“John Jantsch, author of ‘Duct Tape Marketing,’ suggests trying … networks that cater to business owners, such as Biznik and BizSugar.” – Three Best Ways to Use Social Media in the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 16, 2009 (more…)

Wow! Dozens of business articles were submitted for the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging contest and there were literally hundreds of votes and comments.

And here are the winners… (more…)

Ok! So I got your attention, right? (more…)

I thought I’d share my favourite business tools I have used this year. I am amazed at how many amazing products for business are very inexpensive or often completely free. The only challenge is to find them in the first place. (more…)

My last post “50 Ways to get More from Linkedin” got a good response, so I decided to do one about using Twitter for business.  Twitter is perceived in some quarters as a lesser business tool and sometimes suffers from a bad press. I personally have found it to be a very effective tool – provided of course you go about using it in the right way. To date,  Twitter has generated for me – the most return vs. the time that I have put it, when compared to the other social media.

When using Twitter for business, It’s important to have a plan so that you have something to measure your results against. In my experience, the individuals and businesses that fail to leverage Twitter effectively are also those who have employed no strategy and/or have not taken the time to understand how to use it.  So what better way to help you to get off to a great start, than taking advice from some people and businesses that use it well. So from me and some of my Twitter friends here are:

# 50 Tips to Get You STARTED Using Twitter for Business

1. @CindyKing Remember that Twitter is a tool in your social media marketing/communication. It is like a hammer or a telephone… and so are all of the fun apps. If it’s a new medium for you, then don’t go blindly wielding that hammer all over the place. Spend lots of time listening to people on Twitter relevant to your business. Notice the different tactics people use. Start slowly. Give yourself 1-3 months to get a feel for the environment and to figure out the best way you can use Twitter to help your business.

2. @CindyKing If you remember that Twitter is just a tool, once you understand the environment it is easy to see how you can use it best to fit in with your business needs. And this approach also helps you to see how to integrate your Twitter activities into an overall social media marketing plan.

3. @whatswhat_sian It’s free and simple to sign up to Twitter. To make your listing look good ensure you have a catchy bio with a link to your website. This way someone can find out more info about you or your business if they need or want to.  Ensure you add an avatar (Picture), preferably of yourself, as lots of people don’t like to interact with someone hiding their identity. If you are on Twitter to market a brand name then make sure your twitter name is your brand.

4. @whatswhat_sian Don’t protect your tweets if you’re aim is to converse with people.

5. @whatswhat_sian To speak to someone directly, type their twitter name preceded by the @ sign – eg. @whatswhat_sian Anyone following both of you can see those tweets. If you wish to say something to someone without anyone else seeing then you send a Direct Message (DM).

6. @davidabrock If you want, you can lurk for a while to get a feel for Twitter and what’s going on.  Both look at interesting people, figure out the etiquette, etc.

7. @davidabrock Know who you are and how you want to be perceived in Twitter.  Stated differently, know your personal brand and be true to it.

8. @skipanderson Post several dozen tweets over a period of several days (or more) before starting to follow people. Many visitors want to know what you’re all about before they follow you, and your tweets do that better than even your profile.

9. @whatswhat_sian It’s great if you already know someone on Twitter and look at who they are following or who is following them – it’s simple to click to follow them then. And the majority of the time they will follow you back.

10. @rbconsulting Plan on how you going to use the service. For me, I don’t really use it for chat, but more for circulating interesting info / links in relation to my areas of expertise or interest.

11. @Barros_Isabel Although there are many applications to back up Tweets I think the easiest and more reliable way is to create a RSS feed of your own Twitter account to yourself (email account). This should be done as soon as possible (ideally when you create your Twitter account).

12. @calebgardner It’s OK to start small. Follow some people that interest you, some that you want to network with – and be sure to upload your email contacts and follow the people you already know. Gradually you will start to build your network.

13. @calebgardner Don’t sign on to a service that guarantees you tons of followers in a short amount of time, and don’t immediately start following tons of people. Both are frowned upon in the Twitter community and will make lessen the quality of the medium for you.

14. @emmattdigital Don’t simply just self promote, but join in on conversations. Establish yourself as an expert.

