I’m social networking crazy
Last week my son and I participated in the National Turn your TV off week and it was a hit. We read, played, cooked, danced, and did everything imaginable that a mother and son could do to have fun together. But another result, or shall I call it side effect from unplugging my TV was that I had much more time on the computer. In the absence of Hero’s, Fringe, and Kings, I had nothing better to do after my toddler went to bed than to check out this new craze called social networking. So the first steps for me were to get a Twitter account as I already had Facebook, and LinkedIn. I had previously heard that creating these accounts were great for professional networking if I wanted to find a job or boost my business; and for social networking to get back in touch with old friends. With that in mind I set everything up and waited for the magic. Sadly, nothing happened. No calls came, no orders booked, no new Mary Kay team members signed.
Now that I had the time to really focus on the LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook tools I thought that I would read up and find out how to use them properly. I went to a seminar, read some white papers, and went to work. What I found out is that this stuff is addictive! I sat up for hours linking, tweeting, facing like crazy. My back ached, my eyes were bugging out and I felt like my computer had ate my brain. But the magic thing is that I think it’s working. Some claim that if you continue to put the work into twitter for 90 days you can get over 1000 people following you. It’s amazing to look at people’s profiles to see that they have upwards of 2000 followers!
So what is this all about? All of these tools have the capability to work together. On their own they have a purpose that is powerful enough and each has it’s value:
Facebook
Social networking site that is fantastic for making old connections and sharing information with friends and family. Since I’ve been on Facebook I have reconnected with people that I have not spoken to in at least two decades. It’s amazing to see what they’re doing, how they’ve changed, their families, etc. Facebook is free (for now) but you do have to be a member to enjoy the benefits it offers.
LinkedIn
Used for Professional networking. In this forum you can connect to professional contacts, colleges, experts in your field as well as recruiters. Here you post your resume and crow about your professional expertise. There’s a saying “It’s not WHAT you know but WHO you know”. Well, LinkedIn tries to prove this valid. By connecting to my friends I can see who they know in the professional world. If I’m looking for a job at particular company I can see if any of my connections know someone at that company to give me a referral.
Twitter
This is text messaging on steroids. Instead of spending hours texting to one friend at a time, or my address book, I can go online, connect to my friends and send them “tweets”. The beauty of this is not only am I tweeting to my friends but I’m also tweeting to THEIR friends. So if I have a message that I want to send to a large audience, all I have to do is twitter away!
Leveraging the power of collaborating tools
Once you’ve got the basics down of how each one of these tools work now you can get busy in building a following and driving traffic or hopefully business to your site. And there are tools and plug-ins galore to help you manage this. Once I post a story on my blog (like this one), it will show up on my Facebook page via a feed that I use to pull in the content. Then I can “tweet” that I’ve posted something new and drive traffic to my blog. On my blog I can do a number of things: I can talk about parenting and offer silly anecdotes about my experiences; I can post recipes, food, and travel reviews; I can post my resume and bio; and best of all I can showcase my business with sales and events that I am attending or sponsoring.
As I said in the beginning, I’ve now spent hours, DAYS, tweeting, blogging, and linking. And if that wasn’t bad enough there’s a tool that I found that allows me to write my thoughts at leisure and then schedule my tweets and blogs so that they can be continuously posting through out the day even while I’m at work. How great is THAT! Every hour that I spend online produces yet another tool, widget, plug-in…it’s like I’m on crack, I can’t stop.
Money, Money, Money
Yes! People are actually starting to respond to my Mary Kay information. I’ve been working in this business for a year (my anniversary this month). I hadn’t yet found my niche or my groove for selling until now. I’ve taken my past skills as a web developer and product manager to shout to the world “MARY KAY!”. Of course I’m still using the tradition methods of marketing my business but I truly believe that social networking is going to be integral to my success.
Now that I had the time to really focus on the LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook tools I thought that I would read up and find out how to use them properly. I went to a seminar, read some white papers, and went to work. What I found out is that this stuff is addictive! I sat up for hours linking, tweeting, facing like crazy. My back ached, my eyes were bugging out and I felt like my computer had ate my brain. But the magic thing is that I think it’s working. Some claim that if you continue to put the work into twitter for 90 days you can get over 1000 people following you. It’s amazing to look at people’s profiles to see that they have upwards of 2000 followers!
So what is this all about? All of these tools have the capability to work together. On their own they have a purpose that is powerful enough and each has it’s value:
Social networking site that is fantastic for making old connections and sharing information with friends and family. Since I’ve been on Facebook I have reconnected with people that I have not spoken to in at least two decades. It’s amazing to see what they’re doing, how they’ve changed, their families, etc. Facebook is free (for now) but you do have to be a member to enjoy the benefits it offers.
Used for Professional networking. In this forum you can connect to professional contacts, colleges, experts in your field as well as recruiters. Here you post your resume and crow about your professional expertise. There’s a saying “It’s not WHAT you know but WHO you know”. Well, LinkedIn tries to prove this valid. By connecting to my friends I can see who they know in the professional world. If I’m looking for a job at particular company I can see if any of my connections know someone at that company to give me a referral.
This is text messaging on steroids. Instead of spending hours texting to one friend at a time, or my address book, I can go online, connect to my friends and send them “tweets”. The beauty of this is not only am I tweeting to my friends but I’m also tweeting to THEIR friends. So if I have a message that I want to send to a large audience, all I have to do is twitter away!
Leveraging the power of collaborating tools
Once you’ve got the basics down of how each one of these tools work now you can get busy in building a following and driving traffic or hopefully business to your site. And there are tools and plug-ins galore to help you manage this. Once I post a story on my blog (like this one), it will show up on my Facebook page via a feed that I use to pull in the content. Then I can “tweet” that I’ve posted something new and drive traffic to my blog. On my blog I can do a number of things: I can talk about parenting and offer silly anecdotes about my experiences; I can post recipes, food, and travel reviews; I can post my resume and bio; and best of all I can showcase my business with sales and events that I am attending or sponsoring.
As I said in the beginning, I’ve now spent hours, DAYS, tweeting, blogging, and linking. And if that wasn’t bad enough there’s a tool that I found that allows me to write my thoughts at leisure and then schedule my tweets and blogs so that they can be continuously posting through out the day even while I’m at work. How great is THAT! Every hour that I spend online produces yet another tool, widget, plug-in…it’s like I’m on crack, I can’t stop.
Money, Money, Money
Yes! People are actually starting to respond to my Mary Kay information. I’ve been working in this business for a year (my anniversary this month). I hadn’t yet found my niche or my groove for selling until now. I’ve taken my past skills as a web developer and product manager to shout to the world “MARY KAY!”. Of course I’m still using the tradition methods of marketing my business but I truly believe that social networking is going to be integral to my success.
