How I am using it

HootSuite allows me to monitor a lot of information in one browser window:

1. Both of my Twitter accounts
2. My Facebook page
3. My Facebook fan page
4. My LinkedIn network
5. Personalized Twitter searches so I can see when certain words are Tweeted
6. Twitter lists so I can monitor conversations of specific ‘Tweeters”

More than just monitoring

1. Save Time:  With HootSuite I can type one message and have it appear on all on my social networks
2. Keep it short:  Twitters 140 character limit is hard to stay within when you copy long website urls.  HootSuite will shrink those urls with a click on the mouse.
3. Timely:  Do you have information that needs to be provided on a particular day?  at a particular time?  Use the scheduling feature to schedule when you posts will be made on your various social networks.
4. Statistics:  HootSuite provides you with statistics on how many time your links were clicked on.  I have used bit.ly before to do this ( I still love bit.ly!)  But it is so convenient to have the tracking within HootSuite.
5. There is a lot more HootSuite can do, but those are the highlights that I am using right now.

Choice

There are other tools like this available, but HootSuite is quickly become my tool of choice.  Here are a few other tools to consider that I am using:

1. www.TweetDeck.com
2. www.Seesmic.com

What are you using?

What tools to you using to build stronger relationships, monitor your brand, or increase the effectiveness of your communications?

Steve’s 15 Minutes a Day LinkedIn Strategy

Who cannot find 15 minutes to dedicate to building and maintaining relationships?  It is a simple step.  Done for at least 90 days, it will become a habit.  It will take time before you see results, but not as much as you may think.  So let’s get started.

Step 1:  Preparation

Schedule 15 minutes a day on your calendar.  In order for you to be successful, schedule this on your calendar.  It is too easy to forget about it, or push it aside because something urgent (but maybe less important) came up.  Schedule it on your calendar for the next 90 days as a reoccurring event.

Step 2:  The Daily Habit

There are four things I believe you should do every day on LinkedIn:

1. Update your status.
2. Review your homepage for connection activities and respond as needed.
3. Respond promptly to any email you receive through LinkedIn.
4. Follow the daily tips below

Monday:  Make Connections

One great opportunity you have to provide value to your connections is to connect them.  Look at your personal connections or connections you have made through a LinkedIn group and join them.  It could be as simple as sending an email to both of them and how they could benefit each other.

You may not find a connection each week, and that is OK.  But keep up this discipline.  You will become more trusted and known as a resource to your network.

Tuesday:  Ask Questions

Ask a question in a group or to your network.  You will be surprised how many people will be there to support you.

I had met a social media intern about a year ago.  She was a master of this strategy.  She would ask questions to her personal connections and group connections about once a week.  Through out the week she would get some great responses.  The next week, she would send a thank you out to everyone with a summary of all of the answers that were given.  This provided her network with invaluable data in an area they cared about and encouraged her network to keep answering her questions.  I have complete trust in her today.

Wednesday:  Answer Questions

Review the groups that you are a part of and answer as many questions as you can in 15 minutes.  Answering questions is a great way to show you care and build up your creditability.

Thursday:  Gratitude

Send thank you’s to your connections for their assistance.  Thank you’s may be through email or even a personal note on a card.  Personal notes in your own handwriting are not as common as they use to be, but can create a lasting impression.

Friday:  Grow

This is the day to grow your connections and your contribution to your network.  First, look at all of the people you have met over the last week.  Should some of them be added to your network on LinkedIn?  Friday is also a great day to look at adding books you have read, blog posts, Twitter, or Slideshare presentations to your profile.

Make LinkedIn Rock

Are you ready to make LinkedIn rock? Try these recommendations for 90 days.  Let me know what kind of results you get.

Want ACCOUNTABILITY?  Post a comment letting me know you are trying this strategy.  We can connect on LinkedIn and hold each other accountable!

Something happens when you get involved with social media.  You change.  You realize that the more you give – the better you feel – and the more you get back.  I am motivated to be even more active!

By the end of the week, I have created some terrific marketing materials that are customer focused.  I have also created a bunch of ineffective materials that will not work, but here’s the thing – my social community helps me determine what is good or bad based on the comments I receive, the number of times an article is retweeted, or the emails that I receive with questions on the articles or tweets.

So – 15 hours per week to develop marketing materials that educate and creating powerful relationships.  I think that is time well spend.  Would your marketing manager be more effective if he/she were to be active in social networks?

My Blog (1 hour a day)

• Write at least three blog posts per week based on research and conversations I have had on Twitter and on other blogs
• Respond to comments daily on my blog
• Write at least 1- 5 comment a day on other people’s blogs

Analytics  (1/2 hour a week)

• Review Google Analytics to identify trends and possible follow-up articles.
• Review click throughs with FeedBurner

Twitter  (1 – 2 hours through out the day)

• Daily- retweet at least one good idea or something enlightening
• Daily – write a response to at least one person I have not talked to ever before on Twitter
• Daily – scan twitter for relevant conversations
• Tweet my blog posts
• Recommend my most active followers on #followfriday
• TweetLater – schedule a #QOTD or #quote for each day
• Twice a Week – Review new followers and follow active Tweeters

Google Reader  (4 hours per week)

• Monitor Google Reader news articles for relevant blog content and Twitter posts
• Comment on relevant articles
• Bookmark with delicious articles for future blog posts and idea generation

Google Alerts  (15 minutes per week)

• Monitor Google alerts for relevant keywords and phrases

LinkedIn  (15 minutes per day)

• Daily- Update Status
• Daily – review friend (connections) status and comment on at least one
• Tuesday/Thursday – Scan group conversations and engage in topics when appropriate
• Wednesday – Ask one question in a group
• Friday – help connect two of my contacts together
• Friday – send one referral, ask for one referral

