Tag Archives: Social network

Why your Company Should be on Pinterest

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Most companies are a bit timid to jump into the world of social networking, which I can understand (after all, I do have parents born in the stone age…ones that still think if you upload a picture to your desktop the entire world will see it…but I digress).  If you want to get ahead of the game, increase your sales numbers, and create better costumer relations; then it’s important to be open-minded to what the free world of social networking can offer.

A great way to slowly inch your way into Gen Y’s heart is by joining Pinterest. For those of you who are severely lagging behind, Pinterest is an online scrapbook where users can share DIY projects, different products they like, or favorite quotes/pictures. I know most companies would say “this isn’t for me,” but hear me out.

Within six months,”total same store referral traffic from Pinterest to five speciality apparel retailers rose 389%.” I know you’re thinking…great five stores, what about mine?

The best way for companies to use Pinterest is by first showing interest in costumers, it takes a few minutes to go through and like a users pin. By liking pins that they posted, preferably ones that relate back to your company/product, you’ll start to create a name for yourself.

Also, most users are more likely to find a company not by searching for them, but by having some type of contact with them. Once you make that initial contact, the potential costumers are more likely to check out your pins.

Having a separate board for products is a great way to introduce them, also note that the picture automatically links back to the page where it came from- making it easier for a costumer to buy that product.

In this current economy any type of networking is good- especially when it’s free and has the potential to go viral. Why not try it out, see what you like about it and make it work for your company. Every industry uses social media in a different way in order to benefit their needs, hopefully these tips will help you on that path.

Stay tuned for the next two articles in this series: “Making Facebook Work for You” and “Not Every Tweet is a Good Tweet.”

5 tweets I absolutely hate to see in my newsfeed

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I realize Twitter  is still in it’s experimental phase for most.I also realize that users are always trying to find where they belong in the twitterverse.With that being said, I hate when tweeters use the information network to tell followers about their day:

  • “Just woke up #lazy,“
  • “Great Shower, time for Breakfast.“
  • “Getting in the car.”
  •  ”Damn traffic!“
  • “Safely at the office now time to work.
  • “Breaking from work to tweet“

When I see any tweets like that, it’s an immediate unfollow.

I understand every now and then having a life status update is essential to your every being. And I acknowledge that (especially since I occasionally do that) but…tweeting your every move every 5 minutes is not good social media etiquette. If this is sounding like you please go check out how you should tweet. Whatever you do, your tweets need to change.

Just so you know what mandates an immediate unfollow, here are the 5 tweets I absolutely hate:

1. “OMG It’s Friday friday friday” – Rebecca Black is a joke and so is this update. Join the rest of Twitter and participate in Follow Friday if you want to show how excited you are for the end of the week.

2. “Just took a dump, it was a bad one #hideyokids”- As much as I find bathroom talk hysterical, I’d rather not be up to date on your bowl movements.

3. “INSERT INSPIRATIONAL SAYING HERE”- I’m all for sharing inspiration, but you do not need caps lock to inspire people. Let your phrase do the talking.

4. A string of links to articles without interaction- If you are just posting links to your articles and not communicating with the rest of the Twitter world you’ve got a problem. No one likes a one-sided conversation, especially when you are linking to content you haven’t proven to be a must read.

5. “Is Google + going to steal Mark Zuckerberg’s thunder, discuss”- I realize we have limited use of characters but if you want to start a discussion with your followers just ask a question. The discussion is already implied because it is being posted in a social setting. Please don’t tell me to discuss a topic, because, like when teachers assign chapters to read, I won’t do it and I’ll stop listening.

The most important thing is to be true to yourself, I’ve found that when people try to fit into a certain area their tweets start following into one of these categories. Use Twitter as it is ment to be used, as an information network. Share things with your followers that you find interesting, have conversations with them through out the day. Just make sure you know when to turn it to a private conversation.

Keep Your Networking Profiles Consistent

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One of the biggest problems across the boards of social media is how people inconsistently portray  themselves…I know preaching to the choir.

From job search profiles to how you tweet, it’s important to show your network the same person. And it all starts with discovering your niche.

So let’s go back to an old article I wrote:

“One of the most important things to find is your niche. What do you like to do? What are you good at? I just realized mine is Dating/Career (topic wise). It may seem like these two don’t go together, but they have more in common then you would think.”

Are you starting to see why it is so important to establish this first? Finding your niche (okay now I’m over using the word…but I kind of like it so suck it.) will not only make you more likely to progress in networking, but it will also put you ahead of the game. Normally the things you like/find interesting, are the ones you know more about.

The hardest part after discovering what it is you want to be known for, is keeping it consistent. Once you have created this digital identity for yourself, you need to stick to it so you can 1. gain a following and 2. create credibility for yourself.

“A Digital identity is basically an electronic representation of you. The difference being it’s availability to way more people. When you think of how many people you interact with on a normal basis, just walking to class it’s probably..at most 50. Online it’s more like 50,000. Because of the popularity is social networking sites, and the instant access it provides more people are turning to sites like Facebook or twitter to find potential employees.” Don’t Be a Rebecca Black 

Once you’ve done all the hard work and have joined social networks galore it’s time to make sure you keep your profile consistent. Talk about the same general things, back up your experience with articles, and surround yourself with people in the same area of expertise.

