Yesterday, I issued a press release talking about how my LinkedIn book, “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn” won and Honorable Mention for Best Non-Fiction Book of 2009.  To say that I am happy about this is an understatement: as someone who risked all credibility with publishers by going the self-published route, it is extremely satisfying.  But social media is about you, not about me, so I want to share in the victory by offering you some free social media books.  What do you need to do?  Just participate!  Keep reading for details

Social media is all about participation.  If it weren’t for all of those that connected with me and participated in conversations with me, I obviously couldn’t have written the book that I did.  Participation in social media is where you gain expertise, how you find new friends, where businesses can develop relationships with their old customers and create new ones.  That’s why the theme of my giving away social media books is also about participation: not just your participation, but participation of authors themselves.

I wrote a blog post late last year on what I thought were the best social media books of 2009.  I was happy to provide my opinion to the world on the books that I thought were best, although there were many excellent books that didn’t make the list.  A lot of people tweeted the article.  You know what else happened?  A lot of the authors themselves came to my blog to comment and thank me.  Thank me?  I wanted to thank them for sharing so much knowledge with everyone!  But they were also participating in and continuing the conversation that I started.  And it is these authors’ books that I want to give away to YOU!

The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff by Clara Shih

Crush It! Why NOW is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

Facebook Me! A Guide to Having Fun with Your Friends and Promoting Your Projects on Facebook by Dave Awl

Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business by Erik Qualman

The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success by Lon Safko and David Brake

A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization by Deltina Hay

As a bonus, I just saw Seth Godin speak last night for the first time.  To be honest with you, I had never read any of his books and wasn’t sure what to expect.  But after seeing the excellent video on Seth’s speech at the TED Conference this week in Long Beach, I realized that he was speaking to me: I wrote about the need for us to connect and embrace social media and the social networking potential that it implies, and that, in essence, was how I created the “Windmill Networking” concept.  Seth talks about the same need for us to connect, and for us to lead each other and form our own “Tribes” in this video.  I am in no way saying I am a leader or that you are part of my “Tribe”, but maybe Windmill Networking adds to the infrastructure to help YOU create your own Tribe.  Here’s the video in case you missed it:

And, finally, circling back to my book winning a prize, Seth last night spoke about how we all need to be a “Linchpin,” and in his speech he talked about how we all need to be artists…and that there is nothing holding us back.  Anyone can now become a radio broadcaster, podcaster, video producer, author…all because of the Internet and what it provides us.  I don’t know if I’m a Linchpin or not, but his speech was compelling enough that I want to recommend it to you as well.

So, if you made it this far into my blog post rambling, congratulations!   Here are the Contest Details:

How to Win a Free Social Media Book:

• Over the next 4 weeks I will be giving out 2 of the 8 above books and 2 of my own books each week.  That’s a total of 16 books to give away!
• In order to win, please join either of or both of my Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group and/or my Windmill Networking Facebook Fan Page.
• Finally, just joining either group is not enough: social media is about participation, right?  So winners will be chosen from those who participate!  How to participate?  These are just some examples to give you some ideas:

Ways to participate in a LinkedIn Group:

1. Start a Discussion.  Ask a question.  Just say “Hi!”  Go on, try it!
2. Is there a Discussion that interests you that you’d like to comment on?  Do it!
3. Share some News.  Tweeted or read something interesting that you think the group might be interested in?  Share it!
4. Do you blog?  If your blog is social media related, I would be more than happy to import your RSS Feed and automatically display it in the News Feed.  Just ask me!
5. Are you a recruiter or hiring manager?  Post a job!

Ways to participate on a Facebook Fan Page:

1. When you look at the Facebook Fan Page, there is a “Wall.”  I have tried to share articles that I think you might find interesting, most not from my other bloggers or free webinars that I find out about.  If there is an article that you read and find interesting, press the “Like” button or comment on it!  Just saying “Hi!” is OK as well!
2. Want to share an interesting article that other Windmill Networking Fans might be interested in?  Post it!
3. There is a “Discussions” tab at the top that you can navigate to.  Just like with LinkedIn, if you want to ask a question or start a discussion, go for it!
4. You can also share photos and videos of yourself as another way to Windmill Network with the other Fans!

