social networking

Guest Post by Marnie Swedberg

Social Networking (SN) is no longer an optional activity for authors. The time has come for you to make friends on Facebook, tweet on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Pick your poison, swallow that frog or tackle that tiger, but take action today!

I was never going to get caught up in this SN thing, but thanks to a business coach, I decided to do a test. Within a couple months, income from SN interactions had replaced that of my Google Ads, despite the fact that I was only spending 15 minutes a day working on it. I now maintain groups of hundreds or thousands at several SN sites and you can it, too!

Here are five time-saving tips that will help you fit SN it into your busy schedule.

1. Choose a winner. There are dozens of social networking sites, but you probably only need to join one. Think back to your previously ignored SN invitations to learn where your friends, family and associates are hanging out, and join them there.

2. Publish your profile. Each site has different requirements and options. You will be able to complete the sign-up forms at most sites easily, but some will require you to tap into the contents of a recent resume.

3. Post a current photo. As a professional author, your head shot must capture your personality and support your career. Ask yourself: “If I was a media rep from Good Morning America, would I call this person?”

148.7 – The maximum number of social relationships any average human being can handle, according to research by anthropologist Robin Dunbar (1998) and others.

4+ million – The maximum number of people following one person on Twitter.com (right now.)

Houston, we have a problem.   Are we wasting our time with social networking?

As Craig Harrell of Rainmaker Marketing says, “A rubber-banded stack of business cards is not a sales strategy.” We have transferred the impulse to gather stacks of business cards from local networking events, to gathering stacks of “followers” on the internet.  Without an intentional strategy, neither one will make us more money in less time.  We can use our digital relationships to build business, but not the way we think.

We’ve been taught that the best way to grow our business is to go WIDE, when actually the best way is to go DEEP.  The fact is that hundreds to thousands of tepid contacts (these aren’t relationships) online or at a networking event don’t hold a candle to one strategic alliance partner  who will feed us business on an ongoing basis.  Go deep, not wide.

Can you go deep and still have a wide digital set of “followers”.  You bet.

It’s the difference between networking and building a network, the difference between collecting contacts and developing connections.

Friday Nite Twitter was Flattened Again - By Donations and Tweets about the Haiti Crisis.  we were so suprised when it happened that it took a minute to register, what was actually happening. wow, can you imagine 1 billion tweets, all at once ?  supposedly that's the number that shook the mighty tweety down.  seeing that whale being lifted by those lil birds was really something.

it's incredible and amazing all at once, the way social networking has impacted our world; and the younger generation. most of our kids don't remember anything before the internet.  I remember when I was a grad student working on the aarapnet project; wondering what it would look like one day. when it all began, it was all a mass of  numbers. yes not a graphic in sight.   windows 3.1 was the first actual mass produced operating system; which tells you a whole lot.  today we're giving you two funnies to enjoy.

please be good campers and make a donation to the charity of your choice.  Haiti still need us, really badly