Jan Vermeiren Tells Us “How to Really Use LinkedIn” (Podcast)

I had the pleasure recently to interview Jan Vermeiren, Europe’s foremost expert on business networking and the author of How to REALLY use LinkedIn, one of the best books on any continent for getting the most from your LinkedIn account.

In speaking with Jan you soon realize that he gives such great advice for using LinkedIn not because he’s a LinkedIn expert but because he’s a networking expert. Jan’s the founder of Networking Coach and came to the attention of the global community with the publication of his best selling book on harnessing the power of networks, Let’s Connect!: A Practical Guide for Highly Effective Professional Networking.

How to Turn 20 Minutes into 45

When I approached Jan for this interview I told him that it would be about 15-20 minutes in length. I was fully prepared to honor this time committment but Jan, as incredibly generous as he is, wouldn’t stop giving great tips, techniques and strategies on turbocharging your LinkedIn presence. So grab a pen and plenty of paper to write down all the great LinkedIn and networking ideas Jan reveals:

• Where the real power of your LinkedIn network lies
• How to quickly grow an effective network
• What are the 3 most important principles for getting the most out of online networking
• The biggest problems with online networking
• … and much, much more

Free Light Version of How to Really Use LinkedIn

Jan has graciously made a light version of his LinkedIn book available at How-to-REALLY-Use-LinkedIn.com. His primary site, Networking-Coach.com, provides links to Jan’s products and services as well as a number of great free resources on building your prowess in business and professional networking.

Free Teleseminar: Social Media Essentials for Business

Jan Vermeiren provides great information and if you want to learn even more about using Social Media and Social Networking to accelerate your business marketing, reserve your seat for a free, 55 minute tele-session that will reveal the power of not only LinkedIn but blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other power social media platforms to give your business the edge it needs in these tough economic times! This value-packed, free social media marketing workshop will be broadcast via telephone Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Reserve your seat now!

And now, on to the interview, enjoy!

#D@RT: No, I’m Not Cussing You Out On Twitter

One of the confusing things to many new Twitter users is this seemingly weird use of symbols and acronyms that they are suddenly exposed to in a 140 character world.

While long time texters are familiar with the texting shorthand (LOL, BRB, IMHO, IDK*) that’s been adapted to Twitter there are a few variations unique to the Twittersphere that are a bit puzzling.

In this post we’ll tackle one particular Twitter convention that a lot of people struggle to get their heads around, hashtags.

Twitter Hashtags Explained

#[something] – this is a hash tag symbol, “#” (some of us think of it as the pound sign) followed by a word, phrase or acronym. Hash tags sprang up as a way for people to easily track conversations (or “tweets“, i.e., a twitter post) about a particular topic (#taxes), ideology (#rush), event (#FollowFriday), person (#Obama), company (#Dell), or product (#iphone) on Twitter. Hashtags.org is the mothership for all things hash tagged and, if you follow their Twitter feed (@hashtags), they’ll track and aggregate your use of hashtags in your personal posts.

Hashtags demonstrated…

Let’s say that I’m interested in starting a Twitter conversation about President Obama’s new health plan. I may create a hash tag called #OHP (for Obama’s Health Plan) to track this conversation on Twitter. Each time I tweet about the health plan I add the tag, #OHP, to my post and savvy respondents will do the same. Then I can use a number of tools including Twitter Search and Hashtags.org to see what everyone is contributing to this particular conversation. Sample Tweet stream (all Tweets made up):

Obama’s health plan is causing a lot of controversy. Ur opinion? Good or bad? #OHP
@tomjgray

Obama’s so called health plan is the first step on the road to perdition. #OHP
@rushonalimb

Every American is entitled to comprehensive health care and if the government needs to drive this the so be it #OHP
@bleedingheartliberal

… and so the Tweets flow…

Each time you use a hashtag in a post that post get’s captured at Hashtags.org and the entire conversation can be easily accessed there. Here’s a screen capture that illustrates how conversations are cataloged:

Drilling Down with Hashtags

If you want to ‘drill down’ into a particular conversation then you merely click on the hashtag itself (e.g., #iphone) to review a chronological listing of all the Tweets that have contained this tag as well as monthly activity for this hashtag….

