Recently, a lawyer friend of mine shared that his firm withdrew a job offer after finding “inappropriate” content on a candidate’s (let’s call him “Bob”) Facebook page.




Social networks provide an incredibly effective way to create and maintain our different personal and professional connections. The challenge, however, is how best to manage social networks’ inherent transparency when our historically private, separate communities and activities mix together online.




When Bob started using Facebook in 2004, his parents, professors, and potential employers weren’t on Facebook, so he had no reason to think about who could see his content. Bob friended people from all parts of his life, including his aunt, his History professor, and a recruiter he spoke to at his school’s career fair. Occasionally he would worry about who could see his posts, but Facebook’s privacy settings were confusing and constantly changing. Moreover, not sharing personal content freely made Bob feel cut off from his friends, and his social life trumped the few concerns he had about privacy.




Bob failed to understand the importance of mastering and keeping up with Facebook’s privacy settings. Doing so would have enabled him to more effectively balance his personal use of social networks with his increasingly important professional use of them.




Here are my recommendations for controlling your personal and professional online presence, both for my fellow students and for all the other “Bobs” out there who have not yet begun to proactively manage their identities online:




• Use different social media sites to manage the different aspects of your life. You might, for example, decide to keep your Facebook page strictly personal and restrict all of its content to “Friends Only.” You can then use LinkedIn and Twitter to create and share your “public” content for your professional networks and search engines Google and Bing.




• Master Facebook’s privacy settings so you can organize and control your connections and your sharing. For example, you might want to pick a default setting for each Facebook sharing category and make “lists” of your friends. You could make lists for family, close friends, college friends, co-workers, and a “restricted” list of people from whom you wish to hide your most personal content. Then, each time you share something, you can customize who sees your content by clicking on the “lock” icon and choosing “Customize”. If you’re sharing a video of your uncle at his 50th birthday party that you know his family will love, but that he would not want passed around his office, choose “Specific People” and then type in “Family” to share only with your family list. A few extra seconds is all it takes to control who can access everything you post online.




Yes, keeping track of all of your connections on multiple social networks can be overwhelming. Use tools such as SocialGrow’s web application to help you organize and manage your connections. You might realize that you are connected to a close friend on LinkedIn and want to stay in touch with him through Facebook. Or you might see that you’re Facebook friends with your boss, but would rather communicate with her online through LinkedIn and Twitter. SocialGrow makes it easy to invite the people you know to connect with you on your chosen social networks.




While in many cases our personal and professional lives blend together to our benefit — you might find your next job through your son’s soccer coach’s husband — managing your social networks is about purposely controlling who has access to the different kinds of content you post. It’s important to take the time to learn, and keep learning, how each site’s settings work so *you* can control your personal brand online.





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No, not your personal resolutions. Although I admit it would be nice to be able to “put down the spoon” when confronted with my favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s staring at me from my freezer late at night. The start of the new year is a GREAT time for doing those new things which will help your brand, and your business to grow.



I’m guessing you took full advantage over the holidays to reconnect with all of your family and friends, but are you taking full advantage of all of the opportunities available to you to connect your brand with your existing and target customers as we kick off the new year? What better resolution than committing to yourself to send each and every person you do business with an invitation to connect on your favorite social network(s)! For many of us it’s LinkedIn, but it can also be Facebook or Twitter.



Acknowledging our own bias, we do think that the SocialGrow web app (available at http://socialgrow.com) is a great tool to help you grow your social network(s). Even more exciting, as we speak, we are putting our new dot release through its final tests, and are chomping at the bit to share it with you. We have taken all of our Alpha users’ feedback (they’re not a shy bunch!), and used it to make our app even better.



While we finish up our testing, we invite you to connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter.



Here’s wishing you an exciting 2011 filled with the success that comes from having a great network of connections!



Fireworks photo credit: malfet_.




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This week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by none other than America’s LinkedIn Lady, Carol McManus, on WGCH Greenwich. We had a lot of fun (full disclosure: Carol and I worked with each other at a previous company), and the half-hour went by in a flash. What really hit me, however, is that even people who are successfully marketing their brands on other social networks, are often completely flummoxed by how best to make use of Twitter.



The bulk of the questions I received contained elements of both confusion (”I don’t know what to do”) and fear (”I don’t want to damage my brand”).