15. @fredchannel ensure not to go mad with the “integration” fever. If you integrate everything you’ll annoy your audience. I would strongly suggest that you DO NOT integrate anything until you understand what’s going on, what message is coming from “here” and going “there”…

16. @fredchannel After launching a blog post for example, make sure that you use Twitter to spread the word. First, use tools like Hootsuite.com or any Twitter client that allows you to schedule tweets. Depending on the frequency of your posts, you’ll go ahead and schedule tweets for the following days (e.g. if you posts only once a week on Mondays, then schedule tweets for the rest of the week), so you post gets exposure to your Twitter audience AM and PM. You only have 140 characters so keep it short. What I suggest is that you first announce that you have a new post, then include the title (tell people what you wrote about!), then include the LINK to your post (extremely important) Finally include an engaging question that makes people want to learn more about your post.

17. @whatswhat_sian Follow people that are in the same location as you, or the same industry as you, and the businesses that you could benefit – there are several different apps for finding these.

18. @whatswhat_sian Put your twitter address on your website, emails, correspondence and your business card.

19. @rbconsulting I use twitter to circulate links to my blogs and articles of interest or discussions that I have started in LinkedIn etc.

20. @calebgardner Be careful just using Twitter as a way to continually blast out your own content. This is a sure-fire way to get ignored at best and unfollowed at worst. Instead start responding to people and having conversations. Share other people’s content. Then, when people come to know and trust you, you can share your own content.

21. @careerscoacheu Your tweets should be relevant and add value to your audience. Ask yourself does this tweet add value for my followers.

22. @careerscoacheu If tweeting a link – tell your followers the subject of the link so they know what they are clicking on.

23. @nialldevitt Twitter allows you to use up to 140 characters when creating a tweet. When tweeting a link, It’s a good idea to use a URL shortener to save space.  Also, if you are planning to get RTed, you will need to leave space for the person/s doing the RTing.

24. @fredchannel I use Tweetdeck as my primary way to handle Twitter. It is a fantastic tool. When you’re actively looking to network, besides the chit-chat, there’s nothing better than look for people asking questions and try to hello them! Go to the very lower left (First column showing the people you follow) and click on the option below: you’ll find a space where you can search for keywords in order to filter the information in the stream of tweets. The best way to find people asking questions is very simple: just insert into that space “?” and everybody asking a question will pop up

25. @whatswhat_sian I believe networking on Twitter is basically done by chatting to people and getting retweeted (RT’d). Using tweetdeck it is simple to see other people talking and there could be something you are interested in chatting about too or maybe someone is asking a question and you know the answer to.  If you are able to see the conversation then you are following them so it should not be a problem if you speak to that person.  Getting something you say RT’d is huge networking as someone with perhaps 1,000 followers will RT you and there’s a possibility of those 1,000 followers seeing your tweet. Even if you think 10% are online at that time you’re still reaching 100 more people that maybe hadn’t heard of you before.  This is much quicker than face to face networking.  I look at it as follows – imagine you are stood on a stage in front of your 500 followers and you say what you want to say (in 140 characters of course lol). Of that 500 only 50 people are actually listening to you and only 5 of them decide to tell other people what you have said (i.e. an RT). Those 5 have a total of maybe 2000 followers between them and working off that 10% your tweet may have reached 200 people who aren’t even in the same place as you are on a stage and have never heard of you.  Of course if your tweet is interesting enough it could be RT’d again and again – growing awareness of you. Don’t know about you but I’d never stand on a stage and talk to people so it’s a perfect way to network for people like myself.

26. @davidabrock Use Twitter as the starting point to build relationships.  Reach out and touch them, get to know them over the phone, in person, via something more than 140.  Some of my most valued relationships started in Twitter.

27. @rbconsulting Find out who tweeting on areas of interest to me and RT their tweets ts or reply with a response/question to their tweet.

28. @ganeca I’d suggest finding those local people & businesses using Twitter. Connect with them, and join in on their conversations that you can add to. You can use these sites to do that:

Twitter Advanced Search
ChirpCity
Nearby Tweets
Tweepz
Twellow Pages

29. @calebgardner Add yourself to services like Twellow and WeFollow. Start following people in your field and have conversations with them. See when others are posting their content and comment on it. Twitter is a fantastic networking tool when used that way.

30. @nialldevitt Its easy to get sucked in and waste a lot of time on twitter. At the start just spend a few hours a week seeking real results such as making X number of introductions etc.

