This post was written by guest author Stephanie Dickison. Find out more about Stephanie below.

One of the best ways to get more work and increase your network – and possibilities – is to be a member on LinkedIn.

But in order to get the most out of the site, you should be an active participant.

Here are some ways to increase your network, and net worth!

Amp Up Your Profile & Keep It Up-to-Date

Your profile is an instant snapshot of who you are and what you can do. You’ve only got a short amount of time and space in which to impress someone.

Make sure to include accolades (number of sales made, houses sold, awards won, etc). This is not just a resume – this is an introduction to possibly bigger and better things.

And update it as soon as you’re working on something new. Your profile won’t help you land anything new if you left the last job you listed 2 years ago!

Join Groups & Get Involved

Because LinkedIn is about business networking, you can join organizations about your work and interests and “meet” people in your industry, without the worry that it will get too personal or go off track as with applications such as Facebook.

Once you join a group, it’s important to become a part of the community – ask questions, answer colleague’s queries and put yourself out there. You’ll be amazed at not only how many connections you make, but how your industry that you know so well, suddenly opens up with new possibilities.

There are groups for everyone – alumni groups, networking, conferencing – and in case you want something more specific, how about the Official White House (where “professionals connect with the Obama Administration and each other”), Slow Food, The Association for Project Management, just for starters?

The Power of Your Contacts

You might be feeling like you don’t know anyone, but look at your address book. You know a ton of people in varying degrees of business!

These contacts will help you build up more contacts.

Importing your current address book from your email program to LinkedIn is easy and then you can see who’s connected to who and work from there.

Starting with people you know will help build the foundation of your network and will make branching out much easier.

Branch out

You don’t have to know someone intimately to contact them via LinkedIn.

Some members want to know people well and others just require a quick line or two about how you know one another. This means that you can reach people that you met quickly at a conference or know through a friend-of-a-friend.

Don’t ask just anybody, but at the same time, ask people you know peripherally. You’ll be amazed at how your network quickly grows.

Use LinkedIn’s Tools

LinkedIn is superb in giving its members lots to build their networks with.

First all of, personalize your LinkedIn URL. Go to http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?editwp= to change it from a number to your name (mine is http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stephaniedickison)

Secondly, if you use Outlook, download the Outlook Toolbar 2.7.4 Download it now (Download Size:4.0 MB). It helps you network with just a few clicks, telling you when people who email you frequently are not in your network and lots more.

See more tools here – http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=tools

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Stephanie Dickison writes about food, travel, celebrities, technology and social media, among other things. 30-Second Commute: A Non Fiction Comedy About Writing and Working From Home covers her career as pop culture, music, book and restaurant critic. Find out more at her blog and follow her on Twitter.

*Photo by WebWizzard

This post was written by guest author Anne Cauley. You can find out more about Anne below.

You know YouTube is the second most used search engine.

You know adding a video clip to your content will help your Google (search) rankings soar.

You know your content will be more appealing to more people if you include video.

YET you avoid YouTube.

Here are some hints and tips that will take you from stage fright into the star light: all you need is a web camera enabled computer.

First of all, you need to consider that you are going to be the writer, the actor, the director, the producer and the editor BEFORE you engage YouTube, like a film studio, to publish and distribute your work. So here are some steps that take you through the basics to ‘get it right the first time’.

Screenplay Considerations:

A good screenplay writer will consider his/her audience, because it will impact:

• What is said and how it is said. Just like a screenplay writer will watch the language depending on the audience: so must you. Don’t use techno-language and abbreviations unless your audience is familiar with (and understands fully) that language.  (Otherwise, it will be similar to shooting a foreign film: in which case you better use sub-titles.)
• The location. Be sensitive to the location of where you shoot your video. Your office may not be appropriate for a cooking tutorial; however, your kitchen may be.
• The wardrobe. What you wear should depend on your intent and your audience. Don’t wear your workout attire if you are targeting a corporate audience and asking them to hire you; however, if you are talking about the secrets of pilates…. then go ahead and wear those yoga pants.

