I have a lot of friends on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I love how easy it is to connect with so many like-minded people from all over the world. Who would’ve ever imagined I’d have friends in Australia, The Philippines, France, England, Greece, Sweden, Italy, Romania and a ton of friends in almost every state in the US.
What I don’t like about having so many friends is the lack of etiquette displayed by some. I had lunch the other day with my friend Susan RoAne and we were talking about online etiquette, or lack of etiquette. Susan is a networking expert and has written 6 books on the subject and given countless talks on the subject. She’s appalled at the way people act in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
I’m amazed at the lack of manners displayed by many online. I wonder if these rude people online are the same rude people we know in our offline lives. I’m sure someone is doing a study on the subject so please send me the results when the study is complete.
When I go to a networking event, I notice the most effective networkers are the ones that listen 80% of the time and ask questions the other 20% of the time. They rarely talk about themselves or their business. It’s all about the other person in the eyes (and ears) of the savvy networker.
On the other hand, we always run into the person that never stops talking about their accomplishments or their business. Their perspective is “it’s all about me” and they rarely hear a thing you say.
My theory is that these are the same people who become our “friends” online and immediately start spamming us with self-promotional emails on Facebook and endless self-promoting Tweets on Twitter.
Jake Matthews made a great post Social Networking 101: Basic Tips For Online and Offline Social Networking on his 10e20 blog that you need to check out. Jake gives some very sound, practical advice that will help most of us. Unfortunately the people that need these tips will probably gloss over when they start reading Jake’s tips. Join in the conversation we have going in the comments section of Jake’s post. I’d love to hear your take on social media networking.
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Thanks.
Ted
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I just read a great article in Reuters about the benefit of allowing your employees to access social media sites during work. Click here to take a look at the article here.
Michael Holden makes some compelling points in the article saying its getting hard to separate social networking with traditional networking. Battening down the hatches and blocking all social media sites is not the answer. Allowing people to socialize on social networking sites during work time turns out to be a huge benefit in the long run.
Socializing online is relationship building and many business relationships are now being formed online. People are meeting in cyberspace because they have a common interest which creates an instant bond. Even if the bond isn’t directly related to your company’s products or services, a strong relationship is being formed. The strong connection can eventually lead to new business, referrals or an introduction to highly targeted prospects.
Think about it. Your employees can take time off from work to attend networking events where it can take a long time to see new business or referrals. Attending networking events in person is very time consuming and can be very unproductive. Online networking takes less time, builds strong relationships with like-minded people and is completely free. Isn’t it smarter to let your employees spend a few minutes online to build a huge network than to spend hours in boring, stale networking events?
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Squidoo is a new social site with a twist. The benefit of creating a Squidoo lens is monetary in nature as they share the advertising revenue with you based on the traffic that your page and site generates. This is an added bonus to anyone who knows how to get some real traffic to their Squidoo Lens.
Before you can begin to build your Squidoo lens you will have to have an account with Squidoo. You can easily sign up for a free membership with a username and password associated with an email account. You are allowed to have 10 lens/pages per email account. You will receive a confirmation email and once confirmed your account will be activated and you will be able to create your own lens.
Before you start creating your own lens it would be a good idea to do some research on the topic that you would like to create. There are many different niches out there that you can target but not all niches are created equal. Some have much higher values for Pay Per Click and some have better values for affiliate programs or digital products. You will have to identify the niche that you would like to create your lens prior to its creation. This will help optimize the process as well as give you the maximum results.
Now that you have signed up for Squidoo you will want to log-in and go to make a lens. You will want to optimize it to your niche. You will have to find some of the top keyword search terms that are searched for by using a keyword tool. Use those terms in your lens title for example if you have chosen dog training as your niche you will want to include the phrase dog-training as the name of your lens.
Once you have created your URL you will need to select the category that best suits your niche. Next you will have to select the rating for your lens. Unless you have something that is x-rated or very adult you will most likely have G rated content. Next you will have to add your keywords to the lens. This will help the search engines identify what your page is about and possibly help you get ranked for that term. That is not a give in but it is a possibility. You should pick your best 3 terms and input them at this stage.
You should now be given the option to edit your Squidoo lens. Take a look at the content that you want to add. A good idea would be to take a look at other sites that are related to your niche to get some ideas as to the layout and the content. Another smart idea would be to add links to other related sites as well as to your sites as well. Make sure that they are related links though. Do not add a sports link to a dog training site. It would not be related and most likely you will not receive any good traffic from it.
Change the lens to reflect your own personality. After all this should reflect you and give it that personal touch. Don’t expect to become a millionaire off of one lens but if you create enough lens’s you can expect to receive a decent residual return over time.
One of my mentors, Mitch Axelrod, has an interesting post today on his blog, http://playthenewgame.com/?p=132, about how we have so much in our lives while having very little. We’re overwhelmed with choices in life but we never have time to enjoy anything because we’re too busy.
I notice this with my children, They’re so busy and have so many choices but they can’t sit still and relax. I notice they have hundreds of friends on their social networking accounts like Facebook and Instant Messenger, and they keep in touch with almost all of them over time. The problem is that none of the relationships are deep. They have hundreds of superficial connections with people but nobody they have a real friendship with.
Dating has even disappeared for our kids. It’s about "hooking up" for the night with no expectation of ever talking to them again. Wham bam thank you ‘mam and on with your busy day.
We grew up with a lot of friends and a few best friends. I still keep in touch with my best friends 40 years later. I wonder what life will be like for my kids in 40 years with their hundreds of part-time friends.