31. @careerscoacheu Be disciplined about your time. Don’t get distracted with idol chit chat – that is if that is not your objective.

32. @calebgardner I’ve found that turning off Twitter completely for a period of time is the best ways to get things done that absolutely need to be done. There are also programs like Concentrate for Mac that will actually close programs for you and not allow them to open until a certain amount of time has passed.

33. @davidabrock Find good tools and leverage them.  For example, Hootsuite is fantastic.  It allows me to have a great twitter presence without actually spending a lot of time on Twitter.

34. @davidabrock Don’t let Twitter consume you.  You can be seduced into spending all your time on Twitter.  Set specific time for tweeting, stick with it, and again use the tools to leverage your presence.  While I have a pretty good Twitter presence, I actually spent less than an hour —spread through the day—on Twitter.

35. @skipanderson Be real. Be yourself. Find your “Twitter Voice.” Authenticity will set you apart from all the Twitter noise and make you attractive to potential followers.

36. @careerscoacheu Follow mentors and competitors as well as targeted customers.

37. @whatswhat_sian Start building up your Twitter friends by following people – use friends that you already know or follow and look through their followers and followers.  It’s likely you’ll have the same interests if they are friends of your friends.

38. @calebgardner the most important thing to remember on Twitter is: be a human. No one wants to follow a robot, and more importantly, robots don’t gain loyalty or get RTs (unless you’re a Dell or NYTimes, which you’re probably not.

39. @davidabrock Follow who you want, don’t feel obligated to follow everyone who follows you.

40. @davidabrock It’s about quality, not quantity.  It’s actually very easy to get 1000’s of followers very quickly.  But who cares if they are never paying attention to what you say.  Focus on developing a strong, loyal following.  Be loyal to them.

41. @davidabrock Be generous in your RT’s and in crediting others.  Twitter is about sharing, RT’s are a great indicator about sharing.

42. @rbconsulting A great way to engage on Twitter is to place a short question at the end of your tweet – e.g. “Windows7 provides great performance – are you seeing this improvement on your pc?”

43. @calebgardner two keys to getting RTed are loyalty and quality of tweet. If people are loyal to the person behind the account, they’ll RT you just out of that loyalty. The more compelling your message, the more interested your followers will be and more likely to get RTed.

44. @skipanderson If you must directly self-promote yourself on Twitter (“Read about my new affiliate program that makes me money while I sleep!”), make sure you submit 50 non-promotional tweets for every self-promotional tweet. Blatant self-promotion makes me exercise my unfollow finger.

45. @careerscoacheu Be polite – Always acknowledge new followers and thank for RTs and Mentions.

46. @elainerogers Use the Pareto Principle – 80-20 rule – 80% of your tweets should be interactive and informative (including RTs), No more than 20% should be self promoting and declarative (without replying to anyone)

47. @davidabrock If Twitter is a part of your business strategy, then you got to be there.  You can’t come in and out. You have to build relationships and results over time.  Too many tweet for a few weeks, are disappointed in the results and give up.  It takes time and building a presence and reputation. Related to the previous point, be clear about how/if twitter fits your business strategy.  If twitter fits your strategy, there is not an excuse for not tweeting on a regular basis.

48. @nialldevitt Remember Twitter is like any other business tool, it’s possibly to use it effectively and it’s possible to use it poorly. Ultimately all social media is really about people and not technology. Always try to keep that in mind!

49. @careerscoacheu Engage, Engage, Engage – You have no visibility unless you contribute.

50. @davidabrock Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Please share your Twitter Tips in the comments section below.

Related links:

The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter

137 Small Business Twitter Tips

13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners

35 Twitter Tips from 35 Twitter Users

Twittering Tips for Beginners

Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips

The Ultimate Guide To Twitter

Btb Guest Author

Una Coleman

Changes are a coming…

You don’t have to be a marketing expert anymore to put an ezine together or blast your prospects with an e-marketing campaign or a cool survey.  They are all great ways to engage with your customers and Web 2.0 has given us fantastic, easy to use tools.  However, there is a downside to having access to this functionality at the click of our fingertips: Mail Overload.  We all get them – newsletters with nothing to say (or, too much to say), service offerings that have no relevance to our businesses, no personalisation, or the one that for me guarantees a send to blocked emails, “Dear Coleman”.  The sender hasn’t bothered to check my name: so much for customer care.  That’s why I say you don’t have to be a marketing expert…  Need I say more!