If You Want to Know More About Hashtags

For further understanding of Hashtags I’d recommend that you visit Hashtags.org and just explore the various options it provides for discovering the multitude of hashtags going on all around you on Twitter.

For even more good stuff on hashtags visit the hashtag page at the Twitter Fan Wiki.

One Last Thing

I encourage you to participate in the many dialogues tracked by hashtags on Twitter and to use hashtags to start and track your own but to avoid confusion do yourself, and your followers a favor, and check to see if the hashtag you’d like to use is available by checking it out in the directory of hashtags on twitter.

I’m Available to Help

As always, leave your comments or contact me directly with your questions about Twitter or other social media.

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[*LOL - Laugh Out Loud, BRB - Be Right Back, IMHO - In My Humble Opinion, IDK - I Don't Know]

Advice from Biz Coach, Elli St. George Godfrey, on Business, Life and Networking (Podcast)

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing business and entrepreneur coach Ellen St. George Godfrey, LMHC (Elli) last week. We had a great discussion on the process Elli uses to engage her clients in a dynamic partnership that creates business growth while restoring life balance. Elli also shared how she employs the power of networking, both online and off, to develop effective and rewarding business and personal relationships.

Listen in if you’d like insight into how to have it all; a great business that doesn’t require you to sacrifice family, friends, self and community to the bottom line. And, if you’re considering whether a business coach makes sense for you this will give you a hype free view of the coaching process from a very passionate practitioner.

Elli offers not only one-to-one coaching programs but she periodically offers an 8 week enterpreneurial development program called How to Be an E.G.G. (for Entrepreneurial Go Getter). She has a session starting this week so if you’re interested you should contact her immediately to see if there’s still an opportunity to get on board or to get details for her next session.

For more information and to contact Elli visit her web site at www.abilitysuccessgrowth.com, call her at (781) 258-9952 or email info@abilitysuccessgrowth.com. Oh, and she’s quite the engaging tweeter @3keyscoach.

Enjoy the Podcast!

Best Social Media Sites for Developing Business Opportunities

Tom Gray's Social Network

Social Media and Networking Sites can represent an overwhelming number of choices for any business trying to establish a corporate or personal presence in the social media sphere.

To try to sort out which social sites have the best impact for business online, I took the opportunity, a couple of months ago, to ask the following question through my LinkedIn profile. I was recently reviewing the answers and felt they deserved a broader distribution. If you have your own take on the best social media and social networking sites for business, please weigh in on the discussion in the comments…

My Social Media Question

There are literally thousands of social media and social networking sites available to the business community. I’m wondering what you feel are the 3-5 most valuable for developing business opportunities?

I received a number of great answers starting with…

Carson Poppenger wrote:

I believe facebook is rapidly emerging as the leader. They have so much traffic, incredibly sticky for users. I’ve heard some people refer to it as online crack… With all the applications that you can use to promote your business, connect with friends and customers there are so many advantages. I also believe, unlike linkedin, users (customers) are more likely to use Facebook all day (before, during, after hours) for many social activities, rather than just for work related social circles.

However, there are ways to drive lots of traffic using a variety of all available social sites, digg, twitter, delicious. I believe that all the available tools can be used together to generate traffic, keep people top of mind. It’ll be interesting to see if all of them can survive. Facebook will be here for the long haul, unless someone can develop something even more interactive.
————-

Carson Poppenger added the following clarification:
Tom, great post by the way. This is an incredible topic that just got me thinking. I did a quick check to see traffic comparisons between FaceBook and Linkedin. It’s not even close. Checkout the post I just put on my blog.

http://www.marketingcrackerjack.com/2009/01/social-media-traffic.html

David Avrin wrote:

LinkedIn - facilitates introductions

Chad Bordeaux wrote:

Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter (although I am still figuring this one out – especially at the local level)

Hazel M Walker wrote:

I think that Twitter, Linkedin, and NING Communities are excellent for business.

I also use Facebook but not as impressed as many others.

