Image by Edwård via Flickr

Your use of social media will vary from everyone else’s. Especially mine.  I’m continually refining how I use tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and LinkedIn to make them more useful to me, based on what I want to get out of them.

I know you follow on Twitter, friend/subscribe on Facebook, circle on Google Plus, and connect on LinkedIn.  I prefer to call all of this “connecting,” because whether we’re really friends or not, I usually like being connected somehow.  We’ll work on the relationship as we go.  That’s my approach.

Back in 2007 as Twitter was really ramping up its userbase, many of us who had begun to follow a lot of other accounts cried our for groups, so that we could better follow the conversations we really wanted to follow.  Facebook later came out with Lists, and so did Twitter. As I’ve used TweetDeck and Hootsuite, I’ve added connections to groups, there, too.

Google Circles fit perfectly in this space, too. Like Twitter and Facebook, you can switch from the main updates feed just to a circle’s feed to see what’s going on among your connections there.

Moreover, I’ve used hashtags on Twitter and on Google+ to track other conversations that are relevant to me.

I’ve also experimented with setting up social media dashboards on iGoogle and NetVibes, just to have the information I need in one spot.

Having these filtering mechanisms has been vital to me getting what I really want from social media platforms.

What are some ways you have set up filtered conversations?

Related articles

• The Myth Of Reciprocity And The Social Life Of Brands (twistimage.com)
• Just Shut Up – Web 3.0 and Filtering (umpf.co.uk)
• The Social Media Fatigue Myth (twistimage.com)

(via The Christian Left's Facebook page - submitted by Larry Fox)

This question came up at the September 2011 New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event, “Questions From A Hat,” in which attendees wrote questions down and put them in a hat to be selected by the moderator later on.  I was in Columbus that day helping run audio/video for another event, but Vickie Sceiferssent me the audio, and I got a sneak preview of it, which will go up soon as a New Media Cincinnati Podcast episode.

Back to the question…

You’re asking the wrong question. Seriously.

Everyone’s use of social media is going to be different, and that’s okay.  But to be effective, before knowing HOW to use the tools, you need to know WHY you’re using them in the first place. Are you trying to build brand awareness, or communicate news and information? Are you trying to build a fan base? What are you doing?

Like the watercooler.

Twitter is different from other social networking platforms because of its 140-character limit.  Get in, state your peace, get out.  It’s like stopping by the break room at work to get a drink of water or refill your coffee. You chat with a coworker briefly and then you head back to what you were doing before.

WHY are you using Twitter?

If your answer is because someone told me to, or I don’t know, then stop. Your use of social networking tools, just like any tool, has to come from why.  Why do you use the telephone? Why do you use email?  When is one tool right for communication and when is one not? Here’s how I’m using Twitter:

• One of my Twitter accounts, @quotesblog, exists just to share interesting quotations, mostly repurposing what’s already at http://quotesblog.blogspot.com/. I don’t do much interaction there.
• I have the Twitter account for @jazzmania, which is primarily for the business I’m building through Jazzmania Productions.  I’m still working out my overall strategy for this account and haven’t been posting there much yet.
• I have the @newmediacincy, which is for the New Media Cincinnati social media networking group. This primarily communicates from the blog and Facebook page, and occasionally from me or someone on its behalf.  There may or may not be much interaction there because…
• My @danieljohnsonjr is my main Twitter account.  My current goal is to stay connected with as many in the local Cincinnati community as I can as well as those I know from other circles where I’ve been involved.  I use it to share links from this blog, as well as other content I find interesting.  I cannot stay in touch with many from this account as I used to, so I rely on @mentions and DM’s from others.  Over time my use of Twitter has been more to share information and occasionally engage and interact with others.  I tell people if they want interaction from me, follow and @danieljohnsonjr.

Related articles

• Allergies, Computer Woes, and All Your Time on Social Networks (newmediacincinnati.com)
• Participating in a Twitter Community (blogworld.com)
• Podcamp Cincinnati And Nothing About Steve Jobs (newmediacincinnati.com)

As the world changes, so should the way we interact with it. Very general statement for sure (I sense a few “duhs” coming from those who are reading this.). I find my used of tools to help me get work done also changes.

