Those who have been following our work since 2006 know that Mike and I have gone through several iterations in the way we present ourselves and our body of work.

What we have found in this new online social world, is that focus is a key to success, however, covering the bases of interest that your followers want is also important.  We’ve been working diligently to provide the best content for everyone’s most pressing interest.

We’ve searched for a way to deliver the best content in an efficient manner that is easily absorbed by our readers and put into action and that still allows us to focus!

Rather than maintain a blog on each of our sites, we decided to combine all our blogs into one with links that lead you to the most relevant content while giving you access to related topics.

Click the navigation button above “Visit our blog”, to visit our sister site www.RockTheWorldMedia.com blog. You will be directed right to the How to Use LinkedIn for Business category. Feel free to peruse the other social media  topics as well.  You will find the historical record there as well as we continue to port relevant content to the most relevant categories to bring our body of work to one location that can be easily searched and accessed.

We’d love your comments below to let us know if what we’re doing is serving you well or if you have other suggestions about how to make this most relevant for you. Or feel free to send us a note to training@integratedalliances.com.

Things change in the online space, in the social media space. I like the way LinkedIn tests things with part of their community (about 10%) then they roll it out to more (about 30%) to test the scalability and finally roll new features out to the entire population of 135+ million users. Sometimes though things don’t work as planned or the novelty wears off.

For example, their Tweets application, which allows you to show the Twitter stream of a selected account on your profile, and allows you to use other great features like finding the Twitter accounts of your connections and reading the Twitter stream of your connections on your home page. I really liked it because it allowed me to interact via Twitter directly with my LinkedIn connections. I added people I followed inside of LinkedIn to my Twitter list “LinkedIn Users” (https://twitter.com/#!/list/loriruff/linkedin-users) so I could track with their conversations when we engage each other on LinkedIn. It made for a very synergistic environment.

Alas, today I received a message from LinkedIn:

Dear Lori,

At LinkedIn, we want to provide a simple and efficient experience for members like you. So from time to time, we take a look at our set of features to evaluate how they’re being used by our members. Part of this process sometimes means we decide to eliminate a feature, so we can better invest those resources in building more great LinkedIn products.

Recently, it was decided that the Tweets application, a LinkedIn feature that you’ve used at some point, will no longer be supported as of January 31, 2012. Starting on that date, you will no longer be able to post recent tweets in a module on your profile or view recent tweets in a separate module on the home page. However, you can still display tweets on your profile by binding your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and then tweeting with an #in hashtag.

Thank you for your continued support of LinkedIn. If you have additional questions please visit our Help Center.

Even though it made it convenient for me to view my selected Twitter stream from within LinkedIn, I have Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/loriruff) and Hootsuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) open all the time so it’s not really a big loss. The upside is, as LinkedIn said in their message they “can better invest those resources in building more great LinkedIn products.”

Soon after I received the initial email from LinkedIn I received this follow up :

Dear Lori,

Earlier, you may have received a message from us about our Tweets Application. We could have done a much better job communicating about this change, so we want to clarify what this may mean to you:

1. We are not eliminating the ability to send updates between your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. You can still go to your Settings page and choose to send either all tweets or only tweets with a #in hashtag to your LinkedIn status updates. It’s up to you. Again, tweets imported from Twitter into the LinkedIn network updates stream will not be

 affected.

If you haven’t yet joined your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, here’s how you do it.

2. At the end of January, we will not be supporting the standalone Tweets Application on LinkedIn (see image), that displays tweets from everyone you follow on Twitter on your LinkedIn homepage. As of January 31st, this module will no longer be available.

If you have any additional questions, please visit our Help Center.

Thanks, 
LinkedIn

So while they are not completely cutting out the Twitter – LinkedIn connection, they are modifying how they implement it. The question I’ll pose to my readers then is what have you trimmed back on lately that will allow you to focus on more productive areas of your life? Not a bad lesson…

Rock On!

Original Post

Profile pictures are so important on LinkedIn, and the rest of social media. As the LinkedIn Rockstars, we tell people frequently to use a quality picture to help attract people to click through the profile. We have even heard it described that taking a headshot is the digital equivalent of looking someone in the eyes.