Outbound – email marketing

Unfortunately, the down-side is that our email is rapidly becoming our most protected piece of personal data.  We tweet intimate (and inane) details of our personal lives, we post personal and family pictures on Facebook, we upload embarrassing videos on YouTube, all for the world to see.  But, we hold control of our emails sacrosanct: we are becoming ever more intolerant of interruption based or outbound marketing.

This desire to be in control and decide with whom we wish to correspond is driving inbound and permission based marketing.  Equally, it is driving ever more stringent data-protection rules.  Warning: DON’T FALL FOUL OF DATA PROTECTION LEGISATION

Outbound – tele and direct marketing

And it’s not just email marketing: regulation also applies to direct marketing and telemarketing.  New EU regulation is coming into place the end of this year.  You need to ensure you are familiar with the local legislation in each of the countries you operate.

From October 2009, an amendment to the Dutch Telecommunications Act has come into force establishing new rules for business to business email marketing. Primarily, prior consent must be obtained from the receiver if his/her email address is to be used for future commercial purposes.  If you have an existing newsletter with Dutch email addresses you MUST obtain their consent before sending another newsletter.  You may send an email under separate cover instructing them to “opt in” to continuing to receive your newsletter by replying to that email. Without a confirmation to that email, you are prohibited by law to email that person again.  You have until the end of December to ge that consent.  There are nuances to the legislation and of course, where an established relationship exists as a result of the sale of goods and services permission is deemed to exist.

The amended to the Dutch Telecommunications Act is extreme but likely to set the standard for the future.

In addition to B2B email marketing, there are new and severe restrictions on outbound telemarketing activity.

All telemarketers MUST offer a do not call to prospects and register that number, as part of the call script.

Fines and penalties

In the case of the Netherlands, OPTA (www2.opta.nl/asp/en)  is the supervisory authority. The can impose stiff  fines up to € 450.000 in the case of telemarketing offences, or can go as far as temporarily closing down an organisation involved in outbound  telemarketing

UK email rules are currently based on 2003 legislation.  It is similar but not as restrictive as the Netherlands.  Permission is required for “cold” emailing. You can continue to email exiting clients, without requesting permission, as long as the products and services you are offering are similar.  If you are offering something new, then you need permission: http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/topic_specific_guides/marketing.aspx

This ever more restrictive legislation requires us to be more active and creative with our inbound, permission based marketing.  Websites must radically change from static brochureware to engaging information gateways that help build your brand and draw your prospects back.

What are your thoughts?  Will this make our task more difficult or will it make us more creative.  I’d love to hear your comments.

Una Coleman is an International Strategy and Marketing Consultant with over 20 years experience in marketing and strategy and international operations both in the US and Europe. Broad functional experience in: Marketing and Communications Strategic and Financial analytics including Business Case Development Consulting and Operational management Client Relationship Management Deep financial services sector knowledge. Worked in organisations ranging from technology start-ups, fast-paced direct marketing agency to large corporates. Member of Enterprise Ireland Mentor Panel Member of IIA (Irish Internet Association) International Strategy Working Group

Btb Guest Author

Gerard Tannam

More and more, customers are making their choices based on brand.

So what are you waiting for?

When I talk with business-owners who’ve been slow to set about building their brand, I find their reluctance often comes down to a belief that brand-building is an expensive business. Of course, the big brands often spend a lot of money on creating their brands and even more telling the world about them but building your brand doesn’t need to cost the earth. In fact, given that the strength of your brand is based on the quality of your relationship with your customer, you can build a great brand using little more than ‘blood, sweat and toil’.

Sounds like too much hard work? It is, but here’s my five ways (each with a practical step attached) to build a top brand without putting your hand into your pocket:

1. Roll Up Your Sleeves That’s right; the first thing you’ve got to do is roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. Brand-building can be a messy business and you need to show your customer that you’re ready to get your hands dirty in order to make things work for them.

Practical Step: Schedule regular meetings with customers where there’s no sales agenda.

There’s no better way to show your commitment to your customers than meeting up with them to find out what’s going on in their lives. Of course, depending on your business, your meetings don’t have to be face-to-face. You can reach out to customers by ‘phone, email, SMS or twitter just as well.