To help both the people who want to start tweeting and have not yet sent their first tweet, and the people who have started tweeting but are not yet seeing the results they know are possible, I pulled together the following Twitter checklist.



Note that you are not going to get 10,000 new Twitter followers overnight by following these 40 guidelines. You will, however, increase your social influence, engage your target audiences, and grow your business!



Ken’s Fast Start 40: The Twitter Checklist



1. Download/Listen to our radio show from this week [30-minute .mp3 podcast].



2. Read my previous post on this blog on how to engage your target audience on Twitter.



3. Use the shortest, brand-appropriate Twitter handle that is available.



4. Use a headshot with you smiling as your Twitter photo/avatar.



5. Use a custom Twitter background [optimized for #newtwitter].



6. Identify your business’ top five keywords, write them down, and pin them up in the place where you normally tweet.



7. Use your business’ keywords in your Twitter bio.



8. Use an actual (i.e., not an URL-shortened) web address in your profile.



9. Make sure your Twitter profile is public.



10. Add Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/YourTwitterHandle to your e-mail signature line, your business card, your products (including packaging), your LinkedIn and other social network profiles, and ALL of your print, web, and voice (including your voice mail greetings) communications.




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11. Go to Google Alerts and create a Google alert for your Twitter handle.



12. Go to Klout.com and get your baseline social influence score — note that it may be 0 to start.



13. Go to Twittercounter.com and get your baseline Twitter growth statistics.



14. Tweet at least three times a day (and no more than seven times a day), including weekends, spread evenly throughout the day.



15. Follow at least 20 people (and no more than 100 people) a day.



16. Once a week, use ManageFlitter.com to unfollow the people who have stopped tweeting (i.e., people who have not tweeted in over 30 days).



17. Tweet relevant, brand-appropriate content that shares your expertise.



18. Look for opportunities to tweet relevant, brand-appropriate photos, audio, and videos.



19. Avoid negative tweets, both in terms of the language you use and the emotions you express.



20. Limit your tweets to a maximum of 120 characters.




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21. Use URL shortener j.mp for all of your links (it's the shortest available with full metrics).



22. To maximize the number of clicks for a given link, use the full, non-shortened URL.



23. For your first 30 days, do NOT sell *anything* in your tweets, period. After your first 30 days, no more than one out of every 20 of your tweets can be a *soft* sales pitch for your products/services. Direct selling in your tweets will turn people off from following you, and will result in people already following you to unfollow you.



24. Avoid using tools that automate the management of your tweets or your followers as you can easily (and unknowingly) violate Twitter's terms of service, resulting in a suspended account.



25. Use your business' keywords [from #6 above] in your tweets.



26. Hashtag (#) the most important keyword in every tweet.



27. Create, and start populating at least three Twitter Lists (e.g., your current customers, your target/prospective customers, the experts you follow, your peers, people from your network, your competitors, leaders in your industry, etc.).



28. If you are tweeting as a business, brand, or organization, follow back *everyone* who follows you.



29. Acknowledge EVERY Twitter mention, retweet, and DM you receive.



30. Proactively/Directly engage at least one new person a day in a public [see #31 below] tweet.




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31. When you directly engage or reply to people on Twitter, always use .@TwitterHandle instead of @TwitterHandle at the beginning of your tweet (so that your tweet can be seen by everyone).



32. Credit the original author(s) when you retweet others' content, including the media source/publication if you have space.



33. When crediting someone, use /@TwitterHandle (instead of RT or via) to save characters.



34. Add your own comment when retweeting others' content.



35. Retweet "manually" (also called "traditional retweeting") -- i.e., do not use the Twitter retweet function, as it does not allow you to add your own comment.



36. Be yourself. Use your natural tone and voice, and fully leverage your own unique personality (i.e., if you're naturally a comedian, be funny; if you're naturally a data geek, geek out!).



37. Read each and every tweet out loud to yourself BEFORE you post it.



38. Read each and every tweet AFTER you post it to check that the @'s and links all work. Immediately delete, correct, and repost the tweet if you find a typo.



39. Once a day, set aside a few minutes of quiet time, free of interruptions and distractions, to read through your followers' tweets.



40. JUST DO IT! Start tweeting, not on Monday morning, not tomorrow, not later today, but NOW.



People like to say that there are no rules on Twitter, and I agree. These are my personal guidelines, from what I have found from my own experience to work best over time.