Lori,

I love your posts. I have recently started using social media. I find myself asking “Where have I been?”

Would you recomend a professional picture or a more working candid?

Thanks,

[name]

—-

I actually love the shot you have but would love to see it cropped in a bit to get rid of some of the background, which is a bit distracting. Otherwise, a great shot on a white background is brilliant for LinkedIn!

Lori

Hope that helps with your own profile development! Rock On!

Original Post

Recently an acquaintance on LinkedIn was interested in being introduced to a third level connection. Unfortunately on LinkedIn some wires got crossed. Using LinkedIn to expand your network is excellent, but there are definitely ways you do not want to go about it. If there is another means to be introduced to a third level connection, definitely do it. If you must request an introduction, take care that it does not go through any sort of competitor or manager.  I have posted the messages below to help you all avoid these same errors!

[name],

I see you were trying to connect with me today in which you have expressed interest in our candidate Angie for one of your open positions. Are you interested in making a shared placement together? If so I will call her and make the introduction and get you her updated resume.

Let me know,
[name]

Dear [name],

I believe there may be a mixup. I had actually reached out to Lori Ruff to see if she would be able to make an introduction. Sorry for the confusion.

Sincerely,

[name]

Wow – I’m sorry [name]! When you send an introduction request to a third level connection, LinkedIn gives you an option of who to send it through if you have more than one way to get to them, but they don’t allow us to choose who to send it though. Angie is a third level contact to you and Melissa popped up as the person to send the message through. I’m directly connected to her and she’s connected to Angie.

If you have a paid account I’d recommend using inmails for third level connections in the future. If you don’t have a paid account, you can purchase inmails, or if you can send me the person’s profile url, I can send one on your behalf.

Hope this works out!

Lori

I hope that helps you with your networking goals, and as always, Rock On!

Original Post

On LinkedIn Answers the other day I came across an interesting question:

In my group, KdL Web2.0, I got an request to approve a non-member’s discussion, but […] I want to see at least SOME of the discussion before approving it. Fair, right? Okay, well I can click through to the link she provided, which is for reference only. I cannot click through to [name]‘s actual discussion. All I see is the lead-in…
Is this yet another LinkedIn “GOOF?” Why would I approve a guest discussion – without seeing any of the CONTENT of it? Nonsense, right?

The situation does sound a bit strange. I responded initially with:

Let’s start with your group settings. The most open form for an open group is that you can choose to let non-members comment on discussions and submit dicsussions for approval.

***Group Settings***

Anyone on LinkedIn:
*Free to post comments, and submit discussions for approval.
*Submit both comments & discussions for approval.
*Submit comments for approval only (no discussions allowed).
*No contributions allowed.

What LinkedIn shows you is a portion of the discussion or comment to be moderated and the link to “see more…” if it won’t fit in the preview area. If that link isn’t available, it may be a bug but more likely there is a simpler explanation.

However, until I can see what’s actually going on, I can’t advise what that might be. I’d be thrilled to do a screen share via Skype with you. We offer people a free 30-minute consult. You can get LOTS of questions answered in that amount of time.

Rock On!

LinkedIn groups should allow the comments to be viewed before being approved. I hope this user will agree to a Skype chat, as I am sure there is an explanation for the problem. On the other hand, there have been bugs in the past that LinkedIn has had to work out, and they can only be discovered through their users!

Original Post

It’s that time of year again.

Once we pack on the holiday pounds and rack up the holiday bills, the New Year pops up to remind us it is once again time for resolutions to improve.

After the standard ‘go to the gym more’, ‘eat less chocolate’, and ‘be more patient’ out of the way, it is time to think about what business resolutions we can make…. Our friend and Executive Business Coach, Jeff Putnam has developed an amazing tool that can help you make a real difference in your business and career.

Are you seeking growth? Do you care about others around you? Do you enjoy making a difference? Are you open minded?

You should be successful at what you do… but you struggle with long hours, too much stress, and you are looking for a new angle to achieve success.

This powerful tool, MindScanPro, will help you refine your thinking to maximize your business scenarios.

