Social Networking

The Internet is rife with blogs (short for a web log) on every topic under the sun. From personal journal-type sites to music-review sites to fashion-criticism to political-commentary and everything between, you can find blogs on any subject you can think of.

Why are so many people blogging?

Blogging has gained immense popularity in the last couple of years, and thousands of new blogs are created each month. But why? Well, as technology evolves, so do we. The beauty of the Internet is not only the wealth of information it provides, but also the connectivity the access to the thoughts, feelings, opinions, pictures and videos of other people across the globe. Maybe it’s because we’re naturally voyeuristic, or maybe it’s the innate human need to have a sense of community (we are social creatures, after all), but whatever the reason, blogging is wildly popular, and probably not going anywhere. In fact, as the news media declines in these tough economic times, bloggers are gaining more and more power in terms of taking on the role of opinion makers.

Why should you blog?

Blogging has a great number of benefits in fact, there are probably as many reasons to blog as there are types of blogs. Many people use blogs as an extension of their careers their blogs are forums by which their employees and/or clients can contact them and keep up with what’s happening day to day. For others, a blog is an outlet for creativity. Writers, cooks, musicians, and designers are just a few of the types of people who can use a blog to share their passion with the world by posting poems, recipes, songs, general observations, event dates, photos and new projects. Some people use blogs simply to increase their web site ranking in the search engines, as regular updates help keep web sites relevant. And some people just want someone to talk to, so they talk to everyone via a personal-journal-type blog.

Where can you get a blog?

There a lots of free blogging sites to help you set up a blog and get started. WordPress is a very simple one to use, and you can get set up and going in just a few minutes. But don’t be fooled, just because everyone and their dog seems to have a blog these days doesn’t mean blogging is easy. Successful blogs are relevant, topical, and regularly updated.

How do you get started?

If you want to start a blog, the most important thing to do is to choose a theme: what is your blog going to be about? Writing, painting, cooking, fashion, politics, sports? Try to narrow your focus to make creating content easier, a blog that’s not narrowly-enough defined can cause problems when it’s time to come up with something specific to write about. The most effective blogs tend to be those that are very specific in their subject matter, so don’t just pick a topic, pick a niche within a topic. For example, if you’re a trend-watcher, pick a specific area to focus on: new trends as seen where you live, for example. Or instead of starting a blog about sports, focus on one sport, or one state’s various sport teams, or even just one team. The more narrowly you focus your topic, the easier it is to overcome writers block down the road, and to ultimately make your blog successful (that is, getting people, besides your mom, your co-workers and your spouse, to read it).

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Can Twitter help me to gain knowledge in my industry?
Can Twitter help me to expand my business?
Can Twitter even help me to generate more revenue?
We believe the answer is “yes”… if used correctly.

I tend to think of Twitter as a virtual water cooler at the office where people gather to chat. Some of the information is useless, some entertaining, some valuable, and some truly inspiring. You never really know what you are going to get, but more often than not, there will be something that will catch your attention and make your day somehow better.

Twitter connects you with other people, businesses, and resources that are of similar interest. You can literally spend days browsing information relevant to whatever it is that you do. You can find information, that overlaps around all sides of what you do, therefore providing you with a more well rounded foundation. And you can even find resources (often free) that provide you with wonderful tools to further enhance how you do whatever it is that you do.

Twitter is also free instant marketing for your business. Because everyone has similar interests, you are actually receiving targeted traffic to your Twitter profile, website, and blog from others that are following you, and many that happen to stumble across you while browsing others in your industry. When you post a tweet you can see the results spike instantly in your analytics and statistics reports. If people like what they see they begin flocking to you seemingly from out of nowhere. Most of the time when you begin following someone, they in turn start following you back, and thus things take on a life of their own. Although cliche, any smart business person knows that it isn’t always what you know that helps most, but often times it is who you know. Twitter really helps to bring people, that you would never meet otherwise, together in a “networking” kind of way. When people are able to find you, get comfortable with how you present yourself, and feel that you are an authority on something… they will then more often than not use your services and buy your products.

I often find myself hooked into casually scanning through the endless sea of tweets via my Blackberry while relaxing and watching television at night. I always find tweets from my piers that get me excited about something that I had never anticipated. Once you find a topic of interest, you can spiderweb into it by digging into more links, and then go deeper and deeper. The key to using Twitter is not just to take a quick peek, post useless information that no one really cares about, or shamelessly promote your products and services. It is most utilized when you take part in the community from a social standpoint, be productive, and give something back by participating in conversations.

While using Twitter may not be for everyone, the only way to find out is to give it a try, see if you actually enjoy using it… and see if how things evolve for you.

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One of the most common questions from people is whether or not they should blog. Blogs are extremely powerful and can help your business or career – NO doubt about that, but should YOU blog? Certainly blogging is not for everyone or every business!

First, some non-issues. You might think these matter, but they usually don’t.

1) You don’t like to write

I would have told you in 2004 that I hated writing. Five years of blogging later, and a couple of published books, I can tell you that I was wrong. I love to write. What I didn’t like, and thousands of successful bloggers agree, is formal writing, the type that they tried to beat into me in school! I love conversational writing, informal writing which is closer to how we speak, than what was forced on me to do in the 4th grade. Good chance you’ll find the same thing.

2) You don’t know how you’ll come up with topics

Once you start blogging, coming up with topics to blog on is rarely a problem. It’s usually the opposite — you can’t write on every topic that you want to! Most days I could blog for 12 hours. Yes, occasionally I’ll get a very minor case of writers block. Big deal! It passes quickly.