Think of your video as a short story and script it accordingly: keep it short & to the point. (Enough said about that!)

Location, Location, Location!

Carefully, consider the set and all the lighting: your location setup is very important.

• Set the mood (and increase the video quality) with proper lighting. Watch the overhead lights they can wash you out and make your red hair look blond. Instead, use softer incandescent light. Then set up your camera properties and select the appropriate lighting conditions.  (You may want to play around a bit with this. I found that the indoor/outdoor settings were pretty accurate if you had a cloudy day or whether you were in the kitchen or office.)
• De-clutter. As a general rule of thumb, de-clutter your set. (Unless you are trying to brand yourself as a professor-like genius.) Tons of material has been written about the negative impacts of clutter: Stephanie Roberts from the FastFungShui.com cautions, “The more clutter you have, the more sluggish the energy becomes.” And we don’t want a sluggish video!
• Stage your space. If you are shooting a cooking show: get in the kitchen, get your mise en place ready and ensure cookbooks are in the background. You need to look the part!

Think Before You Shoot!

Most PCs these days include a web camera. (My Toshiba laptop includes Camera Assist.) So there is no excuse, you too can get into the film industry!  But before you shoot, just watch your camera settings:

• Adjust your frame rate appropriately as it impacts the quality and size of a video file. (The frame rate is the number of frames or images that are projected or displayed per second. Typically, in the US, 30 frames per second is used for TV.) The higher the frame rate, the better the quality, the larger the file. In my camera settings, I have found the maximum rate of 30 frames per second is adequate, (just be patient when uploading your file).
• Compress your video files into a smaller file size. Luckily, in my camera settings I didn’t have any fancy options: only ‘no compress’ or ‘DV (digital video) video encoder’. Selecting the encoder compresses my video which speeds the upload process.  You may have other encoder options which may require some research: the net has lots of techno-babble on AVI files and type 1 and type 2. The important thing to remember is to compress your video file.
• Setup your lense to flatter whatever you are shooting. Think like a photographer: Don’t be afraid to move around. Ok, I know you are using your PC, so don’t be afraid to move it around from it’s usual spot:  you may have to angle or elevate it.

Now it is Show Time!

Your set is ready and your camera is all set… You are ready for the actor in you to shine on the screen. Just a few reminders:

• Smile.
• Don’t rush. Plan enough time upfront. You may need multiple takes.
• Don’t think about talking to 1000 people: talk to 1 person and your personality will shine through.

Personally, I find it is easier to be videotaped in the traditional manner, using a video camera, rather than using the built-in video camera from a PC. I don’t like to see myself as I am being taped.  What helps me is covering up my computer screen with a hardcopy print out of my script (or my general outline of my script). You may want to try that so you don`t feel uncomfortable or obsess with a hair that is out of place.

“That’s a Wrap!”- Next Steps

Take your time on your first video.

• Test out the video and audio settings, especially the lighting and the volume settings.
• Reshoot as necessary. Just remember you may only get one chance to impress a potential follower.

Open up a YouTube account if you don’t have one. Then start to upload your video: this could take some time depending on fps (frames per second) and compression.

Don’t forget to set up and customize your YouTube Channel to reflect your personal or company Brand. If you need help with that, see Customers While you SLEEP

Then all you have to do is to promote your YouTube video… but that is a whole subject onto itself.

The Quick Review

You may not get nominated for an Academy Award®, but your secret to fast success will be to:

• Think like a screenplay writer,
• Consider your set,
• Set-up your camera settings and location,
• Be yourself and talk to ONE person just like a documentary,
• Initially (and continually) try out new settings and techniques.

Now  you can create videos and leverage YouTube.

Your content will be more appealing to more people.

Your Google (search) ranking will soar.

Your content will be found in the second most used search engine.

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Anne Cauley is an accomplished trainer known for ‘training that sticks’. She combines her sales, training, process re-engineering background with a passion to be an agent of change. Experienced as a technology advocate, it is no surprise that she is embracing social media. Her blog is filled with pragmatic advice on how to develop, deliver, analyze and improve training efforts. Find out more about Anne on her blog, Facebook or Twitter.

