Twitter …. Well, I just LOVE Twitter.  I only have about 5 face to face friends on twitter but I have gotten SO much from my short time there.  (Look for another article talking about that soon).  Here’s what you do.

• Sign up using a name that is catchy and makes sense for your business. A name like @ George239 isn’t very interesting, and @Hotchick4u is likely to get you booted out of Twitter.    Sign up for Twitter
• Fill out your profile completely! People won’t follow if they don’t know who you are and what you might tweet about.
• change your twitter background from the original. (After you get going think about doing a custom background) I can help with that if you like.. email me at milehiweb@yahoo.com
• Go to Twitter Grader enter your @ name. Your score will be low, but that’s not the point for now, with that tool you can search for people using a keyword like “real estate” or “marketing” “Politics” and it will give you the top tweeters in that area.
• Follow them.. Follow who they interact with, look for other people in your other area’s of interest.
• There are two schools of thought about if you should keep all your Twitter following/followers with one account, or split into personal and business.  That is your call.
• If someone’s tweets are spammy… you have the power, just stop following them.
• If you want people to follow you, build value and relationships with people, don’t just squack.. Look what I did, look what I wrote, look what I sell.
• Read TwiTips – a blog by Darren Rowse – A Twitter Must Read
• Follow @problogger Darren was one of the first people I followed and one of the first that responded to me (a nobody) directly.  That impressed me!
• There are lots of applications that are free.  Some of my favorites are

1. Friend or Follow This tells you who is following you that you follow, who is following you that you don’t follow and who you follow that isn’t following you.
2. Tweet Later You can use this to auto DM (Direct Message) people that follow you.  If you use this, make it a friendly message not a BUY THIS FROM MY NOW! type.  People will often unfollow you if you do. & auto follow people that follow you. This also allows you to send yourself an email targeting keywords you are interested in or a person you are interested in.
3. Twitter Local - Shows you the people that live in your area that are Tweeters and an example of their last few tweets.
4. OutTwit - This is an application that brings twitter right into your Microsoft Outlook.  It can be configured in many different ways and their tech support is awesome
   
5. Tweet Deck - A down loadable application that lets you see your Twitterland in all sorts of organized ways.
6. TwitWall – A more complete profile of who you are, what you tweet about, perhaps a picture or two. I wish they had a place to actually link this on your twitter like a “for more info” link.  Anyway, it’s kinda fun. See mine here.
7. Advanced Twitter Search – Thanks to@denverish for sending me this gem. It lets you search the tweets by location, word, phrase, positive people, ?’s being asked.  Very cool!

• I would also recommend going to the local #tweetups.  the #mark is used in Twitter to help you organize events, groups.  you search for #yourtopic and all of the tweets and twits about it come up. so watch for things like #DenverTweetup.  This will give you an opportunity to meet some of the @ people you follow face to face.

• Read Don’t be a Twitter Snob here! & read this article on choosing your Online Profile picture wisely

• 

  @yourwebchick

• Can you think of any other reasons to join these two social networks?
• Or great applications I missed?
• Please comment below!

Facebook isn’t MySpace… I have a page there just for the links but I NEVER “socialize” there… It’s best use is for the artsey folks, musicians etc.  But Facebook is a whole other story, it began as a more “sophisticated” Myspace for College kids, but now those kids are 30 something plus and networking socially and for business too.  Once you join  Facebook,

• use the search tools to find friends and colleagues,
• create a Facebook page for your business
• look for colleagues and  experts in your industry to “friend” and keep them up to date on what your business is doing by
• fill out the “what you are doing” part and send links to articles or interest or your latest blog postings…. or
• Add your blog to your Facebook account so it automatically posts new links.
• Become “a fan” of companies you like… Everyone will see this and you even get your name and face mentioned in the ad’s that pop up.
• Friend Mari Smith.. She is the GURU of Facebook for Business.  See more about her on my Mari Smith the Facebook Guru post here!

Women have a harder time with this since we often change our hair color, length, style and can look significantly different from month to month and it’s not cost effective nor time effecient  to have to update your picture across all of your social networks.  When I have a new client that I’m meeting I’ll tell them that I am a blonde now or I’ve cut my hair so they aren’t looking for a woman with long red hair instead of short blonde hair.. this usually seems to work.

Guys,  you really have to get a new picture up if you now have WAY less hair than you used to, it used to be dark brown but now not so much or you used to be clean shaven and now have a full beard.  Normally men don’t change their look as often as women do so you don’t have a good excuse to not update your online profiles.

If you want your potential client to trust you and feel good working with you, this seems like a no-brainer but it happens all the time.

If you are a single checking out the online dating scene this is ever MORE crucial.  Most ladies will never give you a 2nd chance at impressing them with your honesty.

What do you think?  Have you ever been in either the position of not being recognized?  Or been the one searching for the person you are meeting and unable to identify them?   Share you thoughts here.

I am experimenting with having more than one Twitter “face”.
I have my @yourwebchick profile for my business interests and @veryhappywife for the more girlie side of me that likes to learn and discuss things like gardening, photography, parenting, marriage, cooking, empty-nesters, scrap booking etc. I haven’t spent much time making connections on that one yet so I’ll let you know how my experiment goes.

