Quantify and then Qualify Your Social Media Relationships

Corvida has an awesome post on Chris Brogan’s blog called Decreasing Our Connections While Increasing Our Networks. The basic rundown of the post (which you should go read) is her exasperation over the amount of “friends” she has over various networks and the lack of a deeper and real connection. This conversation surfaces quite a bit when I am speaking to groups of people about social media. Where do you draw the line on relationship building in the social media environment?

From the post:

Maybe growth on some of these networks isn’t the best thing in the world. Should there be self-imposed limits on how many people you befriend? No because in the end, while your network growth may increase, your connection with your network still increases. However, the rate at which the connection can increase actually decreases. Did that make sense? Unless your friends are constantly questioning you or keeping tabs on you, it’s going to take a lot longer to make deeper connections the more your network grows.

We have been talking a lot about creating deeper relationships through social media. When you are adding hundreds of people on networks like Twitter, Facebook, and other networks it is hard to make the same connection as before! I wrote recently about turning friends, followers, and subscribers into a deeper connection. After all the purpose of sharing in a community driven environment should be relationship building whether for business or personal use.

The question has been presented: How do you take the massive amount of users on social networks and par them down to create meaningful relationships online? Quantify and Qualify.

Quantifying Your Social Media Experience

There are some networks where a huge following is necessary to gain the full experience of the site. Some would argue that Twitter is the site to use for a massive follower base. I am still torn over the notion of having a huge amount of followers on any site. I tend to use Facebook and Twitter to quantify my follower based. I want people to experience my personal side . Quantifying in a social media world basically means I gain an increased quality of experience based on the quantity of the people I am following.

Qualifying Your Social Media Experience

I qualify my niche networks in social media. I have found that I have an increase in quality without necessary having a huge quantity of followers on my geographically direct communities. Smaller Indiana and LinkedIN have been my niche quality sites for my social media experience. Smaller Indiana is a geographically located social network for people in Indiana. And for LinkedIN? I only tend to add people I have met in an offline environment on LinkedIN. My niche networks tend to be the place where there is a direct form of quality conversations.

How do you manage your networks? Do you find you get more or less quality based on the quantity of your friends or subscribers?

Related articles by Zemanta

• 5 Steps to Using Social Media for Lead Generation (kylelacy.com)
• Are you a trust agent? Do you need to be? (myventurepad.com)
• How book publicists can be Trust Agents (yodiwan.wordpress.com)
• Twitter’s Tough Week: The Social Media Recap… (Mashable … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

Cold Calling On LinkedIN Rant

I’ve got a bone to pick and it is with you… YOU! The guy/girl who decides to send me random LinkedIN and Twitter messages telling me about his new social media project that I should try out. You are really excited to tell hundreds of random people about a new product or service. This is cold calling and it needs to stop. You are screwing up my day. Period.

Here is what a LinkedIN cold call looks like:

Hey [ insert email/linkedin name]

Hello, we’ve not met before, but the reason for the message is that you mentioned you were open to new ventures and business deals. I am from the Indianapolis area, working with a business mentorship and development group out of Charlotte, NC doing some things online. We are working with over 1300 companies – blah blah blah – to name a few. We are expanding now and your profile fits what we’re looking for. I know this is kind of a shot in the dark, but I was checking to see if you (or someone you know with a profile similar to yourself) are currently looking for a secondary income or open-minded to some new business ideas? If so, what we’d need to do is schedule a 10 minute phone interview to give a brief overview of what we’re putting together. I’d need you to have internet access at that time. If interested, please respond with several available dates/times and a way to reach you by phone.

[spammer name]

Do I really have to say anything more? Why do you feel the need to email me on LinkedIN? How do you know I have any interest in your product or service? Did you communicate with me first? Do you care about what I think or what I have to say? How do you know I am a good pick for what you are doing? Did you just minimize me to a profile?

Next time you decide to direct market on LinkedIN maybe you should pick out a couple of people to start COMMUNICATING with instead of spamming thousands.

