A few months ago, I had my good friend Michele PW visiting. We tag-teamed a special workshop teaching people the ins/outs of social media and some web traffic strategies. Because I teach various social media platforms in a variety of my programs, I am very active on some of these platforms.

Facebook and Twitter are my favorites- (I reserve the right to change my mind as new platforms develop AND my social network migrates to new playgrounds).

Back to the story: After the workshop, Michele and I are headed out for dinner. Not being very familiar with downtown Salt Lake City, I decided to ask my “tweeps” (twitter peeps) if they have any suggestions. I get a response from someone and we are off. After, I update my tweeps about our delicious meal and there is some more interaction about restaurants, new items on the menus, and good food. If you know me at all, you know that I am “all about the food!”

So at dinner the next evening, with my family and teenage daughters around the kitchen table, I share this great story about how I asked my tweeps for advice and they came through. I am really LOVING these relationships and the ability to connect virtually with great people (In my opinion, people who love food are great people!).

My 16 year old daughter, Jackie, then explains to me that this “Twittering” is just not right-it goes against everything we have taught our children about “stranger danger”! I am communicating with people I have never met about personal things like what restaurant I am going to for dinner! Hmmm–she might have a point!

So how do you explain it’s different to you child? While Jackie was really giving me a hard time (because that’s what kids do to their parents), I was stumped for a little while. Of course, in business, we HAVE to reach out to strangers on a daily basis. But with social networking platforms like Twitter, you have strangers around the world “following” you. Hmmm!

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Here is a great response from my good friend, Andrew Stone:

MaryPat,

I read your email and I do have a comment on the “stranger danger” aspect of things. Your daughter is right and my wife is right for that matter. We have to be careful what we discuss and how we discuss it.
Our lives are an open book and it is a little freaky. However, it has to be that way in my business and in yours. So how am I careful? I may ask for advice on a restaurant, but I don’t say when I am going. I
mention the neighborhood I live in, but I never mention my address. I may tell people when I am home sick, but I never tell them when I leaving or for how long. I use YELP.com religiously, but I never review while I am on a vacation, I post them when I am back home. I may mention that I love to walk my dog to the dog park, but I never mention that I make it a daily practice between 5pm and 6pm (not my real times, LOL).

We have to be very careful on all of these sites. There are crazy people everywhere and I don’t want to meet them at home. We tell our children to be careful on the net and regulate their use, WE have to be
careful as well. We can put our children’s and our families lives in just as much danger as we put our own lives.

Remember that everything on the web is out for the world to see FOREVER. It may get buried, but it is still there.

Another little tidbit of information, we protect our networks and our computers with firewalls, but if you have a network connected gaming machine (wii or xbox), the world can have easy access to your home
network. Turn it off completely and even unplug it when it isn’t in use. Save power, the planet and your network!

Andrew

http://www.andrewstonerealtor.com

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I’d love to hear what YOU think!

My teenage daughter was embarrassed when I asked her to “clean up” her Facebook wall the other day. She had no idea that the new texting feature on Facebook was posting messages publicly instead of privately. While you might think this to be an issue that is more prominent with teens that us professional entrepreneurs, I beg to differ.

I noticed a Twitter friend of mine this morning posting a reply to the Twitterverse that displayed his irritation at being tagged “just to get me to read the article.” This seems to be a regular issue on Facebook with people tagging more prominent “Facebookers” to get into their news feeds and in front of more people.

In case you are still fairly new to Facebook and the world of social media, tagging is the ability to “label” your content that you share within your social networking & content sharing sites. While “tagging” on many sites is often a personal labeling system, on some of the networking sites, it is very public and very powerful. With the power comes responsibility. So here are three simple suggestions to protect yourself from harmful or irritating tagging on Facebook.

1. Adjust your privacy settings. On Facebook, there are 5 types of privacy settings: Profile, Search, Feeds, & Friend Requests/Activities, and Applications. I highly recommend that everyone using Facebook adjust their privacy settings strategically–based on who you want to see what. This is especially important for photos, videos and notes tagged with you as well as your news feed that includes all activity pertaining to you.

2. Review your wall daily. This may seem like a nuisance, but a 15 second scan of your wall can avoid embarrasing ads and messages that some of your “less than stellar” friends may consider funny. Remove these items daily.

3. Be informed. Adjust your email/text notifications so that when someone tags you or posts on your wall, you are notified immediately and can either respond or remove the information.

Whether you are a student or a professional, you need to be strategic with everything you do and say in your social networking. As my good friend, Mari Smith, says, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your grandmother or your great grandkids to know about you. Also, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want posted on the front page of the New York Times. Thanks, Mari, for that great advice.

This is my simple list of 3 steps to safeguard yourself against unwanted tagging. Let me know if you have any more suggestions.

Have you jumped into social networking yet? Perhaps you are a little more involved with your LinkedIn account, or you have asked your teen to help you create a Facebook profile. You are making some friends,
checking things out, but it feels like there’s something missing.

Whether you are spending a lot of time with your social networking or just dabbling, make sure to check out these mistakes so that you don’t do the same thing most people are making.

Social networking is a powerful place to build quality relationships with great people. These relationships are the foundation for building a tribe of raving fans who can’t wait to promote everything you do and what you stand for. Isn’t that what we all want? It is completely possible through social networking, when done right. And relationships are based on WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU DO. It is the little things, like what you do on the weekends, where you vacation, what books your read, what movies you like, are you a family person or not. THESE are the reasons people connect. Preferring you over your professional peers for expert advice comes later.

But don’t feel bad if you read this list and find you have made some of these mistakes. We all have. Most people learn by their mistakes.

