Social Media News, is ‘No Makeup Selfie’ Narcissism or Charity?

Another day, another social media craze that sweeps the globe.  If you checked your Facebook wall this morning, you would have seen hundreds of females posing for a selfie with no makeup on (SHOCK!).  How is this possible you wonder?  Well it is all in the name of battling cancer apparently.  It comes to no surprise that nearly everyone has a strong opinion on this subject, as on one side of the coin it can be seen as a great way to raise awareness, but on the other it can be seen as exploiting a serious subject in order to fill some narcissistic tendencies.

Source: psyschcentral.com

First of all I will identify the good, honest people who have seen this as a bit of fun whilst donating some of their hard-earned cash in order to help Cancer Research.  Although there is a way to anonymously donate to any charity you want, any donation is better than no donation right?  The biggest plus out of this craze is that no doubt Cancer Research will raise an awful lot of money, which is a great thing in the battle against cancer.  It also changes the atmosphere on social media sites, as sometimes they can be quite temperamental places.  Many an argument will take place on a daily basis, but this seems to have created a sense of virtual community.

Away from the charitable aspect of the act, it shows that women do not need an industrial amount of makeup in order to look good.  This is also where the campaign turns slightly negative, and almost a bit sinister.

Cancer is a massive killer in all forms of societies, and do we really need pictures of people in order to ‘raise awareness’.  This term gets used too much, and by now there is no doubt that people are aware of cancer.  Many families have been torn apart by this dreadful disease and the last thing these people want is to be told to be aware of what might be.  The real question burning under this benevolent term is ‘are you going to give money?’  This may seem like a pessimistic view, but there are other ways to advertise charity other than to take a picture of ones face.

Source: don'teatthefruit.com

Eventually the fad will pass, but does that mean that ‘awareness’ will pass?  Of course not and this is why there is something slightly narcissistic about these pictures.  There is opportunity to raise genuine awareness here, but some are simply posting slightly blurred pictures of their best benevolent pout, and then not proceeding to donate afterwards.  In this case the craze becomes detrimental to the cause and just highlights some of the problems in today’s world.  It seems that the folks doing this are just hunting for approval from their peers, and then it just becomes a big cycle of people patting each other on the back in cosmetic approval whilst the genuine issue takes a back seat.

There have been increases in donations off the back of this trend, but so much more can be done here.  There is a question to be raised and that is what an image of someone’s face without makeup ever done for the fight against cancer that the photos of other made up faces haven’t?  There are other people out there raising genuine charity via head shaves, marathon runs, and other ventures.  These create a physical element of community and produce real-life emotions with people making genuine sacrifices in the name of charity.

There have even been examples of people labelling others as ‘brave’ because they are uploading pictures of their faces!  This is terrible when held up to the unimaginable struggle that many go through fighting cancer on a daily basis.  Despite the good intentions by some, one can’t help that a lot of people online are just promoting the wrong cause here, the self. 

The fight against cancer will continue, and as long as people do donate there is hope that one day all forms will be curable, but also this trend will pass.  Unfortunately another trend that won’t pass is the narcissistic society we live in today where a lot of people are only interested in promoting the identity behind thescreen.  Despite the doom and gloom element to this latest craze, there are some great people in society who genuinely want to help others, and unfortunately they slip under the public radar.

 http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/donate

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Donate/

Social Media News, Facebook Integrates New Gender Options on Profiles

Facebook took the social media world by storm last Thursday after announcing that people who use the site in US English can now customise their gender options.

Users can now procure the labels 'transsexual', 'intersex' and 'androgynous'. This move by Facebook ensures that people can be referred to as they wish, and socially liberates some pockets in society that previously have not had a voice in the online world.

As well as adding around 50 different terms for their options, Facebook have also made it possible for users to alter their profile when it comes to direct referrals.  A user can now be referred to as he/him, she/her, or even they/their. This is certainly a massive step in the world of social media networking as more and more people across the globe are using sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it is essential that these companies cater for even the smallest pockets of society.

The social media giant posted a message on its diversity page hailing the decision made: "while to many this change may not mean much, for those it affects it means a great deal".  The company also said it worked with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender activist groups before solidifying a final list of gender options.  This demonstrates another sound move from Facebook, who by reaching out to groups who are usually kept in the public dark, have now catapulted these groups into the watching eye of the Internet.

Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation welcomed the changes online and stated "over the past few years, a person’s Facebook profile truly has become their online identity, and now Facebook has taken a milestone step to allow countless people to more honestly and accurately represent themselves".  This gratitude towards Facebook was echoed on Facebook's diversity page by current users, but with jubilation also comes queries from other quarters, and this unfortunately opens the door for others who use popular social networking sites as a platform to discriminate.  There have been early signs of this as some have sarcastically requested a dictionary in order to look up some of the gender terms.

