Online Social Networking

Blogging and Personal Branding

Personal blogs and business blogs often factor into the marketing mix of both large and small businesses.

Blogging is interactive and enables direct communication with the customer or end user, a subtle form of business networking.

Blogging as a form of networking is not as direct as attending a meeting of a chamber of commerce or a small business association — nor does it replace online social networking at social networking sites. However, it builds credibility while refining and reinforcing the blogger’s personal or corporate brand image.

Search Engine Optimization

As I stated in Top Reasons Why I Blog, “Blogging endears me to the search engines.”

Search engines love to deliver fresh content to their clientele, and that’s what blogs are all about. Each blog post creates new content for search engines such as Google to sink their teeth into.

Search engines send visitors. Some of those visitors become readers and bond with the blogger and his or her company or cause.

Make Money Blogging

This bond presents opportunities.

For example, when bloggers are looking directly to monetize their blogs, as is very often the case in the world of blogs, their readers are often redirected to another site or to a sales page to purchase an endorsed product or service.

This transition is easy once a trusting relationship has been created between blogger and reader.

To learn how to make money blogging, my previous post, Blogs and Blogging for Fun and Profit, is a good place to start.

We’ll continue to explore the relationship between blogging and search engine marketing.

Be sure to visit the Blog Marketing and SEO Training page.

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At social networking sites we communicate and build relationships. We can also share websites and other content with each other.

At social bookmarking sites we primarily share websites and other content with each other and with search engines. However, we can also communicate and build relationships.

What is the difference between a social bookmarking site and a social networking site?

Our priorities. Online social bookmarking emphasizes content, while online social networking emphasizes relationships.

Benefits of Social Bookmarking Sites

If you publish a blog or own some other website, you probably want visitors, and backlinks too. Social bookmarking sites will help you in these ways.

• You share your site with the community. They visit it and rate it. You can form relationships that lead to quality backlinks for your site.
• Search engines take note that your site is bookmarked. Bookmarking is a form of recommendation. Search engines react favorably to your site’s presence in the community.

My Favorite Social Bookmarking Sites

The social bookmarking sites I use most often are StumbleUpon, Technorati, propeller, del.icio.us, Spicy Page and Digg. See the list on my sidebar and at Social Marker, a tool that streamlines the bookmark submission process.

I also use blog traffic sites, notably Entrecard and Link Referral. The latter can also be used to promote a static website. I’ve made valuable connections at Entrecard and have learned much from the blogs I visited there.

Regular participation at social networking sites will do wonders for your popularity. Reqular posting and participation at social bookmarking sites will do the same for your blogs and other websites.

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Last November I examined the popularity of social networking sites.

In a series of four posts I examined the reasons I believed that online social networking was very relevant:

• “High Tech/High Touch” - As sterile technology increasingly impacts our lives, we crave greater and greater intimacy to offset it.
• Digital Age - Our technical capablity permits, even inspires us, to share multi-media digital files with our friends, family and colleagues that contain valuable information, memorable experiences and enjoyable entertainment.
• Communication - Online social networking sites are capable of providing us with the functionality that e-mail did in the past plus a big additional benefit, file sharing.
• Search Engine Optimization - More and more marketers are turning to social networking both to connect with users and to get free traffic. Traffic comes from within the community and, thanks to the search engines, from without as well.

On March 24th I looked at Social Networking vs. Advertising and how people tend to approach social networking with an advertising mindset. If you haven’t seen that post, I highly recommend it.

My good friend Ivo Jackson, a very gifted writer, wrote a blog post April 8, the 7 Reasons Why You Should Do More Networking Than Selling that looked at networking from another angle.

Ivo provides an excellent rationale for social networking that applies to offline as well as online social networking. These are the points she makes:

• People don’t like to be sold.
• Selling only works when people are ready to buy, and most of your network is not ready.
• People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• Selling yourself or your brand is easier than selling your product or service.
• The law of averages is real - long term success is relative to the size of your network.
• If you help people get what they want, you will eventually get what you want.
• If you expect a great harvest, you must first plant some seeds.

Visit Ivo’s blog and read the complete article.

I wish to add just one point that I made in my March 24th post. Networking allows you to determine what people really want so that you can customize your offer to them.

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We all like lists.

Now that I’m blogging for a few months, it’s time to list my top reasons why I blog.

If you blog, feel free to share your top reasons for blogging. If you don’t, perhaps my list will motivate you to start.

