Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

Are you just creating social media noise?

Whether you are facebooking, tweeting, linking up or connecting in any other way online, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the numbers of friends or followers some people have.

There are lots of people focusing on getting the highest number of followers and friends - chasing the numbers and thinking that size really does matter.

And yes, people with bigger networks do tend to have more opportunities come their way because of the six degrees of separation theory.

But the people out there who are chasing and creating a big network for the sake of having a big network, IMHO, are wasting their time.

Think about it. If you receive an invitation to friend or connect you will probably accept. They become part of your list but do you make the effort to check them out? Possibly a quick glance through their profile but that's all you have time for. 

And when the messages, invitations or tweets come through, do you take any notice?

Probably not!  They just become part of the social media noise that we filter out subconsciously.

But what about the tweets and updates from people you have proactively requested to be their friends.  Do you read them, retweet them or comment on them?

Absolutely.  These aren't noise to you.  You have consciously made a decision to seek out the information that they are sharing.

So when you are deciding on how to build up your friends, followers and connections, don't get caught up with all the hype of number chasing.  Take a step back and make a decision on what value you are going to offer and why people should reach out to you.

I got this message attached to a facebook friend request today:

"Hi I've been very inspired by your business approach and heard off my friend who's on your list that you post useful links on here, and was hoping you could add me?"

Be a magnet rather than an automatic follow-back and your voice will reach out through the social media noise.

Have you got a comment to add? Spend a second or two to leave your voice.

Feeling Twrustrated? Free Twitter Checklist to help you out

Just in case you haven't seen my Twitter feed last week, thought I better share with my blog readers my brand new Twitter Checklist for Small Businesses.

It has been getting some great reviews so if you are interested, you can hope on over to http://www.candocanbe.com/Twitter_Business_Checklist.php and get your hands on a copy too.

If you have any more checks to be added to the checklist, add them as a comment below or drop me a DM or email.  I'm sure there will be plenty of new ideas and suggestions as Twitter continues to grow and evolve.

Oh, and if you would like to follow me on Twitter, I'm at www.Twitter.com/CanDoCanBe

Doesn't blogging & social media take up so much time?

I was speaking at a networking lunch this week sharing some tips and ideas on how to use blogging in one's business.  And the same old question came up "But doesn't all that stuff take a lot your time?"

Let's get this straight. All marketing takes time!

Driving to a networking lunch, spending 2 hours eating, talking and sharing business ideas, driving back from to your office, following up any contacts you met and sending them the info you promised - this all takes time!

Is it time well spent?  Well, hopefully yes especially if you met some interesting new contacts and some of those new contacts told others about you and your business.  Networking is an incredibly effective marketing tool.

So, why wouldn't using tools like blogging, twitter, facebook and all the other social tools out there take time to use, too?

And if the time you spend on twitter, facebook and writing your blog is used effectively - it will be time well spent too!

PLUS! anything you do online has the added benefit of being there forever.  Blog posts, twitter links and facebook photos can be found today, tomorrow and forever more.  So, yes blogging and social media does take up your time but before you use a lack of time as an excuse not to use these tools in your business, ask yourself how effective your marketing time is at the moment?

Twitter Stories: How has twitter worked this week?

Twitter: Is it a waste of time or productive business tool?

Not wanting to try to convince the unconvincables, I thought I would just list a few specific examples of how twitter has been useful - and possibly highly profitable - to me and my network just in the last few days.

I'll let you decide whether to embrace twitter or not.

1. Had a registration for my TeleSeminar Masterclass from one of my Twitter followers. She was not on my mailing list nor had I had any commnunication with her before.  She booked because of what she read on my tweets

2. Was able to refer my brother, who runs his own mobile tech biz, to someone who I was following on twitter. They were requesting info on anyone who could help them build an app for iphones.  Wait and see whether that turns in to direct business

3. One of my newsletter subscribers came to me asking if I knew someone who had been recommended to her through twitter. One of her colleagues had tweeted that they were looking for an expert to join a panel for a workshop they were planning. she got 2 recommendations in as many seconds.

4. One of my clients is running a fab new teleclass in a week or so. I tweeted her link and one of my followers re-tweeted to his followers. I also saw that one of his followers re-tweeted his re-tweet of my tweet. [follow my drift?]  Within 24 hours of the orginal tweet, more than 2,000 people would have received that tweet.  (And imagine if your tweet is re-tweeted by someone with 20,000+ followers. Powerful, hey?)