*Photo by Alejandro Peters

This post was written by guest author Tracy Terry. Find out more information about Tracy below.

I find it interesting that there are so many similarities between Facebook marketing and unlearning everything you were ever taught growing up as a child.  To be a successful Facebook marketer, you must forget everything your mother taught you.  You will then be ready to successfully market your business on Facebook.

Here are few examples of some childhood lessons you will need to unlearn:

1. Don’t Talk to Strangers.  Drop this lesson instantly!  You definitely want to unlearn this one.  You will want to converse and share with as many strangers as possible.
2. Don’t Write on the Wall.  Throw this one right out the window.  When it comes to Facebook, you will need to write on many walls.  You won’t just be writing on your own wall, either.  You will also be writing on other people’s walls as well!  This is starting to sound fun and rebellious, right?
3. Be Seen and Not Heard.  In Facebook marketing, you will not just want to be seen, but you will also want to be heard as well.  You will need to find valuable, interesting information to engage your Facebook audience.   Another lesson here we can learn as an adult is to listen.  Often we are telling our own children to be seen and not heard.  Then, we proceed to speak while they listen.  In Facebook marketing it will be the other way around.  You will be listening more than you will be speaking.
4. Don’t Leave the Door Open.  You certainly will want to keep your door open on Facebook.  This will allow you to gain new contacts, clients, and business partnerships.  Accept all friends through your door and learn from your peers and clientele.
5. Don’t Talk Back.  Bet you couldn’t wait for that one!  During your Facebook marketing you will want to respond to writings on your wall.  You should try to create conversations with your Facebook friends as much as possible.  It is a “social” network, you know.   Create content that sparks engagement on your own wall and respond when necessary.  Be sure to respond to any positive and negative comments toward your business when appropriate.   Feel free to also partake in conversations on the walls of your friends.  Allow your community to get to know the personal side of your company.

These are just a few of the life lessons you need to unlearn to be a successful Facebook marketer.  I feel that number one, don’t talk to strangers, is a major step for some people when beginning their marketing campaign on Facebook.  Don’t be afraid to reach out and introduce your business to prospective clients and partners.  You will soon find your winning combination.  Start talking to strangers and writing on walls and you will begin enjoying an increase in leads, business partnerships, and sales!

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Tracy Terry is the President of Trust eMedia, an inbound marketing agency located in Lake Geneva, WI. Tracy is a inbound marketer helping businesses grow their leads and sales. She enthusiastically engages in blogging, social media community management, speaking, and training. Tracy has been certified in Inbound Marketing, SEO and SEM. She won Hubspot’s Inbound Marketer of the Month Award for June 2010 and is an Inbound Marketing Educator. She brings a passion for excellence into her marketing endeavors. Find out more about Tracy on Facebook and Twitter.

*Photo by PinkMoose

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who’s come over from the Laura Roeder blog. It was such an honor to write a guest post for one of our favorite sites.

We’ve been writing about social media for several years, so there’s quite a bit of reading here. Therefore, I thought I’d share some of my favorite posts with you, as a little “Getting Started Guide” to our site.

These posts talk about the basics of internet marketing:

Three Quesition To Choose An Internet Business Niche

Inbound Marketing: Getting Your Customers To Call You

How To Choose Your Small Business Marketing Channel

Here are some posts to start out learning about social media:

Social Media Strategy: Presence

Social Media Strategy: Engagement

Social Media Strategy: Relationships

How To Choose A Good Online Profile Photo

How To Appear Like A Real Human In Your Business

Again, thank you so much for stopping by. I’d like to invite you to become part of the tribe and get private invites to webinars and other special social media trainings. So go sign up here.

We’ve got some amazing stuff coming in the next few weeks.

~ Joel

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

*Photo by .scarlet.

This post was written by guest author Samantha Casey. Find out more about Samantha below.

The world of business zooms by us like a NASCAR racer going for the win. It’s quick, and, if you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss intricate details. Listening effectively is critical not only for your audience, but for your benefit as well. When you present yourself as an effective listener, you are able to better understand the wants, needs, and workings of your clientele, business partners, audience, and associates.

