If you’re using LinkedIn to network and help increase the online visibility for you or your business, that’s great! It can be a very good place to find like-minded people, jobs, people who will buy into your products, etc. If not done correctly though, you may end up spinning your virtual wheels.

Whether you want to connect or email someone to ask about a job, a business venture, or some other topic there’s a bit of an art to contacting people on LinkedIn. Keep in mind that many people on LinkedIn (like you, perhaps) are quite busy. They may get a large number of connection requests and emails, and probably don’t have time to respond to every one of them. It’s more likely they’ll respond to one that states exactly what’s what. If your email is a bit cryptic, or doesn’t state clearly what you want, it’s likely to be deleted.

Joshua Waldman made some very good points in this blog post, 4 Essentials for Reaching Out to Strangers on LinkedIn. He shows an example of an excellent letter he received through LinkedIn and tells why he responded. His top points are:

1. Lead with something in common
2. Get to the point, fast
3. What makes him qualified?
4. What do you want from me?

Because of the way the guy wrote the email, it was obvious he had done a little homework first, wasn’t wanting to suck the life out of Joshua, and covered the four points above in a brief email. And even though this particular letter was regarding a job, the same ideas hold true regardless of why you’re contacting someone. Be brief, friendly, and to the point and you’re likely going to get better results than if you’re vague about why you’re writing.

When emailing someone through LinkedIn, you’ll have the option to hide your email address from them. If you hide your email address from someone who has their LinkedIn account set up to forward emails to their inbox, they will need to login to LinkedIn to respond.  Letting them see your email address means they’re more likely to hit the respond button and reply to you right away. This short video goes into a bit more detail, and shows how to ensure your email address is viewable to the recipient.

I get quite a few emails every day, and like to respond as soon as possible. But when I get ones sent through LinkedIn without a return email address, quite often I’ll let those wait til the next time I login to LinkedIn. I’d much rather email right away and get it taken care of, but there are times when I just don’t want to break my stride and switch to LinkedIn.

With over 400 million active users on Facebook, you know there’s a lot of spamming going on. A lot of Facebook spammers are looking for that small percentage of people who will fall for whatever sales pitch they put out. There are others though, who are making a real effort to use Facebook to market their business, make friends, or just learn their way around the most popular social networking website around. Unfortunately, they may not be aware of the fact that what they’re doing is getting them labeled as a Facebook spammer by the very people they’re trying to reach out to.

These five Facebook activities just might get you a big bad spammer label. If you’re guilty of any of them, you might want to rethink your Facebook strategy.

1. Your only activity is Friends, Groups, and Pages

Chances are, you’re trying to build up your friends list so you can blast people with your message – whatever that might be. As a result, the majority of the updates on your profile looks like this:

• Joe and Mary are now friends
• Joe and Andy are now friends
• Joe joined the group We be spammers
• Joe and Frank are now friends
• Joe likes Marketers and Spammers
• Joe and Michael are now friends
• Joe likes I Love Spam!
• Joe and Susan are now friends
• Joe likes I’m going to sell you all sorts of stuff
• Joe and Angela are now friends
• Joe and Steven are now friends
• . . . and the list goes on . . .

2. You should LIKE THIS!

You’re constantly sending page suggestions to all your friends – sometimes for the same pages over and over again. It’s fine to send a suggestion now and then, but when you send your friends suggestions constantly they’re likely to get tired of it.

3. You send friend requests to people you have absolutely no connection with.

You send a friend request to somebody you don’t know, and have no common friends. When the person you want to be friends with sends a message back asking if you know each other, you either don’t respond or you send a snotty reply.

If you really want to be friends with someone you don’t know, and have a good reason for wanting to do so, include a short note with the friend request. Just click the “add a personal message” and let the person know why you’re sending the friend request.

4. Using other Fan Pages and Groups to sell your stuff

You join Facebook Groups and Like Facebook Pages so you can post messages about your business. Recently someone became a fan of the PetsitUSA Fan Page and promptly posted a message that said

“PetsitUSA is now a favorite page of @my-facebook-page. Please make our page a favorite of yours.”

