The Pedestal Group

Lately I have gotten a lot of questions about social media, where to be and why.  So I thought I would hit the highlights here.  And off we go!

• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a must in my opinion.  Being out there so you can be found and find others is critical no matter what your business.  I recommend getting your profile to at least 80% and joining a group or two that are relevant.  Some of the people I have met in the groups are truly facinating!
• Plaxo – I like Plaxo for the search engine optimization benefits but haven’t gotten as involved there as I do on LinkedIn. One extra feature I do like on Plaxo is they send you reminders of your connections birthdays.
• Naymz – This one is also good for SEO but I haven’t found it really useful on a day to day basis. Definitely not a replacement for LinkedIn.
• Ryze –  Have not been impressed AT ALL. I found the people there have been weird and the site very unresponsive.

There are other places you need to list your business / profile so that you can be found.

• Google business – Google offers businesses the ability to post a local business listing. These listings are guaranteed to show up on the first page of results for a Google search for your company so clients will always be able to find you.
• Google profiles – Google also offers profiles of individuals and those are guaranteed first page results as well.
• Wink – wink.com is a site that is trying to summarize people’s profiles on social media.  It is a good idea to own your profile.
• ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo currently allows you to claim your individual profile and say in the near future you will be able to claim a business profile as well. Be sure to set those up!

There are many other services out there under the social media header, but these are the primary places I recommend all businesses list under.  While I personally like Twitter and use it to stay on top of trends, I still do not recommend it as a business-generating tool.

I hope this helps and if there are other sources you like, let me know and I’ll update the post!

Ever watch someone work a room? They move from group to group, introducing people, setting up lunch dates, making people smile. When they leave the lights are just a little dimmer, aren’t they? Ever wanted to be that person? One of the most exciting things about Web 2.0 and social media is you can be that person on line with about two hours of effort.

Social media is all about listening to people one-on-one. It is also about individuals, not companies. This is great news for small business owners who ARE the company. All this time you have tried to look bigger than you are, conveying messages of size without stretching the truth. Now, your on-line presence needs to be all about you—who you are, what you do and why you can help someone. THAT you can talk about!

In social media, there are the big “parties” like LinkedIn and Facebook, and then there are the smaller “events” that don’t get as much traffic but are still worth checking out. Both serve their own purposes and can be useful. Just like a party, a smaller party offers more opportunities to talk to people while a larger one offers more individuals with whom to talk.

In addition to all the benefits, it is very important to “own” the information on the web that is about you. If someone met you, remembered your name but not your company, phone or email address, what would they do? Most people would throw what they knew into Google and check out what came up. So what comes up about you? Shouldn’t there be a whole page of results about a person as interesting and unique as you are?

So how to get started….. First, do just that—put your name and location into Google and see what comes up. How many results on the first page are about you? Next, make sure you have a LinkedIn profile. It should have some details about you—even if it is just former companies and titles. Your next step is to set up profiles on other sites. There are MANY to choose from so decide which ones you want to use and fill them out. The nice thing is once you’ve written a short bio, you can use it over and over again. At a minimum it is recommended to be on Plaxo, Google Profiles (google.com/profiles/me ) and Yahoo. It sounds like a lot but can be done in about two hours. You don’t have to put up much information, but once this is done, when you Google yourself the next time you should own the whole first page of results. Be sure to check that out periodically.

Now, wherever a person is they can find you. You will appear connected, technologically savvy and well-connected. Who doesn’t want to work with that person?

GOOGLE. If you aren’t using Google to find candidates or client information, you have not only missed the boat, but the other people have gotten on the boat, gone on the trip, are home and unpacked.

One command in particular is invaluable to finding people.    site:www.website.com “keyword” “keyword”
(Did the lights brighten and music play as you read this?) This one command searches the website you enter for the keywords in quotes.

If the site you use is LinkedIn, (site:www.linkedin.com “title” “location”) you get profiles of people who aren’t in your network, may only have one or two connections, and are often not found anywhere else on the web. These people have been told by a friend “You should get on LinkedIn!” so they do and connect to that friend. That’s it. No effort put in, no network building, no nothing. But, a savvy recruiter can still find them just through this command. Try it with industry organization sites too—you’ll be amazed what you find!

How can I use this for marketing? EASY. Same command, using LinkedIn, but this time put a company name in the quotes. The tricky thing with companies is be sure to use the name people use casually. LinkedIn profiles aren’t resumes so they aren’t perfect. If you were to do a search for 123 Widgets Limited Inc., you would miss people who just used 123 Widgets.

Now you get results that show you contacts at that company. But wait! Do more! Take a look at the locations and titles of the people you have found. Can you tell anything about the structure of the company? What divisions are where? What kind of work is done in each location? HOW CAN YOU USE THIS INFORMATION TO MAKE YOUR CALLS WARM???

Pretty slick, huh? Best part is, when a person at one company joins LinkedIn and likes it, they tell other people at the company. So all of a sudden you have a big influx of people all at the same company—the one YOU are trying to target! Not sold yet? How about this—the data on LinkedIn is more accurate than any other source because people put it up about themselves.

Great—you got it. But what if you need contact information because you don’t want to call at work? I usually go to these sites in the following order:
www.zabasearch.com
www.411.com
www.peoplefinder.com
www.google.com
So go get Googling!!!