Jeff provides professional coaching to guide you in realizing your goals in this New Year. Having an open mind about achieving these goals, and a willingness to look at some new directions are essential. With that mindset, Jeff can truly work wonders.

The business world can be quite cutthroat; we need all the help we can get.

Consider giving MindScanPro a shot, Its free and you never know what might help you accomplish your goals and dreams!

Want a personal introduction to our fav Executive Coach? Shoot me a note via the Contact Us link above and I’ll connect you.

Original Post

Recently I had a friend inquire about the discussion button that appears above your picture when you are on a group page.

He was a little confused, since when he clicked on the button nothing seemed to happen!

I answered him,

No worries [name]… I did that too.

The button is to switch back to a discussion if you click on the new poll button beside it.

So it may be a bit of a confusing layout, but think of it as a back button.

Hope that helps!

Original Post

This weekend I received the following message from a group on LinkedIn that I have been a part of:

“Lori, we noticed you haven’t visited [Group Name] lately. To help keep your email tidy, we’ve switched you from daily emails to weekly digests from this group – we hope this suits you better!”

This is not a way to run a group on LinkedIn. If you are a group leader you need to assume that the members of your group have their settings the way they want them. If they do not like getting emails frequently, they will take it upon themselves to change them. Switching settings for your members will only serve to alienate them in a deceived attempt to assist, and can only result in reduced participation, which helps no one. I responded to the group leaders with:

If I had wanted it changed, I would have done it myself. But thanks for the thought. I just don’t need you to make decisions based on your perception of my actions. I read the daily digest rather than visiting the group live very often. I’ve changed it back and am taking the time to send a message to ask you to leave my settings the way I have set them.

Thank you.

I hope this helps other group leaders out there!

Original Post

Image via Wikipedia

Note: The Name of “My Connection” has been changed to protect the innnocent.  And, he is innocent. So many people just don’t understand how to interact with other professionals in a space without a human face in front of them… I thought I’d share this dialog to help those who are interested in learning more. 

Another note: “My Connection” is currently living in the UK, but he wasn’t born there and English is not his native language.

I’d love comments on how you might have responded in a way that is humane, polite, and educational for “Your Connection.”

The Actual Skype Chat: How NOT to approach a prospective customer

[12:23:09 AM] My Connection: Hello

[12:41:30 AM] My Connection: r u there?

[12:42:06 AM] Lori Ruff: yep – just responding to all the birthday wishes on my facebook profile!

[12:42:14 AM] Lori Ruff: and working…

[12:42:37 AM] My Connection: ok

[12:42:48 AM] My Connection: how are you Lori?

[12:53:50 AM] Lori Ruff: very good.  just working late to try to catch up on some things.

[12:54:09 AM] My Connection: ok

[12:54:17 AM] Lori Ruff: hope you’re well too

[12:54:29 AM] My Connection: yes

[12:54:47 AM] My Connection: Lori I am a Business Development Manager

[12:54:53 AM] Lori Ruff: for whom?

[12:54:53 AM] My Connection: We are a company

[12:55:05 AM] My Connection: UK

[12:55:10 AM] Lori Ruff: which company?

[12:55:25 AM] My Connection: SEO,SMO and Web Development Company

[12:55:33 AM] Lori Ruff: cool.

[12:55:35 AM] My Connection: Besed on UK

[12:55:38 AM] My Connection:

[12:55:43 AM] Lori Ruff: what’s your company?  are you on linkedin?

[12:55:47 AM] Lori Ruff: how can I help you?

[12:56:12 AM] My Connection: websiteaddress.com

[12:56:16 AM] My Connection: my company name

[12:56:21 AM] My Connection: please visit

[12:56:29 AM] Lori Ruff: for what reason?

[12:56:47 AM] My Connection: Lori I need your small help

[12:57:03 AM] Lori Ruff: ok – how can I help you?

[12:57:33 AM] My Connection: Lori I need some project from your end

[12:57:39 AM] My Connection: any project

[12:58:46 AM] Lori Ruff: what do you mean you need a project from my end?

