Imagine Your Reality

Everyone is all astir over Linkedin finally connecting its status updates to twitter, but in my opinion, this recent update is not as wonderful as it first seems. In fact, in the few days since it’s been started, I’ve already seen the quality of status updates on Linkedin degrade because people aren’t using #in for sending tweets, but instead are sending all of their tweets over to Linkedin. I’ve learned more about cats, sports teams, and other equally irrelevant information (for Linkedin) in the past few days because people haven’t exercised the proper awareness of how to use the new Linkedin Twitter connection effectively.

 A good example of the right way to use the twitter-linkedin connection and the wrong way to use it can be seen in the screenshot below. The top post is the wrong way to use the linkedin-Twitter connection. The person has responded to someone on twitter, but that post has also been sent to Linkedin. In fact, every time this person posts a tweet, it will show up in Linkedin. The result is that we’ll see a message, which isn’t relevant on Linkedin, because even if it’s a professional message, it’s a reply to someone else on Twitter, as opposed to Linkedin. And of course we could also get more mundane and non-appropriate posts, such as the post about a sports team. It’s not remotely relevant to Linkedin, because it’s not a professional update. It’s actually rather unprofessional and is a good example of how to use a social network inappropriately.

The post from the person in the middle is appropriate to Linkedin, at least in terms of describing something professional. He’s also chosen the option where the post from Twitter will only appear if he uses #in. That hashtag indicates that the message should get posted on both Twitter and Linkedin. Without that hashtag, his post will only go to Twitter (and other services he’s connected to Twitter).

What’s happened with the Twitter and Linkedin connection is that most people have simply connected Twitter to Linkedin without using the #in tag. The result is that a lot of non-professional tweets and responses to people in twitter are showing up on Linkedin, but the material isn’t really relevant to Linkedin as a social networking site. This diminishes the usefulness of Linkedin, in terms of status updates, because many of the status updates aren’t relevant to the purpose for using Linkedin.

To set-up your Linkedin and twitter connection, click on the blue Twitter icon. A new window will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. You’ll need to enter your twitter handle and password, in order to authorize the connection.

After you’ve authorized the connection, the window will display the settings for the Twitter-Linkedin connection. Make the Twitter account visible to everyone, unless you don’t want people to see it on your profile. On your profile page, people will see a link to your twitter account, which will allow them to connect with you on Twitter if they choose.

Under share your Tweets in your LinkedIn status DO NOT select all tweets. If you do people, will see all your tweets, including ones which aren’t relevant to Linkedin. Instead select “Only tweets that contain #in.” This way the only time your Linkedin status will update to your twitter account is if you’ve actually included the hashtag in your message. Yes, this means you will need to include the hastag, but this will also help you determine if the update you’re about to post is really relevant to your audience on Linkedin.

If you need to change your twitter settings at any time, simply click the blue twitter icon again and select Twitter Settings. You’ll then be able to change any settings you’ve made to your Twitter-Linkedin connection.

Remember that as tempting as it might be to send all your tweets to Linkedin, it defeats the purpose of the status update feature in Linkedin, if any of those tweets aren’t relevant to your professional activities. Also, when it’s a response to someone on Twitter, it won’t really make sense because the context of the conversation is missing. Restrict your tweets to Linkedin by using the hashtag #in and you’ll not only be using the connection properly for professional activities, but you’ll be showing a sophisticated awareness of how to use social media properly. Remember Linkedin is not Twitter and should not be treated as such!

In the first post in this series I focused on the need to identify your audience as a key component of developing your social media strategy. In this post we focus on the next component, which is identifying what business model you fall into. By business model, I’m referring specifically if your model is business to business, business to consumer, or a mix of the two. I’ll briefly define all three models below.

Business to Business: This type of business model has businesses as their main clients. For example commercial real estate primarily deals with businesses as opposed to customers (residental real estate). Another example would be a heating and cooling that primarily services businesses.

Business to Consumer: this type of business model has consumers as their main client. The electronic stores that the latest TVs and computers would be an example of business consumer. A plumber who primarily deals with residential homes would be another example.

Mix of Business to Consumer and Business: These are businesses that can offer services to both consumers and businesses and have a mix clientele. Using the heating and cooling company as an example, they would service both commercial and residential properties. A lot of businesses will fall into this category if they offer services and/or products that could be used by both consumers and businesses.

Determining what category your business falls into is essential for determining what your social media strategy is going to be and what sites you will focus on. For example, while Facebook is an excellent site to be on for a Business to Consumer business, it doesn’t offer the same opportunities to a Business to Business business because the majority of people on Facebook are consumers. You’ll still get some leverage from Facebook, particularly if your clients are B to C businesses but you’ll also want to look at other social networking sites, which are more niched toward B to B businesses.

Assess what your business model is and then research how other businesses that have a similar model are using social media as well as what sites they are on.

