I have a lot of friends on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I love how easy it is to connect with so many like-minded people from all over the world. Who would’ve ever imagined I’d have friends in Australia, The Philippines, France, England, Greece, Sweden, Italy, Romania and a ton of friends in almost every state in the US.
What I don’t like about having so many friends is the lack of etiquette displayed by some. I had lunch the other day with my friend Susan RoAne and we were talking about online etiquette, or lack of etiquette. Susan is a networking expert and has written 6 books on the subject and given countless talks on the subject. She’s appalled at the way people act in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
I’m amazed at the lack of manners displayed by many online. I wonder if these rude people online are the same rude people we know in our offline lives. I’m sure someone is doing a study on the subject so please send me the results when the study is complete.
When I go to a networking event, I notice the most effective networkers are the ones that listen 80% of the time and ask questions the other 20% of the time. They rarely talk about themselves or their business. It’s all about the other person in the eyes (and ears) of the savvy networker.
On the other hand, we always run into the person that never stops talking about their accomplishments or their business. Their perspective is “it’s all about me” and they rarely hear a thing you say.
My theory is that these are the same people who become our “friends” online and immediately start spamming us with self-promotional emails on Facebook and endless self-promoting Tweets on Twitter.
Jake Matthews made a great post Social Networking 101: Basic Tips For Online and Offline Social Networking on his 10e20 blog that you need to check out. Jake gives some very sound, practical advice that will help most of us. Unfortunately the people that need these tips will probably gloss over when they start reading Jake’s tips. Join in the conversation we have going in the comments section of Jake’s post. I’d love to hear your take on social media networking.
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Thanks.
Ted
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I just read a great article in Reuters about the benefit of allowing your employees to access social media sites during work. Click here to take a look at the article here.
Michael Holden makes some compelling points in the article saying its getting hard to separate social networking with traditional networking. Battening down the hatches and blocking all social media sites is not the answer. Allowing people to socialize on social networking sites during work time turns out to be a huge benefit in the long run.
Socializing online is relationship building and many business relationships are now being formed online. People are meeting in cyberspace because they have a common interest which creates an instant bond. Even if the bond isn’t directly related to your company’s products or services, a strong relationship is being formed. The strong connection can eventually lead to new business, referrals or an introduction to highly targeted prospects.
Think about it. Your employees can take time off from work to attend networking events where it can take a long time to see new business or referrals. Attending networking events in person is very time consuming and can be very unproductive. Online networking takes less time, builds strong relationships with like-minded people and is completely free. Isn’t it smarter to let your employees spend a few minutes online to build a huge network than to spend hours in boring, stale networking events?
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Squidoo is a new social site with a twist. The benefit of creating a Squidoo lens is monetary in nature as they share the advertising revenue with you based on the traffic that your page and site generates. This is an added bonus to anyone who knows how to get some real traffic to their Squidoo Lens.
Before you can begin to build your Squidoo lens you will have to have an account with Squidoo. You can easily sign up for a free membership with a username and password associated with an email account. You are allowed to have 10 lens/pages per email account. You will receive a confirmation email and once confirmed your account will be activated and you will be able to create your own lens.
Before you start creating your own lens it would be a good idea to do some research on the topic that you would like to create. There are many different niches out there that you can target but not all niches are created equal. Some have much higher values for Pay Per Click and some have better values for affiliate programs or digital products. You will have to identify the niche that you would like to create your lens prior to its creation. This will help optimize the process as well as give you the maximum results.
Now that you have signed up for Squidoo you will want to log-in and go to make a lens. You will want to optimize it to your niche. You will have to find some of the top keyword search terms that are searched for by using a keyword tool. Use those terms in your lens title for example if you have chosen dog training as your niche you will want to include the phrase dog-training as the name of your lens.
Once you have created your URL you will need to select the category that best suits your niche. Next you will have to select the rating for your lens. Unless you have something that is x-rated or very adult you will most likely have G rated content. Next you will have to add your keywords to the lens. This will help the search engines identify what your page is about and possibly help you get ranked for that term. That is not a give in but it is a possibility. You should pick your best 3 terms and input them at this stage.
You should now be given the option to edit your Squidoo lens. Take a look at the content that you want to add. A good idea would be to take a look at other sites that are related to your niche to get some ideas as to the layout and the content. Another smart idea would be to add links to other related sites as well as to your sites as well. Make sure that they are related links though. Do not add a sports link to a dog training site. It would not be related and most likely you will not receive any good traffic from it.
Change the lens to reflect your own personality. After all this should reflect you and give it that personal touch. Don’t expect to become a millionaire off of one lens but if you create enough lens’s you can expect to receive a decent residual return over time.
One of my mentors, Mitch Axelrod, has an interesting post today on his blog, http://playthenewgame.com/?p=132, about how we have so much in our lives while having very little. We’re overwhelmed with choices in life but we never have time to enjoy anything because we’re too busy.
I notice this with my children, They’re so busy and have so many choices but they can’t sit still and relax. I notice they have hundreds of friends on their social networking accounts like Facebook and Instant Messenger, and they keep in touch with almost all of them over time. The problem is that none of the relationships are deep. They have hundreds of superficial connections with people but nobody they have a real friendship with.
Dating has even disappeared for our kids. It’s about "hooking up" for the night with no expectation of ever talking to them again. Wham bam thank you ‘mam and on with your busy day.
We grew up with a lot of friends and a few best friends. I still keep in touch with my best friends 40 years later. I wonder what life will be like for my kids in 40 years with their hundreds of part-time friends.
I also see this in business. Nobody has time to build lasting relationships with clients and prospects. It’s "what can you do for me right now?" and then they’re on to the next fire. I was at a conference recently where one of the speakers was promoting his new method of selling. It’s not about building long-term relationships. It’s about acknowledging to the person you’re meeting with that you understand they’re very busy and their time is precious. Get down to business and eliminate the personal relationships. Ask them what they want and sell it to them quickly so they can get on with their day.
How will that play out over time? Life without friends and relationships? Business without relationships? Our lives our speeding out of control and I highly suggest that you check out Mitch and his persective on life. Check out www.playthenewgame.com
Ted
Sphere: Related ContentI’ve been learning about web 2.0 and playing around with it for about 2 years now. It is a really effective tool for building relationships, attracting clients, and driving traffic to your blogs and websites. My business is booming and i have a steady stream of leads coming in daily. The downside, it can be a full time job being "social". If I spend 40 hours a week building relationships online, when do I have time to do the work for my clients? When do I have time for myself? I’m working at least 6 days a week right now and spending at least 12 hours each day in front of my computer. Although I love playing with technology and new sites on the internet, this isn’t the perfect lifestyle I wanted to create.
I found a great blog post today Chris Garrett’s blog at http://www.chrisg.com/need-digg-power-account/ that discusses the obsession with trying to dominate the social media pages. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get a post on the first page of Digg or del.icio.us. It’s even harder to stay at the top over time. Chris reitterates the fact the you shouldn’t worry about dominating the social media sites. Just focus on creating high quality content that helps your prospects and customers and the social media gurus will find you.
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