So, what makes one an effective listener? The two ears, one mouth ratio.

Speak less, listen more. Sounds easy, however, effective listening takes a genuine effort. It may appear profound to fathom the idea of talking less, but when doing so it enables you to listen in a manner that helps you interpret what you are hearing in a more effective way. For example, if a potential client is telling you about their recent experience with a business coach who ignored their emails, didn’t answer pertinent questions, and neglected their requests; these are signals telling you what your client sees as important when working with a professional. If you are listening effectively, you will be notating these points and beginning to prepare a response that assures your potential client they are in great hands working with you. You address their concerns and offer ways to demonstrate how you will make them feel comfortable under your care. If you are not listening effectively, you are most likely checking your Blackberry, thinking about the day’s agenda, and eager to end the call so you can forward them an invoice. Notice the difference…it’s incredible and can affect your business success.

Listen to Understand

When you take on the mentality that you want to listen to understand, you are opening yourself up to engaging more with your audience. You are now present with them and, this can help you zoom in on important details that may have been overlooked otherwise. These details can often be so intricate that, when not effectively listening, you’d skim right over them. However, those are often the details that can make or break a business deal, future partnership, or new client signing on to work with you.

The idea of the two ears one mouth ratio is to demonstrate that we have twice as much listening capability as we do speaking. Therefore, it is in our best interest to exercise this capability so we can better our business practices and grow our empires.

Here are a few helpful tips for listening effectively:

1. Prepare and seek to understand – Begin with a clear mind, eliminating all other distractions, (Blackberry, crowded room, checking emails, driving, etc) before beginning your call/meeting. Start with the intent to listen with a mindset that says you are focused on your audience and what they are verbally relaying to you.
2. Hold your response – So often we already have in our minds what we want to say in response, that we aren’t listening to our audience because we are so eager to speak. Give yourself the chance to fully engage with your audience before responding. Hear them out before you reply. You may surprise yourself by finding that the original response you were thinking of is different based on what you are now hearing.
3. Hold judgments/analyzing – It’s easy to already have a judgment of your audience before you finish your call/meeting. Sometimes, you may find yourself already mentally predicting their response. Try to keep these thoughts at bay until you have completed your conversation, then return to review your initial judgments/analyzations. You may find your initial findings conflict with your current findings.
4. Utilize note taking and/or a recording device – It’s wonderful to feel like we can remember every detail of every conversation we have. Save yourself the time and challenge of having to do this through utilizing note taking or a recording device for your calls/meetings. Both methods will help you stay organized, retain important information, and will keep pertinent ideas fresh in your mind. If you find you are more of a visual person, take advantage of the note taking. If you are more audio driven, grab a recording device.
5. Paraphrasing – Paraphrasing is taking what you have heard and using your own words to convey what you feel you’ve heard and understood. It’s a way of summarizing the conversation in words you feel comfortable using. Practicing this also helps you to recall important conversation points and show your audience you were engaged in the conversation. In addition, it supports you as it verbally helps you to continue to understand and interpret the conversation you are engaged in.

Effective listening is an ongoing, important part of business practice. Let the tips above help guide you through effective listening methods that will continue to benefit you and your audience.

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Samantha Casey is the founder and operator of Relentless Consulting Group, a firm that helps businesses and individuals market to the world. She is a blogger, reader, and networker with a passion for helping others and building strong brands. Follow Samantha on Twitter to find out more about her.

*Photo by ky_olsen

This post was written by guest author Sean Haubert. Find out more about Sean below.

Hi, my name is Sean, and I’m an early adopter. I spend way too much money on new gadgets, and pester all my friends to join me on new websites. I sign up for every social site I can find. I try every iPhone app my credit card will allow - much to my wife’s chagrin!

Seriously, it’s a problem, and I’m getting help.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to throw myself into the world of geo-social location services, Foursquare, Yelp, and now Facebook Places. The problem is, I’m just not getting it. I’m forcing myself to use it, to see if I can start to justify using it at work.