I do not care about your product and if you ever message me again… I will get Kayne to interrupt your typing and life.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Journalist Ron Sylvester and innovative court reporting (kevin.lexblog.com)
• Using social media: take that gift horse and harness it! – New … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
• 8 Things To Consider While Building a Quality Network (rotorblog.com)
• Spam is not Marketing Content (thecustomercollective.com)

Are You the Problem or LinkedIN?

I was surprised when I was reading some stats from the PEW Internet & American Life Project via ReadWriteWeb. Apparently the majority of adult social network users are not using the networks for business or professional networking. According to the PEW report the majority of adults (89%) are using social networks to stay in touch with friends. A surprising 6% of all adult users on the Internet are using LinkedIN which makes more sense if you think about it.

LinkedIN has boasted around 30 million users and when you think about the odd 250 million Internet users worldwide… it makes complete sense.

My question for LinkedIN and other professional social networks?

How do you get more people onto your site? How do you utilize your far from perfect application development and draw in more business owners, corporate professionals, and white-collar individuals?

Or does it matter?I don’t think LinkedIN has to expand to the point when they are catering to the people who will not use social media.

It isn’t about numbers anymore. You do not need 60 million people on a network to start making money. LinkedIN should be focusing on it’s 30 million members… switching them over to the premium service.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Do People Use Online Social Networks : Internet Marketing … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
• Joining Not Very Famous Social Networks And Communities Can Bring … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
• Can Social Media Get You a Job? (usnews.com)
• 5 Golden Rules of Netetiquette (lansner.freedomblogging.com)
• Social Network User Loyalty Erratic | BNET Technology Blog | BNET (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

10 Ways to ROCK and NOT on LinkedIN

LinkedIN is being talked about constantly in the small business world in #Indianapolis (oops.. sorry the hashtag is out of habit). I thought I would add my flair onto how to use and not to use LinkedIN.

How to Rock it on LinkedIN

We have all wanted to be rockstars at one time or another in life. I always wanted to be Tom Morello from the last Rage Against the Machine.. and sometimes… I still do. In light of my extreme Tom Morello man-crush…here are 10 ways to rock it on LinkedIN.

1. Be the first to answer on Q&A. When you are surfing the questions and answer sections of LinkedIN it is important to keep the “Be The First To Answer” link in the back of your mind. People are more likely to read the top three answers than the couple on the bottom.

2. Go 3 and 3. Pick three local groups you can join and three global groups. Keep the number at six or below in order to help you manage the multiple emails you will be getting fromt he groups.  You don’t want to get overwhelmed. Also, try to add comments or some type of thought into half the groups (3) once a day.

3. It is better to add all your work experiences not just your current. (Thanks Guy) You will have a better chance at finding more connections by adding your previous employers. Who knows what could come out of it!

4. You must give to receive. Give out those recommendations and you will receive them in return. People put greater stock into the LinkedIN recommendations that are given by other people because they know (to an extent) they are sincere. It beats putting them up on your website… not very trustworthy.

5. Put your LinkedIN address on your business card. It is going to be easier for people to add you on LinkedIN if they have your url in their possesion. Add it to your next business card and always ask if they are on the site.

How to NOT Rock  on LinkedIN

1. Fill out your profile to 95%. Believe me this sounds easy but I cannot tell you how many times I have come across a profile and it is only filled out to 75-92%. Seriously? Did you not take the time to just fill in your last job? Give me a break.

2. Add your logo instead of your picture. Be personal. Add your picture and use your real name. Please?

3. Lie on your LinkedIN profile. You would think this would be a given but it’s not. Just don’t do it. The Internet NEVER FORGETS.

4. Become a connection whore! If you add 114,000,403 people within your first week of being on the network. You have completely missed the point. Don’t become a connection whore! Add the people you have met face to face. It will keep your relationships and connections strong.

5. Send an invitation without clearing explaining the objective. Do you have a business card to a person at a networking event and just walk away? Don’t do it on LinkedIN.

That’s it for me. Write them down. Pin them up. Laminate it and put them in your wallet.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 10 Small Biz Social Media Tips for Today (kylelacy.com)
• 360 Degree Inventory And Moving Beyond Banners (isocket.com)
• The Importance of Small Business Web Design (themarketingprofessional.com)