This is a cross post from Dorm Room Biz.

Wow, I am waaaaay freaking behind in getting this posted. I recorded this video probably at least 3 weeks ago. I’m sorry for he major delay.

This is a video book review of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It! If you haven’t checked it out, then you should definitely go buy it right now for Amazon either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone else who could use it! (affiliate link, don’t hate me for it)

Have you read the book? What did you think of it?

I know what you did last night only because there are 60 pictures of you on Facebook that your friend took of you doing body shots at the bar, running down the street on your way home, and then jamming pizza down your throat at 3 AM. Yepp, we’ve all been there…and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

But, when you’re coming up on graduation and moving into “the real world” it’s time to take a second look at your online presence and especially your Facebook profile. There’s all kinds of stories out there of people getting fired because of their Facebook profile page, the pictures they are “tagged” in or what’s posted on their wall, so you need to be careful and thoughtful of what goes on.

I’ve mentioned it before on Dorm Room Biz and also been quoted in the New York Times about how students more and more are “detagging” or “untagging” themselves from pictures on Facebook that a friend might have put up after a party.

Properly managing your online profiles is an important step that you need to take seriously when you are about to graduate and here are some tips to help you along the way.

• Detag your pictures – go through your pictures and detag anything that looks like it could be derogatory or incriminating when you go for a job interview or even for when you are working and someone at your company comes across your profile. This is a step you’d want to take sooner than later so that your profile can clear out of these pictures, also consider deleting wall posts that may have curse words or other bad comments.
• Put up a nice, clean picture – Your profile picture is the first thing someone will see of you when they search your name or come across you profile, so you want to make sure it is a good picture and is “clean”. You don’t want your boss coming across a picture of you straddling a guy at a party while wearing a skimpy outfit and drinking do you? I didn’t think so.
• Change your privacy settings!!! This is probably the most important and easiest thing you can do to protect yourself from being caught up in any issues. Change them to the highest settings they can go so that your profile is very limited or not even available to someone who searches for you. I’ll do a follow up post on how to change your security/privacy settings to help keep people out of your profile that you don’t want to see it.
• Join related groups and conversations – We’ve all see the groups for friends who lost their cell phones while drunk and now need your phone number or the ones for beer pong champs or for a keg stand club. Remove yourself from these groups and join ones related to your industry, the line of work your trying to get into, and your related interests. Then, go a step further and join the conversations within those groups and fan pages.
• Maintain it – a big part of cleaning up your profile and appearance on Facebook is just maintaining it after you have started clearing it out. As more events happen or people write on your wall, just be mindful of what the picture is of or what someone wrote. If you think it could cause you an issue in the future then delete it. It’s easier to maintain your Facebook profile then to deal with getting fired from a job and having to look for a new one.

So you know social media is changing the way that people buy things and the way that companies do business. Everyone is on Facebook and using Twitter…at least if they know what is good for them they are. Now it’s your turn to learn how you can use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the other networking sites to attract more customers and clients to your business.

First, make sure you are signed up with Facebook and Twitter. If you’re going to be pumping out content, as you should be, and have a video camera, then get signed up on YouTube and Viddler (video blogging secret – use TubeMogul to upload your video to multiple sites just once – more to come in another post).

So you’re signed up, now what?

1. Start following people on Twitter and Facebook who are talking about your business area or industry. If your running a camping equipment business, then follow people talking about hiking, backpacking, camping, and any related gear manufacturers. If you’re running a  website on do it yourself plumbing, then follow people who may be talking about hiring a plumber, other plumbers, people talking about leaky faucets or any other related topic. Use a service like Tweetbeep or similar to get notified of people using your keywords so that you can follow them.
2. Once you’ve started following people, INTERACT WITH THEM! This is the biggest point – you have to engage yourself in order to see a return from your efforts. You can’t just add 100’s of people to your friends list and expect them to do business with you. Just like in the offline world, you have to do some networking, talk with people, and talk about your business. But don’t push your business too much! Engage with your friends and followers, help solve their problems, and help any way you can.
3. Create a Facebook Fan Page for your business/company on Facebook. Being a “friend” with someone on Facebook is great and all, but its on more of a personal level where conversations are about what you are doing this weekend. With a Fan Page you can keep the interaction more related to your business. Fan Pages give you the same features as a regular profile such as posting pictures, videos, and links but also allow for people to interact with you, which is what you want. Invite all your Facebook friends to be “Fans” of your business. Use your Facebook fan page as a way to drive more traffic to your actual website and also to make another connection with your followers on Twitter. If someone is looking for more information about your company, you can send them to your Fan Page AND to your website.
4. Like the West Virginia state slogan, declare yourself open for business. Many other entrepreneurs and social media “experts” will tell you not to advertise your business but to just let people come to you. This is all good and can be a successful plan, but I feel you still need to advertise/promote your business within the Facebook and Twitter scene. Cross reference your tweets and Facebook page, post links to press releases, your services, or your company blog. Offer your services to people who may be talking about what you do. Going back to the plumbing website, if someone is talking about installing a new sink over the weekend, @reply them or send them a Direct Message offering a link to your site and page on sink installation. If it helps them, maybe they’ll click on one of your ads, buy your service or product, or share your website with their friends.Example: One day I was searching Twitter (www.search.twitter.com) for the keyword “wordpress help”. I quickly came across a bunch of people looking for help with their wordpress theme, looking for a custom theme, or that had other questions. I started interacting with them and offered my services to help them get their blog up and running. The investment of an hour in talking with them gained me their business because we had established a relationship. In this area alone, Twitter has brought me 4 clients.
5. Keep rolling out fresh content. Being signed up for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is not enough to get you more customers. You need to be pumping out content on those networks too. If your operating a Facebook fan page, then you need to be posting links to your blog, links to industry news, posting videos of your demonstrating products or reviewing a product, and pictures of your business or products.
6. An often overlooked tactic is to interact with other people ON THEIR OWN SITES. Take some of the interaction off of Twitter and Facebook and onto someone else’s blog or website. Start leaving meaningful and worthy comments on peoples blog posts and create a reputation on sites. Then, with any luck, you’ll start to get recognized on those sites and people will start heading to your own website, Facebook page, or Twitter account to learn more about your and your business.
7. BE PATIENT! This is the most important part of these tips. You have to be patient and can’t expect to all of the sudden see a 25% growth in business because you signed up for Twitter and followed a few people. You need to interact, build relationships, and then engage with them. Building a quality and interested list of friends and followers will take time. Building relationships is going to take time. And getting people to buy from you is going to take some time; but that time will come! Just be patient, keep at it (for however long it takes), and then you’ll start to see some rewards.