Slideshare

• Monthly – Upload a new presentation
• Weekly – Review comments on presentations

Facebook  (15 minutes per day)

• Daily – Update Status
• Daily – review friend status
• Daily – At least one non-business related comment to a friend
• Delete any messages that are spam-ish or any polls or applications sent to me
• Review photos of friends

YouTube

• Monthly – Review my videos
• Monthly – Review favorites
• As they happen – Add a new video to my blog

Delicious

• Daily – Book mark daily to share with clients, employees and twitter followers
• Weekly – review bookmarks to generate ideas for future blog posts or future projects

Email

• Check three times a day – morning, noon, and at the end of the day
• Respond to all emails – even if it just says “I will get back to you.”
• Clean up mail from last week and close any loose ends

Other Activities

• Weekly – engage in other social networks that I belong

There are a few other activities that my staff take care of through out the week that include:

• Managing two Facebook communities
• Managing two LinkedIn communities
• Publishing our e-newsletter
• Manage two additional blogs

What are your thoughts?  I would love to hear them!

I have 178 1st level connections.  But I am connected to over 2.8 million people!  How can that be?  First level connections are those people to whom I am directly connected.  These people can see my entire profile, but also have their own connections whom I may not know.  These people would be considered second level connections.  These second level connections may also be connected a third level of people I don’t know.  The 2.8 million people includes not only my first level, but second and third level connections as well.  People that are not first, second or third level contacts are ”outside of my network.” 

So, is it about Size or Quality?

Anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, did research on the cognitive power of the brain and how it limits the “size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop.”  He suggested that this number is around 150.  This number became famous as the Dunbar number.

Sure, you can create larger networks, but the effectiveness starts to decline.  Eventually, these just become a list of acquaintances.  Not very powerful.

Add Connections.

1. Upload your contacts from your email program or CRM (customer relationship management) software.  LinkedIn has a great tool for uploading the contacts and matching them with users that have a profile in LinkedIn.  Don’t worry, when you upload your contacts, they will not automatically be sent an invitation. This step can save you countless hours, but you can also add your contacts manually.
2. Write personal introductions.  Don’t use the automated responses.  By default, LinkedIn writes a brief message for you when you invite someone to become part of your network.  It says, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”  If you want people to join your network, you need to personalize that message.  This may take a little more time, but it is well worth it. It improves the response of those who accept your connections, as well as improves the quality of the connection itself. 

What about other connections?

Consider adding the following people to your network if you can each benefit:

1. People from past employment.  These are people who know you.
2. Clients
3. Vendors
4. College professors
5. Other people you are close to in your industry
6. Fellow members of a non-profit

REMEMBER:  It is the quality, not the quantity.  Up until 2008, many people were concerned about getting huge numbers of connections.  I believe 2009 will be the year of ‘de-friending.”  The year we look for quality in our relationships; and remove those that don’t add mutual value.

The Power of Groups

Groups are also another way to developing a powerful network.  When you join a group, you are connecting with people who have similar interests.  Many times, these are people you will want in your network.

Do’s and Don’t

• DO:  Create a specific email address for your LinkedIn account
• DO:  Archive unwanted or unknown connection requests
• DO NOT: Invite people you do not know to become part of your network.  If you get 5“I Don’t Know You” responces,  you can get in trouble with LinkedIn
• DO NOT: Invite everyone.  LinkedIn has a maximum of “3,000″ invitations allowed
• DO:  Personalize invitations or create your own templates. LinkedIn templates are boring
• DO: Let your connections grow slowly. A quality list doesn’t appear overnight

What if someone asks you to join your network, but you do not want to approve them?

Letting everyone in, starts to dilute the effectiveness of your network.  Let me tell you a story that happened to me.  I am passionate about Rotary International.  It is a wonderful organization that has brought a lot of good to the world.  Through one of my connections, I found a gentleman in Africa who has a lot in common with me.  I had communicated with him once about a presentation that he had done on clean drinking water,  so he really did not know me very well.  I sent him a connection email, and to my surprise he refused.  But he did it nicely.  He said, “Steve – I appreciate you asking me to be a connection.  I use LinkedIn to network with professionals in my industry.  If you would like to connect with me, please join the LinkedIn group entitled ‘xxxxx’.”  So I did.

Please remember that once you add someone as a contact, you can remove them also.  If you do remove someone, there is no notification sent.  Your information just does not show up on their connections list. 

We all want to stay top of mind.  Here are  four ways:

1. Status Updates.  Did you know that when you update your status update, that shows up on your connections home page on LinkedIn?  I use status updates to tell my contacts what I am thinking or questions I have about a topic.  Typically, I get 2 or 3 responses a day from my status updates.  Nice to know people care!
2. Photo updates, profile updates, or questions you answer will also show up on your contacts home page.
3. Add some spice to your “Professional Headline” or title.  Who says you can only put your boring title from your business card on your LinkedIn profile.  Here are some of the headlines that grabbed my attention and directed me to learn more:
   • Believer in the power of relationships
   • Change agent and catalyst – committed to adding value to donors, clients and partners
   • Chief Brain Auditor
   • Systems analyst who wants to help your company reduce costs and increase revenue through better business systems
   • LinkedIn Maniac
   • Author of “121 Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business”
   • Chief Swomi at Society for Word of Mouth
   • Chief Velocity Officer, Tornado Marketing

4. Look at your profile.  Would you want to connect with you?  If not, rework it!

Make LinkedIn Rock! 

My contact settings say:  ” I would love to connect with you! All I request is that you do not use the canned LinkedIn response. Explain why we should connect. That way we can be sure that we can help each other. I look forward to connecting with you! “ 

Let’s get connecting!

Again, thank you for making the presenation so enjoyable last night!