When I went to the Facebook Fan Page mentioned, I saw about 40 favorite fan pages listed, and each one of them had the very same message posted that was posted on the PetsitUSA Fan Page. Spammer.

5. It’s all about YOU! YOU! YOU!

Everything on your business page is all about you or your business. “Buy this!” “Look at me!” “Our company is wonderful!” Blah … blah . . . blah . . .

Sure, we all know Fan Pages are quite often set up to help sell a product or service, but rather than giving a constant sales pitch, interact with the people who like your page. Remember, it’s called social media for a reason.

Doing some of these things may seem like the right thing to do to get business, but think about how you feel when someone is constantly trying to sell you something. It gets old real fast and tends to backfire! There are lots of people who will go out of their way to avoid companies that are use the “in your face” approach to selling their products or services.

One of my pet peeves is how often people forget to say thank you. I know we’ve all been there. Maybe you sent a quick email to answer a question, did a favor in the real world, held a door open for someone, or any number of things. After all is said and done, the person goes their merry way and we’re left wondering why there wasn’t any acknowledgment. It’s not that people should bow down and pay homage, but a simple little ‘thank you’ can go a long way. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to type or say the words but oftentimes it goes unsaid.

It happens online and in the real world. We just aren’t as polite and respectful as we once were. So, when I went to listen to Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter Out, speak at SXSW, and heard him talk about this very same thing, I loved that he was calling us all out about it. It may seem like a little thing, but it’s not really.

The bulk of Peter’s talk was about how smart self-promoters aren’t out there spamming people with the all too common “I’m great I’m wonderful, I can save your life” type talk. Instead, they’re willing to help others, and as a result they become the type of person who’s looked at as a resource – an expert in their particular field. They respect people enough to understand the 24/7 sales pitch is a real turn off.

Peter also talked about saying ‘thank you.’ It’s all part of being respectful and having manners. It doesn’t take much energy to type out ‘thank you’ and hit the reply button. And it takes even less time to say thank you. So why don’t we do it? Laziness? Disrespect? Too absorbed in watching the world revolve around us? I’m not entirely sure, but we sure as heck don’t do it enough.

With this in mind, I thought I’d try a little experiment – I set up a Facebook page where you can say thank you. You may want to thank your first grade teacher for opening up the world of reading to you. Or maybe you want to thank the guy who let you squeeze into traffic this morning. It doesn’t really matter, just go thank somebody! My hope is that it’ll spark something in each of us and remind us just how important those two little words are, and we’ll all start showing our gratitude a little more often. If we do it enough it’ll become a habit, and what a great habit saying ‘thank you’ could be for all of us.

Now please,  go say ‘Thank You.’

It’s time for another social media teleclass!

How to use LinkedIn to Bring in More Business / Connect with Potential Clients

Date: August 25
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
Cost: $20 (register by August 18) or $30 (register August 19 or later)
Register here

If you’re not using LinkedIn yet, you’re missing out! I’ve been active on LinkedIn for quite a while and have made many great contacts – pet sitters as well as people in other businesses. Some have turned into clients, while others are people who I share a common interest with – and sometimes we’re able to help each other in one way or another.

LinkedIn is a place to find like-minded professionals, businesses, and opportunity. It’s a place where you can be found as well. Boasting more than 40 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. It literally puts networking at your fingertips, so that you can connect with trusted colleagues throughout the world. And, because of the unique tools offered by LinkedIn you’re able to streamline your search process when looking for business leads, potential clients, or collaborators.