For instance, the other day we took our niece and nephew out for ice cream on Long Island. Perfect chance to take Foursquare for a test drive. I checked in. And I found a deal. $1.00 off at Starbucks. On Friday afternoon. I was 2 days late. Is this thing on? Is there anyone out there?

Who exactly are all the people using these services, and where are they hiding out? I think I need to hire Foursquare’s publicist. They are really doing a lot with their 3 million member audience, certainly they’re garnering a lot more press than they deserve. Or are they?

Now Facebook has joined the fray, as they just launched Places. On the day of the launch, Foursquare announced their busiest check-in day ever. In the week since Places has gone live, I have had one FB friend check-in. It was from his couch. He wanted to unseat his wife as mayor of their living room.

Dennis Crowley, the co-founder of Foursquare, was recently quoted as saying Facebook Places is not that great or interesting.  It’s a pretty boring service, with barely any incentives for users to keep coming back and telling their friends where they are.

To me, the most interesting thing about Places is that it has a potential audience of over 500 million people around the world but that can only be a good thing for location-based services, like Foursquare, as Facebook will educate the masses about check-ins. Plus, take a careful look at their logo. Notice anything unusual? Yes, that red icon is eerily similar to Google’s own Places. And what is the icon placed on? Look at the map carefully, and you will certainly see a number 4 – a direct shot at Foursquare!

Foursquare is probably more concerned than Dennis lets on. As for now, Facebook’s geo-social service is very bare bones. With a ready-made audience of 500 million, it’s hard to believe that Facebook won’t start fleshing out their service, perhaps start offering partnerships with brands and events. Basically, look for Facebook to follow Foursquare’s build out plan.

But Facebook certainly was a little creepy in their rollout. By default, everyone’s Facebook privacy settings were stacked in Places’ favor.

Whether you knew it or not, you had the ability to check-in. And your friends had the ability to check-in. And THEY had the ability to check YOU in. Kevin Rose and Doug Albrecht demonstrated this on Diggnation when they logged on and checked in their vegan producer at a nearby steakhouse. In fact, Facebook got a lot of slack about it, and posted their own video on how to control the manner in which you and your friends’ information is shared on Places.

Can Places win the geo-social war? Only if Facebook changes the default settings to Private and disable the status tagging feature without user opt-in. Facebook needs to give back privacy control to the user.

I get it. Maybe we could do it in a less creepy, big-brother kind of way?

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After a 10+ year career in advertising, Sean Haubert realized the decades old advertising model was no longer relevant. So, he started a Social Media Marketing consultancy to help his clients start a whole new type of conversation between all the stakeholders. Sean is now the Social Media Manager for the New York Road Runners, the world premier running organization. He recently received his MS in Integrated Marketing Communications from Manhattanville College, where he wrote his thesis on how to introduce analytics into SM marketing campaigns. Sean also has no problem writing about himself in the third person. Learn more about Sean on Facebook and Twitter.

*Photo by AshtonPal

This post was written by guest author Samantha Casey.

Having a dynamic team working with you is an incredible, powerful force which will only continue to benefit your business.  Sure, it is great to feel independently successful; to look up at your office building overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with an immaculate interior design, and a client roster so impressive Tony Robbins would be wowed and say,” That was all me!”

Yet, when having the dynamics of a team in place to help you reach and exceed your goals, you can propel your success forward in ways you wouldn’t have thought.

It begins here:  Formulating Your Power Group – creating a group of individuals you feel comfortable, inspired by, and ready to reach new levels with.  Let’s discuss the formula to building such a dynamic group:

Like Minded, Motivated, and Headed Forward

Creating your Power Group will be most beneficial when you find people who match your commitment, energy, vision, goals, and overall practice.

You may feel it best to have a Power Group of people from many different industries or backgrounds to bounce ideas, plans, and projects off of.  Bringing diversity to your Power Group can also help to gather perspectives that may have not been presented to you before.  Ideally, you want your Power Group to have the same vision for moving forward in business and to match your motivation.  This will also help you to stay on track towards your accomplishments and allow you to help your team achieve theirs as well.

