Unlike a “social” network, LinkedIn is a “business network” that I like to refer to as an online resume.

LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.

LinkedIn is just like any other marketing tool – you have to have a goal and a strategy to get there. It can be used to make new business connections and potential leads, to apply for job positions and to build business relationships in your target geography. 

Here are some tips on using LinkedIn effectively:

1. Create a strong profile. Make sure you fill in all the fields. 

2. Make connections to people you already know. The more connections you have, the more credible you look. 

3. Get References (give referrals to get referrals!).

2. Set a goal for your LinkedIn. What do you want to accomplish from using it? What types of people would you like to make connections with and what do you want from those connections? Maybe you need to make 5 new sales in the next 30 days from small business owners. Make that your goal! 

3. Target specific companies or people. Once you set your goal you should know who you need to target. Check out your connections’ connections! See who your 2nd and 3rd degree connections are and request an introduction.

Other Helpful Resources

• Five LinkedIn Tips
• How Many Connections is too many?

I’ve gotten this question for several business owners in the last couple weeks. I guess its ad renewal time for Verizon and the Yellowbook… 

Which phonebook is more valuable? Which book should I advertise in? Should I advertise in all of them? Should I advertise in them AT ALL… or should I just be listed? 

These are all great questions and ones that everyone should consider. As a public relations expert in technology this is what I know: 

• The use of phone books is becoming more scarce because of the information age and the internet
• People who do use phone books probably don’t have the internet or don’t care about using the internet… so… we are mainly talking about an older generation
• In Lynchburg, VA the population is a little slower on new developments and technologies, so compared to the rest of the world people are probably still using phone books

Unless you are tracking the phone calls you get from the phone book, nobody can really tell you how effective it is has been. And unless you can tell the future, nobody can know how effective it is going to be.

Phonebooks are going to become obsolete in the future… we all know this… but just how near in the future?

So, we tend to go off of other people’s experiences in making our decisions. And that is precisely what I have been telling people. I have heard good things about Verizon, OK things about Yellowbook, and horrible things about My Community Phonebook. So… there you have it. 

Another way to advertise in the “Phonebook”

We can adapt to the new technologies and use the internet! The internet is a giant phone book in itself. Make sure you are listed in:

• Google! Do search engine optimization to get your services and products listed organically. Also make sure to be listed in Yahoo and other Google-juiced sites
• Online phone books like yellowpages.com 
• Online communities and networks like Facebook and LinkedIn
• Customer Review websites like Yelp

All of these websites allow for you to have your phone number and address – some of them even give you the opportunity to put up a map and get customer reviews.

If you are going to be involved in social media at all, you are probably asking yourself how to do this… juggle multiple social media sites at once, that is.

On the Social Media 101 group on LinkedIn, Linda Goin wrote:

I want to narrow down my involvement in social media, as I don’t have time to tap all the resources (LinkedIn being one of those neglected mediums). Any suggestions on how to handle (juggle) multiple social media sites?

At the Circus on Flickr from ecpica

There are SO MANY social media tools out there… facebook, linkedin, blogging, twitter, flickr. (Get a complete list of all web 2.0 projects at http://www.go2web20.net/)

Social media tools arent’ just about networking. They are about making life more efficient… and sometimes fun. Last Christmas I sent out a holiday newsletter for my company, Expressions Laboratories. Instead of giving people more information in an already busy holiday season, we decided to give everyone a little gift: we elf’d ourselves. Along with hand written cards (nothing beats a personal hand-written note) we plugged our faces into elfyourself.com and made fools of ourselves. It was a hit. 

This Christmas I wanted to renew the gift. Here is me and my two favorite men (David and Kaleb, 5) in a holiday dance: 

What did I learn from this experiment? 

1) People want to see your sense of humor. It makes you a real person. That is part of what social media is all about… showing people that you can relate to them on more than one level. 

2) It saved time sending out extra hand-written cards. I sent the ones I wanted to send, but I didn’t have to spend an entire afternoon writing cards… or spend $100 because those little boxes only hold 10 or so. 

Make some of your own: jibjab.com

Buzzlogic and Jupiterresearch published a study on the influence of blogs on consumer purchases.

They found that the number of blog readers has TRIPLED in the past four years and that the blogs they are reading strongly influence their purchase decisions. 

Read the article by Retailer Daily here >

I met Mary Foley through Cheryl Smith at LinkedIn… I took Cheryl’s advice one day and just started introducing myself to random people there. One day I get a call from Mary telling me that she is the key note speaker at an event in  Lynchburg and would love to meet me. I introduced myself after she spoke, and we ended up talking for hours. She has ended up being a great business contact for me – a long term relationship. 

LinkedIn is now adding applications that your business needs to take part in. Check out Chris Brogan’s article on Linked In: Drop Everything and Run to LinkedIn Now!

Here are some stats from Technorati on the state of the bloggosphere. See the full report here.

Pattie from Clarke Marketing and Nannette Saunders asked me yesterday (in so many words) if Wordpress was a good system to use for non-blog websites. It really got me thinking. 

The Wordpress Content Management System isn’t just for blogs anymore. The number of designers using Wordpress as for non-blog websites is increasing – and for good reason. 

A couple big reasons I can think of are: 1) Wordpress is free, and 2) Wordpress is easy if you use pre-made templates.

Wordpress is not a high-end CMS but can very easily be used for professional websites. 

ifacethoughts pointed out that the difference between blogs and non-blogs is that in a blog the posts take up the entire website, but in a non-blog the pages are what dominate. The blog also gives some other great reasons to use Wordpress for your non-blog sites. 

The performancing blog, also, linked to some reasons why you should NOT use wordpress, and others why you should. He also listed some great examples of non-blog sites that use WP, including Camacho Cigars.

So – when choosing a content management system for your website, consider cutting your cost with Wordpress. 

With all of the new technological advances out there… we barely have to think for ourselves anymore! Just wanted to let you know about a new Gmail feature that recognizes when we forget attachments, and can remind us to do so! The new Gmail Attachment Decoder will save us from embarrassment. 

What other advances do you think teams like Google may reveal in the future?