Despite this, the majority have reacted positively, and for anyone who wants to change their gender information Facebook offers these instructions:

 - Go to your Timeline (which we sometimes refer to as your profile).

- Click Update Info at the bottom of your cover photo.

- Click Edit in the top right of the section you’d like to change. (The new gender options are only accessible within an autocomplete drop-down menu, so you have to begin typing to see them appear.)

- Enter your new info and click Save.

With plans to expand these new options, it seems that Facebook is looking ahead to a new diverse online world, and it's about time. These changes will indeed create debate amongst people in forums and on Facebook itself, but if there is a positive end result, which allows people to confidently express themselves as who they consider themselves to be, then it represents a step forward in society. In a subject that is regarded as touchy by some, Facebook should be commended in their bold effort to establish themselves as the company that liberated the cross-gender masses online, and it will now be interesting to see whether other big companies will follow.

In a nod towards their relationship status "it's complicated", Facebook may well have expanded its already 1 billion plus target range, through diversity and equality.

Use Social Media to Follow March Madness 2014

More than ever before, social media has made it incredibly easy to follow March Madness 2014. Selection Sunday is this Sunday March 16th and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament gets underway with the play-in games on Tuesday March 18th. The Tournament itself begins Thursday March 20th around 12:00 Noon EST.

With that, March Madness will be officially underway. I love this time of year and to recognize our clients and friends we’ve just rolled out our Second Annual prize giveaway. I couldn’t wait until next week! Just Like our Facebook Page to sign up to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card, then share with all your friends using the hashtag #TFGMadness to increase your chances to win.

Image by: Gabriel Suits

Articles are being posted everywhere describing in great detail the time we spend watching games, attending parties and pretending to work while we watch games and catch up on scores with our smartphones, tablets and computers. Here at The Friedman Group we’re all about the tournament and I’m just hoping to get a couple hours of work in every day until April 7th when it’s all over.

This year, there’s even more excitement about the bracket challenges many of us participate it at work and elsewhere. Warren Buffet has teamed up with Quicken Loans and Yahoo Sports to offer the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. Feeling lucky? All you have to do is submit a perfect bracket to win the billion dollars. Not feeling so lucky> The 20 highest scoring imperfect brackets win $100,000 and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

College basketball fans around the world have found social media to be a way they can keep up with their favorite teams. And when they can’t watch the games live, they can keep up with the action just by looking at their smartphone or tablet and checking their favorite social network. Here’s some ways you can stay engaged with the NCAA Tournament while remaining mobile.

This year, the NCAA March Madness Live app will broadcast live games. Games broadcast on CBS can be seen on the app and Saturday’s Final Four games (televised on TBS this year) will also be available online and on your mobile device via the NCAA March Madness Live app.

There are lots of ways to keep up with the Tournament scores, including the ESPN SportsCenter app on iTunes and for Android devices.

You’re going to find Facebook pages dedicated to March Madness and Pinterest boards for the visual amongst us. YouTube will also be filled with highlight clips throughout the Tournament.

Interested in filling out a bracket or hosting your own competition? There are many options to choose from including the bracket challenge hosted by CBSSports and Coke Zero just to name two.

Twitter is going to be buzzing with March Madness info and millions will be using and following the #MarchMadness, #ESPN, #CBSSports and #NCAA hashtags to keep up with everything they can. For some of the best tournament information, I’d suggest you have a look at @MarchMadnessTV the official home of March Madness TV, TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.

Some of my other favorite people and teams to follow on Twitter are:

• ESPN Basketball Insider Jeff Goodman @GoodmanESPN.
• Being a student of history and a fan of Duke basketball I follow @dukeblueplanet to keep up with everything Blue Devil.
• I can’t mention Duke basketball without mentioning another one of my favorite teams, the Kansas Jayhawks. Follow Kansas Basketball at @KU_Hoops and “Rock Chalk Jayhawks!”
• This year I’m also looking for Wichita Stateto shock everyone, so I’ll be following them on Twitter too.
• Jay Bilas is an ESPN Analyst, former Duke player and President of Hair Club for Men. Follow him at @JayBilas to get his take on the tournament.
• Rob Dauster @RobDauster is the Head Writer for NBCSports.com’s college hoops coverage at College Basketball Talk and always has some great insight to share.
• ESPN.com Senior Writer Andy Katz @ESPNAndyKatz covers college basketball for ESPN while populating his Twitter stream with the day’s breaking news, trivia and his own analysis.
• Are you interested in the smaller conferences? Looking for the next upset pick in your bracket challenge? Check out The Mid-Majority @midmajority in its tenth and final season.
• College basketball reporter/analyst/author for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports Seth Davis @SethDavisHoops believes “Everyone is entitled to my opinion.”
• Need some serious stats on your favorite team? Check out Sports Illustrated and SI.com writer Luke Winn @lukewinn. The guy is a statistics machine!
• While we’re talking about statistics gurus, check out Ken Pomeroy @kenpomeroy for team metrics and statistical analysis you’re not likely to find elsewhere.