In the comments section below, please share with me YOUR favorite Twitter tips and guidelines. Also please feel free to let me know which of my guidelines you disagree with, and why!




Need more help with your tweeting? Check out SocialGrow's Twitter Marketing and Sales Engagement Training.

I had the opportunity to attend the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Summit recently, and wanted to share a few of my observations. In addition to being part of the SocialGrow team, I’m on the Board of Directors for WOMMA, and so I always look forward to attending this conference, to hang out and learn from the best and the brightest (and the most curious) in the Word of Mouth Marketing space.

Integrating Social Media into a company’s marketing plan has been a challenge, but because of the proliferation of tools that can track a company’s online buzz, and directly measure the impact of Social Marketing programs, the “C-Suite” is becoming more and more anxious to use Social Media to grow their business.



 The conference started off with a bang, as Harvard Business Review released the December 2010 issue, featuring “Social Media and the New Rules of Branding” on its cover. There’s never been more attention paid to “Social Media,” and every company big or small is focused on using Facebook and Twitter and other Social Media tools to create or tap into conversations with their customers.



 In place of attending the event, or trying to read my scribbled notes, the WOMMA staff hired Paula Hanson, a “Graphic Recorder” from Chart-Magic to take notes during many of the sessions.

Facebook’s Paul Ollinger gave an inspiring session about the “Identity Web.” He outlined the keys to creating a successful presence on Facebook: 1) Index your brand on the “Who” web. 2) Build authentic networks (something SocialGrow makes a lot easier); and 3) Develop Long-term Relationships. Along the way, he gave examples of firms like Oreo and Starbucks who have followed this model to build trust around their brand.


 



 The Kitchen Sisters from NPR shared the importance of Storytelling. The stressed the importance of stories to keep your audience, or your customers, paying attention to your message. One of the important points they made was to “put a face on your story.” Connecting with people directly, with Facebook, Linked In, or other Social Networks gives you the chance to know your customer, and for them to put a face on you, and your brand. And SocialGrow makes it easy to connect with partners, clients, and customers.



The team from Ben & Jerry’s spoke about programs they’ve done using Social Media. For their extremely popular “Free Cone Day,” they relied heavily on Social Networks to get the word out. But more than just getting the message out, they wanted to develop relationships via Twitter, monitoring followers, Tweeting during their Summer Sampling Tour, and connecting directly with their most avid customers. Does your marketing program have a Word of Mouth component? Do you use tools like SocialGrow to connect with customers and participate in conversations they’re having about your brand or product?



There was a lot more that was shared, but the key issue in making Word of Mouth profitable is connecting with your customers, making sure your message is “Talkable.” What are your customers saying? Where are they saying it? Have you shared your thoughts with them? Have you listened to what they’re saying?



 For more on WOMMA, and the 2010 WOMMA Summit, go to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association website.



See you at the next conference!

For many people, keeping all of your business and personal contacts organized is a drag – the process can be monotonous, time-consuming and frustrating. We, at SocialGrow, feel that maintaining an online contact management system does not have to be that way. We will show you how to make the process of building and maintaining your contact databases more efficient and less time-consuming.  Once built, you will have your contacts organized in order to be able to both leverage your network effectively and be able to systematically grow and improve it.



Getting your contacts organized starts with the goal of creating a master contact list. To do this, you will need to export the contact databases from your email programs and social networking accounts. Eventually, we will merge all of these export databases into Excel or Google Docs so you will have one spreadsheet of all your contacts. There are two good reasons to do this exercise. First, a complete contact list gives you comprehensive view of your relationships so you can begin to categorize and rank your contacts. Second, the list provides an essential backup of your contacts.



While exporting your data from a web service is typically a straightforward process, recent developments have made this exercise more difficult on some web sites. Over the past month, Google and Facebook have been debating policies regarding the export of user information. Google has always been about “open access,” while Facebook has chosen to continue to restrict the exporting of certain user data. This dispute is far from over and is one we should all pay attention to – learn more about it at these links:



• Google Warns Facebook Users of “Trap” Before Data Export
• Google to Facebook: You Can’t Import Our User Data without Reciprocity
• Give Us Our Data, Facebook


Here is the process to export your contacts from the top email programs and social networking services.



Facebook

While Facebook allows you to download your Facebook content, your Facebook export will not include your friends’ email addresses. As a workaround, Lifehacker has put together an effective trick using the Yahoo Address Book to export your contacts.



