Linked-In is the uncover infiltration pro of the Social Media state. Its the most unobtrusively of them all. It also is the only social media site that most business professionals recognize immediately as a tool. And many people have at least received an invite. Actually, the first few times I got an invite I just deleted them. What did I want with a directory site? Who cares? Eventually I did say yes and have learned so much since! Linked-in is far more than a "directory" of who you know.

As I continue to review social media websites, its about time I discussed Linked-In. I have met some people who are not really "internet" types who rave over this service. I'm not in love with it but I've seen quite a few benefits which I will relate. If you'd like to hear a more personalized review, here is social media guru, Jennifer Laycock, explaining why she if she had to pick one social media it would be Linked-In.

Time: Linked-In can take very little time and still be a great resource. If you do some initial work up front you can quickly use the service just for benefit. Establish your contact list. Send out the email to everyone you know. Don't think of this as spam. Its easy to delete the message. I even had people who thanked me for inviting them. After you're all set up, you only have to use Linked-in when you want to. Unlike Plurk or Twitter, there are no constant updates being sent to you, nor do you have to make any.

Clutter: None of it here. No applications, the ads might as well be invisible, no wall graffiti or updates. The profiles are simple, easy to navigate. There also is no mental clutter. This site is strictly business. Who do you know? How do you know them? No one is going to talk about giving their dog a bath or playing scrabble. The world is simplified. Everyone there is looking for the same thing, opportunities.

So what exactly are the benefits?

Jobs: Find business, find employees, make money. Do you own a carpet company and are looking for new homes in your area? Search by name, by company or by industry: maybe you should hook up with a realtor or a construction company. You may not know one but someone in your "circle" might. Then you can get an introduction and bam, problem solved. You can also send out an email to all the people you are conneted with and ask things like: I'm looking for this contact, or I want to hire a receptionist. (You can also pay to list a job, I hear its very successful). Also, finding a job using linked-in as your resume is also becoming more popular. Its not mainstream yet, but as we go more paperless I think people will accept a link to your profile instead of a boring resume.

Credibility: Linked-In offers a number of ways to build your credibility. You can join organizations that are both on and offline. You can ask people to endorse you and your company (and do the same for others). You can also answer questions in your field, this can label you as an "expert" and also prove you know what you are doing! On top of that, you have the opportunity to introduce people to your background, your network and your web presence.

Information: The questions section of Linked-In is really underhyped. I think the possibilites involved there might be endless. If you listened to my podcast with Doyle Slayton, you may have heard him talk about Linked-in. He says ask a question you already know the answer to and see what happens: you may learn more, re-evaluate your answer, meet people with similar views and also have a chance to test the waters before sharing what you know. This is also a great chance to find about things you really need help with, people love to anwer! Plus, you never know what answer/question might lead to eventual business.

My Experiment: Recently I asked a question on Linked-In; mostly to test Doyle's theory. I picked mobile marketing which was just labeled as reaching "critical mass" today. I already knew all the statistics, and have been closing following its growth with mixed emotions. However, I wanted to see what would happen. Within an hour people were sending me answers. By the time the question closed I had 21 answers and most were well thought out and informed. Not only that but one of the first answers I recieved was from Frank Feather, a well known "Futurist". I read and highlighted one of his books when I was just starting college, in fact I'd say it was THE book which inspired me to really dig into the internet. Needless to say I emailed him back and am now his 500th contact on Linked-In. I'm hoping to continue to chat with him (maybe I can get a quote from him when I do a blog post about mobile). Just that one contact has made my entire experience on Linked-In worth it. How else would I have met him? I just thought it was a neat little story to end on.

I had a friend say they had a love-hate relationship with Linked-In. I'd love to hear about other people's stories and successes. I would never call myself an expert on Linked-In, I know far more about Plurk or Twitter, so please share!

We're linked-in here!

I know Twitter's been having a hard time with capacity, but it is still a useful tool in my mind. Last time I discussed Twitter I gave a general overview. This time I want to look more in-depth at what Twitter can do for business owners.

