Image via CrunchBase

Tools are the most important key to help you manage all of your most important social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Utilizing tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Radian 6, UberSocial, etc., will change how you interact with your connections online.

SYNCH PROFILES

Synching your profiles will save you a lot of time.  Utilize 3^rd party applications to synch your twitter to your Facebook and your LinkedIn.  Synch your blog to post notes to Facebook and create shortened URLs for Twitter. But use care when setting these up! Remember that each platform has a different environment and not all Tweets are appropriate for LinkedIn (as an example).

KEYWORDS

Define words of interest that you would like to follow or generate business from or find connections through.  Keywords are a powerful way to zero in on your target market or industry & to filter posts for specific topics. 

COLUMNS

Through TweetDeck or HootSuite for example, you have the ability to create a series of columns/tabs to view posts that mention your specified keywords almost real time.  It is a great way to find resources and connections and information that you need. Establish columns for your keywords, peers, competitors, and also add tabs or columns for your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter messages such as Direct Messages, Mentions, pending updates, and sent.

SCHEDULING

The great thing about these third party tools is the ability to schedule.  You can generate a list of posts, pick the date and time you would like them to post, the social profiles you would like to have the updates posted to and move on to your next task.  So, if you are feeling creative on a Saturday afternoon, develop “timely” posts for the next few weeks.

By spending at least 30-45 minutes a week developing content for your posts, you have the ability to quickly login to the tool, spend about 10 minutes each day to view the most recent updates for your connections, make comments, add additional real time content and your commitment is then complete. 

Note that at this time, scheduling posts through these tools will not allow all the rich content such as images or video, but it will provide the link for the full content. Once you’ve posted via a tool, go to the platform and verify that it looks like you want it to. Then when you post a similar item, you’ll have an idea of what to expect.

So get out there, have fun, commit to a schedule (but be realistic) and build your business! 

Rock On!

Hollie Clere, The Social Pro is a social media manager, trainer and author in the LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog and social media world. You can connect at www.TheSocialMediaAdvisor.com

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• 10 tools to improve your Twitter experience (browsermedia.co.uk)

Image by opacity via Flickr

When exploring the world of social media you will find that it is easy for the social sites to claim time you have allocated to work. It is best to put into practice time allocation to optimize your online schedule. With Facebook, you have probably connected to family, friends, coworkers, business partners and a myriad of other individuals that you find yourself “living life” with online. The ability to visit their pages to view pictures, post comments on their status updates, read notes and view videos; you can quickly become inundated with the absence of time.

 Events will show you if someone has invited you to something, items that are current in your calendar (should you use it through the site). By selected “See All” the list will quickly populate in a single view. It is good practice to give your friends a Birthday greeting, but don’t allow yourself to scroll through their myriad of Birthday posts. Give your greeting and move forward.APPS

A lot of people use Facebook for the applications such as games and other widgets. If you are using the site for extra entertainment, be sure to schedule a separate time later in the day for your “free time”. Applications such as games shouldn’t be utilized during your 10 minute schedule.

VIDEO and LINKS

Be aware of the risks of viewing a video posted online. There are times when profiles get “hacked” and if you are not clear whether your “Friend” has posted the link themselves (generally they would include a message with the post to indicate their interest in it), then just stay clear from clicking these links. From time to time even trusted posts may have contaminated code embedded which could cause havoc to your computer. Be cautious and aware of the things you decide to view.

If you can hold yourself to a standard, even by setting up a clock or alarm to notify you when your 10 minutes is up, you will be able to build a routine you can stick with. It is easy to spend more time than necessary on Facebook, so plan ahead and be realistic with your commitment.

Rock On!

Hollie Clere, The Social Pro is a social media manager, trainer and author in the LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog and social media world. You can connect at www.TheSocialMediaAdvisor.com

Related articles

• Time Management for Social Media – Part 1 (integratedalliances.com)
• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)
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I spend a bit of quality time on Sundays crawling through my email to scrub out junk and make sure I didn’t miss anything important. At one point, I hit send/receive and was overwhelmed with more than twenty email messages from one Facebook group. The funny thing is, I don’t remember joining this group. Upon further investigation, it seems to have happened while I was watching football and scrubbing email.

I wondered if I had somehow done more multi-tasking than I was aware of. But no, I didn’t even have the browser open. So I checked out this overly annoying group of which I had been a member of less than twenty minutes. Turns out, with the new facebook groups, you can invite people, or you can just “add your friends.” upon further investigation, where I thought I was a member of 89 groups, I now was a member of over 158! The fact that I didn’t know that yet just illustrates how busy social media people are. There’s just too much information to “know it all!”