Gmail

Go to Gmail and click on Contacts. Choose More Options. Before you export, choose merge contacts first. Choose Export. Choose All Contacts and Google Export.



LinkedIn

After logging into LinkedIn, go to Contacts and then My Connections. At the bottom right side of the page, you will see Export Connections. From the next screen, you can download a CSV spreadsheet file.



Outlook

Open Outlook and go to File. Choose export, export to file. Create an Excel 98-2003 File. Choose Contacts as the export folder. Click Browse and give the file a name. Your export will download to a CSV file. If you choose Map Custom Fields, you can choose Default Map or select certain fields. To ensure you download all fields choose Clear Map and then Default Map. Name the file and click Export.



Twitter

Sign into MyTweeple using your Twitter credentials. Synchronize your account and choose Tools. Choose Export into a CSV.



Yahoo

Go to Yahoo Address Book. Click on View All Contacts and choose Tools. Choose Export and Choose Yahoo! CSV.



Unless you have another web service with your contacts, that is it – now you are ready for the next step to merge your contact databases together into one spreadsheet, which we will cover in the next post in the SocialGrow Content Series on Social Networking and Online Contact Management. In the meantime, let us know how these contact management tips worked out for you or if you have any suggestions on how to improve the contact database export processes.



I’m really excited to join the SocialGrow marketing team. From the first time I heard the concept behind SocialGrow, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I’ve always known the best way to grow any business is to build authentic relationships with their customers. And because the mission of SocialGrow is to make it easier for companies to connect with their customers within their social networks, I knew they had a winning formula.



About 20 years ago, I joined a relatively small company in the Northwest United States with about 3,000 employees worldwide, Microsoft Corp. I spent the majority of my career focusing on connecting with customers, most recently as part of the Xbox Global Marketing organization. I started blogging in 2003 (at johnporcaro.com), and created my Twitter account back when nobody knew what Twitter was. I created the first official blog at Microsoft that was run by a PR team (gamerscoreblog.com), and as Director of Xbox LIVE Member Engagement, I had the pleasure of leading a talented team that built the CRM and Social Networking platform for Xbox, creating more customized email, building the Xbox presence for Facebook, YouTube, and other Social Networks, and on mobile devices. I left Microsoft in late 2009.



For the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. WOMMA’s mission is to help brands, agencies, and technology vendors make brands more “talkable” by advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing. In fact, I’ll be at the 2010 WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas November 17-19. If you’re there, stop by and say hi!



For the past year, I’ve been working with startup firms like SocialGrow to share my experience working within large organizations who are implementing social networking programs. It’s been a challenge to create integrated marketing plans that include traditional marketing (email, PR, advertising, websites) and social networking. Marketing as a discipline is making a complete sea change, and it’s been fun to be at the forefront. In the past year or so, I’ve seen some amazingly innovative products — like SocialGrow — that are making it feasible, and profitable to create marketing programs that connect to customers where conversations are taking place.



When I’m not scheming on ways to change the world of marketing, I’m spending time with my four kids, ages 8 to 14. You can read more about our exploits on my family-ish blog, I’m the Dad, That’s Why.



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Hi, everyone. My name is Olivier Sartor and I am one of the new marketing team members here at SocialGrow. I will be managing the content management strategy, including SEO, website analytics, and the company’s blog (http://socialgrowblog.com). I am very passionate about helping companies improve their social media and marketing strategy as I continually focus on aligning social media objectives with business objectives.



At SocialGrow, I will be championing the customer’s experience by designing and implementing successful social media campaigns that encourage community engagement and feedback so we can build you the best contact management solution possible to manage your social networks.



Before joining SocialGrow, I founded Elbow Grease Marketing, a Boston-based social media, marketing agency that I have run for the past 9 years. I have enjoyed working for a number of clients including Arnold Worldwide, Boston College, Brightcove, Motorola, Monster, and Qwest. Previously, I worked for Cisco Systems where I established the local marketing presence for the New England territory and IBM where I managed big blue marketing campaigns.



I am a MBA graduate of the F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College where I earned summa cum laude honors and the University of Rochester where I received a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science. I am native Bostonian and enjoy the Patriots, the Red Sox, alternative music, and windsurfing.



Later this week, after you meet the rest of SocialGrow’s new marketing team members, I will be posting the latest missive in our Social Networking and Online Contact Management Strategies Series.



