When was the last time an old high school friend added you on Facebook? How about the last time an old coworker added you on LinkedIn or when a client sent you a Tweet on Twitter? Like it or not, social media has integrated itself not just into our personal lives, but also our professional careers. While this can scare some people, it can be an extremely powerful method of growing your business or finding your work.
This will only happen if you’re using these things the right way. Looking up funny pictures on Facebook may be amusing but it won’t help you land a new client. Creating a Fan Page for your business and promoting it to all your old clients might, though, as it acts much the same as a newsletter in that it keeps you in touch. With that in mind, when you’re going to use social media sites for business purposes, be disciplined — set a time limit and a goal and stick to it.
You might think, “But there’s so many sites? What am I supposed to do?” News readers like Google Reader can help you quickly stay caught up, allowing you to maximize your time while you see who’s doing what or what the latest news is. Just like for the RSS feed on a site or page and subscribe to it in your reader.
On the other side, you can create a blog, link it to LinkedIn and Facebook while sending Tweets out to your followers when you post something. This synchronizes everything and helps you get the most out of your profiles. And when you write on your blog or Facebook, stay engaged by responding to comments, linking to other sites, or posting interesting things you come across.
Most importantly, you must create consistent content at least a few times a week. Not only does this keep your readers in touch, but search engines love this, as they index sites based on activity. The more active you are, the more your blog will be featured on a search. And remember that the content can be so much more than your random thoughts. If you have an opinion, don’t just state it — invite readers to begin a dialog. If you provide value to someone’s day, if you deliver it consistently and you syndicate it among your social media reach, you’ll be surprised at how fast it can grow.
The views published here are the opinions of the writer and are not a substitute for legal counsel.
Israel Gonzalez
Real Estate Broker-Hollister CA
831-636-8858
Click here to contact me by email