Sometime ago, Facebook released new profile pages for users. Twitter released its new layout of its website last summer. Google is constantly tweaking its search indexing algorithm.

Getting more value from LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn has been evolving, too. One of the ways they’ve evolved over time is through groups. We even have one for the New Media Cincinnati social media networking group.  When groups first came out, I and others saw this as an opportunity for people to essentially post content that may or may not have been valuable to it.

Over time, I became inundated with messages and discussions that I really wasn’t interested in. Nevertheless, I liked being associated with certain groups. Some, however, I decided to leave because I couldn’t find value in them.

Over the past year, I’ve been striving to get more value from the LinkedIn groups I’ve joined. Many group managers are now moderating groups to make sure that content posted in them are relevant to the audience. We have Group Rules on the New Media Cincinnati group that bring people back toward creating discussion versus self-sharing content.  Members of LinkedIn groups can also flag content to alert moderators.  So it’s gotten much better over the past year.

Here are three ways I’ve recently gotten more value from my involvement as a group member:

1. Connect with other like-minded people. When inviting others to connect with me, LinkedIn knows if I share a group with them, and they offer me that group connection as a way to say that we “know one another”.  We have what I like to call a “pre-existing connection”.

In addition, LinkedIn lets you invite others to the group with an “Invite Others” link, currently near the upper right corner of the main group page.

2. Participate in discussions. Discussions are items, questions, links, etc., that are posted to LinkedIn groups. Effectively used, these items are designed to have others comment.

3. Learn about jobs. Many of the groups I’m involved with have a job board where members can post jobs that may or may not have been posted elsewhere.

Here’s a video that shows how you can use groups on LinkedIn (click here if you can’t see the embedded video):

What are some ways you’ve gotten more value from LinkedIn groups?

Related articles

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Image by leslie feinberg via Flickr

Last year I worked for a payroll software solutions company, primarily on their integration between their flagship product, which is based on Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  I enjoyed the experience immensely because it gave me a “behind the scenes” look at how businesses in the Professional Employer Organization (PEO) industry can create and manage customer interactions.

Of course I came from years of experience with social technologies and community management, and I was intrigued at the potential to bring some of that into my work. In my learning, the question of ROI would often come up as businesses and organizations were considering entering the social media space.

“Rushing into social computing initiatives without clearly defined benefits for both the company and the customer will be the biggest cause of failure.” — Gartner.com

What I love about CRM is that it provides the ability to get a 360-degree view of a customer, starting from before the sale and continuing long after they’ve been a customer.  Entering social CRM can be tricky. As with any other CRM system, Social CRM adoption must be company-wide in order to achieve peak efficiency.

Back in January I was reminded of CMAD: Community Manager Appreciation Day. The more I think about how CRM has evolved, the more I can see the need to have someone – or many people – who can see and understand many aspects of the business as well as have the ability to successfully interact with a community, in order for it to work.

Check out this infographic and the related links below for more information: INFOGRAPHIC – The Evolution of CRM

Also useful to read is the Altimeter Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management

Related articles

• Gartner Says the Use of Social CRM for Customer Service Will Grow Rapidly Over the Next Two Years (serve4impact.com)
• 3 Things That Kill CRM… and Your Job Search Organizer (jibberjobber.com)
• Wrap Up of 2nd Annual Community Manager Day: Voices Around the World #CMAD (web-strategist.com)
• Is Social CRM the key to growing membership? (socialfish.org)
• Make a Human Business CRM (chrisbrogan.com)
• Yes, you need a CRM (christopherspenn.com)

Let me say this up front – well, reiterate something I’ve said a number of times before:

Your use of social media will vary… and that’s okay. Everyone has his or her own level of comfortability with interacting online and how they approach making connections.  In this post, I’ll share my current approach, with respect to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Connecting is easy

In 2002 I found myself in a job search. I knew that I needed to meet other people as I weaved my way toward the next phase of my career.  I began looking in newspapers for local networking groups or professional organizations where I might be able to meet together. It was frustrating because it wasn’t easy to connect with people in these groups.