3) You’re afraid you’ll look silly or foolish (a common concern!)

As long as you have thoughts or opinions, and we all do, chances are you’ll be respected in the blogosphere. Sure, many people won’t agree with everything you write, but that doesn’t mean they won’t respect you. As long as you pick a topic you’re passionate about, i.e. you care about, you’ll be just fine.

4) You can’t write well

As long as you can be understood, it’s all right. Hey, do we make fun of brilliant Nobel Laureates who speak with a heavy accent? Not usually. And often we can’t even understand them because they’re so smart! Also remember, you’ll become a better writer as you blog. Practice does not make perfect, but it’ll make you a much better writer.

So, what are some legit reasons NOT to blog?? Here are three.

1) You’re not passionate about your topic or don’t “have a beat”

Quite simply, if you don’t care, why should anyone else? And if you’re passionate, but “don’t’ have a beat” — follow closely and think about a lot, it won’t work either. For example you might love something passionately but have little interest in discussing it or writing about it. I have a friend like that. He is as passionate as possible, but if he can’t do it right now, he doesn’t care to discuss it, read about, meditate on it, or anything else. Obviously he’s not a good candidate to blog on fly fishing, despite it being the passion of his life.

2) In your organization you can’t blog freely – your blog will be tweaked, positioned, arbitrated, massaged, or whatever term might fit by perhaps marketing, PR, or some other department which will truly be in charge of your “thoughts.”

Sorry, but that type of blog simply doesn’t work — it’s not effective. No Web 2.0 touchy-feely stuff here – it just won’t work so “just say no!”

3) You’re not willing to make a commitment of blogging for at least a few months to try it out.

It may take a while to get into the swing of things, and to start seeing results. You can’t blog for a few days and then say that it doesn’t work. They say it takes 10 years to learn to play the violin poorly. Taking lessons for a month and then quitting makes little sense for the violin, or blogging, unless of course you truly decide that you despise it!

Is blogging for you? Immediately dismiss the common non-issues above. If any of the three reasons for not blogging describe your situation, then by all means don’t blog. Otherwise, it’s certainly something every professional should consider.

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Twitter is a fast growing “micro-blogging” service and social network all wrapped into one. After some bumpy roads & strong growing pains the free service that allows hyper-connectedness & an interesting way to express “what you’re doing” at any given time, seems to be on the fast track now to becoming the next mega success story online.

Twitter was founded by Evan Williams, who is no rookie to bringing creative ideas to multi-million dollar reality. Evan was a blogging pioneer and has created and grown web properties that have attracted the attention of the big dogs, including Google. One of Evan’s past web projects grew to be so huge, in fact, that Google bought him out for a multi million dollar price tag. Rather than reclining on a beach chair & sipping Coronas for the remainder of his life, Evan decided to try his hand again, when he thought up the concept of “micro-blogging.”

In all our modern day Internet hustle & bustle there’s come a need for brevity… short, to the point, yet meaningful messages.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Evan’s idea for Twitter was a service that not only allows people to post short “micro-blog” entries (by enforcing a self-created parameter that only allows users a maximum of 140 characters per post), but also helps people stay connected through the use of followers, text messages, and @replies. The Twitter faithful are even coining their own new lingo to describe some of the everyday actions that take place on the site. “Tweets,” for example, are the term used to describe each of your short, 140 character or less, posts to update your Twitter profile.

In this article the aim is to go over a simple overview of the everyday things you’ll need to know in order to get started on Twitter & set yourself up for maximum exposure using this free service.

• First off, you’ll need to go create an account by visiting the site and following the easy to follow prompts for creating a new account.
• Once you’re all setup, be sure to visit the “Settings” tab and customize your profile and also enter a short bio, along with the URL to your website.
• In order to double the chances of getting a click, I’d also recommend including a hyperlink within your bio, in addition to the hyperlink you’ll enter in the box for your web URL.
• The next thing you’ll want to do is visit the “Devices” tab and get your account setup so that you can send tweets on the go from your mobile phone.
• The steps for confirming your mobile device to work with Twitter are easy to follow and you’ll be up and rolling in no time flat.
• Once you’ve got your new account created and have configured your settings & mobile, it’s time to start tweeting.

Remember, you’ll be limited to 140 characters per message so choose your words wisely. If you’d like to include a hyperlink with your Tweet you should consider shortening it down using a free tool like Tiny URL, or Snip URL.

Be careful not to come off as too spammy by including links in every Tweet… get involved with the Twitter community and share some of your daily activities with your followers so you can get a real feel for what it’s all about before sucking traffic out… its got to be a give-give relationship!

Now, to really get yourself on the fast track and start adding new followers fast, the best advice is to follow people who you find interesting, and single out those who already have a large following. Tweet regularly and often using your mobile, the Twitter site, and even handy third party applications like “Twhirl.”

Anytime you see a new Tweet from someone you are following send them an @reply by including the “@” sign + their Twitter username in a message responding to their original tweet.

By sending users an @reply you’ll get their attention, strike up conversations, and best of all – put yourself in the public spotlight so that all of their followers will take notice of you.

Before you know it, you’ll be addicted to Twitter and will have a massive following as well!

Once you’ve built a following it’s easy to get visitors to your site by using services like TwitterFeed anytime you post a new blog entry, TweetLater to automatically direct message new followers, and other little known tips & tricks for putting it all on auto-pilot.

Twitter is a new revolution in communications and may be the first glimpse at Web 3.0. I recommend getting setup on Twitter today so you can ride this new wave into the future and enjoy it for all it’s worth.

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