Alison Fraser wrote:

Depends on what you mean by business opportunities and exactly who the market is. Facebook does seem to have a good handle on very targeted advertising. For example, I put into my profile that one of my hobbies is sewing and now I get ads for fabric. I think that’s very clever because those ads actually interest me! It’s not based on my broad-based demographics like my age or income- although I get that too. For example, the other day there were anti wrinkle cream ads (based on my age I guess) and and ad for the Killers (based on my ‘alternative music” profile I think) . But there are limits to how businesses can use this information. Not many people will tell you their hobby is CRM mgt. Certainly LinkedIn is a great business networking site.

Twitter is interesting. There are people who follow me and I don’t know why. I follow people/groups that interest me. But it’s not a destination like Facebook and LinkedIn. I use Facebook for personal use, LinkedIn for business and Twitter cause I’m trying to figure out what it can really do. Myspace seems to be the music destination and YouTube the video one. Sites like Classmates and Reunion (now MyLife.com) seem to have focused on selling premium memberships rather than building value in the site on its own merits. LinkedIn provides a lot of value even without a premium.

Andi Enns wrote:

It is a tough choice! And the answer depends on the amount of work and content creation you want to do.

First off, kudos for being on LinkedIn. It’s definitely on my list.

Facebook is clearly defining itself as the place to be. Create a profile for you, a Page for your business, events listings for your events, and list your services in the Marketplace. You can also post videos and pictures (which, if you have them, can be very useful), as well as write “notes” (a blog). For the more technical people, you could create an app about your industry for your new friends to put on their profiles.

Twitter (@andienns) is all about the conversation. In my brief time on Twitter (less than two months), I’ve already closed business deals.

YouTube is a great site to get attention, as well. You do have to actively create content, though.

Mark O’Toole wrote:

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook - all are very different and do require a level of effort to create and maintain. None of them are about the raw numbers, but rather the relevancy of your friends, followers and fans.

Dr. Sally Witt wrote:

Hi Tom!

Great question. I believe that the basic 4 are LinkedIn.com, Naymz.com, Ecademy.com, and Facebook.com. That is where everyone needs to start. Then the blogging and micro-blogging sites like twitter.com and plurk.com are wonderful to building relationships and credibility.

I believe that each person has to find their favorite or most comfortable site to dig in and network and do their business the most good. Realtors have activerain.com, for example. Professional speakers do well with speakersite.com. There are so many.

Because I use social media every day, youtube.com and blogtalkradio.com are critical to my success, and the networking aspect is wonderful on both of them.

Using feeds from your twitter, your blog, and youtube for example, can update your profiles on many sites even if you do not visit that often.

Naymz.com can further a relationship by offering a testimonial and a connection, but does not usually foster conversation unless you are connected on other sites. Naymz is important to get your name and reputation built up online.

My philosophy is multi-dimensional connecting with your contacts. By the time you are connected on 3 or 4 sites. you have the opportunity to be noticed by them and to feel distantly related! Just the conversation about why you are on the other sites may bring about a new way of relating to that person.

Networking is all about relationships, and relationships breed business opportunities.

People need to take advantage of clubs and groups on the sites to really get in there, share information and opinions. Linked In is so much better now with the discussions, and of course the Q & A’s.

The groups that have grown up around the networking sites are very important, such as My Linking Power Forum by Vincent Wright. Everyone needs to know the people in these forums, learn from them, and be mentored by wise professionals like Vincent.

Combining face to face networking with online networking is the best. Dr. Ivan Misner is the guru for networking and building business. His organization, BNI (bni.com), is the ultimate way to learn to move networking contacts into opportunity.

If I could only have one site (which I pray never happens!) I would choose Ecademy. Ecademy.com combines the business and relationship aspects of networking so well for me, plus the global neighborhood feeling that is very important to me. People that I have been connected to on Linked In for years become friends with me on Ecademy. Thomas Power and his wife and staff are amazing at offering training, tips, and opportunities to move your networking to higher levels all the time.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer such an important question in our word, Tom. Yes, you are a wise one!