LinkedIn

Then came my first LinkedIn invitation, somewhere around 2003 – through someone who had been a contributor to my Get That Job! blog. I started making connections online through LinkedIn, often re-connecting with old colleagues and people I’d known from other circles.  That’s actually one of the beautiful things about being able to find people you know when making online connections, isn’t it?

Twitter

I signed up for Twitter in 2006 when it was still a mere side project. One of the neat things to do was to connect with people I’d known from podcasting circles and elsewhere. It was yet another touchpoint for our online connection. My initial approach also was to connect with as many people as possible in the Greater Cincinnati area (where I live) and the Greater Dayton area (where I worked). More on that in just a moment.

Facebook

I joined Facebook in 2007 and have been able to reconnect with a number of old colleagues and former classmates. I’ve also connected with people I’ve known from various circles on Twitter, podcasting, church, etc.

Changing Strategies

One of  the nice things about Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is that it’s possible to group connections into one or more lists, which lets you filter your update streams as you wish.

Over the years my strategy in using LinkedIn has changed. Same with Facebook and Twitter.  I’ll still connect with you when you send me a LinkedIn connection request, provided that you are more creative than the “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” or “Since you are a person I trust, I’d like to add you to my professional network.”  Please be a bit more creative than this and let me know how we might know one another. Or, just let me know you’re a human being behind the account. Or, send a follow-up message to introduce yourself.

Facebook is a little bit different. I used to connect with anyone who sent me a connection request. Then one day, as Facebook’s privacy settings had changed yet again, I re-evaluated whom I was connected to, how well I knew them, and wound up removing a number of “Facebook friends”. Similar to LinkedIn, if you want to connect with me, include a message how we might know one another.

My strategy in using Twitter has also changed over the years. I turned off the email notifications that someone had begun following me on Twitter. Now, if you start following me, I might never know, unless you do an @danieljohnsonjr to mention me. I just don’t have time any more to keep up with everything.

What happens next is what really matters

Once we get connected, then what? The big reason I’ve wanted to especially connect with those in the Greater Cincinnati area is because I’m interested in meeting you in person. We are only able to glean a small part of one another’s lives from what we see online.

Maybe you’re different. Maybe you share every single thing you’re doing online. I’m not that way.

Once we’re connected, there should be more that we do than just have a connection. When you connect with me on LinkedIn, I typically send a message, thanking you for the connection and asking how I can help you. I’ll also share something that I’m looking for so that you’ll know how you might be able to help me.

Connect with everybody – recommend only those you truly know.

What is a recommendation? It’s a statement that adds credibility to work you’ve done.  If I recommend you, that means I’m vouching for work you’ve done in the past.  So, if we’ve just connected on LinkedIn, and we don’t already know each other beforehand, it’s probably not a good idea to request a recommendation.  Unless you know me or the work I’ve done, I don’t think your recommendation will add much.

Now, let’s say we get to know each other well online and through one another’s work. Then we might be able to recommend one another on that basis.

What do you think about all of this? What are your personal strategies for using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter?

Connecting is easy – it’s what happens next that matters.

Possible related articles

• LinkedIn power tip: your headline (getthatjobonline.com)
• Where Job Seekers Should Be Online (money.usnews.com)
• Why LinkedIn is More Valuable than Facebook (blogs.forbes.com)
• Want To Make Your Profile Interesting? Try The InMap! (globalthoughtz.com)
• So, I’m on LinkedIn. Now what? (theglobeandmail.com)
• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)

Earlier this month I asked a question to the Microsoft CRM community and my LinkedIn network about e-mails with large attachments set regarding an item forwarded through the CRM organization (By the way, LinkedIn tagline and position are really helpful in identifying who in LinkedIn you can ask a question to – subject of another blog post entirely.). I wanted a definitive answer I could tell our clients who ask these kinds of questions (they have).

Specific use case

1. Receive email with large attachment.
2. Set regarding a CRM record in the Outlook client. (message is now being tracked and stored in CRM)
3. Forward the same email in Outlook to multiple people.
4. Does CRM hold onto multiple copies of the attachment?

I got many responses, and some appeared to conflict with one another. No one was able to give me an answer that definitively said yes or no.

Getting testy

So yesterday, I finally opted to test it out myself.

1. From personal GMail, sent email with an attachment ‘creepy-surgical-mask.jpg’ to my work email address, which is in my test CRM organization.
   