So here we go. These are the top reasons why I blog:

1. I value a web presence, and blogging is the cornerstone of my web presence.
2. It was easy to get started.
3. Blogging organizes my ideas.
4. It helps me communicate and to disseminate my ideas.
5. It tests my ideas.
6. It preserves my ideas.
7. My blog can provide value for my readers.
8. My blog is a free sample of me.
9. Blogging helps establish my credibility.
10. It’s interactive.
11. It’s a form of online social networking.
12. It works well with social networking sites and other social media.
13. Blogging builds my brand.
14. It attracts people to me.
15. I can use it to promote people, products and services.
16. I can use it to create viral marketing.
17. Blogging endears me to the search engines.
18. I can use it to stake out search engine keyword real estate. You can learn more about this from my Blog Marketing and SEO Training  series.
19. Blogging anchors me.
20. It builds my writing muscle.
21. It’s a learning experience.
22. Blogging helps me with my personal development.
23. It helps me reflect.
24. It helps me develop consistency.
25. It sets an example for others.
26. Blogging is cool.
27. Blogging is fun.

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Who says you can only do online social networking using social networking sites?

For quite a few years Max Steingart has been showing people how to use Instant Messenger to develop new friendships and business contacts online.

Today we have social networking sites available to us, however the real-time aspect of Instant Messaging makes IM a great social networking tool.

I recommend that you visit Max’s site, join his mailing list, and download a copy of his e-book, Make the Internet Your Warm Market.

Some of the key topics Max covers in his book are:

• “What is your Warm Market and how can the Internet replace it?”
• Why you want to use Instant Messaging
• The Member Directory
• The required steps to making a new friend or gaining a new client
• Searching for the right people
• How to start a conversation
• Internet etiquette and safety

Not only will you learn another way to network, the training you will receive can help you network more effectively using any social networking site.

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Communication is the backbone of online social networking.

In my post of November 11th I discussed the “High Tech/High Touch” concept, and on November 13th I discussed different forms of communication and “the asynchronous nature of social networking sites”.

According to the principle of “High Tech/High Touch” we need more rather than less intimate communication in these digital times.

Social networking sites present us with excellent tools to communicate asynchronously through commenting, messaging, posting bulletins and posting blogs.

There are new advances almost daily, but social networking sites still only partially address our need to relate more intimately in real time through synchronous channels such as instant messaging, telephony, video and face-to-face meetings.

To network more successfully, get more personal!

One thing that might hold you back is a concern for your personal security, especially if you’re a woman, and even more so if you’re a single woman. I will suggest several ways to mitigate this concern.

You could also be uncomfortable getting closer to a certain individual (hopefully not me LOL). Rely on your instincts and intuition. Exercise good judgment — but don’t be overly paranoid.

Here are my favorite ways to ensure a modicum of privacy while taking communication to the next level. They complement networking on any site.

1. Get a headset with a microphone for US$20 or so, and download Skype to your computer. Skype lets you talk for free and anonymously to other users all over the world. It also permits small conference calls. With a headset both of your hands will be free to operate your computer or to take notes.
2. Give out your cell phone number. You’ll enjoy the convenience of speaking anytime anywhere without revealing your full name or your address. Some disadvantages of using your cell phone are that you might incur cost and that you may receive annoying calls from time to time. You must decide for yourself whether it’s worth it.
3. Get your own free conference number and PIN. You and your friend can call in at the same time to speak. If it’s your conference line, you can be sure that there’s no way to capture your phone number. The main down side here is that this protects you but not the other person.
4. Install Trillian on your computer. Trillian lets you instant message people on Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and AIM all from one program. Instant messaging is not as good as talking, but it’s real time and interactive — definitely a step in the right direction.
5. Starbucks anybody?

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We consider three ways to organize your contacts within social networking sites. 

Many social networking sites let you select Top Friends and Favorites, public and private lists respectively of your most important contacts.

Visitors don’t need to click through to another page to view your Top Friends. They’re right there “on top”.

You implicitly recommend to others that they visit your Top Friends and connect with them.

Sites generally establish a maximum number of Top Friends. Therefore, as you meet new people, or as your priorities change, you may need to delete some Top Friends to make room for new ones.

Your Favorites on the other hand cannot be viewed by anybody except you. Sites do not generally establish maximums for Favorites or the maximums are large.

You can use your Favorites for your contact list, people with whom you wish to stay in touch. And when you decide that you no longer wish to re-contact a person, you simply delete them from your Favorites.

I use my Favorites list this way in Direct Matches, MySpace and Yuwie, three of my favorite networking sites, as a sort of folder.

