Keep your communication lines open

Social media can be deceptive.  Do you find yourself chatting for hours or do you stick to using it for business purposes only?

I work with business people helping them to get their online marketing right and there is a strong tendency to put their social media into boxes.  Business people think that they should be business only on Linked In and social animals on Facebook - they don't always realise that both platforms (and many others) have the potential for business and social interaction.

In today's world social connections are the way people get to know their future business suppliers and partners.  The days of finding new suppliers only from a directory or because they happened to cold call are gone.

Even 30 years ago most business people were more likely to do business with someone they either knew or who had been recommended to them.  There's a comfort factor in doing business with a known entity.  There's also the likelihood that someone recommended by a mutual connection is not going to let you down - if they want to keep the business from the person who made the connection.

Today that pool of known and trusted contacts has not just expanded - it's exploded!

Without access to your social media you simply couldn't keep track of all the people you now 'know'.  In fact, the chances of you finding out that they existed, let alone what they can do, what they're like and who they know would be minimal.

In today's world your connections online can run into many thousands - without too much effort.  In among all those people you either know the perfect supplier for you or you know someone who does.

What does this mean to you?

Firstly, always ask your connections for help and recommendations first.
Secondly, make sure your connections know what you do and share your expertise freely.  If they know your talents, they'll be able to refer you to their other connections.

Sharing your knowledge will win you business in the long run.

Social media tools that make life easier

In today's fast moving, information-rich world it's difficult to keep up with everything, particularly social media, where it's so easy to get drawn in and lose an hour or two or more.
Whilst I don't advocate being a 'broadcast only' user of social media, I do think that some of the tools that allow you to stay visible are really useful.  These are some of the tools that I've found helpful.

Hootsuite. com - this is a social media management tools and even their free account allows you to post to any combination of your social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, your Facebook Page, Linked In, Mixi, FourSquare, WordPress and MySpace.  You can choose five of these to post to - more if you pay for the Pro account (which is only about $6 a month).

Hootsuite also allows you to schedule posts so you can put in a whole batch at one time to save you having to remember to keep going back and posting.  This is great for tips, advice, hints and PR, but doesn't replace a regular session actually interacting with your friends and followers.

You can set up searches for your keywords so you can stay up-to-date with the buzz on your specialist subject.

Tweetdeck.com - this is a very similar tool and fulfils the same purpose, but will only post to Twitter and Facebook.

Onlywire.com - this is an online 'one-stop' posting platform.  If you have many social media accounts it allows you to post to all of them at once.

There were 40+ different platforms available at the last count and it not only allows you to schedule in advance, but also has an automated system for flagging up when a Captcha entry is needed for a small additional fee.  There are various levels of account for both single and multiple users starting at $10 per month for up to 1000 submissions.

Seesmic.com - this is a collaboration between Seesmic and Ping providing three levels of account.  The free one allows you to post 10 posts per day to 3 different social media platforms.  The next level offers 50 posts a day to up to 10 platforms for $4.99 per month and the top level is unlimited posts to unlimited platforms, but costs $49.99 a month.

These are really useful tools - providing you are willing to spend the time setting up your systems and using them properly.