2. Received email. Clicked Track in CRM on Outlook toolbar, and set regarding a particular CRM record.
   
3. Forwarded this email to 4 other users in my test CRM org
4. In Outlook clicked View in CRM to see the CRM record for the email.
   
5. CRM noted that the email address was not associated with a Contact. Chose a Contact to associate it with. Saved record.
6. Clicked link in Regarding to open related CRM record.
7. Clicked History. Saw two records: one for initial tracked email; one for forwarded email.
   
8. Opened CRM SQL database and ran the following script:

select * from ActivityMimeAttachment
where FileName='creepy-surgical-mask.jpg'

9. Noticed two records with distinct ActivityMimeAttachmentId’s.
   
10. Body field contains textual representation of ‘creepy-surgical-mask.jpg’. (that garbledegook you see when you open in a text editor or in Word)

Conclusion

Behold the power of Twitter.

I’ve been going to a book networking group for job seekers at the Barnes & Noble in West Chester for a few months now. Monte Washburn, who works at the bookstore, holds a discussion about books and how they can help job seekers. This week, based on my recommendation, we discussed Mitch Joel‘s new book Six Pixels of Separation (affiliate link).

Monday afternoon Twitter:

• 4:10 PM danieljohnsonjr: @mitchjoel We’re going to be talking about your book tomorrow night at a Cincinnati-area Barnes & Noble book club!
• 4:16 PM mitchjoel: @danieljohnsonjr Wanna Skype me in?
• 4:17 PM danieljohnsonjr: @mitchjoel Let me talk to the organizer and get back with you. I’m danieljohnsonjr on Skype.
• 6:23 PM danieljohnsonjr: @mitchjoel We’d love to have you in on the discussion about your book at the Cincinnati-area B&N book club tomorrow!

It’s not uncommon for an author to be present at a discussion or a book signing, but, through the power of social media, we were able to have Mitch Joel, who lives in Montreal, Quebec, virtually with us in Cincinnati, Ohio, tonight while we discussed his book.

Here are some of my perspectives, based on my notes. I hope I haven’t misinterpreted or taken anything out of context. Here goes:

