5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Like Birthdays on Facebook

5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Like Birthdays on Facebook

I recently had the pleasure of celebrating my first birthday on Facebook.  Wow, what an experience!  If you don’t have your birth date out to display to your friends or you haven’t been on Facebook long enough, you may not be able to comprehend what I experienced.  But for those of you who know about this, let’s just say my birthday was made extra special by all of the people who came to my Wall to wish me a Happy Birthday.  And I mean lots of people.  I am writing this blog post to both thank all of my Facebook …

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How to Build a Successful LinkedIn Group Case Study

How to Build a Successful LinkedIn Group Case Study

Today’s blog post has been contributed by Lisa Hendrickson, the owner of Call That Girl! (CTG) based out of Minneapolis, MN.  CTG does local and nationwide telephone supported computer repair/troubleshooting. My personal experience with using LinkedIn Groups has been more than exciting and has also brought me to my first “eye-opening” attention grabbing numbers of making more than $10,000 from using LinkedIn. What was my investment? TIME. Period. I did not put one dime into LinkedIn and have yet to do so. I still am using the free account as well.

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The New LinkedIn User Interface: What’s Changed?

The New LinkedIn User Interface: What’s Changed?

LinkedIn began limited testing of their new user interface a few weeks ago and today announced that they were going to roll out their new “look” to everyone in the next week.  What’s changed?

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SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES & SOLO ENTREPRENEURS: How to Level the Playing Field

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES & SOLO ENTREPRENEURS: How to Level the Playing Field

Every person reading this blog is now a participant in social media.  After all, this is written by an individual, not broadcasted at you by a traditional media company, and thus is a true example of user generated content.  As we become users of social media, whether through finding old friends on Facebook or connecting with new colleagues on LinkedIn, social media is slowly becoming part of our daily life.  And if we have ever been in a job search, social media becomes increasingly important for us to utilize as part of both an online and offline networking strategy.  Have …

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Twitter Coming to a Store Near You…SOON!

Twitter coming to a store near you...SOON!

It is no secret that 2009 saw the dawning of the new era of consumers using social media to find deals and product information.  If you didn’t hear, Toys R Us symbolized this new movement by releasing their new catalog on their Facebook Fan Page, and in doing so picked up between 40,000 to 95,000 new fans per day over the week before Thanksgiving.  The Toys R Us Facebook Fan Page has now grown to 430,000 members almost overnight as I write this.  Wow! But this is not out of the ordinary and only a sign of things to come …

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Top 15 Recommended Social Media Books of 2009

Top 15 Recommended Social Media Books of 2009

2009 was definitely the year in which we saw a great number of new book additions in the realm of social media.  While there have always been a classic book or two on social media (or pre-social media social networking books) published each year, 2009 was filled with several books that are destined to become classic reads for sometime to come.  These are the books that, despite the changes in specific functionality that we will see over time, provide us a framework for us to better understand and utilize social media.  And they not only deserve a place on my …

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Twitter Tip #1 for Beginners: Follow Lists Before You Follow People!

Twitter Tip #1 for Beginners: Follow Lists Before You Follow People!

This is a continuation of my previous post, where I wrote about 7 useful tips for those getting started on Twitter.  Assuming that you have just signed up on Twitter and don’t know where to go from here, instead of following everyone from your email address book that is already on Twitter by selecting “Find People” from the top of Twitter, begin your Twitter experience by following Lists before you follow People.  The rationale is simple: Twitter gets a bad rap because of the “babble” that a lot of people are said to be tweeting.  That is why you should …

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Twitter 101 with 7 Useful Tips for Those Getting Started on Twitter

Twitter 101

Yesterday I presented on the topic of Social Media and Your Job Search in front of a large group of executives, many of whom were in transition.  As with any professional crowd, nearly everyone was already comfortable with LinkedIn, but less than half of the attendees had ventured out onto Twitter yet.  I sensed some confusion about Twitter, so today instead of blogging about Twitter and Personal Branding or Twitter and the Job Search, I felt it was time to write a blog post to help hand-hold those that are still confused by Twitter but really want to give it …

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41 LinkedIn Success Stories to Learn From

LinkedIn Has Some Serious Success Stories to Share with You

When I began blogging about LinkedIn, I felt that there was a lack of information regarding utilizing LinkedIn in the blogosphere.  I have done my best to fill the gap, especially concerning the restrictions that you meet but don’t realize until you hit them!  This has evolved into my popular blog posts on using LinkedIn for Job Search as well as LinkedIn for Sales and Business Development.  But what about case studies of success stories on LinkedIn?

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HOW TO: Find Relevant New People to Follow on Twitter

Listorious: The Preferred Method for Finding Relevant Twitter Lists and Users

One of the questions I get asked by relative newbies to Twitter is how to go about finding relevant people to follow.  The problem that a lot of Twitter newbies have is that they either 1) upload their entire email address book and follow everyone and/or 2) they start following some of Twitter’s Suggested Users.  This has the tendency to fill the Timeline that one sees with LOTS of Tweets that may be irrelevant, or finding yourself following a few hundred people that may not be active Tweeters.  Right off the bat your Follower/Following Ratio is horrible, the inactive Twitter …

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5 Reasons Why the LinkedIn-Twitter Integration is Big News

5 Reasons Why the LinkedIn-Twitter Integration is Big News

Just a few days after I mentioned in my blog post on the new LinkedIn Profile Organizer that it had been a year since LinkedIn released any new significant functionality, we have been bombarded by the social media press over the last few days concerning the new LinkedIn User Interface and now the big news last night on the integration between LinkedIn and Twitter.  And this news has sparked reaction ranging from ReadWriteWeb’s analysis that the potential of opening up all of the cross-platform data between LinkedIn and Twitter has not fully begun to be realized, Mashable’s read on the …

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The New LinkedIn Profile Organizer: Worth the Upgrade?

Official Profile Organizer Photo from LinkedIn.com

If you are still using the free version of LinkedIn, you may have been curious about the new LinkedIn Profile Organizer.  I received the same email that all of you LinkedIn users probably did advertising this as a new killer functionality.  The timing of the announcement is interesting in that it happened almost one year after LinkedIn Applications were introduced.  Come to think of it, this is the first new major functionality that LinkedIn has introduced in a year [and as I write this LinkedIn just made a significant upgrade in their user interface, so this may have been what …

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Goodbye Job Boards, Hello Twitter! How to Use Twitter for Your Job Search.

Goodbye Job Boards, Hello Twitter! How to Use Twitter for Your Job Search.

I just finished giving a presentation on utilizing Twitter for your job search today to an audience of in-transition professionals.  While most of the professionals had a LinkedIn account (albeit half of them joined LinkedIn while being in transition), only a handful of them were on Twitter.  There is still a lot of confusion and fear about Twitter, and it takes a little while before you have your “Aha!” moment and become an active Twitter user.  If you’re already on Twitter, I hope this gives you a new perspective on Twitter.  If you’re still new to Twitter, jump aboard!  There’s …

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