In our technological age, we rely heavily on social networking to help us solve even the most trivial problems. In the workplace long ago, employers based candidates on their interviewing skills and their resume. Now, an employer may also look online to better understand a possible future employee. Between Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Tumblr, Flickr, etc and dating websites, a company can just “Google” a person’s name and see what pops up about them. Now all those late night partying photos are in the hands of a potential boss.

And what if you, as the boss, are looking at these photos and trying to make an assessment about that individual. What do you think? They showed up on time, even early, to their interview. They delivered a perfect elevator pitch about why they would be valuable to your company. And they even followed up within 24 hours with a thank you letter. But when you searched them on Facebook, you found photo after photo of them at bars and parties (after all, they are in their early 20s), pictures of them schmoozing it up with a different girl in every picture and lastly, very poor grammar in conversations with their friends. The two people (the one who interviewed with you and the one online) are seemingly two completely different people. So what do you do?

Well, nowadays it is common for people just entering into the workforce to be instructed about cleaning up (or hiding) what is available for the public eye on these Internet sites. So we can first off say that it is up to them to make sure that you can’t find all of those photos and such forth. But at the same time, those photos now make you question whether they are a good candidate or if they can just interview well.

A good question to ask yourself is whether or not you believed the person sitting in front of you? It may be that this person is a good worker but also has a fun-loving side (not everyone can be work, work, work all the time, right?) You may also want to re-asses what you found online and decide if those photos actually hold relevance. How many partying photos are there compared to fun, family photos? How long ago were these pictures taken? Have they spoken badly about any of their past employers? These questions won’t completely suffice whether or not they are a good candidate for employment but they will help you determine whether or not you need to focus so hard on it all. Also look and see: Do they also have a LinkedIn website or connections to other business related groups? Before attempting to determine everything about this person via Internet, think about interviewing them again. Bring up the information you found about them on the Internet and voice the fact that the information would reflect badly on the company if clients or others saw it. If all else, think about hiring them on a trial run.

The good part about the Internet is that we now have access to more information about people. Way back when (i.e. earlier 2000s) employers still had to base a candidate off of whom they spoke with. A candidates other life was completely unknown to them, so technically, when hiring it’s always a gamble to pick the right people. The Internet gives us more information, but it also poses more questions. With a simple click on the “Privacy” screen they may be able to hide all the unsightly information. So if you feel that the person face to face with you deserves a shot, maybe think about taking that gamble. However, that’s not to say that information found via the Internet should never be used against a candidate. I guess at the end of it all, it’s about using your best judgment. Just remember, don’t trust everything you see on the Internet.

As a social media intern, I am constantly going through business’ Facebook pages to see what information is available. When we find companies that have not utilized their page to the fullest, we offer our assistance. It’s not enough to tell your clients/customers “yes, I’m on Facebook” if you don’t actually use your page.

I know, when you set up your FB (abbreviation for Facebook) it took a while to get all the information. And maybe you wrote a blog as well and that also took some time to get a format you liked. And, gosh, don’t even get me started on how long it took to create a usable website. Each of these sites, as well as all social media sites, take time to set up but once you get it done and understand the basics, it doesn’t take much to keep it updated.

So why is it important to keep your pages updated?

Well, if I am a visitor to any of your sites, I want to see the LATEST news about your company. I want to know about the LATEST deals you have going on. I want to know about the NEWEST products you are offering. See a trend? If the latest post is dated March 2010 then that tells me that you don’t keep up on this aspect of promoting your company (and this may be especially vital to people running a national/online business) and I lose interest. Or it may also tell me that you went out of business and you just haven’t gotten around to deleting this page/website. Keeping a page updated shows activism on your part to bring people in.

How often should you update?

While some businesses could make use of updating their page several times a day, you may only need to do so once a week. Adding photos and commentary about recent events show that your business is alive. Offering information about new promotions or in-store expansions allow viewers to connect with your business. And remember to answer back comments! People want to know that when they make a comment about a company, their voice is being heard.

Now on a website, it’s easier to not have to check as often, but make sure it stays relevant. If you just started a blog, add a link on the site. If you shot a commercial, have it play when people first visit your site. If you stopped selling a product, remove it from your website! Just as you take care to make sure your office/store stays neat and orderly; take care to your social sites. Between the store, the blog, the FB page, etc these work together to welcome guests into your business. Make sure all aspects of it are a true representation of you.