5. Was contacted via twitter by someone who runs a social networking site. We spoke on the phone and he gave me a guided tour of the site.  Would I have accepted his phone call if we hadn't been tweeting each other? Probably not.  I am now signed up and sorting out my new profile this Friday to try out the site.

6. Was able to put a new follower in touch with a local networking group I knew of in her area.  By reading her short twitter biog I noticed where she lived and asked if she knew of the group. She hadn't been but is now intending on going to the next meeting.

7. May have got myself a date with George Clooney - but you don't want to read about that story, do you ;0)

What twitter stories can you share this week?

How to turn your email contacts in to your facebook friends

One thing that has always bugged me about networking online, is that I couldn't see any easy way of connecting with my email contacts in places such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

It doesn't matter how hard I try to be just a tiny bit like Tim Ferris and cut down my email time, I find that a large proportion of my communication is via email.  And I was beginning to wonder if I was missing out connecting online with many of my email contacts.

Did I really have to go and search for everyone individually on each of my social networking sites?

Then I got re-introduced to Xobni again.  Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards) is a rather nifty outlook tool which organises your emails and gives you a quicker way to search for contacts and their conversations with you.  However, I got rid of it about 6 months ago as it was really slowing down my inbox.

But, its come back in to my life again!  You see, what Xobni does now is not only show you each contact as you click on their email, you also get to see whether each contact is listed on LinkedIn and Facebook.

How great is that?!!! So now, with each new person who I receive email from I can see at a glance if they have a facebook or llinkedin profile.  I can then go in and request a connection.

Online networking is beginning to be even more powerful as I am now building an online network with people I know offline. 

If you use outlook, why don't you give Xobni try?

How do you request friends on facebook?

How many social networking sites are you a member of now?  There is every chance that if you are active online, then you are just not a member of one site, you are a member of probably 3 or even much, much more.

And if you are an active online social networker, are you building a friend list of thousands or growing organically?

Everyone on the internet may have different strategies and ways of building their brand online - but how many of these people network online the same way that they do offline?

Most social networking sites, such as facebook and LinkedIn, have the facility of letting you add a message when you send out a friend request or invitation to connect (wording depending on which site you are on).  Yet, hardly anyone uses it.

If you were are at a face-to-face networking event, would you consider barging in to a group of people and start shoving your business card in to everyone's hands?

No, probably you wouldn't. (At least I hope you wouldn't!)

You would introduce yourself.  Probably shake a hand and ask who the other person was.  You would start a conversation.

So, why can't people do this online?  It seems too easy to go down a big list of contacts and click the friend request button in the vague hope that the other person will confirm that request quicker than you can wink.

Now, if you are building a mailing list so that you can start sending out sales messages, then you go for it.  You may as well start shoving business cards out at networking events and hiring a team of telesales reps to call from a list of yellow pages.  You will get the same hit rate!

If you are networking online and using the social networking sites to build your brand, raise awareness of your business and generally reach out to potential clients and customers, then stop and ask yourself how you are inviting people to join your network.

If you would shake someone by the hand and introduce yourself at a face-to-face meeting, do the same online.  It may take longer in the short term, but the relationships will be stronger in the long term.

Are you struggling to keep up with writing for your blog?

It's one thing to get started with a blog, but it can a whole different ball game to keep one going.

I know that from many of you out there, keeping up with writing blog postings can be hard work.  And I know this too.

I have been writing my Kick-Ass Blog for over 3 years now (wow - that's quite a long time, now that I have written that!) and I also write blog postings for my new business www.TheTrainersTrainingCompany.co.uk

And it was only the other week that I have decided to leave my How to do Email Newsletters blogsite alone for the moment - there are only so many blog postings a girl can write in week, after all!

But the most effective way I have found to keep up with all my writing (that's 2 blogs needing about 3 posts a week and 2 email newsletters that go out once a week/fortnight - not to mention other articles for magazines & online forums) is to have a blast morning.

When you are in the mood for writing, you can write for hours can't you?  And it can be difficult to be inspired on the days that you are due to write.

The easiest way to maximise on these blast mornings is to make use of the future publish option.  Write your posts one after the other and set the date to publish each postings for a date in the future. 

This post is being written on Tuesday this week, but I will set this to come out on Friday morning.  And when it gets published, it will be picked up by my facebook, plaxo, ecademy and twitter accounts and pushed out to my newsfeeds there.

When this comes out I will be having a coffee with a buddy of mine at the local farmshop coffee shop.

So, cheers and make the most of your future publishing date option.