Here is the schedule:

Participants from February 15 to February 21 (Announced February 22): 1 copy of The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff, 1 copy of Crush It! Why NOW is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, 2 copies of Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn

Participants from February 22 to February 28 (Announced March 1): 1 copy of Facebook Me! A Guide to Having Fun with Your Friends and Promoting Your Projects on Facebook, 1 copy of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, 2 copies of Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn

Participants from March 1 to March 7 (Announced March 8): 1 copy of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success, 1 copy of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization, 2 copies of Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn

Participants from March 8 to March 14 (Announced March 15): 1 copy of Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, 1 copy of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, 2 copies of Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn

That’s it!  Any questions?  Contact me!  Otherwise, looking forward to your participation!

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Although I recently blogged that 2009 was, without doubt, the year of Twitter, Facebook had a similarly impressive year where we can say it became a truly mainstream social networking platform boasting over 350 million members.  It seems that every business now has a Facebook Fan Page, and it becomes harder and harder for us to avoid spending too much time on Facebook.  After all, we now spend more time on Facebook than on any other website!

Facebook will become an even more important place for businesses in 2010, and because of this I have placed an emphasis on finding resources from 2009 to help businesses with establishing and strategically managing their Fan Page.  If you are looking for social media marketing information in utilizing Facebook, I believe you are in for a pleasant surprise with my list of Facebook for Business best posts of 2009 below.

For professionals, I placed an emphasis on selecting blog posts that first of all paint a picture of the true demographics of Facebook today.  Facebook, as you have probably already figured out, is no longer the exclusive playground of high school and college students.  It is important for all of us to realize the present demographics and feel comfortable utilizing it as a social networking platform for professionals.

There were also some great blog posts with advice on anything from Professional Networking, Personal Branding, as well as utilizing applications on Facebook.  Hopefully you will begin to see the potential for Windmill Networking on Facebook as you would do on Twitter or LinkedIn.  And, yes, there is even an article on how to use Facebook Apps to help you find your next job!

Finally, as privacy is a major issue with Facebook, I included some articles that I felt best describe your privacy options as well as the recent changes that Facebook implemented.

As with my similar Top 25 Most Useful LinkedIn Blog Posts of 2009 and Top 35 Most Useful Twitter Blog Posts of 2009, I used a number of factors when considering which were the best blog posts to recommend to you all. Within each section I have ordered the listing in descending order by most retweets on Twitter at the time of this post, which are indicated in parentheses.

On a final note, although the main emphasis of my blog up until now has been LinkedIn and Twitter, I was surprised by the lack of great Facebook articles on personal branding, professional networking, and job search.  I hope to add more Facebook blog posts to my arsenal in 2010 and help you all better understand how to best utilize this most complex yet increasingly ubiquitous social networking platform.

Understanding the Present Facebook Demographics

Sharing on Facebook Now More Popular Than Sharing by Email by Adam Ostrow (1,071)

Statistics which prove what we all knew was coming: people share more information via Facebook than email these days.  This has significant implications for all of us and how we communicate with each other moving forward.

Why Facebook is for Old Fogies by Lev Grossman (497)

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the demographic of Facebook is now older, much older than it used to be.  If you are Gen X or a Baby Boomer and are feeling embarrassed about joining or remaining active on Facebook, please read this article!

Facebook Users are Getting Older.  Much Older. by Stan Schroeder (252)

Excellent statistics on Facebook demographics to help any professional or business understand the potential that is Facebook.

Facebook Top Trends of 2009 by Brian Solis (?)