Time Warp

First of all, know that Twitter is an investment. Just like real life networking, it takes a certain amount of patience and persistence. It takes relationship building. Strangely enough, many business owners write off services like Twitter because they "can't reach their audience" or they "don't have time". And yet they are willing to sit through a two hour luncheon, talk about their business for 30 second and get one or two leads (maybe). Pause and consider this for a moment; if that is good networking, how can Twitter not be? Twitter will list your activities for the whole world to see 24 hours a day. Even if you update just once a day and make 5-6 replies... you're still building your brand! If you still think this is time misspent, check out Problogger's argument about how all forms of communication can be a waste of time when handled inappropriately.

Follow the Leader

Once you've made up your mind to get on Twitter you might not know where to start. Who do you follow? How do you get people to follow you? Rule #1: Never, ever try to follow 20,000 people and see who subscribes back. Just don't. Its just another form of spam. You may be completely legit but most serious business owners will dismiss you. I suggest searching for people with similar interests. Check out some names in your industry who you admire. Find posts that interest you, and give them some feedback (Remember: the Golden Rule is Networking!). If you need some more help, check out some useful tools like Twellow. Or find people in your area with TwitterLocal. There are lots more!

Quality over Quantity

Some people post 40-50 times a day on Twitter. That's fine if you want to and have the time. However, I suggest making quality posts about your business, your website, your blog - just a few times a day and giving lots of replies back. Follow one or two new people everyday. If you talk about what interests you, maybe ask some questions, you should start building worthwhile relationships. Not only will people respond to you on Twitter but you should start seeing increased traffic to your blog, articles and website.

The Niche Glitch

I've mentioned previously that social media is a lush garden of opportunity for tech-inclined individuals. This does not mean if you aren't a techie you aren't welcome. In fact, I love finding writers, stay-at-home moms and students: they give some of the most meaningful feedback. I was just commenting the other day how I wish more "everyday" businesses would create corporate Twitter accounts; I'd follow them in heartbeat. If Barnes & Noble put up book deals on Twitter, I'd check my feed every hour! But not just big business, small ones too. If the owner of Dunn Brother's Coffee Shop in Addison had a Twitter account, I'd promote them constantly!

Twitterpated

You don't need to be twitterpated (or smitten, for the Disney illiterate) to appreciate Twitter. It is a tool. You don't have to write about how you got stuck in traffic or the 5 different salad dressings offered at lunch. But you can write about events you're attending, sales, opportunities or just what makes you passionate about what you do. You'll be pleasantly surprised that being real with people on the internet, might just close a sale.

Feel free to follow me: http://twitter.com/Veribatim

When I first wrote about my experiences with Plurk, the social media site was still very new, and I had only been toying with it for a few days. Now that its been a month, I wanted to write a follow up post.

Plurk and Twitter: The Continued Saga

Everyday I see someone on Plurk post a blog or other entry comparing Plurk and Twitter. Overall, most of the social media savvy say that the two websites are very different and not comparable.

Bitter Twitter

Are Twitter users boycotting Plurk? Its a rumor in Plurkland. Obviously, not everyone will like Plurk. The rapid pace and disjointed time line can be more than one ADD person can handle. However, many Twitter users are trying plurk on for size. The Twitter community is full of techies and early adopters, most of them will at least use Plurk before they knock it.

Plurkopia

It is true, that many "Tweeple" have left Twitter in favor of Plurk. I do not believe Plurk is stealing Twitter user. Many people have become fed up with Twitter's lack-of reliability and were bound to leave anyhow. Plurk just happened to offer a vibrant, similar experience.

Plurk has many of Twitter's good points. In fact, users often grow to love (and obsess) over their Plurkiness. Will the utopia of Plurk last? Maybe. Plurk grew quite rapidly the past few weeks and though it hasn't experienced anything like Twitter's Failwhale, there have been a number of small glitches. Is it due to over-capacity? Or is the Plurk team working hard to prevent the problems Plurk developed? Its hard to say.