2. Make Your Story Your Customer’s Story Now you’ve got to show your customers that you’ve been listening. It’s no good just listing your qualifications and achievements as so many of us do. You’ve got to link your story with the stories of your customers.

Practical Step: Put together case stories that show what you can do for your customer.

It’s very powerful when we can demonstrate to our customers what we can do for someone just like them. It’s not enough that we’re excellent at what we do; we must be able to show our customers how that relates to them right now. Good case stories offer a really effective way to do this.

3. Be A Big Fish In A Little Pond Too many business-owners make the mistake of battling it out in over-crowded marketplaces. Unless you can jump higher or shout louder than your competitors, there’s every danger that you’ll simply get lost in the crowd.

Practical Step: Make yours a category of one.

Find some aspect of what you do that immediately sets you apart from the competition. That might be something you specialise in, a unique service feature or guarantee, or a particular theme to what you do. The important thing is that you don’t make the make the mistake of fighting it out with bigger and better-armed competitors.

4. Build Your Own Network This isn’t simply about joining networks, although naturally enough you’ll need to do that too. This is about building your own system of vital links; that network of connections that links you to the important people in your marketplace.

Practical Step: Prompt word-of-mouth.

Don’t think of word-of-mouth as something that happens by accident. It’s up to you to design the network that will carry your message to those you want to influence. Of course, you’ll use existing networks wherever you can, but you need to be prepared to forge links between and beyond those networks.

5. Become An Expert Somewhat surprisingly, expertise is underrated when it comes to building brands. But it’s hugely attractive to customers, particularly in areas where that expertise can really make a difference between getting it right and getting it terribly wrong.

Practical Step: Publish your expertise.

Become the go-to expert in your field. This isn’t about being academic or technical. Work hard to build your expertise and then give it away freely to those who are open to it. Customers are rarely tempted to take things on themselves; when it comes down to it, they’d much prefer to have an expert take care of things for them.

Over To You: It really is over to you now. Put these five ways to work for you in building your brand and keep me posted about how you get on.

Gerard Tannam has long been fascinated with brands and how they work, rest and play. This fascination has taken him from his philosophy studies in Dublin to Asia where he worked with brands including the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Remy Martin, Cathay Pacific, Prudential, MTV and Chanel. More recently, he set up Islandbridge where his clients include Maldron Hotels, Lee Valley Clothing, Children First and Aussie Ice. Gerard is a regular contributor to discussions on branding in both Ireland and overseas and offers a Brief Word on Brands on The Persuaders radio programme and podcast. He writes regular features: The Blend on the implications of branding for hospitality and tourism and The Pitch on branding for SME’s. He is also a frequent visitor to the Irish Management Institute, Dublin City University and Dublin Institute of Technology where he presents on brand innovation. Gerard set up Islandbridge in 2004.

Linkedin is a very powerful business tool. It’s wonderful for Networking, Personal Branding, Sales & Marketing, Job Seeking, Recruiting and More! I have used LinkedIn successfully for over a year now. Just to prove the point when creating this post, I posed a question in the Q&A section on Linkedin asking for people’s tips. Thanks again to everyone that contributed! So including some of my own here are:

#50 ways to get more from Linkedin

1. Realise that Linkedin is a complex and multi-functional tool; it’s going to take some time to learn to use it wisely – Niall Devitt

2. Contact/connect with experienced users and ask them for their advice as to how best to use it – Niall Devitt

3. Know why you are using Linkedin – what is your primary goal? This will determine your strategy – Lisa Murray

4. Decide whether you are going to post a resume/CV-oriented profile or a customer-oriented one. If you’re looking for a job, the first is appropriate – Dave Stein

5. If you’re happy where you are but would like to further highlight your personal capital to your customers, use the latter. It should include accomplishments you’ve made from the customer’s perspective, not from your next employer’s. They’re usually quite different – Dave Stein

6. Just be real and authentic, don’t hype yourself or your product if it isn’t the truth.  I always make it a point to get to “personally” know people and what they do…after all; this is ’social media’! – Jody Maley

