2009 May | shesgotclients.com

Social Networking Profiles That Stand Out

May 31, 2009 By Christine 3 Comments

It’s basic but crucial to your social media presence to have an effective profile. It’s both a snapshot of who you are and often the first impression others will have of you. So how do you get your profile to work for you without boring people to death?

Use a real photo of yourself.

Sometimes you see people using their logo as their picture or avatar but I usually advise against this. You want others to relate to you as a real person when they are thinking of buying from you—show us your eyes! That is something you really can’t convey through a graphic. (Unless maybe you’re Starbucks.)

Oh, and use a professional photo when possible. Your picture should be you alone—no offense to your kids and pets. If you are using social sites for business even a little bit, your photo needs to be somewhat professional.

Location, location, location.

Include some indication of what area you live in. It may be the world wide web, but you never know when local opportunities will show up. Make it easy for people to find you.

Have a well thought-out bio.

People will look to your bio in order to get the essence of what you’re about. This can be a short version of your “elevator pitch” as long as you avoid sounding too much like a commercial. Read it to yourself to get a feel for how it comes off and adjust if needed. Keep in mind that you want to emphasize how you provide value to others.

Include all of your relevant links.

Make it easy for people to find out more about you and get more website traffic at the same time. Definitely include your website/blog as well as URLs for any other social sites you are active on.

If possible, use your full name.

Depending on the social network, you may or may not be able to fit your whole name. Also, if you have a common name, it may have been snatched up already, such as on a site like Twitter. In my case, I went with @ChristineG because my first and last name wouldn’t fit. I’m ok with that though, because people still associate it closely with my full name.

Personal tidbits are not a bad thing.

It’s called social networking for a reason—don’t be shy! Some people feel uncomfortable sharing anything about themselves outside of their business persona. But being your authentic self is what draws others to you. You may have a snazzy professional profile pic, but posting photos occasionally of your latest vacation won’t hurt–it could actually be great for business.

Fill out your background completely.

Others are able to find you because of the information that you fill out about your interests, education, past employment and groups and associations you belong to. This is especially true on LinkedIn. Keep your info up to date so that opportunities can easily find you.

The most important thing? Make sure you have a consistent presence across all networks. This will strengthen your personal brand and help establish credibility. To make it easy, keep a document on your computer with all of your profile info. Then, just copy and paste it when needed.

What are your thoughts on what makes an effective profile?

Photo Credit: Gary Hayes

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Social Networking

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (Social Media Style)

May 30, 2009 By Christine 7 Comments

Ah, social media etiquette. Here are some examples of faux pas that may forfeit you friends, freak out your followers and cause your contacts to cringe:

Auto-post the same quotes, links or messages on Twitter at intervals throughout the day–every day.

Make a Friend request on Facebook where you are trying to sell the person in the friend request. *Cringe.*

Send automated Direct Messages to all your new Twitter followers already trying to get them to your blog or sell them something. Fail.

Place a long signature line with multiple links at the end of every message you leave on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Follow people without having a Twitter bio, updates or pic.

Use the name of your business instead of your real name for your personal Facebook profile (quick way to get banned–try Facebook Pages instead).

Follow people on Twitter and if they haven’t followed you back within 30 minutes, unfollow them.

Mass follow people and then unfollow them once they’ve followed back (some sort of sick Twitter numbers-boosting game).

Curse up a storm on people’s Facebook walls.

Social bookmark your own posts and content repeatedly.

Choose a profile picture showing you doing a keg stand.

Decide you’re too busy to interact on social sites but still want to claim you’re “on” them. Hence, you drop in every other week to plug your new product or service but do little to provide any real value.

Decide you too busy or too “rock star” to respond to any Twitter @ replies and DMs directed to you.

Ask for recommendations on LinkedIn from anyone and everyone who you have ever worked in the same building with.

Constantly re-tweet complimentary @ replies you’ve received without at least adding a “thanks.”

So, am I perfect? Of course not. But this post was fun to compile. How are your social graces? Anything else you’d like to add to this list?

Photo Credit: cyn_

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: social media etiquette

Why Facebook Fan Pages?

May 26, 2009 By Christine 12 Comments

Two common questions from small business owners when it comes to Facebook are: 1) is there a way I can separate my personal information from my professional and 2) what is the best way bring attention to my business and engage others?

You can cover both by having a Facebook “Fan Page.”

A Fan Page is just a public profile that allows you to share information about your services or products with other Facebook users.

What are the biggest benefits of having a Fan Page?

Driving Traffic. Most of the information on Facebook requires a login for you to access it. However, Pages are public and therefore visible to the search engines. This means people are able to find your business listed, and it is likely to be ranked highly because Facebook itself is. Because of this, you should use relevant keywords in your Page title as well. For example, the title of Facebook expert Mari Smith’s Page is Mari Smith – Relationship and Buzz Marketing Specialist.

Of course, once people visit your Page, they will also have a way to click through to your main website which you will have listed.