Warmly,

Dr. Sally Witt
www.drsallywitt.com

Robert Ames wrote:

Great question Tom and I must say I’ve learned a great deal from reading the responses.

I certainly rate Linkedin for ‘finding decision makers and influencers’.

For delivery and supply-side contacts I certainly rate ecademy.com and agree with Sally about the founders Thomas and Penny Power. If you ever get the chance to hear the personal story about ecademy from either of them then grab the opportunity with both hands, its inspiring. The culture of ecademy is ‘how can I help you’ and believe me, it works! Pay-it-forward in action.

What’s Your Opinion?

Use the comments to share your opinion on what social media and social networking sites are the best for building effective business relationships and uncovering business opportunities.

InDenverTimes.com Launched: How to Use Twitter to Generate Buzz and Land Subscribers

The Rocky Mountain News is dead. Long live InDenver Times.

InDenver Times is a collaboration between ex-Rocky Reporting staff and several Denver area entrepreneurs who are betting that there are 50,000 loyal subscribers to the former Rocky Mountain News who are willing to switch their allegiance to the new Rocky Mountain News InDenverTimes.com.

Most will admit that getting people to pay for something that they perceive should be free is going to be a tough ‘row to hoe’ as my grandmother used to say. The challenge is even greater when you consider that InDenver Times is pretty much positioned as a local play with a focus on the Denver Metro area. In other words, their national or international appeal is going to be somewhat limited meaning that they’re going to really have to work the local market to secure the subscriber numbers needed.

Can they do this? I don’t know but as a native Coloradoan and a long-time Denver area resident, I hope so. What’s a given is that their team is going to have to fire on all cylinders to make this work including tapping heavily into online social media to build support, buzz and their subscriber base. After all, who better to promote and buy in to this new digital newspaper model but those who’re already immersed in the online world.

Using Twitter to Promote InDenver Times

Full disclosure. I’m related to one of the entrepreneurs backing this venture. Brad Gray, a successful local entrepreneur with McAleer Gray, is not only a friend but he’s my cousin. I recently sent him a post with suggestions for using social media in general and Twitter in specific to boost their subscription drive efforts. Here’s the summary:

Either they (or somebody) has staked this profile at Twitter.com/InDenverTimes…

I don’t know if this is the indenvertimes twitter profile but, if it is, you should put someone in charge and begin to put it to use to support their efforts by:

1. Get to work now on creating a stream of InDenver Times generated ‘tweets’ with ongoing updates to Twitter that alerts your followers on the subscription drive, breaking news, staff profiles and upcoming stories and opinion pieces. Use it to promote local and national stories on your efforts like Westword’s coverage and the NBC Nightly News mention.
2. Create a custom background that tells the InDenver Times story and provides links to your primary properties. And, obviously, get your profile built ASAP.
3. Put a staffer in charge but enlist all of the reporting and management staff in keeping the tweets flowing. Have each of the staff, if they haven’t already, set up their own Twitter profiles with backgrounds and cross follow everyone.
4. Register at www.hashtags.org and use #indenvertimes to track all the tweets (you add the tag to each of your Twitter posts) related to your efforts.
5. Feed your twitter stream into your website and into your facebook profile which also needs to be setup…
6. Pick up locally based twitter followers quickly. Start out by farming the top of the food chain. Go to http://grader.twitter.com/location. Start with Denver then work through the region. Follow everybody on these lists and send those who follow back – which will be the majority – a Direct Message (dm) that thanks them and asks them to further spread the word.
7. Use Twitter Search to track the buzz. Search on the terms indenvertimes and iwantmyrocky to start… You’ll see something like this… (and see #4 above for a tip on using hash tags in this effort).
   
   Use Retweets, Replies (@twitter-name) and Direct Messages to thank all who’ve commented and keep the buzz building. By the way, when I conducted this search early this morning you’d already attracted over 35 pages of twitter mentions to your efforts on these 2 terms alone.

Twitter grew 800 % last year and is currently growing at about 1400% … you need to be using this and other social media channels to give yourself a fighting chance to attract the interest AND the subscribers you need to keep the spirit of the Rocky alive for another 150 years!