Here’s what I’ll be talking about:

• How you can use LinkedIn to grow your business
• Tips on how to use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website
• Why you and your business need to be on LinkedIn
• How to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen area
• How to create a powerful LinkedIn bio that will attract attention
• What to include in your headline, summary, and job descriptions
• How to effectively use the advanced features of LinkedIn
• What recommendations are, how to ask for one, and who to recommend
• Why discussion groups are so important
• SPECIAL BONUS: LinkedIn Tips and Tools list to get you started after the class

Whether you’re interested in finding employees, getting the word out about your business, or simply enlarging your own personal network, LinkedIn is a powerful tool you can’t afford to ignore.

Kristin Morrison, from Six Figure Pet Sitting Academy is hosting the class. Learn more about the class and register here.

Whether you’re in the pet care business or some other business, you’re welcome to join in. This class is for anyone who wants to learn more about LinkedIn – regardless of your occupation.

Technorati Tags: LinkedIn teleclass, pet sitters, social media, social networking

As I was at the grocery store the other day, a young woman in front of me was busy texting as she slowly put her items up on the counter. The girl behind the register worked as quickly as she could given her customer’s unwillingness to put the cell phone away for a few minutes. I was tempted to say something but decided to keep my mouth shut. Since I wasn’t in a hurry, I just watched. I wanted to see if the woman would eventually put her phone away and pay attention to what she was doing.

She didn’t.

When it came time to pay, and only after she had finished sending a message, she swiped her card, picked up her bag and left. Not once did she make eye contact with the cashier. Not once did she even acknowledge the cashier…at all!

When the cashier started to ring my things up, I asked if that type of thing got to her. She just shrugged and said, “I’m used to it.”

What a sad statement!

There have been other times too, when I’ve seen cell phones get in the way of in-person communication. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been having face-to-face conversation with someone and all of a sudden they put one hand up, palm toward me, while they tap their ear with the other hand. Suddenly they’re whisked way from what’s going on in front of them and are deep into a conversation with someone who isn’t even there. An example of this is when a guy came to my home to give me an estimate on some work I wanted done. As we were standing in my living room talking about the work, the guy’s phone rang. He flashed me the hand, tapped his Bluetooth, and turned his back to me as he started talking. It was only when he finished talking to the person on the phone that he turned his attention back to me. He was politely escorted out of my house and didn’t get the job.

As much as I love social media and all the technology surrounding it, I honestly believe cell phones, texting, and the Internet in general are to blame for a lot of the anitsocial behavior today. It’s ironic actually, that the very technology that’s helping us become more social is also helping us become less social!

So what’s the solution?

It’s actually quite simple, really.

Turn the phone off. Take the Bluetooth out of your ear. Close your laptop. Pay attention to the person in front of you. Please!

Seriously…it’s that easy!

Honestly, what’s that important that you need to totally dis the person you’re face-to-face with so you can talk to someone who has interrupted you? Let your voice mail do what it was created to do – take a message. And if it’s a text, that can wait too. Technology is great, but remember that it’s supposed to help us be more social…not less!

Technorati Tags: social media, anti-social behavior, technology

Over the past few months I’ve been doing social media teleclasses as part of the monthly teleclass series at Six Figure Pet Sitting Academy. The first one, which was a huge success was a general overview of social media, and in the second one I helped people understand Twitter and how it can be used for both business and personal purposes. The classes have been very well attended by people from all walks of life – pet sitters, writers, retailers, therapists, and others. Some are interested in using it for their business and others just want to learn what all their friends are talking about.

Both of these social media teleclasses are now available, and include a Tips and Tools sheet that covers a lot of what I talked about during the class, and a bit more. You’ll find them on the products tab above.

Technorati Tags: social media teleclasses, Twitter, social media

If you’re new to Twitter and are trying to play by the rules, it can be a bit daunting! There are, of course, the official Twitter rules that you need to be mindful of. The folks at Twitter make it clear they dont’t want people doing slimy things like impersonating others, violating copyright laws, threatening people, and the like. If you get caught breaking one of these rules you’re likely to be banned. Not a good thing!