7. List all your experience and education- Sahar Andrade

8. List all your achievements and honours- Sahar Andrade

9. Ensure your profile is set to full view – Lisa Murray

10. Personalise your Linkedin profile URL - Sahar Andrade

11. Create a proper profile with keywords, no typos and proper grammar – Sahar Andrade

12. Make sure you use a professional photo – no blanks or logos – people like dealing with other people! -Lisa Murray

13. Choose a good picture: ensure to have a clear, professional picture in your profile instead than a holiday pic – Fred Caballero

14. Update your status regularly to share your expertise in useful ways – Lisa Murray

15. Use your three links! You have the option to create three outgoing links to promote your company, blog, twitter account, etc. Use these to generate traffic wherever you want and edit the text so it becomes more attractive to click on. e.g.: don’t leave “My Company” when you can write “Social media blog” for example – Fred Caballero

16. Use box.net to add samples of your work – Sahar Andrade

17. Make sure to set up and add your company page to Linkedin – Niall Devitt

18. Give recommendations, endorse the people that you know are good at what they do – Niall Devitt

19. Get recommendations: one of the tops 5 things that most of the people pay attention to are your recommendations. These say a lot about you. Make sure you request an endorsement to everyone that knows how you work to share that experience with others – Fred Caballero

20. Always write a personal message when connecting with someone – Ian Cleary

21. Double check that you have spelled the person’s name correctly when sending invitations to connect -Ian Cleary

22. When someone connects with you, thank them for doing so Niall Devitt

23. Don’t reject invitations by hitting the IDK (I Don’t Know) button. Archive them instead – Judy B. Margolis, MA

24. Don’t upload your address book as a short cut to building your network. Instead, invite contacts one by one with a personalized invitation – Judy B. Margolis, MA

25. If you make a list of people you want to connect to and they are not in your network, join a group that they are a member of that you have a similar interest, start contributing to the group and then make a connection – Ian Cleary

26. Leverage your connections to get introduced to people you would like to form a relationship with, after all that’s what it all about, making connections – Niall Devitt

27. Join and participate actively in Linkedin groups. You’ll get known to the participants and be top of mind not only for their needs but also when other people ask “do you know someone?” Shel Horowitz

28. Choose relevant groups and be active: offer value and connect with other people in the group. -Fred Caballero

29. Make sure to read and observe group guidelines – play by the rules! -Niall Devitt

30. Stay away from self-promotion in Groups; instead demonstrate your expertise by contributing, asking questions, starting discussions and adding value -Niall Devitt

31. Start your very own group and invite people to join, this is a super way to get noticed and build your contacts – Niall Devitt

32.  Demonstrate your competence and expertise by using the Groups and Answers features to help people, not sell your wares! – Lisa Murray

33. If you correspond with someone as part of a discussion, follow it up with an invite to connect – Niall Devitt

34. Upload valuable articles and posts to the news section – Niall Devitt

35. Don’t just connect on Linkedin, pick up the phone or meet for a coffee, you will really start to see the full value of Linkedin when you take your on-line relationships off-line – Niall Devitt

36. Ask and answer questions in the Q&A section: show your expertise – Fred Caballero

37. Don’t forget to close any questions you ask in the Q&A forum and rate them – Judy B. Margolis, MA

38. Set up an RSS feed for the category of questions/answers you are interested in so you can monitor them – Ian Cleary

39. Don’t flag/report questions and answers willy-nilly because you don’t agree with the politics or don’t like the individual or it looks like spam to you – Judy B. Margolis, MA

40. Use the events application to promote your events – Sahar Andrade

41. Attend events that your contacts are attended and arrange to meet up face to face – Niall Devitt

42. Connect before you arrive: do your homework and check out on Linkedin each on of the people’s profile before going to a networking event – Fred Caballero

43. Connect proactively: When you meet with someone face-to-face ask them if they’re on Linkedin. If they are not, INVITE THEM, and keep in touch. They’ll always remember you for that – Fred Caballero

44. Use the network updates for fresh content (SEO and networking) Sahar Andrade

45. Make relevant comments about your connections’ status updates: that shows that you care about them. Also try to offer help or assistance if there’s anything you can do to get them closer to what they’re looking for -Fred Caballero

46. Don’t hide your contacts. Share! Leave them open so your contacts can see who you are connected with and request for introductions. At the end of the day Linkedin is about getting connected. Facilitate that job. Be a good sport! -Fred Caballero

47. Do an advanced search based on whatever you want to keep top on and save this as an RSS feed e.g. recruiter might set up a search for “looking for a job” – Ian Cleary

48. Embed a video in your Slideshare application – Ian Cleary

49.Leverage your profile with applications: Embed your blog, show people what you’ve been up to and share your expertise. Include presentations with Slideshare and add the Amazon app to share with other what you’re reading and learn from others – Fred Caballero

50. Attend some Linkedin training or get some Linkedin coaching- Niall Devitt

Please share YOUR LinkedIn tips in the comments section below.