An excellent article looking at top Facebook trends of 2009.  The most important contribution of this article are the stats that give us a great snapshot as to how many people are doing what on Facebook.

Facebook Usage Statistics by Country – December 31st, 2009 by Nick Burcher (?)

If you’re wondering how many Facebook users there are in each of the top 30 countries combined with their recent growth rates, this chart is for you.  Some pretty convincing stats on the global popularity of Facebook.

Facebook General Advice & Tips

HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional Networking by Boris Epstein (1,296)

Since you are reading this blog and have an interest in Windmill Networking, this is the one MUST READ article to give you some ideas of how you can start to use Facebook for professional networking as you do with LinkedIn and Twitter.  Excellent post.

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook by Dan Schawbel (580)

Good list of common-sense ideas to establish and build upon your Facebook presence.

25 Great Facebook Tips and Tricks by Tehseen (389)

Good collection of Facebook tips including some Facebook applications and browser plug-ins that you might not have known about.

20 Facebook Desktop Apps to Try by Don Reisinger (239)

Twitter has loads of desktop applications that you can use such as HootSuite and TweetDeck.  Were you aware that there are many similar 3rd party applications available for Facebook?  A great list…as to whether they are more convenient than going to Facebook.com, you will have to be the judge…

The 20 Best Facebook Apps for Job Search by Tawny Labrum (111)

Yes, you can use Facebook as part of your job search strategy!  Check out this great list of apps for some ideas!

There’s an art to writing on Facebook or Twitter — really by Maria Puente (?)

While not specifically on Facebook, this insightful article talks about the art of writing an interesting Facebook Status Update.  Great food for thought!

Facebook and Your Privacy

10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy by Mahendra Palsule (829)

Excellent advice on general privacy settings that you have at your disposal on Facebook.

10 New Privacy Settings that Every Facebook User Should Know by Nick O’Neill (?)

An excellent article that hand-holds you through establishing your Facebook privacy settings in the new paradigm that was recently introduced to the world.  No more reason to be afraid of privacy issues on Facebook after reading this post.

Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Kevin Bankston (?)

This in-depth article looks at the new Facebook Privacy Settings.  If you really want to know the potential privacy dangers lurking in Facebook, this article is the most informative that I have found.

Facebook for Business

How to Spam Facebook Like a Pro: An Insider’s Confession by Dennis Yu (2,008)

This is an excellent article to understand how Facebook advertising works.  The first 3/4 of this article is a behind-the-scenes and brutal look into the early days of Facebook advertisers and their spammy methods, which in itself is extremely eye-opening.  The last few paragraphs, though, deal with the potential goldmine for Facebook advertisers by being able to target Facebook demographics.  If you’re thinking of advertising on Facebook, you must read this article!

HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page by Susan Payton (1,396)

While basic in details compared to some of the other similar posts in this list, this is comprehensive in scope and goes over areas which you want to make sure you cover in creating your Facebook Fan Page.

5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page by Samir Balwani (1,159)

An excellent analysis of 5 strategies for a successful Facebook Fan Page.  Highly recommended.

HOW TO: Make Facebook Your Company Newsroom by Josh Peters (987)

An excellent look at a reason to establish a Facebook Fan Page for any company, with step-by-step instructions with how to automate it through pulling in content from your other company sources such as blogs, photos, and videos.  If you’re looking to start a Facebook Fan Page, you should read this article first.

Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference? by Howard Greenstein (841)

This question comes up at almost every Social Media for Business 101 workshop that I present at.  This article explains the difference in details.

32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business by Meryl Evans (709)

Meryl Evans wrote similar blog posts which made my best of LinkedIn as well as Twitter blog posts for 2009, and she repeats here successful formula here with a similar list of ideas for businesses to make use of Facebook.

How to Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page by Jesse Stay (648)

When Jesse Stay, the CEO of SocialToo.com does a guest post on Tamar Weinberg’s blog, you know it is something special.  This blog post does not disappoint, as Jesse, an FBML expert in his own right, gives excellent advice, both technical and non-technical, on creating that perfect Facebook Fan Page.