Thanks guys, but no thanks. I live my life in social media so you can imagine it’s already packed full of information and things to keep up with. I don’t need help adding more–especially irrelevant more–to my plate.

As Dr Suess might say: “So buddy, so friend, so please oh please! Don’t “add @Lori Ruff” to your group, even if you think she’d be pleased. She might at that, but here’s where its at: she just doesn’t have the time!”

Related articles

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• Facebook groups vs also be a real pain in the rear (dccrowley.posterous.com)

I’ve had lots of messages from subscribers and followers about the recent decline in my “daily blogging” and I’ve sent them each back a message something like this:

“Thanks so much for your loyalty to our blog and resources… just wait till you see what we’ve been up to!“

As we were preparing to schedule and begin writing our second book, Mike had a bright idea. (Aren’t they all?) He said: “Let’s do an introduction to social media for LinkedIn users!”

Brilliant. As we traveled the previous six months, more and more business people would ask us how they could make the move to other platforms; what they needed to know; where they should start.

Mike was right. And several adivsors we talked to about the idea asked us how fast we could get a manuscript ready.

That was mid-February.  By mid-August we submitted our completed manuscript to the publisher.  It now goes to the line editor, interior layout designer and finally, after a proof copy passes muster with us, it will go to the printer who will have 20 days to turn around the initial order.

So, mid-October will see Mike and I at the publisher’s digs signing thousands of first edition copies to fulfill pre-order sales before they ship for delivery by November first.

Here are some of the cool components coming:

First, since we’re social media folks, into crowd-sourcing, we thought reaching out to our friends and peers in the industry would be an appropriate thing to do. So we used the very social media platforms we discuss in the book to create it.

Next, we asked some of our best clients to share with us their favorite tips and tricks and tools that they learned from us or others. We included all of those in the book.

Finally, we wrapped what could be text of a typical business book in the music of fictitious characters, the classic rockers Pink and Floyd who, throughout the pages, shed light for you on the Dark Side of the Moon.

Take a peek at our home page and the publisher’s page for more information. Watch our Extras page as we complete development and upload additional resources to complement the first and second books in the Rock The World^TM series. And below, leave a comment. Let us know what you think, share ideas on marketing the book, and ask questions. We appreciate your input and will respond quickly.

Visit www.RockTheWorld2.com for details or to pre-order your signed, first edition copies!

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We’ve got some great news for you… We wanted to let you know we’ll be speaking March 19-21 at Jeff Mills’ upcoming “Boost Seminar” in St. Paul, Minnesota. And there is a great chance you’ll be able to meet us and the other speakers at that event to network and learn together how people are making money online as well as building successful businesses with internet marketing practices.

Go here now and sign up for their free training: http://www.shopgoldmills.com

Jeff invited Mike and Lori to be his guest on a special tele-seminar which took place February 9th at 8:00 EST.

Once you sign up for the free training via tele-seminar (or webcasts), you’ll get to hear about his fantastic conference and all the other great speakers coming to the Boost Seminar.

Why You Need to Attend Seminars:

Networking at these internet marketing events are some of the best business boosting tasks that I think you should be focusing on. I can tell you for a fact, it’s helped me in my own business, meeting people at events and making deals happen.

So, to hear the tele-seminar, just go to

http://www.shopgoldmills.com

and sign up to listen in on the call where Jeff and the IA team shared some great content.

NEWS: We have 10 FREE Passes to Jeff’s Event!

How would you like a free ticket to Jeff’s event?

Normally Jeff charges $997 to attend, but if you enter the code: lrboost on the checkout page, you’ll see the price go to ZERO. (You’ll need to do this quickly cause these tickets will all get picked up fast).

Now, we cannot do this for our entire list, we’re not sending out an email, and it’s only the first 10 absolutely serious people. If you wait, they’ll all be gone for sure, so be one of the 10 people now. After 10 are gone, you’ll have to pay the current price. It’s worth it, but FREE is better!

Listen to the call!

Sign up at the Link Below:

http://www.shopgoldmills.com

I was just introduced to Facebook Lite by Social Media expert Nick Armstrong.  This may be just what the doctor ordered for seemingly 90% of the people out there that are frustrated by the sheer complexity of  its Big Brother – the tiny icon’s, the terminology, the options, the hidden this and that.

What’s the difference?  Streamlined screens, no Facebook applications, shortened lists of options, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!

Give it a try.  It works off the original Facebook profile, Friends list, etc.  It seems to be 100% interchangeable.

Behind the scenes?  It runs on Java and AJAX according to Armstrong.  That means faster loading, faster operation, faster satisfaction.  I can TOTALLY attest to that.