Plurk Fever

Over the past month I plurked a few questions to take Plurk's temperature, so to speak. At the beginning of June I asked how people felt about the service. I asked a similar question last week. Some of the answered varied in that period of time, for example:
June 5th:

And then on June 23rd:

Many people who plurk regularly think website takes up a lot of time and becomes addicting. But more people toward the end of the month felt like they had adjusted to plurking reguarly and were enjoying it. Some commented that the interface took time to adjust to (I felt the same way). But overall, Plurkers feel positive about Plurk.

Plurking: Serious Business

I'd like to end on how I think businesses can benefit from Plurk. After discussing business ideas with an internet postcard company, I realized how much they could benefit from plurking about their concept. Most plurkers are early-adopters and many of them have a business closely tied to the internet. So if your business can be marketed to knowledgeable internet users, welcome to your perfect market! Plurk, at the moment, is mostly a niche market. Not all companies have the time to devote to social media as it is, and would not be able to build relationships with other Plurkers. But if you use the internet on a regular basis and so do your clients... isn't one of the keys to marketing, go where your clients are?

If you have also written an article about Plurk please put a link in the comments. I love reading other Plurkers views.

Youtube, the sensational and borderline illegal website for all your badly-made video needs. Youtube grew to fame with the youth of today with the same voracious speed as MySpace. Personally, I've been looking forward to seeing what change would happen after Google purchased them. I was expecting a lawsuit but instead, the brilliant guys at google are capitalizing on new trends yet again.

Viral. That's what they call a video or marketing material that stands small and then (for debatable reasons) takes off with sudden popularity. With new technology its called "the tipping point" but with youtube its Viral Videos. Which I must admit, every time I hear "viral" I feel icky. Anyhow, Youtube created an algorithm to try and figure out what the next popular video is. Companies can then pay to be featured beside these videos with Google's new marketing strategy: Buzz Targeting.

My personal stance on paid advertisement is very clear if you've read anything else in my blog but this is just from the presses and worth talking about. I wonder if anyone else has thoughts about viral marketing and how to make it work for companies who might not b able to afford Youtube's pricing.

Who knew a single color could be so powerful. More and more companies want to label themselves green. In fact, with more and more petitions like the one in the UK and campaigns going around, it is strongly encouraged.While advertising inserts are still ranked #1 as the most effective marketing tool, the pressure to go green may change that.

The internet looks like the media of choice to replace direct mail-outs. The debate continues over which web tool will replace "junk mail". I suggest anything that falls into the magical category of permission-based marketing which I have discussed before.

And because I can't resist. I know, its horrible.

I have heard my generation called any number of things, the "blinking 12:00's" after digital clocks when they reset, generation "Y" as a compliment (or not so complimentary) to generation "X", and Dan Tapscott in his book Growing up Digital (he also wrote Wikinomics) calls us the "Net" Generation or N-Geners for short. I gave up and just say "I grew up in the Information Age."

What's so important about the children of the Baby Boomers? Well, we are changing the face of the world, which may not sound that huge, every up-and-coming generation does. However, marketing strategies, technology and even communication will have to change to accommodate these tech-savvy young adults and kids. Already we are untouched by TV and radio ads because we've been flooded with advertisement our entire lives. We multi-task through two and three kinds of media at once. We are making newspapers obsolete.

So how should this change your marketing strategy? What is the most important thing for your company to do? If you don't know, find out.

Current research continues to support the fact that online presence and information contributes to more offline sales. Here are two "DON'T's" to draw from this:

1. DON'T worry. If you aren't set up for people to order online, you haven't necessarily missed an opportunity. Lots of people go to a store only after they check out a website.

2. DON'T think having a website is pointless. Some people say "My website didn't bring me any sales." But having a web presence and information can still contribute to an offline sale. If you are really worried, get a tracking program for your site like Google Analytics or Woopra.