1. Ever sent a “friend request” without a message that clearly connects you to the person? In my research, over 90% of all friend requests are anonymous, even with people who know you. Even though we have too much stuff on our plate, we have to slow down if we want to build quality connections over the internet. First make sure you have reviewed the profile of the person you are attempt to connect to. If you can’t see their profile, then do a quick google search. You must have a reason to connect with someone and let them know what it is. Social networking is not about quantity. It’s about quality. Second, include a personal note in each friend request connecting you to them.

2. When you post comments on someone’s one or send them a message, do you include a “signature” with a link back to your web site? Survey after survey shows that social networkers consider this spam. Only include links when it is relevant to the conversation at hand.

3. When someone asks “what do you do”, do you refer them to a sales page for more information? Or copy the sales content into a message? Social networking is not about selling. It is about building quality relationships. As I mentioned earlier, build the relationship first and your friends will want to purchase and share when the time comes.

4. Do you spend all of your time making new friends in your social networks? Because we look to our peers for information, there is an expectation that you will share good information. This information should be a combination of expert advice from yourself and others.  Because there is so much information in the Web 2.0 world, we rely on each other to help help sort the relevant information from the trivial and unimportant information.

5. Do all of your comments and messages direct people back to YOU for more information? In my research, the main reason people delete a friend, is because that person comes across as selfish and self-absorbed. The social networking world is a cooperative environment based on sharing. If you can’t get past yourself, or you feel like everyone is competition, then it is probably not the place for you.

I am sure you have heard me talk about the two reasons people visit the internet: connections and content. In this world of information sharing, people are looking to the peers for advice and direction. So building a network of peers for this purpose is necessary. To build quality connections, make sure to “fix” these problems quickly.

The best news about social networking is the community is very forgiving. If you make a mistake and it’s brought to your attention, apologize and fix it. And then go on. None of us are perfect. Even when we know the rules.

Generally speaking, there are three types of events in Facebook: Events that you host, events that you are the featured expert, and events that you attend. Only one of these should be hosted by you in your social networking/promotional campaign, but all can be promoted by you.

1. Hosted events: these events are hosted by you. You are responsible for getting quality attendees and should, therefore, be the creator of the event. If you are hosting another expert on the call, then use his/her name
and expertise to help spread the word.

2. Featured Expert events: these are the events that YOU are featured as the expert. The event is typically hosted by someone else, unless you are featuring yourself. These events should be created by the host. Make sure to share the event with your network by “sharing” to your wall and even inviting some of your favorite friends.

3. Events to attend: these events may be hosted by favorite friends and/or relevant to your passion, expertise or interest. These can be shared to your network by using the “sharing” feature on the event and by sending private messages to friends. When you attend an event, your response is sent into your news feed for all your network to see. This is a great way to promote your friend’s events and relevant opportunities.

Sometimes, it makes more sense to use your affiliate links when you are promoting an event. In these cases, you should direct people to the correct web page and not to the Facebook event. But remember, social media is a
community of sharing, so make sure to be considerate.

You may have noticed a recent survey I did about what online business owners want and how they want it. Turns out that most people really want to know how to get more traffic to their website.

Whether it is converting your social network onto your list or just getting more eyeballs on your site, there are a few key techniques that work to create a steady stream of quality people checking out your stuff!

1. Drive traffic to your blog. Whether you have a website or you are active on Facebook or Twitter, you want to be strategic about the links you include in your “about me” section. Our 21st century way of doing business is about connecting and conversing. So your blog is going to be a better choice to carry the “conversation” than your website. Conversely, directing people to your blog over Facebook is also the better choice because this brings them closer to you, gives them a taste of your business and your brand, and allows you to actually track the visitors and the subscriptions.

2. Post on your blog often. I recommend at least 3-5 times a week. You want to include short tips and relevant information to your market. The more you post, the better the search engines like you and the more valuable you are to your market.

3. Share other people’s content. Review blogs daily and note valuable content. When your competition posts something of value, review the post on your site with links back to his/her site.

4. Guest blogging. Allow other qualified experts the ability to post quality, unique content on your site. This allows you to be the hub of information in your industry. Allow your guest blogger to include a “resource box” at the end of the article/post with a link back to his/her site. You can also be a guest blogger on someone else’s site. Make sure that the blog is complimentary to your services as you do want to attract people interested in what you have to offer.

5. Article marketing. This is my favorite strategy for driving quality traffic. You can post your article on various “portals” or directories that host your articles for people interested in republishing your content for their own newsletters or publications.

It sounds like a lot of writing, but don’t forget that you can repurpose your articles to be used on multiple sites. Make sure to repurpose at least 30% of your content so that Google doesn’t knock you down, but also so that you customize your content for the different readers. And create a system around when you post, what you post and where you post. This will help you keep track of what you are doing and how much time to spend.

In the internet world, there is an overwhelming amount of information at our fingertips.

But I want to know what kind of information you really want to learn in order to build your business and your lifestyle the way you want them. Plus I want to know specifically how you want that content delivered.

Here is a quick 2 minute survey to get your feedback…

Click here to take the survey.

I’m going to be doing a great call with Debbie LaChusa from the National Association of Home-Based Business Moms (NAHBM) Thursday (tomorrow!), and wanted to let you know all about it. Debbie will be interviewing me about the “5 Ways to Use Social Media to Find and Create Profitable Connections.”

Here are some of the hot-points we are going to cover:

1. What the BEST social networking platform for creating Joint Ventures is…right now
2. How to identify the perfect Joint Venture
3. How to connect with new Joint Venture partners via Social Media platforms
4. The 5 Key Strategies to develop profitable, long lasting joint ventures and…
5. How to leverage the relationship to build your list at record speed and make more money!

These NAHBM events are only available to Members, so click here to read more about NAHBM and to join me and Debbie this Thursday.