Do you ever look at the clock, realize it’s already late in the afternoon and wonder where your day went? In your mind, you have a list of things that needed to be done today and now you either don’t have the mental ability to work on those tasks or you’re now too busy scrambling to something else. How do we fix that?

Don’t just make a daily goal list, write it down! As Americans, we enjoy being glorified for the work that we do (why do you think celebrities go to so many award shows), but not always does the award have to be from someone else or in the form of a trophy or certificate. By writing down a list of the things we want accomplished, we set a game plan for how our day should go- leaving room for error and unexpected events of course. But the real thrill in creating a list is getting to cross off the things we have completed. At the end of the day, it’s like a personal high five to yourself. It’s as simple as that.

Create the list at the very start of your day (after your AM routine) and begin working on it as soon as you can. Writing down a list does nothing more than make you more accountable for the tasks you have to do. It takes the material out of your head and makes you say “okay, so what should I do first.” By having the visual element we are more apt to work on the things we need to get done; and by being able to see all the work we’ve accomplished we are able to congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

In today’s tech savvy world social media has become a norm for businesses big and small. But it’s not just enough to have several media platforms for your company. You have to know how to use them properly and understand what information they’re giving back to you. Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your social media marketing.

Ever wanted feedback about your company’s performance? In olden times, companies would set up boxes at their front desk with little slips of paper asking for feedback. But how many people actually filled them out. Normally, when a guest is exiting a building they want to do just that- exit. But now you’re left wondering what you could do to improve your business (or what happened to the customer that upset them so much). Social media sites can play a part in increasing the number of guest comments by allowing a customer to provide feedback from the comfort of their own home in their own time. What works? What didn’t? Using the information they write, good and bad, you can increase the overall performance of your business. Maybe they did come in and a product was malfunctioning. In person, they said nothing, but online they expressed their disappointment. What can you do to bring them back? Or perhaps a customer really enjoyed a certain product and others agreed with her. What could you do with that product to increase profitability? Analyze the comments and proceed strategically.

Further engage customers through polls, questions in your status, pictures of events, and contests. Give people something to do when they are on your page. On Facebook, it’s not enough for someone to just “like” your page. What about your page keeps a person entertained/engaged? On Twitter, what hashtag (#) have you created or found that pertains to your business that others might find valuable to comment on? Keep up conversations with customers is part of being personal. They feel a connection to you and are more likely to feel more inclined to purchase from you, or at the very least, increase your network to other potential customers.

Alert! Watch how many times you post. You don’t want to ever bombard your customers with too many ads or promotions. Nor do you want to be available 24/7 reply back to posts/ comments (unless that is what your company is about). You don’t want to seem intrusive so if there is a positive conversation/ post about your business, maybe think about just retweeting (RT) or “liking” it instead of a fully response. Also, using websites such as hootsuite.com allow you to schedule when things get posted and to what sites.

Lastly, remember to always draw people to your website. Social media is about making connections with others, but your website is about you. On every social media page there is opportunity to link this page back to your website. Use it and provide more information and more contests, deals, photos, etc. on your website than what was available on your social media pages. This is the final place to grab their attention so make sure it always has the biggest and best efforts given to it.

LinkedIn is probably the most underestimated and underused social media site on the web. They have over 101 million members, including executives from every Fortune 500 company. According to Alexa it is the most important social network after Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Yes—they are a force to be reckoned with. Every business should be leveraging LinkedIn in a social media marketing strategy.

Why use LinkedIn:

• Influence: 50%+ are decision makers in their companies
• Older crowd: 72% are between 25-54 years old.
• Intelligent: 95% have a college education or higher.
• Senior positions: 48.3% are middle management or higher.
• Verticals: Huge networks of professionals in medicine, IT, finance, etc.
• Vertical decision makers: 30%+ software decision makers, 22% hardware decision makers, 17% business consulting services decision makers, 16% IT consulting service decision makers, 13% Marketing services decision makers, 13% travel decision makers.
• Heavy Spenders: 5%+ are heavy spenders on electronics, 25% heavy spenders on books, average personal income per user is $93,500, 24% have a portfolio vaule of 250K +
• Business focused: when someone ‘friends you’ on LinkedIn they are trying to engage with you professionally.
• Targeted: LinkedIn has huge geographic target markets.