[12:58:57 AM] My Connection: yes friend

[12:59:11 AM] Lori Ruff: yes what?  I’m not sure I understand your question or request

[1:00:32 AM] My Connection: means I need some any web development related project or SEO, SMO project from you

[1:01:26 AM] My Connection: You understand Lori?

[1:02:30 AM] Lori Ruff: oh. I do, yes.  Why would I hire you?  I don’t know you and you’ve given me nothing to “go on” with regards to what you do or offer.  I know SEO is search engine optimization and SMO? Social media marketing?

[1:03:02 AM] Lori Ruff: I don’t hire people for this important work that I have never had contact with or from whom I have no basis of knowing your talent.

[1:03:45 AM] Lori Ruff: I’m on some very tight deadlines right now so asking me to go look at your site without telling me why or “what’s in it for me, your potential client” isn’t going to work.

[1:03:59 AM] Lori Ruff: Not just for me, but for most people you communicate with.

[1:04:07 AM] Lori Ruff: does that make sense to you?

[1:04:31 AM] Lori Ruff: I’m not trying to be difficult, just honest. Most people wouldn’t talk this long without knowing why.

[1:04:45 AM] My Connection: Look..Lori We are a separate team in SEO and SMO

[1:05:05 AM] Lori Ruff: just because you tell me you offer those broad services doesn’t tell me how you can help me.

[1:05:50 AM] Lori Ruff: There must be a story about how you’ve helped someone like me.  And do you even know what I need?  You can’t just say “I do SEO” and expect me to understand your industry and why it’s important to me

[1:06:23 AM] My Connection: Look look…Our all client based in USA, Uk, Canada and Spain

[1:07:28 AM] Lori Ruff: so?  That doesn’t tell me why I should spend time talking to you if we can’t communicate.  You don’t seem to have any idea about who I am or what my needs are.  You’re just trying to sell me your services because you need the money, not because of what problem I have that you can solve for me.

[1:08:04 AM] Lori Ruff: I don’t have the income to be charitable.  I only have limited resources and time and money. Why should I spend time teaching you how to communicate with potential clients?

[1:08:58 AM] Lori Ruff: I’m willing to if there is a payback for me. But my family comes first and right now, I don’t have enough time to spend with them.  Spending time with someone I don’t know who doesn’t understand what I need is not my idea of a fair exchange.

[1:09:06 AM] My Connection: If you need some reference from our client so I will provide you our client contact details

[1:10:11 AM] Lori Ruff: I’m not trying to be mean, just realistic. Read what I’ve written so far and listen to what I am saying. I am not spending my time – of which I have VERY little to go look at your site to learn what you do, or to talk to your clients to find out for myself what you can do for me.

[1:10:48 AM] Lori Ruff: You must tell me what you can do for me or don’t even start the conversation. I dont have time and for all the people who never answer your first question, the same is true for them.  You need a new approach.

[1:12:57 AM] Lori Ruff: When you’re ready to try again, please send me a note or Skype me.  Otherwise… I’m sorry but I have to get back to work. It’s already after 2:10 in the morning here and I haven’t been to bed yet.  That should give you a clue as to the value I’ve just given you tonight without even knowing who you are or expecting to ever hear back from you again.  Provide value. Find out what’s important to people. Then when you reach out to them, you’ll have somewhere to start a real conversation that might lead to work.

[1:13:30 AM] Lori Ruff: I wish you the best.  Read this conversation again and listen to what I’m telling you. It’s critical for any success you might go after.

[1:13:36 AM] Lori Ruff: good night for now.

***End of Conversation***

Again, I’d love comments on how you might have responded in a way that is humane, polite, and educational for “Your Connection.”

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Save the Date! 

Tuesday March 29, buy Jeffrey Gitomer‘s Social Boom on Amazon and email your receipt.  You’ll get 15 special offers just like this: Rock The World with Your Online Presence for FREE!  Now that’s powerful.

Don’t know Jeffrey yet?

Over the past 20 years, Jeffrey has established himself as a global authority on sales and customer loyalty, and one of the most widely read business authors of all time. His books have appeared on best seller lists more than 750 times, and have sold millions copies worldwide.

