7 Tips for Succeeding with Social Networking

Social Networking is a great way to reach out to your community, to get leads, to form relationships, to grow your business. If you’re just getting started with social networking, here are some tips to get you going:

1. Plan your strategy. Before you start, give some thought as to where you want to be noticed, and what communities you want to be involved in. Find those sites and plan to spend your time there.

2. Create an interesting profile. Include a link to your site. Make it easy for people to find you. This shows your personality and helps people trust you.

3. Customize your background, if applicable, to reflect who you are and/or your company. Don’t settle for the standard template. For example, Twitter allows members to upload custom graphics backgrounds, change colors, etc. Be different. Stand out.

4. Don’t be a wallflower. Get out there and talk to people - it IS social networking, after all! Introduce yourself. Start conversations. Get involved with people in your niche and talk to them. Form relationships.

5. Be yourself. Don’t try to be like everyone else. There are millions of people on the web and you want to stand out. Be UNforgettable.

6. Add value. Give tips, add assistance, help out a fellow member. Promote yourself if it’s relevant and useful, but DON’T promote yourself all the time. If you’re only talking about yourself, you’re not engaging in a conversation, and people will soon ignore you.

7. Promote others. This might seem counter-productive, but think about it. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. People help each other. That’s what social networking is all about!

8. BONUS: Don’t Tweet your day away! Segment your time. If you spend all your time in social networking sites, you won’t get any of your own work done! It’s easy to get addicted, but you have to spend your time wisely. Create a schedule. Pick out times during the day that you set aside for social networking, and stick to that schedule.

Follow those steps, and you’ll be ahead of the pack right from the start. Start now and follow me on Twitter at @lisawood. See you there!

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