Guided tour of the new facebook

If anyone is interested in a quick 10 minute show and tell of how to use the new look facebook, Mari Smith – the Queen of Facebook – has produced this video. 

If you are on facebook and wondering how on earth to use it better to promote your business, then kick back, watch and learn.

How do you get people to follow you on twitter?

It seems my last blog post on twitter has inspired many of you to look at/revisit twitter and see it as a possible valuable tool for your business.

But one question I had when I first started and one that I know others have asked me since is “How do you get people to follow you on twitter?”

First of all, I don’t think you need to strive to “get” people to follow you.  Remember Twitter is permission based so if someone has enough of you, you’re gone and out of their twitter feed instantly.

Having only been on twitter for just over a month, I have already experienced the twitter spammers and they are certainly out to “get” followers.  So, go with the attitude of attracting rather than getting.

Now that we have re-framed the question to “How to attract people to me on Twitter?” here are some of the ways I have seen that worked for me and resulted in attracting 98 followers in 4 weeks (at the time of writing) which I am quite proud of really!

• Don’t go out and starting adding hundreds and thousands of people to your follow list expecting people to just reciprocate.  First of all, how can you really follow 1,698 people when you are new to twitter (of course if you are The Scobleizer, you can – he is now following 21,004 people with 34,554 followers!) and secondly, IMHO if you are following 1,698 people but only have 34 following back, it just gives an impression that you are out to twam (is that short for twitter spam?!)
• Do start conversations with people that you follow.  When someone replies to you, others in their tweeter feed will see your name & so may click through to see who they are following & having a conversation with.  And if you build up a good enough relationship with that person, they must give a “shout-out” to your name in their tweeter feed.
• Do have an interesting & informal profile but don’t put up your “corporate tagline” or be “overly-friendly”   Remember, Twitter is fun and engaging, so reflect your personality & be interesting.
• Do link your twitter feed to your website, blog or newsletter.  Download a twitter widget to your sites and it can be an easy way of signposting your subscribers to other parts of your business to your twitter feed.
• Don’t twitter crap! Your twitter feed is going to be THE attraction for people to follow. If your twitter feed is full of useless information, then people won’t follow you from what they see on your home page.  Give value, offer help & support and engage in the twitter conversation – There is just no need to twit about your cats every day (unless you are promoting an online club for cat owners, obviously )

I’m sure I will have plenty more to share with you over the coming months, so do make sure you subscribe to this blog feed (top right hand corner) or join me on twitter – my twit name is @CanDoCanBe.

And if anyone from Twitland out there can add to these pointers, please leave a comment. I know I have still much to learn!

Is Twitter a useful resource for coaches, consultants or trainers?

I started using Twitter this summer (although confessed to have created an account months ago but never got round to doing anything with it!)

Twitter has opened up a whole new dimension that has many pros and cons for me.

Pros:

1. Able to follow and connect with people all over the world who I just would never have been able to access before
2. Improve my social networking efficiency & spend less time on each site – my tweets are connected to my facebook, ecademy and plaxo account so every time I tweet, these pages are updated automatically.  So whether you follow me on FB, ecad or plaxo, you can get my latest updates.
3. Updates my blog & websites – again every time I tweet, a little widget updates on my sites.
4. Gives you a great balance of showcasing your business & personality – allows you to show people the “real” you (but just don’t tweet about what you have for lunch every day – that’s dull! – unless you are a nutrition coach, that is!)
5. Gives another outlet for my blog RSS feed – I have set up my blogs to be feed directly in to my tweet feed automatically
6. Focuses my mind – when you only have 140 characters there is no space for blah, blah! (I am even starting to think in tweets – see cons!)
7. Twitter search – allows you to search for a particular key word/phrase and get twitter feeds to show you who is talking about your niche/interest and in what context (recommend you set up a search for your name & business name, too)
8. It’s free!

Cons:

1. It’s addictive! Be careful as it can take over your day and take you off your focus
2. Managing your twitter feed – it can be very overwhelming when you are following 100+ - so find a good twitter app that will help you track different people. TweetDeck is good & I also use twhirl.  There are others for Mac users.
3. It’s addictive!

There is a great blog and free ebook on offer for subscribers – www.twitterhandbook.com which I can thoroughly recommend for 1^st time users.

If you want to follow me – my twit name is @CanDoCanBe and drop me an email if I can be of any further help to anyone on twitter.

This post was originally written for a discussion on Eurocoach but I thought it was useful enough to share with you on blog.  Do add your comments below if you have any other pros and cons to share.  I would be very interested to read them.