By no means is this an exhaustive list of March Madness social media sites. It’s just some of my personal favorites. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Tell me who you follow on any of the social networks to get your March Madness fix.

5 Steps to Building Quality LinkedIn Connections

Are you trying to find quality leads for your business on LinkedIn?

Are you rising above the noise with quality engagement?

Using your LinkedIn profile to connect with market influencers and potential clients is smart–when done right.

In this article, you’ll discover a five-step process for building the solid relationships you need to generate a steady flow of leads from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great marketing tool if you create relationships based on trust. Image source: iStockPhoto.com.

#1: Get Your House in Order

 

Before you start looking for leads on LinkedIn, it’s important to understand LinkedIn basics and the expectations of its users.

Take a few minutes to make sure you have a professional profile and picture, and join a few groups to get a feel for how they work. Go a step further and figure out the best engagement times to post on LinkedIn.

Even little details, like a completed profile, affect how potential leads respond to you.

When you’re confident you have the basics down and are ready to start meeting others and creating leads, make a spreadsheet to track your progress and connections.

I like to keep track of current personal connections, new connections, groups my target influencers and customers are in, popular group topics, how many members are in a group and which members are most active.

#2: Find Your Market Influencers on LinkedIn

 

Before you post and push content to your intended audience, be crystal-clear about their interests. Only then can you create ads or messages that speak directly to them.

As you look for market leaders, review your personal connections and existing clients, then find them on LinkedIn. You most likely already have a priority list of companies and people whom you want to connect with. Next, go to LinkedIn and search for other companies and people who are active in your market.

Search for all of the companies you’d like to follow.

When you connect with people, don’t send network invitations with “Hey, we’re in the same network, I thought that…” or “I liked your website, I have a question…” types of messages to connect with them. They’ll get deleted, ignored or flagged.

#3: Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups

 

It’s not enough to find the leading voices in your market, you have to know where they hang out and what topics they find interesting. LinkedIn groups are a good place to get a feel for this.

Look at which LinkedIn groups market leaders are participating in, then join the ones that fit your needs.

Look at your list of influencers, then visit their LinkedIn profiles and scroll down the page to see their Groups section. Here you can see all of the groups they’re part of.
Visit these groups and join the ones that fit your needs.

#4: Create an Editorial Calendar

 

When you visit a group, you can sort the conversations by Popular and Recent to see which questions and content are most relevant to members (and who offers the most responses). These conversations are your target areas of opportunity. Let those topics guide your own contributions.
Make a note in your spreadsheet about popular topics and the names of the most active group members. Use that information to develop an editorial calendar.

As you create your calendar, remember that generic content won’t get you the attention you deserve and want. Instead, ask intriguing questions and share thoughtful, useful information to build a high-converting customer/client-building funnel.

In one of my market-relevant groups, the topic of tools for writers came up, so I shared an article I’d written that has related tips and detailed information about writing resources and tools. The content was relevant and it linked to my blog; I added value to the group and drove traffic to my website.

Create engaging posts that speak to your audience.

#5: Post the Right Kind of Content

 

Your content should address the issues being discussed in the group and offer help or more information without being a sales message in disguise.

When you publish new online content, use your website’s social sharing widget or plugin to push the post to your targeted LinkedIn groups. When you click the LinkedIn Share option, check the Post to Groups checkbox and enter an intriguing question as the title.

Target your message directly from your blog via the LinkedIn Share plugin.

If you post and share often, keep both shared content and your question relevant to each group’s discussions to avoid looking like spam. When visitors hop over to your blog post or website, rely on the conversion tactics you have in place to capture your new leads.

Make sure you have notifications turned on so you’ll know when you get a LinkedIn comment. You don’t want to miss a chance to respond.

Conclusion

Hard sells (e.g., self-serving emails and posts) just don’t work on LinkedIn. Comments, likes and direct responses to your content aren’t permission to pitch. Instead, continue the conversation and carefully consider the content you share and how you present it.

Research what each group wants, then offer yourself as a resource. Ask more questions, make recommendations and offer solutions—or if you can’t help, refer people to someone who can. You can rise above the noise with quality engagement that makes you stand out.

What do you think? How do you generate leads from LinkedIn? Are you happy with the quality of your interactions? Is there a tactic that has worked well for you? Leave a comment with your advice or questions below.