Promoting Discussion. Pages are excellent for communicating with potential clients and customers. You now have an opportunity to watch, listen and provide answers and solutions when needed. People will notice when you take time to help others and add to the discussions. Send updates periodically and focus on building relationships and being a part of the conversation.

Spreading Awareness. By using the wall for discussions, adding pictures, importing your blog posts, providing links and more, you are making it very convenient to connect with you. This will help turn people into fans as well as encourage others to come visit your Page and interact with you. When others become fans it will show in their mini-feed as well as on their profile. When your fans interact with your Page, this activity is visible to their friends via the News Feed. This is great for word-of-mouth and for exposing your business to an ever-increasing circle of Facebook users.

Some Tips:

*To access your Page from your personal profile, click on “Applications” at the bottom left and click “Ads and Pages.”

*You will need to click on the link that says “publish this page” in order for your page to become public. This is nice–you can have your Page set up and complete before you start to promote it.

*By clicking “Edit Page” you can add applications such as reviews, events, discussion boards and more.

*People can become “fans” of your Page. Click the link that says “suggest to friends” under your picture to encourage this. Also, if you click on “Share” on the left side under “create a page” then you can post a message about your Page to your personal profile or send a message to your friends.

If you have a business, have you created a Page yet? What questions do you have about them?

(Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my free social media e-course.)

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Facebook

LinkedIn is Worth a Look

May 22, 2009 By Christine 5 Comments

I’ve had a profile on LinkedIn for a while now, but just as with my MySpace account, I let it languish for a long time. I wasn’t seeing LinkedIn as a place to make connections and find others in my target market. It also seemed heavily corporate, with people looking for employment more so than small business products or services.

Serving that more corporate-type population was why LinkedIn was originally established. However, over the past 6 months or so, I have noticed more activity among small business owners, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. While Facebook offers a more personal overview of someone, LinkedIn has really become a great place to create beneficial professional relationships as well as be found by potential customers and clients.

If you are interested in discovering how to use LinkedIn to help boost your visibility and grow your business, here are a few ways to use it to do just that:

Perform a search for people in targeted fields and positions. Send them a request to join your network and make sure to personalize your message.

Create a thorough profile with your photo, title and websites. It is a good idea to include past experience, education and positions as well—the more information that you supply, the more ways you allow others to find you and connect.

Answer questions posed by other members in your community which relate to your area of expertise. “LinkedIn Answers” provides a place for you to view open questions that you can respond to. This is a great way to promote your specific knowledge.

Ask for recommendations of your work as well as offer to provide them for others. The glowing testimonials you receive can be posted right to your profile.

Develop a targeted group of contacts in your niche and start connecting each other. Make it a point to help others expand their own networks.

Look through your contacts’ networks and regularly select a couple of people you think would be good to know. Request that your contacts introduce them to you.

Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn offers a way to feed your blog posts into your profile. Add the BlogLink application—this supports blogging platforms such as WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Typepad, Blogger and more.

Invite people in your network to join a discussion group or a virtual networking event.

A helpful tip for increasing your search engine ranking with your website listing: when you type in your blog or website address for your profile, you will have several choices available in the drop down menu. If you choose “other” you have the option to choose the anchor text which will then link to your site. Choose keywords that you think would best get you found when someone searches in the search engines—it’s instant search engine optimization. (LinkedIn is ranked very high in Google.)

Get some publicity. Many members of the media as well as some top bloggers have a presence on LinkedIn. Try reaching out to them to connect. You never know where the relationship will lead. It goes without saying that you don’t want to spam them. Send a polite, personalized message and you will have a spot on their radar.

Finally, be sure to add a link to your profile in your email signature. LinkedIn lets you customize the link to your public profile to include your name. It’s a good idea to include a link to your social networking profiles in your signature so that every time you send an email, others have a way to connect with you there.

And as you know by now, connection is the name of the game.

Photo Credit: Weaverluke

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: LinkedIn

Are We Less Social With Social Media?

May 15, 2009 By Christine 11 Comments

Someone asked this question the other day on a forum I was browsing and I’ve been pondering it since.

I don’t have anything profound to say about it, but I will share that between my computer and iPhone I do spend a heck of a lot of time on social sites.

The majority of that time is spent networking and interacting for the purposes of growing business relationships—because I do happen to have a business online. I also have the handy excuse that social media is a major component of the work I do with clients.

Social media can be addictive and time-consuming and is something done generally in isolation. But the interesting thing about this particular discussion is that the original poster was referring to being less social within social networks—as opposed to out in the “real world.”

Essentially they were saying that a great majority of time is spent on your updates, comments, recommendations, etc. leaving less time to interact with others, answer questions and engage in back and forth conversation.

I myself may have experienced this a bit in the beginning, when I was still getting acclimated to how the sites actually worked. But now the most value—and fun—comes out of the actual “socializing” and relationships.

It’s also worth mentioning that social media has facilitated many in-person meetings such as “tweetups” and local groups formed through meetup.com and the like.