If you prefer, you can organize your contact list in a more detailed or systematic fashion using your browser’s Bookmarking capabilities. You can save a link to each important contact’s profile page or each important blog post.

You can easily create folders and sub-folders of Bookmarks (even a sub-folder for each contact with links to his or her profiles and blog posts on multiple social networking sites).

While Bookmarking can be tedious, it offers plenty of control and flexibility.

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Years ago I learned the acronym F-O-R-M standing for Family, Occupation, Recreation and Money. Talk about these four things and you’ll quickly learn what a person needs and how you might be able to help him or her.

I suggest that you use this formula in your online dialogs but with one important caution.

You cannot discuss money before you and your friend develop adequate mutual trust, since money can at times be a very sensitive topic.

Be aware that three areas of discussion that often lead to conflict are politics, religion and sexual orientation. Unless your agenda encompasses one or more of these topics, you will be prudent to leave them out of your conversations.

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Do you want to draw people to you? The right people?

Then why clutter your social networking pages with high bandwidth graphics and auto-playing videos?

These may be a form of self-expression, but they slow your page’s download and do little to showcase you as a person.

Consider cutting down on your high-bandwidth low-content stuff. Instead write a meaningful story or provide important information about yourself.

What would you like me to know about you? Use your profile page to tell me.

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Most social networking sites provide several ways to communicate, and depending on circumstances, one way may be more suitable than another.

Let’s discuss and compare the most common communication forms:

1. Comments, guestbook entries or testimonials
2. Private messages
3. Bulletins or notices
4. Blogs or web logs

Comments tend to be overused by most networkers. They are popular because they aren’t intrusive, they’re public, and because they link back to the poster’s page.

Comments have several drawbacks to consider:

• They aren’t suitable for personal messages which might embarass the recipient.
• They aren’t suitable for commercial messages. Comment spam is a major annoyance on networking sites.
• They can easily go unnoticed or unread if the recipient doesn’t require comment pre-approval.

Comments are great for gaining exposure and for creating back links to your page. They are also good for giving kudos.

Private messages tend to be underused by most networkers. Perhaps they’re afraid to intrude. Perhaps they’re using comments for some good reason and go on to use them for all their correspondence. Or perhaps they’re just going along with the rest of the herd.

Private messages ought to be used every time you desire direct communication. Messages will get opened and read. Do not use private messages for spam. If you have a commercial message, get explicit or implicit approval to send it.

Bulletins are useful when you have a very large number of friends or contacts. Theoretically, they allow you to reach out to all of them with one post. Unfortunately bulletins easily scroll out of view before they can be viewed, and unlike private messages, recipients can easily ignore them.

A possible solution is to use your blog to supplement your bulletins and other communications.

Spam is tolerated more in bulletins than in comments or private messages, but you should neverthelsss avoid it. Put unsolicited commercial messages in your blog, if anywhere.

Your blog is a public forum for your ideas and a place for public dialog, and your blog brands you in the mind of your readers.

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Let me restate my first law of social networking from my previous post.

Law Number 1: Nobody cares what you say until they know that you care.

Once sombody knows that you care they will listen. However, they will listen with one — and only one — question in mind and that is, “What’s in it for me?”

That’s how people listen. You might say that their favorite radio station is WII-FM, “What’s in it for me?”

If you’re marketing a product or service, just about the worst thing you can do is discuss it’s features. Your listener’s reaction will generally be, “So what?” And that’s not good.

You are much better off talking about benefits than features. Discussing benefits answers in advance the “so what” question.

You will be best off if you can get to know what’s important to each person and discuss only the benefits that are relevant to that person. You will connect with his or her desires in a meaningful way, and your success is likely.

Therefore, when you meet a new person you should focus on learning what’s important to that person. Not only will he feel that you care, he will also relate to you those things that matter most to him — and now my friend you’re on the right track!

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Back in 1988 I read an excellent book by John Naisbitt called Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives.

In his book Naisbitt coined the expression “High Tech/High Touch” predicting that as sterile technology increasingly impacted our lives, we would crave greater and greater intimacy to offset it.

How right he was!

Cell phones, e-mail, instant messaging, social networking and blogging. We can’t seen to communication quite enough — we crave more and more — and there’s no end in sight.

Looking to explain the very rapid growth of the social networking industry, “High Tech/High Touch” is certainly a key factor. I will look at other factors shortly, and I will refer back to “High Tech/High Touch” from time to time in future posts.

I welcome your comments and feedback.

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