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?

It is no wonder that women are at the forefront of social media. Women are social beings – made for relationships! And social media is just another way for us to expand those relationships.

Traditionally men are the early adopters of new technologies, but studies show that women far outpace the men in social media. (Business Week Article)

Why Women? 

Social media is less of a “technology” and more of a “social gateway” … while women don’t necessarily run the behind the scenes of social media applications like twitter, digg and linkedin – they certainly know how to use them to put on a good show. 

Social Media Phenomenon + Women = Influence that we cannot ignore!

Whether is for your job, your cause, your church or your family… social media can give us influence.

What Women?

Who is using social media? My mom is… to keep up with her kids! My sister is… to communicate with her friends across her college campus.

Me and my old babysitter. One day I got a facebook invite from a couple who used to babysit me when I had curly blonde hair. I remembered them because they used to do ‘Wheres Waldo‘ puzzles with my brothers and I.

But more importantly…

Lynchburg Bridal Expo is getting people signed up for their event through Facebook.

Dayna Palmer created a group for lynchburg women business owners on Facebook.

Linda Settles, author, blogs and uses facebook to build interest for her new book.

Amy Clark established Momadvice.com – well researched and in-depth articles on frugal living, saving money, work at home opportunities, recipes and tips.

Allison Worthington – uses facebook and blogging titled “mrsfussypants.com: we cant both look good, its me or the house.”

There was a high school girl named Sarah Sowerwine who started a Breast Cancer awareness cause page on facebook that now has over 30 thousand members.

A woman named Christa Laukevicz started a cause on facebook called ‘Prevent Child Abuse America’ and has over 2 million members and 30 thousand dollars donated!
…

Now that we know social media can help us increase our influence, then we know it is powerful enough to also help us find solutions for immediate problems.

How much time is needed to be effective at marketing yourself through social media? Where should I invest my time online? What social media tools should I be using and how often should I use them?

Your time is valuable. I am a master multitasker, and even I have a hard time deciding where to invest the time I do have. 

1. How much time is needed to be effective at social media? Think of social media as a marketing project. It’s not a hobby (thanks @awpotter I like that line). The first step in any advertising or public relations campaign is research, then planning, then implementation. The research and planning phases – which are the foundation of your campaign – are going to take more time to build than the actual implementation. So in the beginning – you could spend 10-50 hours launching your campaign. 

2. How much time do I need to spend on a weekly basis promoting my cause through social media? Once your campaign is launched, it is a process of learning. The first time you do something it always takes longer than the second, then third time, and eventually you have it down and you don’t have to think about it anymore. But that doesn’t answer the question, does it?

The answer varies depending on:

     A. Your purpose and goal

     B. How fast your typing is, how fast you are at writing, your internet connection speed… are you getting the point? 

Scenario: You are promoting your wedding cake business online. You already have a blog setup with a linkedin account, facebook as well as twitter. You are experienced in your field and excited about weddings. So, you write one blog a week with good information for brides, then you use that blog to promote what you do by searching for brides on facebook and sending twitters out daily. You also find some unique wedding website communities to contribute to, like offbeat bride and weddingwire. So, you spend an hour a week on your blog, a half hour a day on facebook and another 15 minutes a day on twitter. Then you spend an average of 2 + hours a week on other sites. Minimum Time per week = 7 hours (an hour every morning with a cup of coffee!)

3. What social media tools should I be using and how often should I use them? There are four basic tools every professional should be using: Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Each has a different purpose in gaining new leads, check out my training on becoming a trust agent. Your field is going to have additional tools available (like weddingwire for cake makers or photographers). But how much time you spend on each depends on your field and your purpose! Check out the scenario above. 

And to respond to Chris Brogan’s thoughts on being realistic about time, Chris points out that ever since the web happened our expectations about response time has changed. Chris says, “We can reinstate boundaries and manage expectations. Business has to move fast, but do we really want the future where we’re all tethered to Twitter?”

It’s true. Boundaries are important. Nobody can expect people to be as good as me at multitasking (hah!). But – it is also true that the internet and social media has changed our ability to response quickly. We can get emails, twitters and facebook responses on our mobile phones. We can hire virtual assistants to manage our LinkedIn accounts! 

As I have said before, Social Media has turned 6 degrees of separation into new and instant connections across the globe! So, set your boundaries, don’t overexpect people to revolve their valuable time around you – but also know that there are tools out there so we can capitalize on our God-given abilities and human beings to be the ultimate task-masters! 

