Twitter:

This is, and has been, my favorite place for networking. Even though it has it’s problems at times I still prefer it to any other.

I am able to reach a broader audience using Twitter because I have just over 5k followers there too. (not saying that to brag or anything, because 5k followers really isn’t that much on twitter anymore) I have lists I use to track different people I want to keep up with. And I have made connections on Twitter that have turned into business relationships.

Overall, the ease of use and the number of people in my niche using Twitter makes it the best choice for me.

LinkedIn:

What? Not Facebook second? Nope, not for me. Linked in has proven to be the single best professional networking tool I use. I use it to network with people in manufacturing and wholesale for my product site(s).

I have more coming out about how and why LinkedIn works so well for real business networking, but it will probably be posted on my blog and not here since the focus on Keith Bloemendaal dot com will be products, marketing, and topics related to how I earn my living that way.

A simple story that convinced me that LinkedIn was a powerful tool that gets underused:

I needed a vinyl fence manufacturer to add to my site where I sell fence products, so I started joining some groups on LinkedIn related to that industry. I posted in the “jobs” sections a short paragraph explaing what I was looking for, and within a few days I had six manufacturers that met my requirements.

Try doing that on Twitter or Facebook!

Skype:

I am putting Skype as my 3rd choice, and even though it isn’t as easy to “network” using Skype, there are ways. I am a member of a private chat that includes 25-50 other bloggers. They come and go, but over the last 6mos I have made some great connections in that chat room, and am partnered on 2 projects  currently through those connections.

I also use Skype for all my US and Canadian calling. I decided to purchase a calling plan from Skype 3 or 4 mos ago, and if I remember right, it costs me $7-8 per month for unlimited calls (incoming and outgoing), which includes a local number for me to use as my phone number. I simply use the same headset I use for other Skype calls, and if I am away I can either forward the calls or use the voicemail feature (both are included).

I also use Skype for my consulting calls. It is a great way to have either voice or video calls with clients. My clients can also reach me anytime I am available through text chat on Skype.

Facebook:

Facebook is the last on the list for me. It really has nothing to do with the privacy issues, or other issues FB recently encountered. I just simply don’t find the same use out of it. It has become over run with Mafia and Farm games, which I just don’t have time for. I do use it to communicate with some personal friends and family, but that is mostly all I get out of it.

I do still think it is a powerful tool, and I have pages setup for HotBlogTips and for myself. I plan to try and use those pages to extend my reach. But I am not getting the same results as I do from Twitter for that purpose.

Discussion:

There you have it, my favorite spots, and why. What about you?

I touched briefly on the big Facebook issue going around. I don’t know the details of it, and I really don’t care much about it. But if you don’t like it, just simply use the “delete account” feature and move on. Why waste valuable time on it?

Mainly, in this post, I wanted to discuss networking. Or better, a lack of networking. What are you doing to network and promote your brand? How do you get eyeballs to your site? What are you doing to network on Twitter or other social sites? Are you taking advantage of options out there?

PS: I am working with a partner to create a new Social Bookmarking site called Dagaloo. We are looking for beta testers to help solve usability issues, please take a look (quietly) and let us know your thoughts.

What Is Social Media Etiquette?

I don’t know if there is a definition on Wiki or how many other articles there are written about social media etiquette, but I will list a few things that come to mind for me when I am using social media.

• Don’t Be A Loudmouth: When I was going through my Twitter followers the other day, I noticed that some of them tweeted over 80 times a day! What were they tweeting about, usually themselves. This, to me, is like trying to have a conversation with someone that continuously interrupts to tell you something about themselves.
• Don’t Be Sneaky: I have noticed people sending out links on sites that have these great titles so I click on them only to find it doesn’t link to the actual article, it links to a Digg or StumbleUpon page asking you to vote for the article. But, I haven’t even read the article yet, and I don’t even use Digg. Link to the article, people will Stumble, Digg, or RT if they like it. If you do link to one of these (or any number of other bookmarking sites) say it when you send out the link.
• Scheduled Tweets: I occasionally will schedule a Tweet to go out 2-3 times over a day to promote an article I have written that day, mostly if I know I won’t be near a computer to do it manually, and I have only done this twice. Scheduling 10 tweets every hour linking to posts is rude in my opinion. Once a post is a few days old, move on to fresh material. That is kind of like the comedian that never changes his routine, people stop wanting to see it. Don’t over promote yourself, it makes you look selfish.
• Don’t Be Stiff: Social Media can be fun, but if you make it all business, it will show. It is ok to have real conversations about leisure activities with people you know, it is ok to just have conversations. Don’t act like Social Media is a corporate job and you have to wear a tie to join in, put on some shorts, a pair of flip flops, and enjoy the scenery sometimes.
• Connecting All Your Social Media Sites Together: I have seen this too, where you have Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed all linked together, and every time you say something, it echos 3 or more times in a row. There are ways to link these together without having the echo (will have to save the how-to for another post). I mainly use Twitter, so I send Twitter to Facebook and Friendfeed and leave it at that, if you connect Friendfeed back to Twitter, and Facebook, you are creating double entries.