Unlimited Pinterest Secret Boards: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

Pinterest Announces Unlimited Secret Boards: “With unlimited secret boards, there’s no limit to the number of ways for you to plan, contemplate, practice and explore all of the things you want to do.”

“You can always invite friends to your secret boards so you can hatch plots together in private.”

LinkedIn Introduces All-New People You May Know Page: “The new People You May Know simplifies the experience of growing your network. It does that by bringing all of your pending invitations and suggestions to connect together in one place.”

“The sleek new design features beautiful cards with larger photos for an easier-to-read, streamlined experience.”

Disqus Adds Featured Comments: This new addition allows moderators “to feature a comment, placing it proudly at the top of the Comments section.”

“You can feature any comment within the discussion. When you feature a comment, it will be displayed prominently at the top of the thread.”

Getty Images Introduces Embed Tool: This “new Embed feature makes it easy, legal and free for anybody to share (Getty) images on websites, blogs and social media platforms.”

You can easily share Getty images on blogs and social media.

Evernote Adds Handwriting for Android: You can “easily move from writing to typing to taking photos and back all within a single note.”


Facebook Releases Updates to Paper App: You can now “share articles via Facebook Messages, text message or email.”

“Experience other improvements that make Paper even more reliable and—hopefully—that much more fun to use!”

Google Redesigns Hangouts App: This new version is “fully optimized for the iPad, including picture-in-picture video calling.” And you can “record and send video messages up to 10 seconds long.”

You can use “animated stickers that help you share exactly how you’re feeling.”

Facebook Messenger Arrives for Windows Phone: “You can now download Facebook Messenger from the Windows Phone Store.”

“With Facebook Messenger, you will be able to see who’s online for a private or group chat, send a private message and bring messages to life with pictures and stickers.”

Here are a few social media tools worth checking out:

Sharalike: “With an easy-to-use, highly personalized approach to image management, Sharalike users can store, edit, enjoy and share gorgeous slideshows with just a few clicks.”

“A single application for all image/video saving and sharing (instead of the multiple applications you currently need to use!).”

StoryBox: “StoryBox aggregates all forms of earned media—tweets; YouTube videos; posts; Instagram photos and videos; and content created directly through VideoGenie technology—on your site, which is then optimized based on (StoryBox’s) proprietary engagement algorithm.”

“Easily collect new videos and photos from your community as part of your site experience.”

Swiftype: “The easiest way to add great search to your website or mobile application.”

“Powerful features in one simple package.”

Here’s a cool social media marketing ebook:

Other Mentions

Introducing Social Media Marketing World: 60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author of Youtility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.

Check out this overview of the conference or click here for more details.

What do you think? Please share your comments below.

5 Hashtag Tracking Tools for Twitter, Facebook and Beyond

Are you using hashtags in your social media campaigns?

Do you want to find tools to help manage your hashtags?

The right tools can help you launch, track and analyze hashtags across social networks.

In this article, you’ll discover five tools that make it easy to track hashtags and their related conversations.

Why Use a Hashtag?

Hashtags make it easier for people to find and follow discussions about brands, events and promotions. They also let brands track the performance of promotions across social media.

Hashtags can determine how easily you can target and track a campaign. You’ve probably seen many businesses use generic hashtags like #food or #chocolate. While these will get your update into a large conversation, using such broad hashtags is wasting your time.

Can you imagine how many posts (tweets or otherwise) contain #chocolate every minute? Managing the hashtag would be a nightmare. You’d spend weeks sorting through every instance of the hashtag to determine which mentions apply to you.

It’s worth the effort (and your sanity) to come up with a unique hashtag that fits with your particular campaign.

A good example is Subway’s #januANY campaign. Their hashtag has two key components: it’s distinctive enough to track easily and it’s simple for fans to remember.

Subway uses hashtags that are memorable and easy to track.

As you’re choosing a hashtag, follow Subway’s lead. A good hashtag is memorable, unique and relevant to your campaign.

Following those guidelines, you’ll find it’s much easier to keep track of how many people are participating in your campaign and spreading the word.

Read on to discover five tools that can effectively track, analyze and report how others are using your hashtag.

#1: RebelMouse: Embed Your Campaign on Your Website

RebelMouse is your best friend if you’re running a cross-platform campaign.

Not only does it fetch hashtag conversations happening anywhere on social media, it also offers integrated Google Analytics, social sharing, RSS feeds and content moderation.

Add to that a custom domain feature with customizable designs and CSS capabilities that let you embed RebelMouse on your website, and you have a one-stop shop for your social storytelling.

RebelMouse is your social media front page.

Burger King’s #SATISFRIED campaign used RebelMouse to pull hashtagged Instagram photos into their website and show off how fans were being satisfried.

RebelMouse embedded on the Burger King website.

Having people share the hashtag provided social proof for friends of friends and helped Burger King reach a wider audience.