Ways to Leverage LinkedIn:

Q&A to Build Credibility:
Any small to medium business looking to build presence and credibility in their field should be using LinkedIn Answers. LinkedIn Answers are used by the professional business community to find experts and to develop relationships. This tool is especially useful for small or medium sized consultancy businesses as many ‘answerers’ garner multiple new clients every month because of their participation in Answers.

Leads
Creating LinkedIn groups and profiles connects you with hundreds of decision makers. There is very little fluff on LinkedIn versus other social networks which means if someone joins your group they are interested in making a valuable connection—and over half of these users that you are connecting with are key decision makers in their businesses.

Targeted Marketing
When generating leads or creating a new LinkedIn campaign you can use the site’s advanced search functionality to search specific keywords, names, job title, verticals, companies, networks, geographic ranges, schools, education, industry experts, groups and interests.

Integration
You put a lot of effort into your social marketing on other sites like Facebook and Twitter—what you need now is to boost your web presence by linking all the profiles together. Via LinkedIn apps you can link your Twitter and Facebook accounts to your LinkedIn profiles, which allows you to automatically update your LinkedIn with activity on the other networks. This can be done via apps or hashtags. If you have a WordPress blog this can be integrated too.

Build your Network
LinkedIn isn’t about connecting with consumers like Facebook or Twitter, it’s about connecting businesses. By building a professional-based network of vendors, clients, and associations you will increase your networking abilitiy. Building a network via LinkedIn doesn’t just happen online though as there are regularly hosted valuable industry events that you can invite and be invited to. Imagine being able to know which industry events your prospective clients will be attending, which executives will be there, and what those executives look like—priceless.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is a business oriented network of decision makers, buyers, movers and shakers. The information that you can glean from competitive analysis, polls, and researching tools can improve your entire social media marketing strategy. Also your social marketing portfolio will be enhanced greatly via LinkedIn’s integration tools. LinkedIn IS one of the most important social networks for businesses.

Me time. For most working people that’s the funniest two words ever construed together. There are too many other valuable things you could be doing throughout your day that are more important than taking time for yourself. I mean, let’s face it. Why spend an hour on yourself when you could spend that time going grocery shopping, working on bank statements, or calling potential clients. Why waste a valuable hour on something that won’t be to your benefit?

The answer: because you need it. Many of us go for hours, days, even weeks without taking time out for ourselves. And what does that do? It burns us out. Now all of a sudden energy drinks and double shot espressos are our new best friends and no matter how many times you reread a document it never fully makes sense. It’s at that point you get cranky with the world and believe that no one else understands all the troubles that you go through in your daily life. Any of this sound familiar?

So what do you do?

Take an hour each morning for yourself. Do something to your personal advantage and shut out the rest of the world. This might include meditation, exercising, listening to music, reading journaling, etc. Whatever the activity, make it about you. You see, we always hear people say that we need to start the day out right, but usually what they’re talking about is eating a good balanced breakfast. What they neglect to mention is how important it is to concentrate on the self before focusing on others. When you take care of yourself first, you open up your mind to assisting others and tackling the impending deadlines ahead.

Now here’s a little trick: make it an EVERYDAY routine. If you just do this once a month or once when you get the chance between taking the kids to school and opening up at the restaurant and going to the grocery store- you lose focus; and you’re back at square one. The point of me time is to make it about yourself. And just like brushing your teeth is part of your daily routine, so should taking the time out to pamper yourself.

So just try it and see what happens. Look and see if it makes you more prepared for the day ahead. See if maybe it makes you less burnt out by the end of the day than before. Hey, maybe it means you won’t be as dependent on your double macchiato anymore.

I know what you may be thinking another blog on social media!  I have to be honest though the more people I meet the more people aren’t jumping on board and understanding the power of this amazing tool!  In my opinion, if everyone was using social media to their advantage they would not have an income problem.  Here is the deal though, many people are getting on Facebook and Twitter with their first intention to make money, and this is the biggest mistake you can make.

