Social Networking

Story on Twitter in tomorrow’s USAToday.
You may have seen Jack and Biz Tweet during the photos/interview
All about the success of a simple idea

read more | digg story

Join me today, in my online classroom and learn about Social Networking.

I know you’ve probably been hearing a bit, or a lot, about Social Networking. Some of the more well known social networking sites are Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and now new tools are coming online. Microblogging tools like Twitter, Plurk and sites where you can create your own social networks, like Ping.

Whoa, a lot of new words, right?  I know.  It can be overwhelming.  As most of you know, I spend pretty much all day on the Internet. Social networking has become an integral part of my overall marketing strategy.

I’m inviting you to Cross The Digital Divide with me this afternoon at 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern to chat in my online classroom  about Social Networking.

This is the time to get some of the answers to your questions about what Social Networking is and how you might use it to promote your business online.

I’ve invited my Facebook, Twitter and Plurk buddies too. So, grab a beverage of your choice, put your feet up, and join the conversation.  Cross the digital divide……

I look forward to sharing with you, and answering your questions about how you can promote your business online.

by Leesa Barnes

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. These are just 3 of the many social networking tools available online. They are great for finding new prospects, making new friends and connecting with colleagues.

Podcasters use social networking websites to build traffic and grow their audience. It’s an easy way to share your audio or video content to attract attention and gain new fans.

Despite this, many have forgotten their networking manners. They are pushy and greedy. This type of behaviour is enough to make you hit the ignore button.

Want to make enemies? Here are 5 ways you can lose friends online, and how to make sure it never happens to you.

1. Hard sell during the introduction. Along with saying "Hi, we have some mutual friends, so let’s connect," you include the URLs to your blog, website and everything else you’ve created online. Whether it’s asking for donations to your favorite cause or asking for a visit to your blog, you go in for the hard sell on the first hello.

What should you do instead? Become a friend, then offer a quick tip. I recently became friends with a man, a health buff, who reminded me to stand up and stretch every few minutes if I work at my desk all day. He was being helpful and I appreciated this.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, do the hard sell. If you want to make friends, be helpful.

2. Bombard your friends with notes and emails with your offer. Whether it’s a teleclass, a workshop or a new book, tell all those in your friends’ list about your product. As many times as you can.

What should you do instead? Create a video offering a quick tip and ask for feedback. My friend, Nancy Mar recently did this. In just a few hours, she got 18 replies from friends providing feedback on her video tip.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, be egotistical. If you want to make friends, be humble.

3. Send the same message one by one to all your friends. I’ve seen a few people send the same message over and over to different people. How do I know they’re doing this? When you login to Facebook, the front page contains the activities of your friends. Often, I see someone posting the same message to different people’s profile. The only thing the offender changes is the individual’s first name.

What should you do instead? Visit your friend’s profile page and find out if you share any hobbies. If so, share your thoughts on that hobby with your friend. If the person is celebrating a birthday, send a birthday greeting. Anything to make the note much more personal.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, sp@m people. If you want to make friends, personalize your message.

4. Requesting friendship from everyone, including your contact’s 13 year old son. Some join Facebook and MySpace to be friends with as many people as they can. Their goal? To do #2 and #3 above. They are so focused on numbers, they neglect to check if they’re requesting friendship from teenagers.

What should you do instead? Read people’s profiles, study who they are, then request friendship. This will help you avoid the embarrassment of being called pedophile.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, focus on quantity. If you want to make friends, focus on quality.

If you focus on being helpful and on developing a few key relationships, people will be so interested in you that curiosity alone will send them to your website, blog or podcast. Practice these 4 tips and watch your business grow as people start to trust and like you.

Award-winning blogger and podcasting expert, Leesa Barnes, teaches insider tips on how to boost your sales and make a six-figure income using a podcast. Visit http://www.leesabarnes.com and sign up to receive 2 FREE chapters from her book, Podcasting for Profit.

As I chat with fellow solopreneurs I often use terms they aren’t familiar with (cause they are rooted in terra firma, not cyberspace) and Twitter is just one of those words. You know the words that make their eyes glaze and roll to the back of their head.

I found a great post on some of the uses for Twitter and how it affects the journalism industry.  Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Vision to Venture Event sponsored by Microsoft Live Small Business. I was able to Twitter what the speakers were sharing during the conference. If you visited my site that day, you would have been able to follow what was going on at the event. Better yet, if you were following me, you got it in real time.

Check out the post at MediaShift.

As I chat with fellow solopreneurs I often use terms they aren’t familiar with (cause they are rooted in terra firma, not cyberspace) and Twitter is just one of those words. You know the words that make their eyes glaze and roll to the back of their head.

I found a great post on some of the uses for Twitter and how it affects the journalism industry.  Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Vision to Venture Event sponsored by Microsoft Live Small Business. I was able to Twitter what the speakers were sharing during the conference. If you visited my site that day, you would have been able to follow what was going on at the event. Better yet, if you were following me, you got it in real time.

Check out the post at MediaShift.

Magic In Words is hosting another free webinar Monday, 3pm Pacific – 6pm Eastern on Social Networking. Our special guest will be Myrna Weinreich, of Myrna’s List.

She’s quickly becoming a Twitter expert, among other social networks. We’ll be discussing Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. This is your time to ask questions and find out how to leverage your business using the internet.

An essential marketing strategy for your online business is social networking, defined as a site where users contribute the content. I participate in a couple of social networking sites, one being Facebook, also Linkedin and a few others.

Here’s an ebook, Social Networking Exposed,  that will help you understand a little bit more about the social networking phenominon that’s sweeping the internet. Are you on Facebook yet?  Why don’t you come over and be my friend!

Here’s another video that has a lot of information about the basics of Linkedin.

Are you twittering yet? It’s one more social networking tool you can use to raise your online visibility.

Social networking is a great way to build your online sphere of influence. Traversing the blogosphere, posting comments on blogs your read and using tools like Twitter and MyBlogLog will give you added exposure to other small business owners. Here’s a link to a great resource for using Twitter.

If you are Twittering, how are you using Twitter in your online business? Please share by commenting!!