I also see this in business. Nobody has time to build lasting relationships with clients and prospects. It’s "what can you do for me right now?" and then they’re on to the next fire. I was at a conference recently where one of the speakers was promoting his new method of selling. It’s not about building long-term relationships. It’s about acknowledging to the person you’re meeting with that you understand they’re very busy and their time is precious. Get down to business and eliminate the personal relationships. Ask them what they want and sell it to them quickly so they can get on with their day.
How will that play out over time? Life without friends and relationships? Business without relationships? Our lives our speeding out of control and I highly suggest that you check out Mitch and his persective on life. Check out www.playthenewgame.com
Ted
Sphere: Related ContentI’ve been learning about web 2.0 and playing around with it for about 2 years now. It is a really effective tool for building relationships, attracting clients, and driving traffic to your blogs and websites. My business is booming and i have a steady stream of leads coming in daily. The downside, it can be a full time job being "social". If I spend 40 hours a week building relationships online, when do I have time to do the work for my clients? When do I have time for myself? I’m working at least 6 days a week right now and spending at least 12 hours each day in front of my computer. Although I love playing with technology and new sites on the internet, this isn’t the perfect lifestyle I wanted to create.
I found a great blog post today Chris Garrett’s blog at http://www.chrisg.com/need-digg-power-account/ that discusses the obsession with trying to dominate the social media pages. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get a post on the first page of Digg or del.icio.us. It’s even harder to stay at the top over time. Chris reitterates the fact the you shouldn’t worry about dominating the social media sites. Just focus on creating high quality content that helps your prospects and customers and the social media gurus will find you.
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You’ve found a list of blogs in your niche and you’re ready to start commenting to build a relationship with their readers. How do you know if this is a good blog to comment on? There are a number of factors that determine if this is the right blog for you to comment on.
1. How many other people are commenting on this blog? If nobody else is commenting on the blog then it’s not a popular blog so don’t waste your time. If there are a few comments, try adding your two cents and see what happens.
2. How much traffic does this blog get? Go to Alexa.com and enter the URL of the blog to see how popular this blog is. Look for blogs with low Alexa rankings. The lower the better and you want to comment on blogs that are in the top 100,000 if possible. You can download a toolbar for your browser that makes this easy. I use the Firefox Addon Search Status which gives me instant traffic results at the bottom of my browser window. There’s also a toolbar for Internet Explorer that works well. Check out Alexa.com for the right toolbar for your browser.
3. What is the Google PageRank of the blog you want to comment on? You want to comment on blogs that have a high Google PageRank which means the site is considered to have high quality content in Google’s eyes. Making comments on high PageRank sites will also improve your website or blog’s Google ranking. You can download the Google Toolbar to determine the PageRank of the website or blog you’re visiting. The Search Status Addon for Firefox provides both Google Page Rank and the Alexa rating in one tool.
4. When you find a popular blog to comment on, read the blog posts and the quality of the comments. Do you want to be associated with this crowd? Don’t comment on a popular blog that you can’t relate to. If you’re a management consultant looking to connect with C level executives, commenting on a blog that’s popular with 20-something programmers won’t help you. Your comments will go over their head and their comments will be in lingo that you don’t understand. Look for blogs with comments coming from your target audience.
5. Remember to read past posts and comments so you get into the flow of the conversation. You want to continue that existing conversation and add value to the conversation. You don’t have to agree with what’s being said and it’s okay to state an oposing opinion. If fact, being controversial is a good way to attract attention.
6. Be professional and be honest. Don’t try to be someone you’re not when commenting on blogs because people will read right through you. Remember that you’re trying to build long-term relationships with these readers so they’ll visit your blog or website so they’ll hire you or buy your products.
7. Remember to always use your real name when commenting and add your URL to the comment form. If you don’t feel comfortable using your real name and URL then you shouldn’t be posting on that blog.
8. Don’t try to sell your product or services in your comments. Just continue the existing conversation and answer questions or add value that demonstrates your expertise.
9. Don’t add your website URL in the comment. It’s okay to add a URL to another website that adds value to the conversation but promoting your own website will turn people off. It is okay to direct them to your website if you’re directing them directly to an article you wrote that solves their problem.
10. Find a few quality blogs and websites and participate on a regular basis so you build a relationship with the readers. It’s better to focus your effort on 2 or 3 high quality blogs then to spread yourself over 20 blogs where you’re only making a few comments.
Follow these steps and you’ll have traffic to your blog or website in no time. Remember it’s all about continuing the existing conversation and adding high quality comments that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
If you enjoyed this article please take a moment and bookmark this post on your favorite bookmarking website. To learn how to do this click here to watch this simple video.
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Web 2.0 websites
www.blogrush.com
Social Bookmarking sites
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia.com
Social networking sites
News/Article submission sites
www.bloglines.com
Video/slide submission sites
Podcasting sites
www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Podcasts/Directories
podcasts.yahoo.com
Miscellaneous sites
What are the best social networking and social news sites on the internet? Every day new sites pop up and the field is getting pretty crowded. What sites do you like and why do you like them? What keeps you coming back day after day? Why do some sites fade away and others keep going month after month (notice I didn’t say year after year?)
Social bookmarking, social networking and social news is all the rage these days. You can get instant search engine rankings if you leverage these websites to your advantage. What are the best sites to use? The list is ever-changing so you have to keep track of which ones are working and which aren’t. Here’s a great list of the best social websites today. The list changes frequently so subscribe to this blog for updates.
Until next time,
Ted
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