a following of 40,000 people on Twitter and you finished a new article for your website. Don’t you think some people out of the 40,000 followers you have on Twitter would be interested in what you wrote about? Send out a tweet with a short description and link to your article. BAM! You have traffic. Powerful isn’t it! As you build a relationship with your followers you are on your way to creating ‘community’. Anyone looking to build a community, learn from others, brand themselves or their company should be using Twitter.

And, some of those Twitter connections may just end up with some visibility out in the real world.  One of my client’s has gotten 3 interviews and a webinar just in the last few months:  a nationally syndicated radio show out of Minneapolis,  International interview out of Australia, web interview for a company in California and a co-hosted webinar with a local attorney who shares here niche.  With the exception of the local attorney, she would not have met any of them without the power of Twitter.

Some time saving Twitter Tools:

http://www.socialoomph.com – Schedule automatic direct messages to people that follow you.

http://www.hootsuite.com – Schedule your tweets in advance. Also track clicks.

http://www.ping.fm – Blast out one message to all your social media platforms at once.

http://tweetgrid.com – Search multiple key words at once. Showing tweets going out at that moment with your keyword/keywords. ( I like to use the 1 x 3 grid)

http://tweepsearch.com – Search specifically Twitter Profile & Bio’s

Part 1: Networking using Facebook

I still meet people who don’t understand why social media is important. They feel it is a huge waste of time and that the only real way to build these connections is through in person meetings and networking/social events. Though in-person meetings are a great way to network and should be the next step after connecting through social media sites, you are limiting yourself to your restricted area. The networking/social websites available to us takes this networking opportunity worldwide. We have the ‘world at our fingertips’ per say.

If you think going to social events and meeting people in person is the only way you can build your personal/business network, you are kidding yourself.  If you haven’t noticed already, people are meeting others online more than ever before.  For part one of this series I will focus on Facebook and why it is important for building your very important forever-expanding social network and brand.

Facebook

Why Facebook? Because you can reach out to anyone in the world and build a great relationship without even seeing each other in person.  This may sound crazy to you but this happens every day.  You never know what can come from these relationships.

I’ve met tons of interesting people through Facebook that later led to meeting in person or at a minimum talking on the phone to discuss either business opportunities or common interests.  Trust me, you will make more key connections through social networking websites than you ever thought possible.  Your network is your treasure. Protect it and don’t take it for granted, because like I said earlier, you never know what could come from it.

Ways to connect with people you never met:

1. Find people in your interest by clicking the words in your Facebook profile. This will bring up people that have the same key word in their profile.

2. Send a direct message (If they have that option available without being their friend) to the person you are interested in finding out more about. Say something like, “I noticed you have your own photography business. I have my own photography business as well and thought we may be able to collaborate on some things together. I hope we can connect soon.”

3. Most people are looking to connect with other similar interest people through social sites like Facebook just as much as you, so don’t be afraid to message and friend people that you want to connect with.

4. You will notice that Facebook will suggest people to you on the right side column. This is a great way to find people to connect with as well that could later turn into more than just a facebook “friend”. It searches people out that have the same friend connections that you have.

5. Fan Pages that you are a fan of are also awesome places to search for people you may want to connect with. When on the specific fan page, go to the fans box on the left column and click “see all”.

Because you can post pictures, videos, work experience, interests, status updates, and instant chat you can get to know people extremely well over the Internet.  This can sound scary I know…but we are well on our way to this new way of communicating and meeting people. It is now easier than ever before and gets me pumped every time I think of the endless opportunities and connections that can be made through Facebook.

So I hope you realize the importance of Facebook and it’s power in growing your networking circle.  Grow your network, keep expanding your net and excellent opportunities will continually start to show up.

If you have any Facebook connection stories please share them below in the comments, It would be great to hear your story!

Facebook recently added the feature to tag people, fan pages and events in your status updates. I wanted to share with you how to go about doing it and why it is useful.

1. Here is an example of a status update I recently did that tags people within it.

2. To do this all you have to do is while typing your status update place the @ sign before the name, fan page, or event you want to tag in your status update. When you do this a drop down will appear and you can select the name, fan page or event. Easy huh?! This is what it will look like on the people’s wall feed that you tagged.

*Notice the ‘tag’ symbol.

3. What’s the big deal? Well the cool thing is that your status update will appear on everyone’s wall feed that you tag including yours of course. Same goes for fan page wall feeds and event wall feeds. Pretty sweet!

Enjoy & Make it a great day!

Eric

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