• Why blog? To be findable, to be knowable.
• Don’t blog with the intent to make money or find a job. You yourself are the best advertiser. Let your content and passion shine through on your blog.
• Communicate where your audience is. The reason Mitch wrote the book is to reach people who weren’t already in the social media space, top-level executives who might want to hire Mitch and his company to help them.
• The same can be said about the different social media tools we have at our disposal: communicate where your audience is. Are they on Twitter? Would they follow a news feed on Twitter? Communicate with them over there. Are they on Facebook? Communicate with them over there.
• Before you jump into social media, and often as you’re active with it, ask yourself, “Why should I be on (insert social media tool here)?”
• In response to a question from one person in the group who asked about whether he should create multiple blogs about different passions he has or combine them into one, Mitch redirected to the previous question. Then he recommended as general advice we
  • Use tools like Google Blog Search to find out who the players are in the verticals, the industries we’re looking to participate in
  • Play in their space – read their blogs, comment on posts, join conversations, etc.
  • Once you get comfortable in that space, then consider branching out on your own, if you have the desire to do so
• Mitch reads a lot. He mentioned a new book by Seth Godin, called Linchpin, which is coming out later this month. He says it’s like Purple Cow (affiliate link) but for individuals.
• Mitch mentioned – and I don’t know if this is from the book or not – Three Prongs for Success. If any of these three are off-balance, you’re going to have trouble:
  1. Professional
  2. Personal/family
  3. Community
• Mitch is seriously passionate about writing, and he writes all the time. He said it takes him about 20 minutes to write a 500-600 word blog post. He keeps notebooks with thoughts and ideas.
• I asked Mitch where he comes up with all of the ideas for his blog posts. He said a lot of his content is crowdsourced from social media sites like Twitter. He reads lots of blogs in Google Reader for ideas.
• There was a comment from the group about whether it was important to get a lot of visitors to your blog. Mitch urged us to focus not on trying to get as many visitors or many followers on Twitter for that matter.
• Instead we should focus on who we’re trying to speak to and create content for those people. A lot of this goes back to the strategy; understanding why we’re involved in a particular channel.
• As job seekers, our goal is to find the one place where we can find the work we were meant to do (emphasis added).
• Having a blog helps us build credibility.
• While some can accomplish their goals simply by being on a single social media outpost alone; i.e., LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, Mitch reminded us that these are third-party websites that could go away at any time. All of our content on these websites would go away with them.
• Having a blog and a community around a blog means you own your content and are not at the mercy of whether LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook evaporate.
• Once again, when deciding which communication platform – and that’s what all these tools are, really – to participate in, it’s important to consider which platform the audience is using.  Mitch doesn’t have a YouTube channel because his intended audience isn’t over there. He’s looking to reach high-level executives who are looking for business and marketing advice.
• Monte Washburn, the organizer of the group, asked about how to best go about blending online social networking with face-to-face social networking. There are some people who go to a networking event, and when the structured part of the program is over with, leave and then talk about how they didn’t get anything out of it.
• Mitch encouraged us to go into face-to-face networking events with the intent to help others. When we approach it from that angle, we’ll get a lot more about of the events.
• I mentioned that it’s hard to keep waiting for karma to kick in. He said that we’re not waiting for karma; we’re waiting for serendipity. If we approach our networking – online or in-person – with a helpful attitude, then we’re setting ourselves up to be front of mind.
• Mitch used tonight’s discussion as a perfect example of this. He spent 75 minutes talking to a small group of job seekers in Cincinnati, Ohio from his home in Montreal. We might buy his book, and that’s okay. But what might happen is that we leave the discussion remembering who Mitch Joel is, and we’re more apt to recommend him to other people.
• Mitch told a story about trying to get Gene Simmons and later Bono on the front page of a news publication. He contacted the artist’s management, asking for an interview if they were able to get on the front page.  Once they said yes, he contacted the publication, asking if they’d like an interview with the artists, provided the story gets on the front page.
• Key takeaway for job seekers:
  • Find a company or organization that has a problem. Identify what is missing.
  • Find out who can help, and connect the two together.
  • Do this many times.

After we were done with the Skype call, we discussed some things further, and we were all very impressed that we were able to bring Mitch in on such short notice. Some members of the group asked how this was made possible, so here are the details:

1. I’d been following Mitch through social media and his podcasts, Six Pixels of Separation and Media Hacks, for many months. We’ve been connected on LinkedIn, Facebook, and LinkedIn for some time.
2. Mitch wrote Six Pixels of Separation.
3. Monte set up the networking group meeting for people to meet face to face and discuss books relevant to people looking for jobs or ways to improve their careers.
4. A couple months ago, at one of these events, I recommended Mitch’s book to Monte.
5. Monte set up this week’s meeting to discuss Mitch’s book.
6. In my typical enthusiasm, yesterday on Twitter I said how excited I was that we’d be talking about his book, mentioning Mitch by his Twitter username.
7. Through listening to his Twitter stream, he found out about it and asked if we’d be interested in Skyping him in.
8. I contacted Monte to see what he thought, and we were good to go.
9. Mitch and I connected through Skype.
10. I brought my laptop to Barnes & Noble tonight and we brought Mitch into the conversation.

$timulus networking group in Cincinnati, Ohio

On behalf of the group pictured above, thanks again, Mitch, for spending your Tuesday evening with us!

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We like it and we say so

If you’re active on Facebook, you probably have noticed that when you or others post something, other people can “like” what you’ve posted, and Facebook gives it a “thumbs up”. It keeps track of how many “likes” a post gets, and you’ll typically see verbiage that reads, “John Smith likes this”. This feature of Facebook becomes something of a promotion engine.

You can also “like” what you yourself have posted. If you opt to like something you’ve posted, you’ll see text that reads, “You like this.”

Self-aggrandizing and pretentious?

Earlier this evening I saw an update on Twitter from Steve Phillips, the President and owner of one of the best search engine optimization companies in Cincinnati:

purpletrout: Tacky: Consultants who give themselves “thumbs up” on their Facebook posts. Really? You need to give yourself approval?