#2: Tagboard: Get the Complete Conversation

Tagboard gathers text, video and image posts to give you an overall picture of what’s being said around a hashtag.

After grabbing relevant conversations from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Vine, Tagboard puts them in a user-friendly interface where you can interact with the results.

Tagboard lets you track hashtags across multiple platforms.

Audi used Tagboard to track their Super Bowl ad for #Bravery in 2013. They were able to pull in tweets, Facebook mentions and Instagram mentions.

Audi has been using hashtags with their Super Bowl ads since 2011.

#3: Talkwalker: Analyze Hashtag Campaigns

Talkwalker is more than a hashtag tracking tool. Its capabilities go far beyond letting you listen to and engage with conversations around hashtags.

Talkwalker gives you data for gender distribution, geographic distribution and sentiment analysis on your own hashtags, as well as your competitors’ hashtags.

Track more than mentions—get key demographics with Talkwalker.

All the data are easily filtered, sorted, analyzed and charted using their tool. The insights can be seamlessly exported into Excel, PowerPoint and Word so you can manage and present results easily.

#4: Bundle Post: Generate Hashtags Automatically

Bundle Post is a very useful content management system that lets you generate, organize, schedule and post content for hashtag campaigns. It also integrates with HootSuite, HubSpot, Buffer and other systems.

Bundle Post automatically generates hashtags for you.

This tool has a specialized feature that identifies popular keywords in your content and automatically replaces those words with hashtags. After you type these keywords and phrases into the Bundle Feed feature, it goes out and finds relevant, related content for you!

#5: RiteTag: Find the Perfect Hashtag

RiteTag optimizes updates for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ with the best possible hashtags for your post, then analyzes them to let you create a library of hashtags to use.

To make publishing easier, RiteTag has an extension you can add to your web browser. Use the extension to schedule updates with your optimized hashtags from wherever you are.

Bonus Tools Just for Twitter

Tweet Binder and Twubs are specialized Twitter tools for analytics and filtering conversations, respectively.

Tweet Binder lets you enter a hashtag, then provides an in-depth report of actual conversations, retweets, associated images and links based on your hashtag. Once you get the results, you can categorize your findings by influencers, contributors or other media filters.

Tweet Binder gives you a custom ranking feature for events.

Twubs acts as a live stream for Twitter chats. It has been known to be more real-time than Twitter itself! If a hashtag conversation is moving too quickly for you, just hit the Pause button to catch up.

Use Twubs to track your hashtags in real time.

Over to you

From Google+ and Facebook to Pinterest and LinkedIn, hashtags are everywhere these days.
With the right tools, hashtags make it easier for brands to manage and maintain social media campaigns.

The tools above can help you launch, track and analyze hashtags across social networks. You can see what’s working and what’s not, how big your reach is and even how you compare to your competition. I’d say that’s pretty handy.

What do you think? What do you use to keep track of your hashtags? Have you tried any of these tools? How have they worked for you? Share your experiences and opinions in the comments below.

10 Tips to Be Successful on LinkedIn

LinkedIn launched on May 5, 2003 (on my mother’s birthday) and currently has 277 million members — with two new people creating accounts every second.

Here are updated LinkedIn statistics to impress your boss or your mom.

I joined LinkedIn in February 2007 and I’ve actively used it over the years both as a consumer and a teacher. I’d like to think this makes me somewhat of an expert on how to use the professional networking site.

Whether you are on LinkedIn as a job seeker, a job recruiter, or to further your professional development, I want to share advice how you can be successful.

1. Keep your profile updated.

This is most important — as 40% of LinkedIn users visit the site every day.

If I search for your name on Google, Bing, or some other search engine, your profile link will appear in the top 5 results. If you share a common name like John Smith, you’re in the top 20 results. Don’t be outdated or inactive.

There is a correlation between the frequency of your updates and the frequency of search engines indexing it. If you never update your profile, your search rank will decrease.

2. Fill your profile with keywords and colorful language.

Your resume does not belong here. You can echo the titles but you want to expand on your bullet points, perhaps writing complete sentences or longer paragraphs. Tell your story — why you joined the company, what you did, why you left.

Your headline (the bold-formatted words underneath your name that follows you around the site) should be a description of who you are and not a mirror of your job title. There is a difference between John Smith the Veterinarian Technician and John Smith the Animal Care Specialist. Be the latter.

My current headline is Digital PR Strategist + Speaker.

3. Write a summary that supports your experience and education.

This is where your so-called cover letter goes. Write for the world to see.
You are limited to 2,000 words; but most summaries I see are under 200 words. The site enables you to type any character such as wingdings.