Check out our social media 101 program that will help you get a hold on your marketing >

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

Check these out. Plastic cards.

I know my eye looks kinda creepy. But the cards are cool.

I have heard stories of years ago when professionals had a hard time finding a web designer. It is hard to believe because today it is almost like getting hit with Quickstar: they are EVERYWHERE.

The problem?

All web designers have strengths. And all web designers have weaknesses. But there is so much information out there that there is no way for the “rest” of the world to tell what strengths should be stronger.

So, we are going to start a guide. A guide to avoiding web designabees and finding a good, quality designer who knows what they are talking about.

To start us off today. Look for a web designer who:

1. Doesn’t pretend to know everything. (I promise they don’t)
2. Can name several SEO tools off the top of their head (Here’s a Wordtracker article about SEO)

I am about to help out Linda Settles with her new blog, and I was looking for some quick pointers to help her out. I came across Seth Godin’s “riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread” – this is a really good article: How to get traffic for your blog. Pay attention to #18, 19 and 40. 

Some trends in well-read blogs that I came across…

My realtor, Nannette Saunders, opened my eyes. I have been using Twitter for a few months but never seriously… never with intention.

As stated on the Twitter wiki: “Twitter is a way of life. It’s living with a publicity policy. It’s friends, Romans and country people the world over engaged in timely snippet conversations that fit into 140 character chunks.)

How does it work? 

All you have to do is sign up at Twitter.com, find your friends and colleagues, link it to your cell phone, and text “40404″ every time you want to update your “status.” So, this morning, I changed my status to: “Working from home for a few hours… the rain helps me concentrate.” 

Now, this isn’t some profound or instructive marketing statement. Then what is its value? 

Sometimes informative and useful tips are good, too, but I want my target to know that I am a real person! I want to help you understand that I am a trustworthy and accountable person… and I want to build a relationship with you.

Nannette was right: this is a new LEVEL of social networking. Tools like Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter allow us as professionals to build better referral networks in months than we could do in years. By keeping connected with the world at all times.

When we were looking at homes yesterday (hoping to buy before the end of October), she made a fairly profound statement, that went something like… “I used to do a lot of direct mail… now I don’t have to do any.” 

Of course, there is strategy to be learned in using online social networking tools. Here are a few tips that I have picked up to use with Twitter:

1. When choosing people to follow, ask yourself: what kind of professionals would I want to follow, who would want to follow me, and who would refer others to follow me? Then, follow all of them. Hopefully they will return the favor. 

2. Connect Twitter to your cell phone and update consistently. Don’t go a day without Twittering!

3. Look for ‘Tweetups’ – which are local gatherings of people who Twitter… supposedly a great networking opportunity! 

4. Don’t forget to signup and follow me: jamills

I first discovered Search Engine Optimization the day I took over the company website. At the time I was working for a nonprofit, way before I started my own company. We were using a content management system at the time and I discovered that search engine spiders (yes, another term worth learning) couldn’t even read our website! Not because it was an unattractive site, or because the content was confusing… in fact, it was a really top notch site with excellent graphics and content. 

So what was the problem? 

As wikipedia says, Search Engine Optimization considers “how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site.” 

Think of it this way: if the code (HTML for example) of your website is too messy and tangled for the search engine spiders to get through it, it is going to come back as a huge jumbled mess. The content management system was too dirty! It created bad code. 

So after 5 years of learning how to code, structure, research and write key word content and properly index a website, I finally feel like I have a handle on it. 

Its actually pretty easy to use SEO to elevate your website in search engines, based on key words. That is my definition of SEO: “Making your website findable on search engines.”

Ok, so I am kind of stealing Jeremy Gregg’s coining of “Philanthropassion” to create a clever headline for my next blog. I guess it’s not so clever when you steal it, but I don’t think he will mind. 

The truth is that when you notice a catchy trend, the game is to start using it as quickly as possible before it blows up. My partner and I probably own at least 50 domain names for great ideas that we may never have time to use, but at least we have the option! And it certainly keeps us on our toes at the forefront of marketing trends. 

A great example is the networking trend that just won’t stop, and it started when MySpace blew up. There are probably 100s of sites where individuals and businesses can go to connect. 

So take my advice, and go create a profile for yourself at the following URLs: 

GodFuse, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Delicious, YouTube, Technorati, SPhinn, StumbleUpon. 

Other ideas? Leave a comment.