I saw this amplified, or “retweeted” a few times by others, and then I chimed in:

danieljohnsonjr:@purpletrout Is it wrong to Like something you’ve posted on Facebook? That’s why I “give myself thumbs up”. I like what I’ve written.

The ensuing conversation, which included some direct messages, mentioned how I should let others praise my work, and not me myself.

Statements like this come across as though I’m not allowed to like what I’ve posted.

Some remark that it should be understood that you like your own work and that to “like” it on Facebook comes across as “pretentious and self-aggrandizing” (UPDATE: Julie Niesen @winemedineme wanted me to make sure I attributed her for that phrase, so there it is. FWIW). And yet Facebook lets us “like” our own posts anyway.

Be proud of your work

I see it differently.  I like my work, and I’m proud of it. I think we’re supposed to like it. I think there’s something divine about appreciating something we’ve created, whether it’s a blog post or a status update or a video we’ve shared. We like it, so there shouldn’t be a problem if we choose also to note it as such via Facebook. Sure, I’d love if as many people liked what I do as much as I do, but even if they didn’t, I still would.

Since Facebook builds this functionality, this ability for content creators to “like” or “thumbs up” their own work, it should not be inferred as pretentious or self-aggrandizing. I disagree with you if you see it differently.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain the metaphysical consequences of “poking” oneself on Facebook, however.

What say you? Help me see it differently.

I’ve been a part of an interesting discussion on Facebook recently about where to draw the line between personal and business use of social media, and it prompted me to share these thoughts about strategies for managing an online presence.

You are a brand

Everyone who comes in contact with you in-person or online leaves with an idea of who you are as a result of the experience.  While what happens in real-life might be fleeting or temporary, what happens online sticks around.  Many of us have camera phones that can take pictures or video and upload them with ease to the internet.  Did you just get tagged in a career-limiting photo on Facebook? Or did someone capture that great picture of you helping someone out in your community?

Is what you do online adding to or detracting from your personal brand?

Some points to keep in mind:

• Everyone’s use of social media will vary, and that’s okay. It’s a free world.
• Know your goals in developing and maintaining an online presence. These will dictate how you use the tools.
• Your goals may and probably will change over time. So will your use of the tools.
• Don’t expect to stay on top of everything. You’re only able to sample a bit of information at a time. You can set up monitoring stations, for sure. That’s a topic for another blog post.

Strategies

With these points in mind, here are six strategies you can employ to develop and manage an online presence:

1. Dump it. There are times when you no longer need or want to have that blog, account, etc. It might be worthwhile to just delete the account altogether.
2. Shelve it. Maybe you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling with your blog, account, etc., but you’re not quite ready to delete it. Maybe you’ll get back to it sometime; maybe you won’t. So you leave it alone for another day. Over the past 7 years or so, I’ve created over 10 blogs. Most of them lie dormant now or have moved to another space.
3. Anonymize it. There are advantages and disadvantages of setting up an anonymous online presence. On one hand, you have virtual free reign in what you can say and do without having it come back against you. Some folks opt for this strategy by using a pseudonym or nickname. On the other hand, you aren’t able to transfer the equity in your online brand into your offline career. But maybe that’s not your goal in the first place. Maybe you want to have one account for everyone and another, more private account where you can say whatever you want to say.  I started off using a nickname on some social networks but later opted to use a more distinct form of my real name.
4. Merge them. If you have multiple accounts, blogs, etc., maybe they’ve become overwhelming for you. Maybe you want to present a clearer message across one social networking presence. In this case, it might be worthwhile to merge.
5. Link them. If you still want to keep multiple online identities, then consider linking them to one another, so that others can know where you are. I do that with blogs and in my Virtual Business Card.  Something like this is useful if you’ve signed up with different usernames on different platforms. It’s also useful, for example, if you leave one blogging platform, for another, to cross-link the two.
6. Aggregate them. Similar to linking, another strategy is to aggregate your multiple presences using a tool like FriendFeed. This place becomes a one-stop shop for everything you put online.

So remember that what you do online says a lot about who you are – or who we think you are.  How you decide to use social networking tools is completely up to you, and your goals should dictate how you use them, and there are different strategies you can employ.

Agree? Disagree? Did I miss anything? What other strategies have you found useful?

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