My summary starts with a brief snapshot of why I’m on LinkedIn (looking for a specific job opportunity), followed by highlights from my past, and ending with my contact information. I tell my story through the use of dashes, ellipses, and checkmarks.

4. Write in first person, not third.

Unless you introduce yourself in third person at job interviews, cocktail hours, and networking mixers, write your summary and experience sections with first person pronouns.

There are good examples of profiles in third person but I prefer reading about someone in her own words as if she’s describing herself to me on the phone.

5. Upload a current headshot as your photograph.

Ensure your photo is from the past year or two. Don’t display old photos to represent you on LinkedIn. Again, think of that cocktail party and show me the real you.

6. Participate in groups.

There are 2 million LinkedIn groups that you can join to connect with like-minded professionals in your industry.

You are limited to being a member of 50 groups. You can’t join more without leaving others. Though, the average person belongs to 7 groups.

There is a correlation between how much you participate and how much you get back. For instance, I’ve received job offers as the direct result of answering questions on groups about social media and PR.

7. Be smart about connection requests.

You shouldn’t connect to strangers. One benchmark to use is whether or not you can recommend the person. If you can write a recommendation off the cuff, say yes to the connection; else, ignore that person for someone who you can recommend.

I used to accept connection requests from people who commented on my blog and from people I randomly met at conferences. But because neither of us kept in touch, I gradually forgot their relevance and could no longer recommend them.

Moreover, they couldn’t recommend me when I asked for help connecting to others. This led me to unfriend over 2,000 people over the past year. I’m connected to 370 people today. Here’s a blog post I wrote about that bulk unfollowing.

Say yes to former high school classmates because chances are they are memorable enough in your head to remember them. Say yes to work colleagues. Maybe you know your neighbors, too. You never know who is connected to someone you need to know — and therein lies the point of LinkedIn.

8. Recommend your connections.

Whether your friend is a college classmate, colleague, coworker, etc., there should be a reason you two are connected.

I don’t refer to endorsements — those bobbleheads of people who think you’re a skilled expert.
Recommendations are mini testimonials that others can read why you like and respect your connection.

9. Ask your connections to recommend you. 

Some job employers will automatically refuse candidates with less than so many recommendations. Fact is, if you don’t ask you’ll never know.

Keep in mind that some people will reciprocate a recommendation to you if you are proactive and write them one first.

10. Be a person, not a robot.

“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” is the default message I see if you send me a connection request without customizing the message. That line is meaningless unless I know you well. Nine times out of ten, I’m replying to the person asking who she is or why she sent me a request.

It’s worse when she doesn’t have an uploaded photo — because I’m a visual person and photos help me remember people I met.

Change the default message and personalize it.

Tell me why you want to add me to your network.

These are my tips. What are yours?

Add a comment below and share with me and other readers.

Here is a link to my LinkedIn profile if you know an organization needing someone with my digital PR and community relations skills. Thanks.

LinkedIn Member Blocking: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

LinkedIn Announces Member Blocking: This new LinkedIn member blocking feature will be rolled out to all LinkedIn members.

Use the drop-down menu to block or report a LinkedIn member.

LinkedIn Redesigns Who’s Viewed Your Profile: “Packed with new visual analytics and actionable insights designed to give you more ways to manage your professional identity and increase your visibility across LinkedIn.”

You will now have “access to more data-driven insights such as the industry your viewers work in, the keyword searches that led to your profile, how they found you and new insights including what regions they live in, what profession they are in and what company they work for.”

Facebook Shows Stories Around Topics You Like: “Now, when a page tags another page, (Facebook) may show the post to some of the people who like or follow the tagged page.”

“For example, this post by the Bleacher Report might be shown in the news feed to people who follow or like Dwight Howard, in addition to people who follow or like the Bleacher Report.”

Twitter Introduces Promoted Accounts in Search: “With this launch, relevant promoted accounts can be presented to users in search results along with recommendations of people to follow.”

Twitter will “automatically select relevant search queries for presenting promoted accounts based on an advertiser’s targeting choices, so no additional action is required for your business to access this capability.”

YouTube Reveals New Look: “You’ll see some changes to make it easier to find what you want to watch on YouTube and collect playlists to watch again and again.”

“YouTube now has a center-aligned look, fitting neatly on any screen size, and feeling similar to the mobile apps you’re spending almost half of your YouTube time with.”

Facebook Introduces New Campaign Structure: On March 4, Facebook is “rolling out a new campaign structure that will make it easier for advertisers of every size to organize, optimize and measure their ads.”

“The new campaign structure will be reflected worldwide across all ad interfaces, including the Ads Create Tool, Ads Manager and Power Editor, as well as third-party ad interfaces built by preferred marketing developers.”

Facebook Improves Core Audience Targeting Options: The targeting features built into their ad-buying interface will start to roll out, “allowing advertisers around the world to reach precise audiences based on four main targeting types: location, demographic, interests and behaviors.”