So I’m curious: Either way, do you feel your use of sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. has caused you to be less social? Do you give yourself a break from it once in a while? Do you obsessively check Twitter 25,000 times a day like I do? Let me know your thoughts.

Also, if you are interested in learning how to use online marketing and social media techniques to help build your business and give you a competitive edge, check out my affordable e-Coaching program that’s built around your schedule.

Photo credit: Intersection Consulting

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Social Media

5 Crucial Facebook Privacy Settings

May 10, 2009 By Christine 13 Comments

I have been hearing more concerns lately from small business owners new to Facebook about privacy and confusion over what’s visible to others. They are often unsure how to balance being found for business purposes with their own comfort levels regarding privacy. (Facebook Fan Pages offer a great solution to this–but that is for another post.)

Many times users do not realize they have full control over exactly what they share with others, or forget to check or adjust their privacy settings.

The site allfacebook.com did a post about this a few months back which was really comprehensive. In the short tutorial below I walk through a few of the most important settings for business owners and professionals. Let me know what you think. (You can open the video in full screen.)

Photo Credit: rpongsaj

Filed Under: Video Tutorials Tagged With: Facebook, Privacy

Affordable E-Coaching Spots Just Opened Up

May 8, 2009 By Christine Leave a Comment

I am so excited to offer a brand new program. It’s e-coaching and I have made it super affordable. If you have ever wanted to coach with someone but have a hard time fitting it into your schedule or your budget, then you should check this out.

I have 7 spots open for e-coaching with me available currently, and I am giving my loyal blog and e-zine readers $250 off my regular coaching fee. I actually think I’m kinda crazy to be offering it so cheap but I am hearing a lot of you saying you really need some help and hand-holding without breaking the bank.

E-Coaching is tailored to your specific goals–you decide exactly what we cover and work on for your business. However, if you are feeling overwhelmed and aren’t sure where exactly to start, here is a sampling of some specific areas in online marketing and social media I can help you with:

Eliminating your social media overwhelm
Specific social marketing strategies for positioning yourself as the expert
Critique of your current website or blog to ensure you are getting the best conversion possible
Implementing powerful strategies for building your list of email subscribers
Brainstorming ideas
Technology recommendations
Kicking your motivation into high gear so you can really put everything you already know to work for you!

During one full month (or three months, if you choose that option), you can email me with as many questions as you’d like (told ya I was crazy) related to social media and building your business online. You will get a response from me within 48 hours; typically the same day. So, if you’ve ever wished you could coach 1 on 1 on YOUR schedule without putting a major dent in your finances, this is your chance.

Blog Readers and E-zine Subscribers: $150 for One Month of e-Coaching ($350 for three months)

Regular Price: $400 for One Month of Coaching ($1000 for three months)

Let me know if you have any questions about it–I’d be happy to answer them!

Click here to find out more

Photo Credit: existentist

Filed Under: Online Business Tagged With: Coaching

Everyone's a (Social Media) Expert

May 3, 2009 By Christine 6 Comments

The other day I caught a few tweets by Darren Rowse (@problogger) regarding social media “experts” on Twitter. They amused me and also got me thinking. Here are some of his tweets:

I wonder how many times ‘social media expert’ appears on profiles of Twitter users? 9:15 AM May 1st from TweetDeck

Might change my profile 2 ‘social media unexpert’. Most ppl I respect on SM generally admit 2 having no idea what they’re doing 9:19 AM May 1st from TweetDeck

RT @KirstenParagona: @problogger it would be easier to track how many times “social media expert” does NOT appear in a twitter profile. 9:22 AM May 1st from TweetDeck

About 10 of you replied to me that social media ‘guru’ is another over used term in profiles 9:22 AM May 1st from TweetDeck

Indeed I have also noticed how many people label themselves social media experts of some sort in their profiles. It sure seems like every third person who begins following me.

While it is kind of amusing I think it’s indicative of the passion that tools like Twitter seem to ignite in people. I know that is the case with myself.

And while I do consider myself as someone savvy with the technology who teaches others these tools as a part of what I do for a living, I’ll never claim to know it all. Social media itself changes and evolves practically on a daily basis so how could anyone know all there is to know?

Darren makes a good point about the people he respects in social media. It’s new, it’s dynamic and everyone uses it differently. What I teach others who want to use it for marketing purposes is based on what has worked for me and what I have seen it do for others.

Are there probably a few phonies out there claiming to know how to help people get results when they are really pretty clueless? Sure. You will find that in any field, especially one that’s touted as the latest and greatest.

If you are trying to learn, of course you want to do so from someone more knowledgeable than you who is also a great teacher. But along with that I believe that being passionate is crucial too.

I wonder, what do you think it is that makes people so passionate about social media? What do you look for in an “expert?”

As for me, I won’t be calling myself a guru in this lifetime. But an “enthusiastic, social media-savvy teacher” suits me just fine.

Photo Credit: Meet the Media Guru

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Social Media, Twitter