Feels like Family

In my professional experience, I have found myself to be most successful when building solid relationships with those in my Power Group.  This is due to my Power Group being a group of individuals who, on top of having the same overall goals, motivations, and energy, are also helpful, supportive, and encouraging.  These are people I look to in moments of challenge for guidance, for thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.  You may find this  to be beneficial for you, too.

Also, I feel safe with this group of individuals as I trust their opinions, advice, and input.  Considering these points when formulating your Power Group can also help you to feel energized knowing you have a group of people who want to see you succeed, are rooting for you, and are there to lend a helping hand when needed.

Brainstorming and Challenge

Another great point about Team Dynamics and formulating your Power Group is not only the availability to brainstorm with one another, but also in challenging one another to reach the next level.  This is where matching each other’s energy in the group is incredible.  When all parties involved share motivation, the group’s energy becomes unstoppable.

Having your Power Group as a resource for bouncing around new thoughts and ideas, while also challenging one another, can lead to even more opportunities than you originally created.  This allows new ideas to form, new ways of breaking boundaries to generate, and creating new successes for you and your team to benefit from.

Accountability

Your Power Group is also great for creating an agenda, dividing it amongst equal parties, and creating accountability structures to ensure you are on track.  For example, you may be the Sales and Marketing expert on your team and have created a Marketing Plan.  This plan may require the design of a website for your clientele; therefore, you bring a Graphic Designer on board.  You may also look to a professional to handle your Accounting, and an Assistant to handle your daily calendaring, emails, trips, etc.

Or, in another example, you may have a Power Group that consists of people who you meet with once a week via conference call to cover a topic of discussion the group had agreed to the week before.  Therefore, every week covers a specific topic/agenda of focus and each member equally participates on the call, and with discussing the given topic.

Team Dynamics in the form of a Power Group = empowerment, progress, productivity, and comradeship.  It is a win-win situation for all parties involved and will only add to your incredible victories as a professional.

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Samantha Casey is the founder and operator of Relentless Consulting Group, a firm that helps businesses and individuals market to the world. She is a blogger, reader, and networker with a passion for helping others and building strong brands. Follow Samantha on Twitter to find out more about her.

*Photo by wishymom

This post was written by guest author Victoria Ipri.

Social media marketing has become commonplace. Yet thousands of businesses remain on the sidelines.

Why? Fear. In my conversations with small business owners, I’ve dubbed this fear social media paralysis, aka I-don’t-know-what-to-do-so-I’ll-do-nothing.

Signs & Symptoms

Fear of the unknown, fear of making a costly mistake, fear of doing “it” wrong…these fears consume many small business owners. I’m not suggesting a ‘wait and see’ attitude is an effective strategy. To the contrary, businesses adopting this position will find their competitors passing them by. And customers? Well, they’re already online, looking for you. When they don’t find you, guess who gets the business?

The Diagnosis

Acknowledging you have a problem is the first step in recovering from social media paralysis. Interestingly, some small business owners claim they are waiting for social media to “mature,” so true ROI can be measured. I applaud them for their creative spin on the real reason: social media marketing is downright confusing. It’s also time consuming. If there is one thing today’s mentally and financially strapped small business owners don’t need, it’s one more task in an overflowing day.

The Cure

Fortunately, there is a cure. You may be surprised to learn the remedy for social media paralysis does not begin with “build a profile.” No…businesses new to social media are nowhere near ready for that step.

The cure begins with a plan. And the plan includes defining goals and objectives, understanding what social media can…and cannot…do for your bottom line, designating a “driver” (more on this next week), developing a Social Media Action Calendar, and other tasks that serve as the foundation for any good social media marketing campaign.

After all, if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you get there?