“Facebook’s targeting features are becoming simpler and even more powerful.”

Facebook Makes Changes to @Facebook.com Email Addresses: “Soon any email messages that are sent to your @facebook.com email address will no longer go to your Facebook messages. Instead, these emails will be forwarded to the primary email on your Facebook account.”

Here’s an interesting infographic worth noting:

The Year of the Social Small Business from LinkedIn:

“94% of survey respondents who use social media said they use it for marketing, and 3 in 5 say social solves for the core business challenge of attracting new customers.”

Other Mentions

Introducing Social Media Marketing World:

60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author of Youtility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.

 Check out this overview of the conference or click here for more details.

What do you think? Please share your comments below.

Twitter Chats: How to Create a Successful Tweet Chat

Are you familiar with Twitter chats?

Wondering how Twitter chats can help market your business?

To learn more about Twitter chats and what they can mean for your business, I interview Pam Moore for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Pam Moore, founder of Marketing Nutz, an agency specializing in social media marketing. One of Pam’s areas of expertise includes Twitter.

Pam shares why businesses should host Twitter chats and the marketing benefits of running them.
You’ll discover how to get started, where to find participants and ways to promote your Twitter chats.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Listen Now

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You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Twitter Chats

What Is a Twitter Chat? 

A Twitter chat is a way to get people together at a predetermined time and talk about a subject. Their purpose is to organize conversation and connect people.

Use tweet chats to connect people around a particular subject. 

Image source: iStockphoto

Pam says that if you’re new to social media, and to Twitter specifically, then Twitter chats are a great way for you to learn how to use it. Twitter chats not only allow you to form a deep connection with a community, but Pam has also seen people empower their lives and businesses faster than they thought possible.

When you plan a tweet chat, you can make them formal or informal. You’ll find out why Pam recommends that you have a combination of both. You can also do tweet chats in a series, which can help with your brand’s positioning. With this type of tweet chat, you need to put together a strategy over several months.

One of Pam’s clients, IBM, recently held an event called IBM Connect in Orlando, where they hosted tweet chats with some of the influencers and speakers for the event. The aim of these tweet chats was to generate awareness and excitement for the event, plus drive registration.

IBM used tweet chats for the IBM Connect event.

This particular chat had over 40 million impressions over the course of a few days, and included 2500 tweets. Nearly 600 people took part in the conversation
.
You’ll find out what comes after the tweet chat that is just as important as the chat itself and why you are left with a social asset.

Listen to the show to find out what IBM added to the front and back ends of their tweet chat for IBM Connect.

Why host a tweet chat?

One of the marketing benefits when you host your own tweet chat is that you can start to a build a community around it. You can capture the mindshare of that audience for a specific time on a regular basis. This gives you an opportunity to communicate and support your marketing objectives.

You can build a community around tweet chats. Image source: iStockphoto

Your core goal is to focus on the needs of your audience. When you provide great content, which can bring good people to the community, then they’ll begin to depend on you and want more.

Pam has seen so many people—clients included—grow their businesses and make connections and partnerships. It easily puts you in a leadership role.

Listen to the show to discover how a tweet chat can easily go viral.

How to prepare for a tweet chat

Pam says that the process includes both art and science. As the chat leader, you need to provide some framework, but you don’t want it to look like you have planned everything that you say.

You have to balance structure with flexibility and agility. In a structured-style tweet chat, you have a list of questions. Pam usually creates a list of questions and has a specific topic to talk about.

Pam is the leader of the GetRealChat, which is held weekly to educate and help the audience. As the leader, you can share your expertise and also leave the questions open for the community to answer.

Pam leads the GetRealChat every week.

You’ll hear how you can use tweet chats to grow your email opt-in list and subscribers.

Listen to the show to find out what led IBM to put together a social buzz chat after the tweet chat, and how the company created a social asset.

How to get people to participate live 

When you lead a tweet chat, you need to make sure you work in unison with any guests whom you invite to join you. Don’t ever throw them in at the last minute.

The best way is to get on the phone with guests ahead of time, so you can have that voice-to-voice connection first. If it’s your first time on a chat, then Pam encourages you to be on the phone while on the chat.

You’ll discover why Pam likes to get on the conference call 15 minutes before the chat with everybody who is participating. Behind the scenes, the chats are very structured, but to the community it needs to look completely unstructured.

The way to get people to participate in a tweet chat is to leverage your existing community using your email list. If you don’t have one, then you need to start to build a list.

Build an email list if you don’t already have one.

Pam likes to do some market tipping to let people know about the chat.

The most important thing is to make sure your content is good. You can also reach out to some key influencers within your community and get them to partner with you.

