How to Get the Most Out of Social Networking

Five Quick Tips

Now for the true topic at hand: Social Networking and how to make it actually work for you, beyond killing time at work.  The first step is making it a priority to build a professional network.  On that note, you'll do a lot better to begin building a network for the sake of having established contacts with mutual interests, rather than to give yourself an opportunity to sell something or find a job.  Too often networking doesn't become a priority until we need to sell ourselves to potential employers.  And the fact is that at that point, we're not actually networking, we're prospecting (see next paragraph for distinction between the two).  And the worst part is that often we get that new job and then let the network we took so much effort building fall by the wayside.  Lesson: Begin building your professional network NOW, even if you have no immediate need.

Networking vs. Prospecting.  As Tim Sanders, author of Saving the World at Work, says in his article written for Success magazine, "When done correctly, networking is when you connect two or more people who should meet. In other words, true networking is a gift you give to others. To produce surprise and delight (and long-lasting loyalty), you need to approach networking with no expectations of being repaid by any of the recipients. They will wonder why you are so generous, trust you more from the experience and do their best to repay you over time."

Enough with the networking pre-requisites, let's get on with it!  Assuming that you have found my ramblings about networking even slightly inspirational, here are a few immediate action steps to get you started:

1. Determine who you'd like to reach through your social networking.  You can be what they call an "open networker" and try to reach everyone, and to do so effectively you'll need to be up-front about your intentions.  If you make a "friend" (MySpace or Facebook) or "connection" (LinkedIn) request to someone whom you don't actually know, they will think that you're a creepo and you'll be denied and potentially reported for your creepiness.  If you state that you are an "open networker" and that you accept any and all friend/connection requests that should eliminate the creepy-factor.  The other option here is to seek out targeted people whom you would like to meet or communicate with and request them one-by-one, stating your intention and letting them know why you want to make the connection.  For example, if I were making a friend request to Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, I would add a note to the request telling him that I loved his book, am a loyal reader/subscriber of his blog, and that I'd like to add him to my network, because I respect what he's doing.  For the record, all of the above about Tim Ferriss is true... Not to the point of a man-crush or anything, but I do recommend his stuff.

2. Choose the social networks that your prospective friends/connections/customers/employers use.  If you author a blog targeted to high school athletes, LinkedIn.com is probably not the right network for you.  Instead, try Myspace.com or Facebook.com where there are millions of high school athlete profiles.  However, this isn't to say that you would have no use for a network like LinkedIn.  Perhaps you could promote your blog to your prospective readership on Myspace or Facebook, and would promote your skills and writing credentials on LinkedIn to publishers who may hire you to write a piece for their publication.  Think outside the box on this, but definitely have a strategy.

3. Craft your profile(s) so that you will look professional/intriguing/cool/funny or whatever it is that you think the prospective people in your network will like enough to add you as a friend/connection.  Sadly, this may mean removing any pictures that show you posing with your beloved stuffed animal collection (Feel free to replace "stuffed animal collection" with any other weird pastime that you may have).  Having said that, I think that it is important that you do provide some personal information about yourself, to make yourself memorable and real, just be sure to choose this stuff carefully. 

** Important Note:  I am a big proponent of LinkedIn, and I highly recommend taking Nate Kievman's Linked Strategies 45min long webinar at LinkedIntoMarketing.com.  I took this myself and it is packed with quick and easy-to-execute tips on how to get the most of your LinkedIn profile.  Many of the tips that Nate teaches can be extrapolated to other social networking platforms, as well.  I personally guarantee that it is well-worth the time.

4. Regularly contribute to your chosen social networks.  It is not enough to create great profiles and then just let them sit idle.  It is really important that you take the time to regularly add new content, make adjustments to existing content, let your network know "What are you working on now?" (LinkedIn) or "What's on your mind?" (Facebook) from time to time, add new pictures, reach out to new friends, and maintain contact with old friends.  This doesn't mean that you need to become the next Chad Ochocinco of Twitter and tweet with every passing moment; it just means that it is important to regularly contribute to the community.  The same principle is true in traditional networking.  Once you take the time and effort to start a new friendship or professional relationship, you don't want to let it die by not maintaining regular casual contact.  The great thing about online social networking is that you can accomplish this with a one or two sentence "How's it going" message on your friend's page every now and then, rather than having to dedicate a lot of time to a catch-up phone call or going out to lunch.  By all means, don't let me stop you from doing either.

5. Save time by using a social media aggregator.  Keeping Tip No. 4 in mind, and assuming that you use more than one social media platform, you can end up spending a lot of time adding content to your profiles.  Try an aggregator, such as PixelPipe or Streamy (for the more adventurous) which allows you to make one post and send it to all of your profiles.

The tips above should help get you started.  It is really important to have a strategy, because there are so many tools and platforms out there that your content can lose its impact by doing too much, not to mention drive you crazy trying to keep up with it all.  I also recommend trying to bridge the gap between online vs. in-person networking whenever possible.  I have written about the value of online social networks and maintain their importance, but they become most valuable when you get beyond adding friends/connections as a numbers game and build real relationships.