Herewith, then, are three brief, but important, tasks you can undertake right now to put you on the path to recovery:

1. Determine the best platform. Remember: LinkedIn is a cocktail party; Facebook is a backyard BBQ; Twitter is the hot sauce. Often, the best combination is either LinkedIn or Facebook, and Twitter as a complement. Many small businesses selling professional services do well with LinkedIn alone.
2. Define your target market. This takes a bit more time, so grab a clean pad of paper and try to write a sentence about who you’re going after. For example, “Mid-life professionals seeking a career change,” “18-24 year old females purchasing their first car,” or “Young professionals with an income of $50,00 or above.” Knowing your target market is key.
3. Check up on your competitors. Your prospects certainly are, so you should too. Google alerts, organic search results, website review, and various tools can help you keep up. Know your competition, so you can do it better.
   If you’re serious about getting on your social media feet, my best advice is “Don’t wait to get started.” It’s a fast-moving world out there.

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Victoria A. Ipri is CEO of Modello Media, Inc., an e-marketing strategy firm with an emphasis on social media solutions, based in Philadelphia, PA. If you suffer from social media paralysis, visit www.SocialMediaShiatsu.com, or download Victoria’s latest ebook, Social Media for the Clueless. Find out more about Victoria on Twitter.

*Photo by dimshik

This post was written by guest blogger Michele Rempel

I recently spoke to a group of university business students and asked them, “How many of you believe that your personal presence on all social media accounts is ready for scrutiny by recruiters, potential employers or potential clients, right now?”  Only a few of the 80+ students in the audience raised their hands.  Of course, I wasn’t surprised, given that they had only begun the school year and most of them were not yet seniors.

I know that I would get more raised hands if I were to ask a group of business professionals.  However, my experience has been that most business owners or employees are thinking about that question superficially and not in the way that is going to benefit them the most in this age of social media.  If you are looking for clients, customers or a new position, it’s a good idea to own, manage, monitor and even dominate your personal digital presence.

Your Personal Digital Presence – Own It

This may sound crazy, but do you own your own domain name, such as www.danielstoica.com?  One of the best ways to get your personal brand and content out there is to have your own website or blog site on your own name.  Of course, some of you have a really common name, so you may have to find a variation, but consider purchasing your name as a domain if you can.  I heard Nathan Latka, a young social media phenom, tell his audience a couple of months ago that his future children will only be named whatever he can purchase as a domain.  Although that may seem a bit extreme, I understand his point.  With social media, it’s easier to become your own brand than ever before.  See if your name is available at www.godaddy.com or www.1and1.com.

Your Personal Digital Presence – Manage It

The best way to ensure that your personal digital presence represents the real you is by producing your own content on the web as well as associating yourself with other people’s good content.  Consider writing your own blog posts  and then linking them to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.  You can set up your own blog site at www.wordpress.com, or consider having someone help you start a blog site with your own domain name. If you have a tough time writing, then you can out other people’s content (giving them credit, of course) about subjects that interest you.  Find a blog post that you would like to share and then send the link to that blog post (with your own quick introduction) using an application such as www.ping.fm.  Your name gets associated with the information that you’re sending, even though you didn’t have to write anything.  The idea is to have your name and brand associated with appropriate content, over and over again.  When people search for you on the internet, they’ll see listings of good content associated with your name.  Keep in mind that every Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog post, etc., gets indexed on the search engines.

Another way to manage your digital presence is to check up on your social media accounts regularly.  I don’t mean just send out Facebook or Twitter posts; I mean check and update your personal information wherever you’re being represented.  Is your information current and correct?  Have you changed your tagline, brand message, or job responsibilities?  Do you have a good photo?

Your Personal Digital Presence – Monitor It

How do you know what is being said about you or your brand? Do you Google yourself or your brand on a regular basis?  Better yet, do you have your Google alerts set so that you get an email when you’re mentioned on the internet?  Set up a Google alert by going to www.google.com/alerts and you’ll get an email whenever your search term gets mentioned.  Even if you don’t think anyone is talking about you or your brand, you may be in for a surprise.

Your Personal Digital Presence – Dominate It

The goal of owning, managing and monitoring your personal digital presence is to ensure that you are being represented the way you want.  Posting content that represents you, your brand, service or product on all of your social media accounts will help you dominate the search engines and ensure that you can be found.  And when you are found, your name or brand will be associated with good content in listing after listing.