You’ll hear the story behind how GetRealChat came about.

A lot of different tweet chats have arisen from the GetRealChat, created by people who came in 3 years ago and hardly knew how to tweet or retweet. These people now lead their own communities and some even work for Pam and her team.

Listen to the show to find out how long a chat should last, and what you need to do to make it succeed.

How to find tweet chats

If you’re new to tweet chats, then head over to the GetRealChat blog to see all of the transcripts from Pam’s tweet chats.

Pam recommends that you use the TweetChat platform. Once you enter the specific hashtag, it will automatically filter all of your tweets for that hashtag. It will also add the hashtag at the end of your tweets, so you don’t have to.

TweetChat will add the hashtag at the end of your tweets.

Listen to the show to find out how we use TweetChat at Social Media Examiner.

Common mistakes to avoid

Pam says that if she were to do it all over again, she would structure her chats more from the start.
The objective of tweet chats is to serve and help people. So if you see it start to take off, then you need to think about monetizing your platform.

IBM is a client of Pam’s because they approached her to participate on her platform and to communicate with her audience. You’ll hear the reasons Pam set up the GetRealChat blog.

Make sure you have a platform for your audience to go to.

When you first start out, you need at least 10-20 people on a chat. It’s about quality over quantity.

Pam has always tried to focus on quality, and to ensure that people feel part of the community. You need to keep the people who care about it really engaged, because they are the heartbeat of the chat.

It’s better to have 100 people who are interested in your content and communicate within your chat on a monthly basis than it is to have 500 who are just tweeting or retweeting because they want to become famous and be part of the hashtag.

You’ll discover how many questions you should have ready and why five is normally not enough.
Listen to the show to find out what turns up the dial on the viral nature of a tweet chat.

The strategic use of retweets

Pam says that when she runs a tweet chat, she has windows open for TweetChat and HootSuite.
You need to make sure you know the key players in your community and give them some social love. Some of the best ways you can do this is to:

• Notice when they ask questions
• Greet them as they come in
• Share relevant content they tweet

Another thing you can do is welcome people back. Pam has people in her community who over time have stepped up into a welcoming role. People just want to be acknowledged.

Listen to the show to hear why Pam doesn’t consider influence score when replying to people.

Tools to help manage a tweet chat

Along with TweetChat, there are a few other tools available to help you manage a tweet chat.
You can use a platform like Storify to help manage your tweets. Tweets can be collected within Storify and then shared in a blog post.

During tweet chats, you or a colleague can favorite some tweets in a separate Twitter window that you know you’ll want to pull into a transcript. This will make it much easier for you to go into Storify, do a search and pull up those tweets.

Use Storify to turn your favorite tweets into a transcript.

To create the transcript, it’s simply drag and drop. Storify then shows you what your transcript will look like.

You need to install the WordPress plugin for Storify on your blog, and once Storify gives you the URL for that transcript, you can easily embed it within your blog post.

The WordPress Storify plugin allows you to embed your tweets into a blog post.

Hashtracking is another tool that Pam loves. It gives you real-time insights for your hashtag.
Some of the measurement features include:

• The reach of your hashtag
• How many impressions you are getting
• How many people participated in the chat
• How many tweets were sent
• What other hashtags were communicated

You’ll discover why Hashtracking is a very powerful tool when you have sponsors involved in your tweet chats.

Pam believes that if you are new to tweet chats, these tools are all you need to get started.

Check out the full podcast episode with Pam Moore.

Listen to the show to hear what you can view in the Hashtracking transcript.

Other Show Mentions

This week’s podcast is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World.


Social Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.

The conference features more than 80 sessions in four major tracks: social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.

If you want to see the excitement for this conference, check out our hashtag #smmw14.

If you enjoy networking and a key part of your business strategy is to meet people who could possibly become business partners, strategic alliance partners or future customers, you will love this conference. We have integrated networking in so many different ways.

1. Bingo on opening night
2. Walks/runs in a morning
3. Opportunity after the opening keynote
4. Dedicated networking space
5. Dedicated networking ambassadors

Be sure to check out more about the conference.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Pam Moore at The Marketing Nutz or at Pam Marketing Nut.
• Check out IBM Connect and the hashtag for the event.
• Use TweetChat for Twitter chats.
• Check out Jessica Northey, a country music artist who runs a tweet chat at CMchat.
• Look at the GetRealChat blog for transcripts of Pam’s tweet chats.
• Try Storify to manage your tweets.
• Install the WordPress plugin for Storify, so transcripts can be embedded in a blog post.
• Use Hashtracking to gain real-time insights into your hashtag.
• Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2014.
• Contact Emily at emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in corporate sponsorships for Social Media Marketing World 2014.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on creating Twitter chats for your business? Please leave your comments below.