I met with a couple of different acquaintances and friends earlier this week that are looking for employment. As this economy has continued to hit businesses, it’s also raised unemployment rates, and its caused business owners to scramble as they tighten their belts and still try to maintain a viable business presence.

What we need to do, more than ever, is continue to reach out to each other and network and share our needs with each other. I asked both the people I mentioned what they needed and they gave me some useful information I passed on to the rest of my network. Now my network can go to work for them, and perhaps help them out. And the result of that help is that at some point, those two people might be in a position to help someone in my network or their own networks.

Networking has been obsfucated by elevator speeches and business cards, so that people focus more on trying to get business from they network with, and focus less on listening and finding out what the genuine needs are of each person they are giving business cards to. While an elevator speech has its uses, and a business card can be a helpful way to make contact with someone, we need to remember that what makes networking effective isn’t the ability to spam people with what we want from them, but rather is the ability to listen to them, and find out what they need and help them make the right connections. The same applies for social networking, where what has changed is only the medium by which we communicate.

I can’t guarantee in the end that I’ll be able to help my two friends find jobs. But I know that by putting that need out there, I’m expanding it to my sphere of influence and that people in that sphere, will likewise put it out to their sphere of influence. And I know that while I’ll never get paid in money by those friends and that helping them isn’t directly relevant to growing my business, getting paid for my services, or other related concerns I have, I do know seeing a smile on their faces and knowing I helped even just a bit is its own form of payment. I’m paying it forward in hope and in the belief that by networking I can help make their lives, and others a bit easier, especially in the times we live in.

I was posting my latest workshop to different event sites, when I got to thinking about it and realized that I was putting a lot of effort into posting to multiple event sites, some of which I really wasn’t sure there was much of a return on. Whether it’s Eventful, or Evite, or Yelp, or upcoming, or something else, there are a lot of event sites out there, and that’s not including posting your events to sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, or MySpace. Having to post events to multiple sites can be time consuming, and while there is undoubtedly a social media tool being developed that allows you to post events to multiple sites at once, it hasn’t come out yet. So what do you, if you teach a class and want people t know about your event?

Pick a few event sites and post on them. Instead of going overboard trying to post on every event site, identify the sites that your audience uses to find out about events and post to those sites. For example, I post to Linkedin and Facebook, because I can share events with people I know on there. I’ll also post events to some local sites for Portland, because its useful for reaching out to them. And occasionally I’ll post a tweet with a link to one of my events. There are a couple of other sites I post events to on a regular basis such as upcoming, which is yahoo’s event site, and I’m experimenting with Ecademy, which is another social networking site that’s becoming popular for business networking. Beyond that I’ve started cutting down on the event sites I post to, because it can be time consuming, but it can also be impersonal, and much as with social networking sites, I’d rather post to a few event sites I use regularly, then post to a lot, but not be sure of who I was reaching.

So if you teach a lot of classes think about which sites you use to announce the classes, and evaluate how many of those sites you need to spread the word. It’s true that having some visibility can be useful for an event, but it’s also true that putting up events can be time consuming, and if you don’t have someone to put up the events for you, it may be more useful to evaluate what sites will help you definitely connect with your audience and build on that.

The latest episode of Social Media Coach is up. In it I discuss the thorny issue of Return on Investment and social media and field several questions from a caller.

Next week’s show will air at 3pm PST and will focus on Facebook and what kind of profile you may need.

Imagine Your Reality Radio is returning next week with an interview with Overmortal Technology’s President Michael Szul on Thursday at 4:30 Pm. If you own a business and would like to be intervied, please contact me.

Have any questions about social media for your business or how to develop a killer business/marketing plan? Contact me for a free consultation.

Are you networking effectively? How to turn your natural network into your referral system

The stereotype of the networker is a person who has a drink in one hand, business cards in the other, and an elevator speech at the ready, and ready to move on once s/he has gotten your card. But is that what networking really is?

Networking is creating meaningful, and helpful relationships where everyone wins. Forget all the hype about social networking or chambers of commerce or the stereotypical networker. Networking isn’t just about online social networking sites such as twitter and linkedin. And it doesn’t just involve going to a chamber meeting or other type of in-person networking event. Networking involves learning how to create relationships with all the people you know, so that you can help all of them, even as they help you!

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to make networking fun, my process for organizing and matching your connections in your network, and learn to shift your thinking from what you can get for yourself to how you can give and help others and be very successful as a result!

In this class you will learn:

• What networking really is and what it means to give.
• How to recognize a networking opportunity in any conversation.
• to mesh your natural network with your business network and have everyone benefiting from it.
• How to listen and make connections between the people who need something, and the people who can help them.
• How to shift your think from me to we.
• Fun techniques you can use to liven up your networking groups

Date: Friday, September 11 2009

Time: Noon to 2pm

Price: $35, LUNCH included

Location: Bravo! Publications 630 B Avenue Lake Oswego OR 97034

To register please rsvp with Taylor Ellwood at Imagineyourreality or register at the Imagine Your Reality Website.