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Michele Rempel is a Partner and Project Manager for Website Development and Social Media Marketing Management at Mandatek, LLC. She leverages her previous experience as an educator & administrator to effectively communicate with clients and translate their visions into website and software projects as well as social media marketing campaigns. Michele enjoys speaking and writing about social media and is also in the process of starting an additional company called Mediavine Marketing to simplify social media marketing for small businesses and individuals. Find out more about Michele on Twitter.


*Photo by Franco Bouly

A few months ago I believed Twitter to be just a means for teenagers and college students to communicate. Twitter seemed nothing more than a giant chat room. There is no way anyone can accurately say that now.

To understand why Twitter is so valuable you need to understand page ranking and tweets.

Page Ranking

Every company wants to have their website at the top of a Google search result. If I search your industry keywords and your business website is the first result I see, I will be much more likely to buy from you than from your competitors.

The results of a search are displayed in a list form. Your page ranking indicates where your business site is located on that list. You desperately want your page rank to be #1 (the top of the list).

Twitter

The reason Twitter is so important is because Twitter can help you get a higher page ranking.

Now, here is how you can use Tweets.

First of all, “Tweets” is a term used to refer to comments posted through Twitter. A tweet is singular and “tweets” is plural.

Search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing for example, have started to pay very close attention to the content of each tweet.

For this reason you should make sure you are tweeting and providing quality info in your tweets. I would suggest tweeting no less than four times each day.

Here are four things you need to do to create a quality tweet:

1. You need to include your name and the other keywords of your industry in the beginning of the tweet. This is what you want the search engines to see in order to make your page ranking go up.

Whenever your tweet is retweeted (forwarded) by your followers (people who are interested in what you have to say), the search engines are particularly interested in what you wrote.

It’s very important to have your keywords retweeted as often as possible.

2. You want your tweet to be very interesting. If it’s not interesting it will never be retweeted by your followers.

Here are some tips on what would make good tweet content:
- Humorous quotes
- Interesting animal facts
- Useful tips
- links to Darwin Awards or other interesting articles/videos/photos

Make sure each tweet starts with your name and keywords and is followed by the interesting information. After you write the content you should include some hashtags.

3. Hashtags are words that are used for searching purposes.

If you want to search the category “shoes” you will type “shoes” in your tweet. However, you must always prefix the word with the pound sign (#). For example: #shoes or #dogs. These would both be good examples of hashtags.

By using hashtags you can make it possible for people who do not follow you to find what you are writing about. For this reason, it is very important to use hashtags.

4. Always leave about 14 to 20 characters unused at the end of your tweet.

Each tweet is allowed a max of 140 characters. When someone retweets your update, their name is included in the tweet you sent. This means if your tweet was 140 characters long and the person who retweeted you has a name of 20 characters, people will only be able to see 120 characters of your tweet.

You want people to see everything you wrote, so leave some room at the end of the tweet.

If you properly use Twitter, you will show the search engines that you are important and people are interested in what you have to offer. [Even though they are actually interested in your interesting content and not your keywords]

There are two more very important points to keep in mind:

1. If you don’t have any followers, it will be very difficult for people to notice what you are saying or take you seriously.

Make a point of finding followers. You do this by following people who will provide you with valuable information. You can also get followers by posting interesting tweets with hashtags.

2. Post frequently. There are many opinions as to how often you should tweet, but a good general rule is to tweet no fewer than four times each day.

If you create quality tweets, you have followers, and you post frequently, I guarantee that your page ranking will go up.

Good luck on your tweets and have fun!

P.S. If you are putting a lot of work in your tweets you know you are doing it right. Don’t give up until you find success.

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Joshua Lyons began working in the field of social media through an internship at the University of West Florida in the summer of 2009. He graduated from UWF with a BA in Public Relations in December 2009 and since that time he has been a social media consultant for a Chicago profit consultant, a Chick-fil-A restaurant and a sign shop in Pensacola, Florida. You can check out Joshua’s blog or website and find out more about him on Twitter or Facebook.

*Photo by svilen001