<p>With all the interest lately in social networking, I'm finding that a lot of people are confused and overwhelmed with how to make time for this newfangled activity. I’ve had people tell me that they receive invitations all the time to become “friends” or to “link up” and they are choosing to ignore, rather than accept the invitations because they just don’t know what to do or how much time to invest in these new online activities. Bottom line they want to know: is this a good use of my time?</p><p>The short answer is a resounding YES, this is a good use of your time.</p><p>Online social networking is an important part of your branding and of your online “footprint”. When people “Google” you (and you know that they are doing it … you’ve probably Googled them as well) you want to have some online real estate that shows that you are an active, viable business. Online social networks give you that kind of real estate, so it would be helpful to your business for you to spend a little time each day if possible to claim more Internet real estate as your own.</p><p>To start making an impact in your social networking arenas, I'm recommending some easy two-minute drills that you can do online to improve your connections with your network.</p><p>These ideas assume that you already have a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, My Space, Biznik, Zoodango, or any of the multitude of other Social Media sites out there on the internet. If you are on more than one of these (and you should be) just pick one to focus on for now. Put two minutes on your calendar for each day for a week and then get busy with some of these two-minute drills.</p><ul><li>Pick one of your "friends" and visit their blog. Read a recent post and then leave them a thoughtful & supportive comment. (No grandstanding and please avoid leaving the lame-ass quote like, "Great Post! Keep writing more like this.") This helps your friend to know that someone (beside their mother) is actually reading their blog and your friend will appreciate your support of their efforts in the blogosphere. You'll be on their radar because you put them on yours.<br /><br />And, how does this help you? Each time you create a post, you leave a mark of where you have been and your name, in many cases will show up in search engines more often because the Search Engines will find your posts and report them when someone searches on your name. When you leave thoughtful and value added posts, you leave a trail of your knowledge for others to find and, again, in many cases can lead people back to your site so that they can learn more about you and how to do business with you.<br /><br /> </li><li>Seek out business people that you know in your face to face network who are also in your online network. If you have had a great experience with them in a business transaction or through an interaction, leave them a glowing recommendation (LinkedIn) or a compliment (Biznik). Third party testimonials are always a great way to help your friends and to help them build their reputation.<br /><br />When you do this for enough of your friends, you will be delighted to see that they will begin to return the favor. Suddenly, you will have more people leaving testimonials for you because you have led by example by giving first. This is a far smarter strategy than sending requests to people (whether you know them or not) and asking them to recommend you. Forget that. Go get busy recommending others. I promise you, you’ll love the results.<br /><br /> </li><li>Go to Google and create a Google alert to track information that one of your friends would find interesting or helpful. Daily, when your alerts arrive in your inbox, check through them and then forward any pertinent info or articles to your networking buddy (or buddies) to let them know that you are thinking of them and have their back, so to speak.<br /><br />This activity takes little or no time on your part but it will make a huge impact on the people that you pass the info you learn along to. They’ll find themselves thinking about you and how thoughtful you are to be watching for information to make their business soar.<br /><br />This is one of the easiest to implement two-minute drills. If you are really short on time – make this your prime two-minute drill for building your network. You’ll see results pretty quickly on this one.<br /><br /> </li><li>Think of two people that you have met recently and how you might be able to help connect them up. Then send them both an email of introduction and let them know why you think that they need to know each other. It's very easy to do. And they will both appreciate that you are thinking about how to help them grow their connections.</li></ul><p>If you can make the time each day to devote two minutes to social networking in this way, you'll find that pretty soon you can easily do 5 minutes a day. In 5 minutes a day, you can double the number of people you impact with these quick, simple, and painless strategies.</p><p>When you get the hang of one social network, it will be time to add one more. Start the process all over again. Just pick one thing that you enjoy doing for yourself and your network and you'll find that people will notice your efforts at making them feel important.</p><p>And that's what building relationships is all about. You make yourself memorable by making other people feel noticed and appreciated. And won’t you be glad that you made the time to do just that! Will you accept the challenge? Go make a difference in the online lives of 5 people you know this week. I'd love to hear back on how these two-minute strategies are working for you.</p>
2008-05-28T08:09:01Z
2008-05-29T14:05:18Z
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2008-05-29T14:05:12Z
2008-05-29T14:05:12Z
<p>Overwhelmed with networking tasks and doubly short on time? Try these quick and easy tips to implement online networking strategies to build even stronger relationships.</p>
Two-Minute Online Networking Drills
0
2009-02-24T09:44:35Z