Comment with Your Ideas and Win a Subscription

Do you have one or more great ideas on helping InDenver Times meet their subscriber goal of 50,000? Comment on this post and we’ll select the best one to receive a one year paid subscription to the new InDenver Times … a $59.88 value. Note: If InDenver Times doesn’t make it then no subscription but don’t worry, you aren’t alone. We all lose!

How Not to Get & Keep Followers on Twitter

There are lots of Twitter users out there who think they’ve hit the get-rich-quick pipeline to instant riches when they find Twitter. A lot of these are people who tweet like this guy…

• finishing up his new ‘coaching series’ which he’ll be selling to you in a later tweet. 
• using a new product which you can try for FREE! Of course, when you buy it, he’ll get his affiliate commission and the opportunity to sell you more, more, more…
• asking you to sign up for his motivational tips newsletter because he’d rather hammer you to buy his stuff through multiple channels, not just Twitter. 

This kind of user sees Twitter as his personal 24/7 twinfomercial where’s it all him all the time. Does that sound like a twitter stream that you want to spend much time immersed in? So why does @allMLMallthetime think we do?

How to Attract Twitter Followers

He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand the rules of engagement in the social sphere. It’s not hard and there’s really only one…

Thou shalt give in order that thou shalt receive.

The way you attract Twitter followers over the long term, who keep reading, retweeting and replying to your tweets is to provide real value that interests and benefits them over time. After all, Twitter, like every other social network is a “what’s in it for me” medium. So by showing your ‘tweeps’ that what’s in it for them is solid advice, links to lots of good stuff (not yours), connections with your other value-adding followers and yes, the right amount of self/product/service promotion (no more than 10-20%) you’ll find that you’ve developed a trust-based relationship with them.

Why? Because by relentlessly and somewhat selflessly providing them value you’ve demonstrated a concern for their prosperity, not just your own. 

Oh, and don’t we all like to do business with people we trust, with people who ‘care’ about us. 

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If this article added value to your day please Retweet and Comment! Thanks.

Twitter Tabbed Top Social Media Site for Business

A social media survey of 200 social media leaders by Abrams Research reports that Twitter was selected as the top spot for business dollars by a 40% to 15% margin over Facebook. However, asked which site they’d be most likely to pay to access and Facebook got the most votes. LinkedIn showed well in both categories.

Highlights of Social Media Questions:

A total of 7 questions were addressed, these I found to be the most interesting…

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

• Facebook 32.2%
• Linkedin 29.7%
• Twitter 21.8%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

• Twitter 39.6%
• Linkedin 21.3%
• YouTube 18.8%
• …

The juxtaposition in Twitter in Question 1 & 2 is a head scratcher for me. The Social Media gurus would pay for Facebook over Twitter but recommend their clients to pay for Twitter with Facebook not even in the top 3. Curious. (Comments on this?)

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? …

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares”)
5. Jetblue
…

5. What’s the best way to monetize social media?

• “Freemium” use, i.e. a free basic model followed by a fee for advanced options (i.e. storage, analytics) 45.5%
• Targeted ads (e.g. contextual ads) 20.3%
• Research (polling, surveys, trend-mining) 8.9%
• …

Click the link to for the 10 Page (PDF) report of Abrams Research Social Media Survey.

Twitter – Show the Love; A Brief Tutorial on Twitter’s @Replies Feature

New Twitter users sometimes have a hard time figuring out some of the ins and outs of Twitter communication etiquette. For example, a very nice young woman and Life Coach, Carolann Jones (follow her at http://www.twitter.com/coachcarolann) was sharing an event she was participating in sponsored by Wealth, Success and Women.

Carolann tweeted about the event as follows:

Listening to call hosted by Heather Jumah-How to Set Up A Six Figure Blog, Free Teleseminar with Joel Williams the Blog Tech Guy.

Now I blog and I’m interested in a Six Figure Blog so I might be interested in Joel’s stuff and anybody who puts on cool events like this I should know about but, apart from Replying to (@CoachCarolann) or Direct Messaging ( D CoachCarolann) Carolann, I don’t have an easy way to find out more about Heather and Joel. And, if Carolann’s stepped away from Twitter or is busy, she may miss my tweet all together.