Social BOOM!, Jeffrey’s newest breakthrough book, is everyone’s guide to catching, riding, and mastering the tidal wave of business social media that is sweeping across the globe and changing the face of business forever. This is your step-by-step plan to attract, engage, and connect worldwide through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Did I mention.. The LinkedIn Rockstars, Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff contributed the LinkedIn Chapter! Don’t miss this!

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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• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)
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• HootSuite Review (tjantunen.com)
• 10 tools to improve your Twitter experience (browsermedia.co.uk)

Image via Wikipedia

LinkedIn is a great tool to connect with friends, coworkers, and professional acquaintances; but, most importantly it is most used to build your network to access resources for business.  It is very important to maximize your time in this professional social site due to your visibility online.  Your new LinkedIn connections find opportunities to connect with you on a business level because of your activity on the site.  Somewhat like Facebook, but in a professional environment, you can post a status update (“Share an update”), send internal messages, communicate through Groups, create or answer polls and also embed applications in your profile to share in your travel, presentations, video, books you are reading  and other applications to boost your presence in a creative way.

You can easily manage your LinkedIn activity in 10 to 30 minutes a day.  Start by visiting LinkedIn “Home”.  View Updates for the Companies you follow and Individuals you have connected with.  The Home page will also show you statistics on how many times your page has been viewed, how many times you have come up in search results and other helpful profile activity from your network.

GROUPS

By receiving periodic (daily or weekly) email digests from your Groups, you can scroll through the lists of discussions to decide if you would like to contribute to the conversations.  In LinkedIn, you can also do this by visiting your “MyGroups” tab, selecting the group you would like to view, then scrolling through the discussions. Don’t have many groups? Check out the Integrated Alliances LinkedIn group at www.JoinIA.com.

INBOX                 

The message portion of the site is a great resource to quickly contact your network through individual messages, bulk messages and mass email (with a maximum of 50 contacts per message).  Your settings default to receiving messages in your Inbox as well as your primary email account. You can adjust those settings to only view the messages in your LinkedIn Inbox.

 The effectiveness of LinkedIn for you is a direct reflection of your profile presence and your activity.  Build your credibility, maintain a consistent schedule and your activity will derive much success.

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

• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)
• Time Management for Social Media – Part 1 (integratedalliances.com)
• Time Allocation in Social Media Series Part 2: Facebook (integratedalliances.com)
• How to Follow LinkedIn Connections on Twitter (integratedalliances.com)
• 10 Tips for Integrating Social Media and LinkedIn in to Your Job Search in 2011 (customerthink.com)

Image via CrunchBase

In the world of posting whatever, when ever, there is a lot to be said about quality time with Twitter.  Twitter can be utilized in a multitude of ways.   Any user can post updates about news, links, promotions, events, topics of interest, engage in customer support and participate in online discussions. As an individual or business, you need to decide how you will engage in this forum.

If you have over 100 people you are following, it can be difficult to keep track of the latest updates as twitter is an active stream of personal opinion, back and forth discussions and buzz about thoughts or activities.  There is one thing for sure; people love to share about themselves on a constant basis.  With this said, you need to allocate a schedule to best optimize your time spent in the Twitter world.  Twitter can be managed in 10 (ten) minutes each day if you establish a routine and stick with it.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?”

At any given time you will see this question, “What’s Happening?”  How you choose to respond in 140 characters is up to you.  What you decide to post should have importance to you and should encourage discussion.  Let’s say you are getting ready to promote an event for your company.  Your marketing department agrees on the language and you are ready to post.  It would be a good idea to provide a link (or shortened URL) in your post for others to visit and get more information.  Maybe there is a video you would like to share with your followers.  You shouldn’t post just the link on your page without giving them some reason to want to click the link.  Take careful measure to look at each word you select, correct any spelling errors and double check your links to make sure they are going to the right place.  Remember that it is easier to hit Backspace, than it is to remove a post from a server.

FOLLOWING

Now comes the task of finding out “What’s Happening” with your connections.  There are many different ways to do this.  The first is to skim through the list of New Tweets.  If there is something that interests you, you may choose to respond, or maybe not.  Either way, limit your twitter post review to the first page or two of posts.  Commit to it and move on.