According to new figs released by analytics firm Postrank, the predicted demise of blogs as a result of the success of social media appears to be wide of the mark.

Since 2007 Postrank has been analysing blog metrics including comments, trackbacks, shared links and online bookmarks for the 1000 most-engaging feeds and 100,000 randomly selected blog posts. The resulting evidence paints a very interesting picture as to the evolution of blogging over the period.

The three major findings are:

1. Overall total engagement has increased 30% year on year.
2. Commenting: On-site engagement has decreased.
3. Link Sharing: Off site engagement has increased.

Another interesting outcome is that blog posts now have a much longer lifespan. In 2007, only 6% of total engagement happened after the day of posting , while in 2008 it was up to 17%. This year it has more than doubled with a full 36% of engagement happening after day one.

So what might this mean for business?

Other research indicates that time remains the number one factor cited as to why businesses choose not to blog, with approximately 2/3 yet to start. And for those that believed blogging was something that would run its course – the contrary in fact now appears to be the case.

The growth of social media means that a company blog is now an even more effective means of communicating with customers . Blogging combined with social media allows the smallest businesses a long reach.

So then!…perhaps there has never been a better time to start blogging… what do you think?

Related posts:

Blogging is dead again

How blogging has changed over the last three years

Why you should use blog networks

People have requested that I give them a quick peek at the new www.bloggertone.com website - the site will be launching very soon!

Bloggertone is a new space that allows people in business to access and share useful business information and opinions, constantly updated by the collaborative effort of selected business bloggers………. Here is a screenshot of the new platform.

Bloggertone has 10 sections that a blogger can post under, they are:

1. Talking Leadership
2. Transforming Your Business
3. Managing Money
4. People Matters
5. Technology & Web 2.0
6. Marketing Ideas
7. Growing Sales
8. Going International
9. Work/Life Balance
10. What’s Happening?

Functionalities will include author pages for the bloggers, voting, post ratings, and the usual social media sharing widgets (share this, tweet this, facebook connect, etc). Ultimately, the site encourages a conversation, so readers are encouraged to comment and most commented posts will make it to the homepage too.

The site is currently still been developed by my parthners in crime on this project - Fred and Facundo of Dublin web agency, Channelship. If you fancy becoming a featured blogger and contributing content to this unique new online space - why not contect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

There is a revolution taking place……We are witnessing the greatest shift since the industrial revolution but at a pace that we can only struggle to appreciate.

• Technology and specifically Social Media technologies are advancing at an exponential rate.
• The growth of users of social media has followed a similar path – for example, Facebook now has 1000000 Irish users.
• Further applications (technologies) are constantly been developed off the back of the original idea.

Read between the lines and you begin to realise that “the hierarchical nature of our society is beginning to crumple”

• The concept of ownership as we previously understood it now no longer applies e.g. music industry.
• The “normal Joe” now has the resource and facility to reach out and influence the collective.
• Organisations can no longer control the message (idea); engagement is the only way to now exert influence.

Power is very quickly been transferred to the individual and the collective……..The smartest individuals (Obama) and organizations are learning to embrace rather than fight this tide.

Where does Ireland presently sit in the new world?

• We are 18-24 months behind in terms of our learning.
• We are currently still debating “which tools” rather than “what opportunities exist” for us. We need to GET REAL.

So what realizations do we need to make?

• The tool (technology) does what it says on the tin.
• The real conversation should be about the effectiveness of the person, organization, country or tribe using these tools.
• We are a small country; we should be able to move fast.
• There exists very real potential for Ireland Inc around “Global Irish” and “Smart Economy”
• There will no prize for second place, to truly benefit we have to become the Global Leader - a “Silicon Valley” approach.
• The future is now, time is running out. SPEED is King

So here it is, the NEW GAME… #IrelandInc #SmartEconomy #GlobalIrish #SocialMedia - Let’s start to Join the dots?