Here is an example of someone with bi polar social networks:

On Twitter this person talks about weather reports, and updates their followers with the latest storm watches.

But on LinkedIn, it says that they are a hiring manager for Borders.

While it is okay to have interests in the weather, but by just tweeting about it like that you would lead people to believe that it has something to do with your career. It would become something you would be known for on Twitter, but lack mentioning on BeKnown, LinkedIn or Facebook.

This inconsistency would lead people to doubt your credentials in all areas. Although it is definitely important to share your interests with the world, it’s equally important to keep all profiles consistent. So if we go back to our bi-polar network friend we can add into each profile his interest in weather, and by even copying over other information from his networks. He can craft a profile based on all of his previous ones, then use just that one.

In the long run having one persona that you are known for is a lot less work than maintaining multiple identities. So stick to one, and create a brand for yourself.

 

How To: Effectively Use Professional (social) Networks

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Joining the website, i.e. Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn etc.. isn’t the hard part. The hard part is figuring out what to do once you’re on it.

I am not ashamed to say it’s taken me a little over two years to grasp Twitter, LinkedIn still being a work in progress. It’s a little terrifying to put yourself out on the Internet, especially on a platform where future employers are watching. 

It used to take me hours to construct the perfect tweet, that I would then not send because I was too afraid that something would be wrong or someone might not understand the joke I had attempted to make. It was endless, I was a year in and had only sent 100 tweets.

After awhile, and some pushing from professors I started caring less about how frequently I was putting out content, and more about the quality of the content.

One of the most important things to find is your niche. What do you like to do? What are you good at? I just realized mine is Dating/Career (topic wise). It may seem like these two don’t go together, but they have more in common then you would think.

The next stop is to start connecting with people who are bigwigs in your area(s) of expertise (or at least the areas you want to be a leader in). You can do this by googling who is influential. For me it would be googling top 100 influential career blogs, and then finding the founders on LinkedIn and BeKnown.

Once you find the people you want to connect with it is important to send a personal message about why you would like to network with them. Keep it short and sweet: ” Hi, my name is Courtney and I’m interested in learning about career coaching. I would love to chat about how you got into the business if you have any free time.”  Short and to the point, a lot of professionals aren’t going to have time to read some long-winded message about how much you idolize them. And please don’t feel offended if you don’t get a response back, just move on to the next one.

The point of networks like BeKnown, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google + is to magnify ones ability to network. So instead of sticking with your inner circle, why not take a leap out of it and find people who will help you get ahead? Just a suggestion.

Who wouldn’t want to Beknown?

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So Monday I started a new job as a Community manager for Monster.com‘s new Facebook App Beknown.  I was really excited to start working on this project (one of my main reasons being that we would get to work with Ryan Paugh ..and he had worked with Penelope Trunk..so technically it would be like I worked with Penelope Trunk (who is my writing idol). I mean it makes sense when you think that if you kiss someone it’s like you have kissed everyone they kissed..right?)

Although the prospect of working in close proximity to one of my favorite writers was thrilling, I was a little hesitant to take the job. I’m always terrified that I’m going to set myself up for disaster when social media gets involved, not to mention I am horrible at recruiting friends to do things (probably something I shouldn’t mention on a public forum..but oh well). Instead I sucked it up, because I’d rather “beknown” for trying something than giving up before even getting my foot in the door.

This is a screen shot of my home page on beknown, figured I should throw it in

In today’s job market it’s important to make a name for yourself, actually put yourself out there. Not only are we always searching for jobs, but head hunters/recruiters are searching for people to fill jobs. It’s always been like this, but we didn’t always have the social media tools to showcase ourselves in a bright flashing light that says “hire me god dammit!” Well maybe not just like that.

App’s like Beknown have taken this flashing bright light to the next level. They have made it so even the least social media savvy person can have a chance  to”beknown” by employers, the best part being they give this to them on a network they already know and love (could you ask for anything more?) .

I’m on day 7 of using this app. and although no job has popped out at me, I have already made some great connections. Which in all honesty is why I join sites like beknown and LinkedIn, to make that connection with someone who could eventually know someone looking to hire an extremely talented writer/editor/ex-PR wannabe, and that is when my awkward little big face will pop into their head, then I’ll get hired. Well at least this is the hope.

Hopefully my ramblings hasn’t gotten you too lost yet. Basically, what I am saying here, it’s better to beknown on the internet than hide in some  private area pretending it doesn’t exist. Yes, the internet is a scary place to put your information on. But it’s worth it, online you can make more connections in one hour than an entire week in person. Connections that can help with a career change, friendly advice on moving, or a stepping stone to getting your dream job.

I’m not opposed to Facebook Apps (just check out my farm), so joining beknown wasn’t a difficult decision to make. Free job searches, free connecting, plus you can create a competition between friends to see who can own the most badges..let’s be real I’m already hooked. I’m not saying that this is for everyone, there are a lot of people who just think job search sites are a waste of their time (which is fine, and if they have a better way I would love it if they could let me know ASAP). But regardless, I do think everyone should at least try it, give it a whirl. Test it out and see what this baby can do. I mean, really, what’s the worst thing that could happen? You land a great job? Make new friends? ..I know horrible, tragic, things.

So, check it out…and you should absolutely connect with me (I’m only in the 20′s for connections..gotta beat out the other community managers! –good thing I use my sports competition logic for Facebook App..)