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7 Ways To Grow Your Social Networking Site by guy40123(m): 4:07pm On Jul 25, 2015 |
http://www.emegr.com . social network is important in todays connected
world. Having the right connections gives you
credibility and allows you to interact with peers,
customers as well as potential employees. Today it
is hard to imagine that companies would offer you
a job without checking your LinkedIn profile. Your
standing in your industry is increasingly
determined by your profile and network on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.
Admittedly, I have been quite late to the game of
social media and must stress that I am by no
means a social media expert. However, what I
have done seems to be working well for me and I
am enjoying an ever-expanding and effective
network. In the beginning I simply started posting,
connecting, inviting and sharing and today I grow
my network by about 300 connections each day. To
date, my network has generated many new
business opportunities and helped me to connect
with likeminded people.
When I started using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
and YouTube about 2 years ago my intention was
to simply build a network and engage with people
in my field of enterprise performance
management, analytics and big data. Let me share
with you some of the lessons and tips which I hope
you will find useful. These are not 'rocked science'
and won't require you to spend hours on
Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn each day. I probably
spend less than about an hour a week on building
my network and feel it is time well spent. Here we
go, my seven tips:
Choose the right networks - the landscape of
social media platforms is changing every day
and new platforms emerge. When I started I
picked LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube because they seemed to be the most
popular ones and because they make it easy to
share content (with share buttons on so many
websites etc). There are others that might be
useful if you operate in more creative
industries. For example Pinterst is an emerging
platform that allows you to tag and share
images. I am looking at it at the moment but I
haven't used it yet. From my own experience I
find LinkedIn and Twitter to be the most
effective for a business network.
Tell people who you are - Remember that
potential employers, customers and peers will
check you out and you have to make sure your
profile looks as professional as possible. First
of all have a complete profile with a photo that
shows your face. I get many requests from
LinkedIn members each day and I am much
less likely to connect to anyone who has no
profile picture. Also, create an interesting
profile write up that stays away from cliches
such as 'self motivated, driven, and results
orientated' - these kind of phrases are so out-
dated and meaningless (especially if they are
coming from you on your own profile!). Make
sure you concentrate on the relevant things
and make a professional impression.
Actively grow your network - For me
networks like LinkedIn and Twitter are like
giant networking parties and everyone is
invited. Connecting here is a bit like the real
world: Don't be shy and stand in the corner, go
up to people, introduce yourself and start a
conversation, then exchange business cards
and move on. What works well for Twitter is to
simply follow people you find interesting and
would like to connect with. I find that many of
the people I follow will then follow me back -
maybe out of politeness but hopefully out of
interest! Simply type relevant terms into the
profile search to find people in your industry.
On LinkedIn it is similar only that people have
to accept your request to connect. Again,
search for people in your industry (using
company names, profile key words, etc.) and
then send them a customised invite. Stay away
from the standard invite. The reason for this is
that I get about 10 spam invitation a day - from
fake spam accounts that want to place
advertising on your up-dates or hack into your
connections. Getting a personal invitation
request with an explanation of why a person
would like to join your network usually works
and at least tells you that they are real.
Say something interesting and often - it is not
enough to simply create a great profile, you
have to join the party and interact with people.
The best way to do this is to produce regular
up-dates (initially maybe once a day or a few
times a week). This shows that you are active
and engaged and soon people will realise that
you have something interesting to say and you
are an interesting person to connect with.
Every day I read news feeds and online articles
about my area of expertise and whenever I
find something new or noteworthy I share it
with my network. Most online publications
have simple share buttons that allow you to
keep your network informed. Try to stay away
from making sales pitches, people will only
follow you if you have something interesting to
say. Another really good way to engage with
like-minded people is to join and post on
LinkedIn group discussions. Join as many of
the relevant groups as you can and follow their
discussions. Once you are comfortable with
what is being said start commenting or
posting. I find that 3-5 posts a day work best.
Don't mix private with business - Your
business connections don't really want to know
what you had for breakfast, whether you had
an argument with your spouse, or how many
pounds you have lost (or gained) in weight this
week. Even though it sometimes might be
interesting, it is not professional. I find it
difficult when people mix business and private.
This can be a tricky balance and might mean
you have to chose some networks for business
and others for private. Another way is to set
up different accounts - one for your private
connections and another for your business
contacts. This way you ensure you don't send
your business contacts embarrassing pictures
from your last fancy dress party (even though
this might be very funny). I use LinkedIn and
Twitter purely for business. The normal
Facebook I use privately and I don't accept any
business connections into it but use a Facebook
page to connect with business people. That way
they stay separate.
Keep to an agenda - Remember that you are
trying to build an effective network of people
in your industry or area of interest. They will
only follow you because you are interesting or
have something interesting to say. So stay on
your agenda. For example, I am interested in
running and keeping fit but I wouldn't write
posts and up-dates the latest running shoe on
my Twitter account. Don't mix completely
unrelated topics as this is likely to put people
off. However, feel free to connect topics that
are related. For example, I cover different
angles of enterprise performance - from
leadership, strategy, IT, human resources or
business intelligence. Hopefully my audience
will appreciate the different related angles. And
if there is a story about managing performance
in sports that is relevant to my audience, then
I post it too.
Measure your success - Finally, measure your
success. The beauty of social media is that you
can measure everything and you can test what
is working and what isn't. You can see how
many people are reading your posts on
different topics and you can learn from that.
You can see how many people invited you to
connect after specific posts and you can try
different invitation texts to see which one gets
the most connections. |
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