Have I made money on Facebook and Twitter?  You bet!  I have built my entire coaching and training business from social media and just opened up my own company Turning Passion Into Profits in Sept 09.  As I write this blog it has not even been a year yet and I cannot believe the success I am having so fast, and all by accident, well sort of.  You see I got on Facebook about 2 years ago, didn’t think much of it, thought it was an upgraded My Space since I have 4 teenagers.  Then people stated communicating with me and it was fun.  I was talking with people that I hadn’t talked to in years and also talking with my past clients.  I don’t know about you, at the time I was not that great keeping in contact with my past clients.  Alas the big light bulb went off!  I can keep in contact with my past clients on a daily basis and it is free!

The other big aha I had was that this was a huge database builder.  What took me 10 years to build I can show someone how to do it in less than a year!  I am living proof, I have capped out on my 5000 friends, I hover around 4700-4800 so I have room for new ones.  I have over 600 friend requests in my inbox, and over 12,000 followers on Twitter.  I did all of this in a year and you can do it too.  What is the secret?  Simple, add 10 friends a day on FB and follow 20 people on Twitter, this takes less than 15 minutes.  Make sure when you add a friend that you send a personal message, something simple.  The other key ingredient is you want to build a strong following, that being said you should pick four sources of lead generation; four sources of people that you want to connect with.  Let’s say you are a Realtor, you want to connect with obvious people that you know, your neighborhood, people in your community, business owners in your community etc.  If you are in the health and wellness field you want to connect with fitness experts, wellness doctors, whole raw food gurus etc…. you get it.

This is how I build a very strong following on social media that feeds my business over and over.  Here is my last secret – don’t sell.  Yes you heard me write, don’t sell.  I bet you in your business people have used you because they like you, not because you have this great product of service.  So do just that, be likeable, be friendly, and if you have a sense of humor by all means be funny!

Connect with me on Facebook HERE and follow me on Twitter HERE

Aristotle said that the ultimate aim or purpose or human life is to achieve your own happiness. You are the very happiest when what you are doing on the outside is congruent with your values on the inside. When you are living in complete alignment with that which you consider to be good, right, and true, you will automatically feel happy and positive about yourself and your world.

Know What You Really Want
Stephen Covey once said, “Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building.” Many people work hard to achieve goals that they think they want only to find, at the end of the day, they get no joy or satisfaction from their accomplishments. They ask, “Is this all there is?” This occurs when the outer accomplishment is not in harmony with your inner values. Don’t let this happen to you.

Trust Your Intuition
Self-trust is the foundation of greatness. Self-trust comes from listening to your intuition, to your “still, small voice” within. Men and women begin to become great when they begin to listen to their inner voices and absolutely trust that they are being guided to a higher power each step of the way. Living in alignment with your true values is the royal road to self-confidence, self-respect, and personal pride. In fact, almost every human problem can be resolved by returning to values.

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Watch Your Behavior
How can you tell what your values really are? The answer is simple. You always demonstrate your true values in your actions and especially your actions under pressure. Whenever you are forced to choose between one behavior and another you will always act consistent with what is most important and valuable to you at that moment. Values, in fact, are organized in a hierarchy. You have a series of values, some of them very intense and important and some of them weaker and less important. One of the most important exercises you can engage in to determine who you really are and what you really want is to organize your values by priority. Once you are clear about the relative important of your values, you can then organize your outer life so that it is in alignment with them.

Determine Your Hearts Desire
The spiritual teacher Emmet Fox wrote about the importance of discovering your “hearts desire.” What is your hearts desire? As a friend of mine asks, “What do you want to be famous for?” What words would you like people to use to describe you when you are not there? What would you like someone to say about you at your funeral? What kind of reputation do you have today? What kind of reputation would you like to have sometime in the future?

Your Past is Not Your Future
Many people had difficult experiences growing up. They fell on hard times and became associated with the wrong people. Some were convicted and sent to prison for crimes. But at a certain point in life, they decided to change. They thought seriously about what kind of person they wanted to be known as, and thought of, in the future. They decided to change their lives by changing the values that they lived by. By making these decisions and sticking to them, they changed their lives. Remember, it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; all that really matters is where you’re going.

Action Exercise
Describe your picture of an ideal person, the person you would most want to be if you had no limitations.