30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook by Josh Peters (401)

Excellent compilation of Applications that will help any business.  There are a lot of applications that you might not have known of that appear here in the following categories: Blog Promotion, Business Promotion, Communication, Networking, Collaboration, Audio/Visual, and Miscellaneous.

Five Facebook-Only Strategies for Business Success by Jason Falls (324)

A good overview of how businesses can utilize Facebook-specific functionalities.

New Studies Show Marketing Powers of Facebook by Amy Porterfield (240)

Very recent information based on a ComScore as well as a Morgan Stanley report on the sheer reach of the popular social networking platform from a marketing perspective.  A must read to understand the marketing potential of Facebook.

Top 50 Branded Facebook Pages of 2009 by Jim Tobin (85)

A great post which includes stats on number of fans as well as best practices advice for Fan Pages.  A good place to start if you’re looking to emulate the successful case studies of Fan Pages that presently exist.

8 Essential Apps for Your Brand’s Facebook Page by Alison Driscoll (58)

If you haven’t installed any applications on your company’s Fan Page, you haven’t even started to realize the potential.  Read this article for starters.

5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence by Steve Coulson (31)

Great tips for optimizing Fan Pages…although some of the tips are technical and may require you to understand some FBML.

10 Key SEO Strategies Every Facebook Page Owner Should Know by Justin Smith (?)

If your company has a Fan Page, you should be utilizing it to also help with your corporate home page’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  This article will show you how.

How to Develop a Facebook Page that Attracts Millions of Fans by Nick O’Neill (?)

An amazing article with lots of strategic advice on developing a successful Fan Page.

10 Ways a Facebook Fan Page Helps Your Business by Mikal E. Belicove (?)

If you are unsure as to why your business needs a Fan Page, you definitely need to read this article.  It is also a great checklist to ensure that your company is properly utilizing their own existing Fan Page as well.

Also be sure to check out my own 5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Like Birthdays on Facebook (10).

Hope you found this list informative.  Tell me which blog posts you liked the most as well as any others that you might like to recommend and why!  Thanks!

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 Friends as well as to ponder what Facebook Birthdays could and should mean for businesses.

First of all, the thank yous.  You know who you are, so let’s just say your thinking of me is greatly appreciated.  The interesting thing is that many of the people that sent me a “Happy Birthday!” message on my wall were from “friends” that I had never met before.  As you know, I am a LinkedIn LION, and rather than discuss why I am a LinkedIn LION, let’s just say LinkedIn does not provide the same venue for casual communication like the Facebook Wall does.  So it was a pleasant surprise to see so many of my virtual network stop by and wish me their birthday greetings.  It made me happy that there are so many “real people” embracing Windmill Networking.  Thank you all!

How is any of this related to how companies can maximize Facebook birthdays for their business?  Let me count the ways:

1) Have you ever thought about advertising on Facebook?  I mention this because, unlike Google AdWords, Facebook allows you to advertise according to very specific demographics.  In fact, Facebook Ads have an option where you can create a custom ad to display only on that user’s birthday.  People are happy on their birthdays…advertise something that has value and is birthday-appropriate and you may have a secret formula for attracting new business.

2) If you are an entrepreneur or a small business, you should definitely be monitoring the Facebook Home Page looking for birthdays of your customers, partners, or suppliers.  It will obviously be easier to do this if they are your Friends on Facebook, but if their profile information is public you can also glean this information.  Contacting them on their birthday gives you a natural reason to be communicating with them…and since they will be in a good mood, they may take you up on any special offers that you might have!  Obviously, depending on their Privacy Setting, this information may not be available to you…

3) Related to this are the Facebook Friends who used the occasion to connect with me and send me greetings on LinkedIn and/or Twitter.  We may not have been as connected on these platforms before, so it gave them the opportunity to communicate with me on a new level.  It could also provide the same opportunity for your business to get noticed and “followed” on these other platforms as well.