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I’m Cindy Zhang. I create videos to help you get the most value out of SocialGrow’s products, and I manage SocialGrow’s YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/socialgrow) and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/socialgrow) channels.



I’m Chinese by birth, a New Englander in practice, and a multimedia journalist by trade. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Peking University in China, I didn’t become a mathematician or an engineer as my parents had expected, but decided instead to pursue my love of writing and explore the world. This passion, and a wide-ranging interest in science brought me to the opposite side of the globe in 2008 to the Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University. I’m proud of taking that courageous first step into the unknown, and believe it was the best decision I’ve ever made.



For the past two years, I’ve worked as a production assistant at Boston Science Communications, a science documentary production company (where I assisted in editing videos and media research); a research intern at NOVA/WGBH (where I developed ideas for the prestigious NOVA TV Show and watched a ton of great documentaries); and as an editorial intern at one of the world’s top science magazines, Discover (where I talked to charming scientists, translated their work, and helped them to reach a wider audience with my writing.



Along with my love of reading and writing, I’m an acknowledged geek. Thanks to my engineering background, I really get into all the emerging new social technologies. I enjoy using social media, and want to further delve into how it is enabling people to connect and changing how we think about communications.



Currently, I am working on a new demo video to help everyone better understand SocialGrow’s web application. Please feel free to reach out to me when you find one of our videos to be particularly useful or entertaining!



Outside of media and science, I’m a great Chinese food cook, occasional swimmer, and a book and ice cream addict.



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Hi SocialGrowers! I’m Lorenzo Dickerson, and part of my duties here at SocialGrow are to reach out to you on Facebook and LinkedIn to share my experience in using social networks and social media to help you make valuable connections, build new relationships, and achieve your objectives. For me, social media helps people and organizations to learn from their relationships, as people are always going to be able to provide a richer perspective beyond what we can access through a search engine.



When people ask me how they can increase their effectiveness on social networking, I tell them to be generous. If you freely share your expertise in a given [relevant to your business] topic, you’ll soon be increasing your social influence.



An avid traveler, before joining the team here at SocialGrow, I completed an eight-month trip across the United States and Europe. Prior to my trip, I did financial analysis for banks SunTrust and Capital One, and social media marketing for The Source Magazine and IdeaOffer.com. My Marketing MBA and Business Management BBA are from Strayer University. Living in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina made me a diehard UNC Tarheels basketball fan, and I recently moved back to my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.



I enjoy developing new ideas, leveraging social media to make valuable connections, and implementing marketing strategies that will take those ideas to the next level of awareness and usage.



While the SocialGrow blog is of course my favorite (you never know when the boss is reading…), I also love to read
Soaring on a Pig with Bread Wings.



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I am so excited to join SocialGrow’s marketing team! My mission here is to help you to connect with the people you know on your social networks. One of the things I bring to the team – and to all you SocialGrowers – is an obsession with customer service across different industries and job functions.



I grew up in Boston — no, I don’t have an accent; and yes, I do drive like a local — and I earned my BA in History from Smith College. After Smith, I moved to Washington, DC where I was a fundraiser at the non-profit advocacy organization the Children’s Defense Fund.



After working at the Children’s Defense Fund, I joined the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) to help build their education division. As their Director of Operations, I oversaw their training programs for medical technology companies. Despite having a full-time job, I couldn’t resist jumping into the world of Washington, D.C. politics, so, I ran for office. I was twice elected to serve as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. It was a great way to work with neighbors, the D.C. government and, local business owners. My constituents also included – no joke – the residents of the National Zoo. I know more about pandas, noise ordinances, and historic preservation than most people ever should.



I moved even further south of Boston when I relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia to attend the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Following graduate school, I moved back to Boston where I founded Blackwing Consulting, a company specializing in marketing and strategy for nonprofit associations and startup companies.



Now my first priority is to help you get every drop of value out of SocialGrow’s application. My second priority is of course to attend as many Red Sox games as possible! In the off-season, I’m working on running faster, wearing out my library card, adding more stamps to my passport, and becoming a better cook. I continue to work with nonprofit organizations including the Girl Scouts, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, Boston Cares, and the Brain Science Foundation.



Happen to know how to find more hours in the day? Or want to know how SocialGrow can work better for you and your organization? Please e-mail me on dia.black [at] socialgrow.com. Remember I work for you!



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