Guest Post: Five Tips to Build Your Business & Your Network Using Social Media

By Wendy Terwelp

1. Remember it’s about quality, not quantity. The goal of social media is truly about engagement. Creating real and helpful relationships leads to business growth. 
2. Social media is where the work is going. According to Chris Brogan, social media expert and entrepreneur, “Here’s how to get more leads, to nurture your prospects, to educate your buyers, to service your customers.” 
3. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Social media helps people build trust by demonstrating their thought leadership, expertise, and personal brand.
4. “Remember you are dealing with people. Let your organization's real personality shine… work on creating remarkable experiences for your customers,” said Robbin Phillips, BrainsOnFire.com, in a tweet. Social media enables you to do just that.
5. Keep in mind “The Mom & Boss Test.” If your mom would be mortified or your boss would fire you, don’t post it! This is especially relevant advice for our job-seeker clients.

© 2011 ● Wendy Terwelp ● All rights reserved. ● Learn how to Rock Your Network® Online is Wendy’s upcoming class, starting June 9th! This class is designed especially for career industry professionals like you. Dubbed “LinkedIn Guru” by The Washington Post, Wendy is a recognized expert on networking both online and off. She is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fast Company, The Philadelphia Inquirer, More Magazine, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, ABC, NBC, radio shows and more.

How to Use Social Networking To Draw Traffic to Your Website

Social networking websites can benefit all website owners, but especially resume writers who are looking to make a profit from visitors to their websites. This can be done one of two ways -- by selling something on the website (resume writing services, career coaching, job search packages, or affiliate products) or by relying on revenue from advertising (a handful of resume writers run websites that provide job search content supported by advertising revenue). 

If you have a website that selling products or services (as opposed to a content site that depends solely on advertising revenue), you may find it a little bit easier to use social networking sites to your advantage. This is because, if you wish, you could do product or service spotlights. Each day, week, or month, you could showcase one of the products or services that your website sells. This could either be done through status updates, Tweets, or blog posts. 

If you are using your online website to make money with advertising programs, such as affiliate programs or Google Adsense, you may need to approach social networking websites in a different matter. Since you will not necessarily have a particular product or service to focus on, you will need to approach these websites as if they were personal websites.

As with all other types of online websites, social networking websites should help to increase the number of page views your website receives. In most cases, more page views mean more clicks -- which means money for you.

Happy Birthday, Justin Bieber!

Okay, so I'm not 14 years old. But I have seen Justin Bieber's movie (in 3D, no less!) -- Never Say Never.

I didn't know much about JB before I saw the movie -- other that what I read in People magazine, for the most part. But my brother has five little girls (ages 4-13) and they've seen the movie seven times now, so Jon and I came along to see it for my niece (& goddaughter) Lauren's birthday in mid-February.

I have to say, I'm impressed. The kid has talent -- and beyond that, he has something to teach resume writers about branding, social media, and (client) relationship management.

As a brand, he's a force. Seven million+ followers on Twitter. More than 6,000 Tweets sent (I'm sure by now he has a social media team helping him with it, but in the early days, it was all him!) More than 22 MILLION Facebook fans for his brand page. And when he cut his hair, he (reportedly) lost 80,000 Twitter followers. Amazing.

A guest post on the TechCrunch blog today gets it: "What Every Entrepreneur Could Learn from Justin Bieber." The BrittInspired blog opines on "What Justin Bieber Taught Me About Social Media."

My favorite bit of wisdom from that post:
 The Bieb’s career started when a talent manager found a video of him singing on YouTube. That’s all it takes. One great piece of content. One person to notice you and unimaginable things can happen. No one is going to notice you if they don’t know you’re there.

Plus, the kid is inspiring. So is the movie. Go see it.
Happy 17th Birthday, Justin Bieber!

Best of Today: 9/14/10

Here are my "favorite" articles from today --

The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media

Via CareerPro Resumes: How Recruiters Screen Your Resume (by Perry Newman)

The Facebookification of Twitter

Interesting article from US News & World Report, via @AvidCareerist (retweeting @ErinKennedyCPRW and @JobHuntOrg! “Beware the Interviewer in a Soft Chair”

The Real Power of Networking is in the Second Degree? – via Kristen Jacoway – “How to Find a New Job with LinkedIn”

– Great video explaining the process!

63 Lessons Learned from 2 Years as an Entrepreneur

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

@GayleHoward: Careers are linked to your life stages. Work situations perfect for one period of your life may be completely wrong for the next.