Give it a try.  It’s really easy.   Simply go to www.lite.facebook.com vs www.facebook.com.

You may be asking yourself, “What is the connection between music & social media?”

Music is the universal language that unites us in the world regardless of our many differences.

Music raises our social consciousness.  It helps us reflect on happy or sad times.

Music empowers us.

Thanks to social media platforms like: Photobucket, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Blip.fm and others that help us achieve this.

Two examples are from Twitter and other media that allowed a response and reaction to the shocking news of the death of “King of Pop” icon Michael Jackson or the recent B.E.P performance in Chicago kicking off Oprah’s 24^th TV season.

~Liz Isaacs, Writing & Marketing Communications, Lotus Writing & Communications
liz@lotuswommunications.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lotuswritngcommunications
http://www.twitter.com/lizisaacslwc or @lizisaacslwc

Interesting article with a shocking statistic.  Robert Half poll has 54% of CIO’s banning Social Media use on the job.  Says Social Media saps productivity.  They couldn’t be talking about LinkedIn.

Are Bosses Right to Ban Social Media? | Sterling Performance | BNET

I think Recruiters Sales/Marketing types should have an exception no matter what, especially with LinkedIn.

What are your thoughts?

Facebook’s long and powerful legal arm has found something that they don’t like – anyone that has and/or uses a domain name that contains the word “Facebook”. We received such a notice over the use of mikeonfacebook.com. LinkedIn has come down hard on this sort of practice as well, although there are many blatant violations out there. Is the domain LinkedIntelligence.com, operated by our good friend Scott Allen, a violation? It has “LinkedIn” in it after all.

Twitter takes a different view and actually encourages the 3rd party actions. Type Twitter and any word, add a .com or .net to it and you are sure to find a web site promoting Twitter. This explains much of the BUZZ about Twitter.

This is the formal notice we received from Facebook. Interesting stuff…

We are writing concerning your registration and use of the domain name mikeonfacebook.com, which contains the famous Facebook trademark.

As you undoubtedly know, Facebook is the leading online social network service. Facebook adopted the name and trademark Facebook in February 2004 and, since that time, Facebook has actively used the Facebook name and trademark in connection with its online social network service, including maintaining the web site www.Facebook.com. The term Facebook is one of the most famous trademarks on the Internet. Facebook owns exclusive trademark rights to the Facebook name in the United States and internationally, including related common law rights. Accordingly, Facebook enjoys broad trademark rights in its name.

Facebook has made a substantial investment in developing and providing its services. As a result of Facebook’s pioneering efforts and devoting substantial effort and resources to providing only high quality services, the Facebook name and trademarks are widely known among the consuming public worldwide, and the name and trademarks embody substantial and valuable goodwill.

Accordingly, we were concerned when we learned of your registration and use of mikeonfacebook.com. As we hope you can appreciate, protection of its trademarks is very important to Facebook. Your registration and use of mikeonfacebook.com violates the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) because it infringes and dilutes the famous Facebook trademark.

Infringement occurs when a third party’s use of a company’s trademark (or a confusingly similar variation thereof) is likely to confuse consumers as to the affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement of the third party’s services. Trademark dilution occurs when a third party’s use of a variation of a company’s trademark is likely to lessen the distinctiveness of the company’s famous trademark.

We have filed several proceedings before the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization’s arbitration panel. Facebook has prevailed in each case and the domain names at issue were all ordered to be transferred to Facebook. Facebook is concerned that your unauthorized use of the Facebook name may cause confusion as to whether you or your company’s activities are authorized, endorsed or sponsored by Facebook when, in fact, they are not.

We understand that you may have registered mikeonfacebook.com without full knowledge of the law in this area. However, Facebook is concerned about your use of the Facebook trademark in your domain name. As you may know, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act provides for serious penalties (up to $100,000 per domain name) against persons who, without authorization, use, sell, or offer for sale a domain name that infringes another’s trademark.

While Facebook respects your right of expression and your desire to conduct business on the Internet, Facebook must enforce its own rights in order to protect its valuable and famous trademark. For these reasons, and to avoid consumer confusion, Facebook must insist that you immediately stop using mikeonfacebook.com and disable any site available at that address. You should not sell, offer to sell, or transfer the domain name to a third party and should let the domain registration expire.

Please confirm in writing that you will agree to resolve this matter as requested. If we do not receive confirmation from you that you will comply with our request, we will have no choice but to pursue all available remedies against you.

Sincerely,

Susan Kawaguchi

Domain Name Manager
Legal Dept.
Facebook, Inc.