The other way to look at updates is to utilize the search tool.  Maybe today you are interested in discussions about your favorite restaurant, so you would search that topic and see posts specific to that topic. One Tweeter recently searched Twitter for “LinkedIn Expert” and located @LoriRuff. She asked Lori to present “Why LinkedIn?” on a teleconference call to their group of arts facilitators.

LINKS

Be careful with clicking links and be sure you are cautious to only open links that look like they came from your connection.  By keeping up to date with posts from your connections, you will know their online personality, so it will be easier for you to filter a post from a user who is spamming or inadvertently passed along a malicious link.

DIRECT MESSAGES

Much like with Facebook Mail, Direct Messages (DM) aren’t frequently checked by all of your connections.  It is good to send email through your standard email service if you have to say something more than 140 characters.  DMs tend to be spammy as well, so quickly filter through this inbox to see if there is a personal message you would like to respond to. 

@MENTIONS and RETWEETS

Be sure to check your @Mention to see who is “mentioning” you in their posts.  This is how Lori learned that someone wanted to offer her an opportunity to present to their group!

It is a good idea to RT (Retweet) that post or send a DM (Direct Message) to that individual thanking them for the @Mention.  If you see a post that seems suspicious, you can also block it and mark it as spam.

Retweet a connection’s post if it interests you and/or fits your regular theme or topic.  From time to time you may want to include your thoughts about that post – if you have enough space to do so.

If you find the best means to quickly look for updates that you are interested in viewing, take effort to limit your discussion and post time in an efficient way, you will find that twitter is a fun and productive tool to keep up to date with your connections. Just don’t get lost out there!

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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Directory Archive

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)
• Creating an Effective Social Media Marketing Presence (rocktheworldbook.com)
• Facebook Page Changes Offer New Social Media Marketing Opportunities (rocktheworldbook.com)

Having just returned from the 12th Annual Reboot Privacy & Security Conference, I am struck by and encouraged by the variety and sheer number of people, professionals who are interested in “saving the world”. These people include business professionals, corporate entities, government agencies, and other interested parties such as the ACLU. So often when Mike and I speak and train to audiences large and small the overwhelming topic of concern is  privacy: personal privacy in an online world.

So when I attend these conferences, where the majority of people in the room are privacy experts–true experts–I approach the topic from a user’s perspective. Users typically have little knowledge of or education in all the aspects of privacy online and off. What the user does know is their own individual privacy tolerance, their own comfort level, what they are not comfortable with, and how they feel. Most often I advocate enhanced education for users, the standardization of privacy controls across platforms, and an increased level of discussion revolving around psychographics rather than demographics. Psychographics are determined by your actions and how you do things rather than what you are or where you are.

Jeff Wacker, a Fellow & Futurist at HP was closing keynote. He indicated that for the privacy professional and end user alike there are four key points to note: transparency, education (www.PrivacyMatters.ca), choice (the opportunity to opt out), and accountability (from all parties). With all parties working together to be transparent, to demand transparency, to educate, to be educated, to offer a choice, and to make a choice, and to hold ourselves accountable in a matter our role, we will make progress that allows each individual to maintain a sense of privacy that they are comfortable with. All of this while knowing that the information we choose not to keep private or to keep private will not be misused or used in inappropriate ways.

As The LinkedIn Diva, I encourage not just business professionals, but end users as well, to view all of their online actions and choices through a lens of their personal privacy comfort level. A great way to do this is to build out your professional profile on LinkedIn and to include personal interests and character to help you define where your professional comfort level is.

Rock On!

Lori Ruff, The LinkedIn Diva is a speaker, trainer, author and radio host catering to the needs of  LinkedIn and social media professional users.
You can connect at www.LoriIsOnline.com.

Related articles

• Social Media Marketing: Your Email Address Matters (rocktheworldbook.com)
• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)
• Three Bad Career Moves to Avoid on LinkedIn (integratedalliances.com)
• Christopher Burgess: Your Name, Your Privacy: Data Privacy Day 2011 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Most Google, Facebook users fret over privacy (usatoday.com)

I’ve never highlighted a business credit builder program. I’ve always thought they were a scam. But here’s what I know about Darrel Hornbacher and his business, Midas Financial: in over ten years of doing business, he’s never had to refund money even though he guarantees his products and, he’s never had a Better Business Bureau report against him or his company.