I do agree that you should always answer your @ reply’s.  but I’m not sure that the reason some people don’t respond is snobbery, I think many people on Twitter don’t really understand how to find their DM’s and @ responses.  To people who have used Twitter for awhile it seems obvious, but I think it’s our responsibilities to help the newbies we see.  I will usually message someone who followed me but doesn’t have a picture or a link or their profile filled out and prompt them to do so.  Most people are greatful that I took my time to help them out.

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facebook

It’s Official. Facebook Is Running A Protection Racket On App Developers

I personally think this is a great idea!  The reason most adults kept away from Facebook was for fear that it was like MySpace filled with 10 year olds saying they were 16, sending you spammy posts and ridiculous applications.  Facebook started out clear of that nonsence but then came the slap me, stamp me, poster me, etc etc etc.   Making developers uphold a certain standard of reliability, security and pay a fee to have people use your application is a great move by facebook.

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If you can talk....

This is a great recording explaining how to make money with what you already know or what you can learn in a week on the internet. Both the guys speaking are quite down to earth and fun to listen to.
They give tips on what to say, how to prepare, correct recording equipment and researching your market.  Read the rest of the post here.
Making Money With Your Microphone [FREE BETA RECORDING]

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There are lots of excuses that my clients give me for not blogging…. I hate computers…(pretend it’s paper and pen) I can’t spell…(there is a NEW invention called SpellCheck) I don’t know what to write… (whatever comes to mind)

What can blogging do for my business? Blogging is the BEST way to get your name out in your industry….. You writing your own posts is only one part of blogging, the other just as important part is finding people in your industry or area of interest and learn from them.

There are mentor’s EVERYWHERE on the web that just might know something you don’t and miracle of miracles they like sharing with other people. So go find them… read their posts and comment on them… of course always leave your user name with a link back to your blog or your website. You have given your site a valuable link (always good for SEO, Search Engine Optimization) and a chance for an unlimited amount of people to come and see what you have to say, sell, share or give away on your site.

Examples of what kinds of business’s benefit from blogging.

Realtors…  Active Rain has an awesome blog network for realtors, ask and answer questions, connect with other’s in your field and related fields
(There are more real estate sites on the internet than any other category other than porn)
Posting ideas… Post about your market area… Love Boulder?? Tell your readers why…. Have a house for sale… I know it’s on MLS, but a billion houses are on MLS, give your listing a whole extra page of it’s own. Use that fact to get clients, explain the benefits to your potential clients you are trying to get to list with you.
Post about mortgages, interest rates, have your mortgage broker write a post for your blog and you write one for hers.

Retail Stores… Having a sale? Blog about that…. Know about a new trend? Blog about that… Are you an expert on something? Educate people about your products…

Authors… Post published reviews to your books… Post information about what you are working on now… Books that are about to publish…. Where your book signings are going to be… What inspires you to write…

Wedding Planners… What amazing new venues have you found? What’s the latest chic trend in weddings? What’s the wildest wedding you’ve officiated? Go to related industries blogs… photographers, caterers, florists and start leaving comments on their blog of course always leaving a link to you in each reply.

Custom Builders…. Post pictures of your latest projects… before and after… Blog about the new trends in the industry… Blog about the types of surfaces you recommend for kitchen countertops and why. If people see you care about them and know what you are talking about you… they are more likely to call for a quote.

blogger by google

As you can see the possibilities are endless. You really can’t go wrong… just DO IT!!! The good that comes from this effort is that your name will start being recognized around the blogosphere as being an expert in your field, you’ll have a limitless amount of links back to your site, you’ll learn a ton of great information as you are out DIGGing and you might just enjoy it.

Linked In

I just discovered some great new applications that Linked In is offering to members. I’ve linked my absolute favorite here With this one you can link your blog directly to your profile so not only can people look at your statistics in your profile they can also check out any blog posts at Blogspot that you’ve made lately.

There are several other applications that look worth trying as well. including
One here for WordPress Blogs
Your Reading List by Amazon .

Just look to the bottom right of your profile page and you’ll see an add applications button.

If you aren’t on Linked In yet, you should be. I think it’s the #1 “Social Networking” sites that all professionals should be on. You can search by topic, location to find folks you might be interested in networking with, there are 100′s of groups you can add for things you are interested in in your personal life and in your business life.

facebook

Are you a Fan of a product or a group or a political activist on Facebook?

It’s important to know that when you become a fan, your profile could be used by any brand for their advertisement. This includes fan sites you might join that you wouldn’t really want getting out in the “press”. Everything you say and do on Facebook is potentially open to everyone in the world. Most young executives are realizing it can impact their job opportunities when the employer goes online to check out this new wonderboy and see’s numerous pictures of “Mr Frat Boy” in various stages of undress and drunkenness you know that’s going to affect his impression of you. Be careful with anything you say and do anywhere online because it most likely WILL come back to haunt you.  For example just yesterday Mari Smith came up as a fan of “Dances with the Stars”.  Now that affilation is fine… but what if it was the SEO of a major company.. He just might not want the world to know that!

read more | digg story

Mary was interviewed by John Lawlor here.

Mari Smith’s Radio Interview

She talks about how you can use Facebook for your business.  Take a listen and let me know what you think by clicking on the link above.

The first thing you should do if you want to grown your business is friend Mari on Facebook and follow her at @marismith on Twitter!  She does podcasts and radio interviews all the time and her accent is a joy to listen to, plus she’s just fun and informative!