Don’t Tell Others How To Use Social Media:

Ok, I did just that didn’t I. These are just suggestions, by no means can I or anyone else tell you how to use social media. But you should try to use Social Media in the same way you would conduct yourself in public, or in business.

Discussion:

I only listed a few of my pet peeves about etiquette in social media, do you have any?

Google Reader:

I use Google Reader to aggregate all my RSS feeds and I filter them with folders (I really like this feature) so I can read on topics easily. The first step in adding multiple feeds to your Facebook page is to sign up for Google Reader if you haven’t already.

Next go to the “add subscription” button and add your feed links (ie: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/HotBlogTips) or whatever the url is to the feeds you want to add.

After adding all the feeds, click on the “manage subscriptions” link at the bottom left of your reader home page. There you will be able to add each subscription to a folder(s), if you don’t have folders it lets you create a new folder when you click the “add to folder” button on each subscription.

I would create a new folder and name it whatever your fan page is called on Facebook. After you have put all your feeds in this folder that you want to stream on Facebook, click on the “folders and tags” link in the navigation bar.

From here you can make the folder “public” that you are wanting to feed to facebook. After changing from private to public (click the button next to where it says “private”), click “view public page”. it will open the public version of that feed.

On the right is an “Atom RSS” link, right click and select “copy link location” (that is in Firefox browser, might be different if you use another browser, but get a copy of the link somehow).

Facebook Fan Page:

Next go to your fan page and click on the notes tab. Click on the add new note button, which will bring up the page where you add and edit notes. In the upper right is a set of small icons, one is a notepad, click that (says “notes” when you hover over it). From there you can import a feed by clicking that option and inserting the feed from the Google folder you created. That’s it, now every time you add a feed to that folder, it will stream on you facebook page.

Don’t forget to look in our sidebar and become a fan! Have you built a Fan Page yet? Leave your link in the comments so we can share some Blogger Luv!.

Update: If you haven’t made a fan page follow this link and follow the instructions, it’s really easy! http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

There are many, many ways to promote an article after you have written it, but I am going to only concentrate on a few of my favorites and you are more than welcome to chime in with yours in the comments below.

Twitter:

Depending on your niche, Twitter can provide an amazing amount of traffic if you use it properly. I usually tweet my article as soon as I am finished writing it, which on most days is in the morning here on the east coast (US). I don’t have an enormous amount of followers, but the ones I do have are targeted (and like most, my following grows on a daily basis).

I am not a big fan of automated or timed tweets with your links in it (like HootSuite) because it can make you look like all you are on Twitter for is self promotion. I prefer to manually tweet my own articles immediately after I write one, then I may tweet about it once or twice more throughout the course of the day.

An important key to getting people to re-tweet your articles is to re-tweet other peoples articles. If I am reading an article I like, and the blog owner is smart enough to put a re-tweet button in the post, I will usually use it to send their article out to my followers.

Remember to share the love, re-tweet articles for others, and it is more likely that yours will be re-tweeted.

Facebook:

Post your articles here too, I have followers/friends on facebook that aren’t on twitter. This is a good way to get traffic to your article that wouldn’t have normally found out about it. I recently made a fan page for HotBlogTips, (so go be a fan :-0) and I recommend you do the same, is is really easy to do and you can put a widget in your sidebar that links to it. If one of your friends comments on your page then their friends can see that and may be curious, so it can become somewhat viral on its own.

BlogEngage:

I also immediately submit my article to blog engage. I encourage you to submit it your self to make sure it gets in the category and tags that you want. The community at blog engage is incredible and it is one of my best traffic sources. I also sign up for their email updates which emails you published articles on a regular basis. This is a good way to discover blogs you don’t read already and you can network with those bloggers.

After you submit your article, take the time to see if there are some articles that interest you that you can vote on as well, remember you must give to receive.

Blog Comments and Forums:

I try to wait until after I publish an article everyday to go through my Google Reader and start commenting on blogs. There are a couple of reasons for doing this and it does NOT include getting backlinks! Promoting an article by commenting on blogs can get your article indexed faster if the sites you frequent have a high PageRank (yes there are some uses for having higher PR) and if they have comment luv it is even better.

Commenting on blogs with commentluv after you publish your article gives you a great opportunity to promote your article because other commentators and the blog owner will see the title of the article and if you are good at writing title, they may be encouraged to click it.

Conclusion:

There are many other ways to promote your article like StumbleUpon and Digg which I use as well, but the ones I mentioned above are where I always start. What methods do you use?