4) Once again, this depends if the user’s Privacy Setting is set on “Everyone,” but if it is, you could create a Facebook Application that actually gathers user’s birthdays with which you could then access to send them a special message on their birthday.

5) If you or your business is able to write a birthday greeting on a user’s wall, it will be seen by all others how come by to wish the same person a Happy Birthday.  This in itself could provide your business with free advertising!

The intention of this blog post was not to spook people out about Facebook-related privacy issues.  Because more personal information may be available to the public on Facebook rather than other social networking sites, as well as the fact that Facebook allows businesses to utilize this data in advertisements and applications, businesses could come up with some pretty creative social media marketing campaigns that could only be possible on Facebook.  In terms of social media marketing, it gives businesses a unique opportunity to leverage this information on Facebook that can’t be done on the other major social networking platforms.

If, on the other hand, as a user you are worried about this, please ensure you check your Privacy Settings and confirm that you are comfortable sharing what you might have on your Facebook Profile.  If you have any questions about how to do this, please post your question in the Comments below.

Finally, thanks again for all of the “Happy Birthday!” greetings!

Do you have similar Facebook Birthday experiences?  How about utilizing Facebook for birthday-related advertisement?  Do let us know about what your experience has been!

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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 for the following reason:

Social media represents a convergence of where we go to communicate as well as where we go for information.

It is the Internet and Email all rolled up into one.

And because platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow us to easily share and thus virally spread information, I would expect every major B2C brand to have a Facebook Fan Page presence.  After all, Facebook is now a nation of 350 million consumers!

But this post is not about the sheer power in numbers that Facebook represents but in the viral power and opportunity for small and local businesses that Twitter provides.  Sure, it’s easy to share on Facebook and have fan page updates show on your news feed, but the ability to ReTweet and, in essence, have your message re-broadcasted to several times the number of followers that you might have on Twitter is like viral marketing on steroids.

So for a local establishment or a small business, a Facebook Fan Page is a nice to have and can help generate some viral publicity, but it is Twitter that is making a lot of success stories, most notably but not limited to the restaurant industry.  My local heroes Kogi’s BBQ are now famous nationwide and have 50,000 followers who eagerly wait the next broadcast of where and when the next taco truck will pull up in Southern California.  Kogi’s BBQ is called America’s first “viral eatery” and they have spawned competitors emulating their tactics.

More recently a report was written on Naked Pizza in New Orleans as the new Twitter success story.  My favorite take away from this article, in addition to the fact that they plan to franchise the restaurant from 1 to 50 locations nationwide over the next several months from their newfound success on Twitter, but it was what co-founder of Naked Pizza Jeff Leach said:

“If your business doesn’t have anything to tweet about, you’d better shift into a business that does have something to tweet about.”

But this is just one Los Angeles taco truck and one New Orleans pizza joint, no?  These are still faraway places, right?  Wrong.  When your local pizza joint that you’ve been going to for years starts asking you to follow them on Twitter for special deals, you know that things are changing all around us.  And that was my “Aha!” moment today when I saw what is pictured above.

Let it be known now so that there are no surprises:

Twitter is coming to a store near you…SOON!  And we’re not just talking restaurants, but any retail establishment.  Any retail establishment can use Twitter to establish a deeper relationship with you and offer you special things to keep you coming back that other types of media just can’t emulate.  And, just like my Costco American Express credit card gives me more cash back on gas, at restaurants and when I travel to ensure I carry the card outside of my house, Twitter is also a popular mobile technology which makes sense for retail establishments to leverage to try to pull you in when you are out doing your shopping.  I don’t see many people looking at Facebook Fan Pages on their phone.

Another good reason for those who haven’t to start tweeting!

Any retail establishment Twitter or Facebook success stories that you’d like to share?