As with any community though, there are other rules besides the offical get-your-ass-in-major-trouble rules. These are rules created by the community members themselves, and while they may not be hard and fast like the others they can get you in a bit of hot water…at least with your peers. Some of the things many Twitter users don’t like to see are auto responders, constant self-promotion, using Twitter as an RSS feed, and of course spamming all your followers. There are others but these seem to be some of the biggies.

If you Google “twitter rules” you’ll get a long list of websites coming up with their version of the rules Tweeps should follow. (Even this post will likely be in that search result soon!). Here are just a few of the people who have written about Twitter rules:

@dcrmom (Jo-Lynne) – 7 Ways to Be Worth Following on Twitter

@Scobelizer (Rober Scoble) – The 10 rules of Twitter (and how I break every one -  This guy actually writes about breaking the rules, which some folks can get away with! Some people may not appreciate his lack of adherence to rules, but with nearly 50,000 followers he’s a definite presence on Twitter.

@GrantGriffiths has a bulleted list of things to do and not do on Twitter.

Some Twitter rules are definitely worth taking into account, but when it comes right down to it, it’s about respect. If you respect your followers, chances are you’re going to avoid many of the downfalls the rules have been built around. If you don’t like getting tweet after tweet from someone trying to sell their fancy automatic plant waterer, chances others won’t appreciate your multiple tweets about what you ate for dinner. If, on the other hand, you simply like to piss people off, go for it! I’m sure you’ll find some like-minded followers, but you’ll also find those who will unfollow you once they find out what you’re all about.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, social media, rules

I tend to use analogies when trying to get a point across. One of my clients laughs about it, but in the end, he says they work and help him understand things that have baffled  him in the past. So, when I thought about what my first post should be about I decided to share one of my analogies to help people understand social networking and social media. Hopefully it’ll help you as well.

If you’ve ever watched The Andy Griffith Show, you’ve seen social networking and social media in action. Think about Floyd’s Barbershop. Floyd’s in there talking away as he cuts Andy’s hair. As Barney and Howard walk by they see the guys through the window and decide to go in say hello. Then Aunt Bea stops in as she passes by, and even Opie gets off his bike to go in and see what’s going on. While everyone’s there, they talk about the salesman who passed through town, the fact that Otis was in the jail sleeping off a rough night, that Ernest T. Bass had been throwing rocks again, the upcoming church social, or even the news they heard from Raliegh.

Spending time in Floyd’s was a good way for everyone to catch up on the Mayberry news, but it didn’t necessarily mean they’d get the most up-to-date news from nearby Raleigh. To get that news they’d have to talk to someone who had been there recently or knew somebody else who had. And even then, the news may not be as recent as they’d like. Whatever they shared though, whether it was current Mayberry news or not-so current news from Raleigh, it was done through actively engaging in social networking.

Now, as for the social media part of this analogy…that’s easy. It’s Floyd’s Barbershop! The barbershop gives everyone a place to gather so they can share ideas and news…social networking.

The thing is, social networking is nothing new. People have been doing social networking since the first time two people got together and talked! What’s changed though, is the way we communicate and the size of our community. Nowadays, thanks to the internet and social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others our community has expanded far beyond our own little Mayberry. We can certainly use those tools to network with people in our own area. But the really cool thing is, that rather than having to know somebody who knows somebody in Raleigh to get the news, we can hop on the computer and get the news as it happens directly from the folks in Raleigh. Andy and the rest of the people in town didn’t have that luxury back in Mayberry’s heyday!

Our community has expanded far beyond the places we can physically go to and we don’t have to be stuck in Mayberry (although I’m sure there are worse places to be stuck!). Now we can use social media tools to reach out to people all over the world who share a common interest. These tools can help us create a network of people who we might visit on a cross-country vacation, enable us to connect with others on a professional level to find a new job, keep us in touch with relatives and friends, or maybe just help us meet people who have the same interests and hobbies. The possibilities are as endless as the conversations that take place between two (or more) people. Whether it’s for work or play, social media and learning how to use those tools for networking can take you to Mayberry and beyond!

Technorati Tags: social media, social networking