So, if you’re a small or mid-sized business looking to enhance your credit during these economics times, read on and consider reaching out to Darrell. He’s helped lots of business owners and he can help you too. Note though that this is not some scam or scheme, it’s an honest and credible way to build your credit so you can survive when life throws you the unexpected.

Here’s a special message from Darrell:

I am now self funding a new payment plan for my guaranteed Business Credit Builder.  If you couldn’t afford to enroll in this program in the past, now is the time.  I’ve reached a new sales plateau so my cost has went down.  Plus I want to reach the next discount plateau as soon as possible.

So here’s the deal:

• $795 down !
• 6 easy payments of $200 each !

What do you get?  A perfect business credit score with all three credit bureau’s and $150,000 in trade and cash credit WITHOUT THE USE OF A PERSONAL GUARANTEE OR YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!

If this sounds even remotely interesting to you, (and it should), give me a call and we’ll talk about it.

Have a great day,

Darrell Hornbacher

Midas Financial Company

6042 Blue Ridge Drive, Suite D
Highlands Ranch, CO  80130
303.513.8664 (P)
303.997.7413(F)

www.midas-financial.com

www.darrellhornbacher.com

www.thesmallbizcollege.com

You have created your social media presence, your branding is consistent and you find yourself spending hours each day on any given social media site scrolling, searching, reading and posting for hours on end.  But the question begs to be asked, is this how the social media world was intended or is there a better way to coordinate your time in these spaces?

From time to time you may find yourself overwhelmed with the daunting task of logging into your spaces, finding connections, building relationships with these connections and maintaining a current presence.  It can be challenging to find the time, to make a commitment and give you a realistic schedule.  Spending hours upon hours building your network each day, completing the work you have already tasked for the day; your time quickly disappears.  You instantly realize that something has to change, a plan needs to be developed to avoid the “time suck” and commit to optimization of our schedules in the right way.

So what does this even look like?  How can someone really develop a social media routine that works?  Does limiting the time on any given site provide a benefit or hinder your presence and activity?  These are all realistic questions.

Over the next few weeks we will be diving into what this looks like.  We will look at specific social media spaces such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You aren’t alone in this journey and your time is of greatest value.  Let’s support each other in this adventure; focusing time, money and attention to building business, managing client retention and successfully maintaining social media presence within a consistent schedule.

It is possible my friend!

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

There is so much talk about leadership skills and some people–I think–attack it like they do learning any other skill, with their head rather than with their heart. There are a several books that come to mind when I think about transformational leadership. One is “Leadership and Self-Deception” published by The Arbinger Institute and another is “Time to Think” by Nancy Kline. There are many others the common theme of which is that true transformational leadership—practicing a lifestyle that brings about true positive, lasting change—requires one to change their own thinking and actions without expectations that require the same from anyone else. The only mind we can change is our own.

I think that many times people are blocked in their thinking and creativity because of perceptions or assumptions; I work to help people remove those barriers, freeing them to unleash their genius. I say that with my whole being… I have found genius in every person I met. It doesn’t matter what background they are from, what economic status or intelligence level, if they are disabled, or at what point or place they find themselves in life. If I am quiet and listen for it, people will tell me where their pain is and how they can overcome that pain to reach a new “ah-ha” to open their minds to new possibilities. That is my idea of Transformational Leadership.

So… why post this to a social media blog? More obviously than ever before, individual people have the opportunity to become transformational leaders right where they are. What an incredible opportunity many of us have to step into this brave new world via social media vehicles to become the leaders we once only dreamed we could become.Strike while the iro is hot. Influence others in a positive way. Be the change you want to see in the world. You can make it happen!

For more, you’ll have to meet me…

Lori Ruff, The LinkedIn Diva

Originally posted September 3, 2008 on TalentBar

Follow-up post by Ben Simonton on TalentBar