Using the @Replies Feature in Twitter

So, to make it easier for others to track fellow tweeters that you mention in one of your posts then all Carolann (and you) have to do is substitute names for Twitter names and precede these with the aforementioned @ sign. Her message now becomes:

Listening to call hosted by @HeatherJumah – How to Set Up A Six Figure Blog, Free Teleseminar with @BlogTechGuy.

The @twitterusername protocol creates a link between your post and that user’s Twitter page and  accomplishes two things:

1. It allows people who follow your posts to easily follow the people you mention thus adding even more value to your twitter post AND
2. It shows your Tweeps (Twitter Peeps) some love because when you use the @twitterusername protocol to identify your tweeps in a post then your post also shows up in their Twitter feed and it’s stored in the @Replies section of their Twitter home page.

When we use their @twitterusername in a post we’re expressing our gratitude for the value that they have provided to us and, after all, we all appreciate a good “shout out” now and again.

But I Don’t Know if They Tweet

Don’t know somebody’s Twitter identity? Use the Find People menu on your Twitter screen to find existing Twitter account holders or to invite people you know from other social networks or by email.

The easiest way, if you don’t know their Twitter name is to guess. To construct this little Twitter Tutorial, I guessed that Heather Jumah’s name might be ‘heatherjumah‘. I guessed correctly. I thought that maybe Joel would use his name. Nope, but I knew he was the Blog Tech Guy and sure enough his Twitter name is ‘blogtechguy‘. It’s not always this easy but in this case it was.

1. Click on Find People 2. Click on the Find on Twitter tab 3. Enter a person's name or tag line

Feedback Please

Give me feedback if you find this Twitter-torial useful and ask me any other questions you might have about Twitter or social media in general. Oh, and if you found this useful, don’t forget to ReTweet!

Social Media Networks: Still Think They’re a Fad?

The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that use of social networking sites by adults has quadrupled from 2005 to December 2008. In 2005 only 8% of adults reported having a profile on the social network sites while today that number exceeds 35%. Percentage wise adults still trail the 65% of teenagers with profiles but since the adult population is so much larger the reality is that about 4 times as many adults as teens have a social network profile in place.

Overall, around 100 million Americans of every age have profiles. That’s around a third of the total population with a social network profile. And, considering that the top 10 social media sites as reported by Nielson Online (source: http://mashable.com/2009/01/23/most-popular-social-networks-2008/) draw over 180 million visits a day, I’d say there’s little wonder that Twitter’s been valued at $250 million (growth in 2008; 664%) and apparently offered $500 million (owner’s reportedly politely declined, obviously believe can get more). 

By the Social Network Numbers

Pew reports the following age groups having profiles on social network sites (the question asked is mine):

• 75% of online adults 18-24 <– Are they your audience?
• 57% of online adults 25-34 <– Are they your audience?
• 30% of online adults 35-44 <– Are they your audience?
• 19% of online 45 to 54 <– Are they your audience?
• 10% of online 55 to 64 <– Are they your audience?
• 7% of online adults 65 <– Are they your audience?

The Social Media Gold Rush

Still think that you don’t need to a.) stake your claim on twitter, linkedin, facebook, et al, and b.) shouldn’t be consumed with understanding how to mine social media for connections, opportunities and revenue discovered in the gold filled streams of social media? You will.

Getting Started with Social Media

I ascribe to the Nike Methodology, Just Do It! Go to Facebook and setup a profile. Same with LinkedIn. Same with Twitter. Same with YouTube … and any other social media platform that tickles your fancy or that you’ve heard that your peers, colleagues or customers frequent. Sign up. Follow. Connect. Capitalize. (Social Network Tip: the best way to capitalize is to add value for others already there. Believe me, you’ll get plenty of value back!)

It’s as simple, to get started, as that.

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By the way, if you’re interested in a 3rd party perspective or assistance, give me a call (303.882.8252). I’d love to discuss social media networking and marketing opportunities for you and your business.