Are you interested in how your business can better use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to grow your business? Then feel free to contact me for some help!

One of the issues that many young people fight as they get into the corporate working world is having to fight off boredum. I know, you’re thinking – “wait, I work 60+ hour crazy weeks and bust my ass” – to you, I say I’m sorry. Many of use work the normal 40 hour weeks and can face slow times when we get bored. So fight your boredum and utilize the time to hit up the social networks and build your personal brand.

Twitter

Start posting updates on Twitter. Once you get started, use the Search area to find people talking about similar topics to you and start connecting with people. If you’re writing a blog too, use Twitter as a way to help get more readers to your site and increase interaction. The most important thing is that you are using it and being active. Connect with like minded people and users interested in the same topics to build your personal brand. If you’re really passionate about a certain subject, go and crush it and make yourself an authority in that area. The best part is that Twitter is a constantly updated stream, so you can always stay fresh on what’s happening.

Facebook

Besides being able to just keep updated and connected with your friends, Facebook is a great way to find new people, groups, and info about things your interested. One of the neat features of Facebook is their chat/instant message system. Now you can see which of your friends are on Facebook, chat with them, and quickly pass the down time at work. If you can’t find anyone on to chat with, then start flipping through pictures to check out what people have been up to, where they’re travelling too, and what they are doing. If nothing else, you could start playing one of those ninja games or whatever and try to recruit people.

LinkedIn

One of the most under-utilized social networks out there is probably LinkedIn because the power of finding connections on the site is huge. So, first, if you’re not on LinkedIn, then you need to be. Sign up for an account, join a couple groups relating to the college that you’re at or graduated from, and then find people you may know. As you build your connections, completely fill in your profile information, and then start looking for people outside of your immediate reach that you want to connect with. Have your connections make recommendations for you or give you “LinkedIn cred” by giving a testimonial about you. As you start interacting on a professional level, you can start to see the benefits. Looking for a new job? Hit up LinkedIn first. See if there is someone within your degrees of seperation at the company you want to work for. Build up a relationship and work the connection. LinkedIn is gaining a lot of steam lately with different bloggers publishing tips on how to better use the site, so search around and you’ll find plenty of help!

What Say You?

These are obviously just a couple of the sites out there. There are plenty of others that are niche specific or more general. Check them out and get your face all over the place!

My name is Chris and I’m a “twitterholic”. I admit it.

Now that that is out of the way, lets talk about your use of Twitter. Yea, you guys – State Parks and Campgrounds. Oh, what was that? You say you either A) don’t know what Twitter is or use it or B) your use is minimal? Well, that needs to be fixed.

I’ve noticed and started following more and more State Parks, Campgrounds, and Tourism site Twitter users in the last month then I could visit in a year. That is a great sign. So here is the deal.

I’ll quickly start with the basics. For those of you unaware, Twitter is a micro-blogging website that allows you to tell people what you are doing in 140 characters or less. However, you don’t always have to answer the question “What are you doing?” instead you can post links to your sites, interesting articles, and interact with other users. The last part of that is the most important. Twitter is a vehicle to interact with other users.

Now, moving on. If you represent a state park system, a local park, a campground, a tourism website, or similar organization, then you need to get on Twitter. Besides being the hottest thing since slice bread in the toaster and having millions of users, Twitter is the perfect location for you to be reaching out to potential visitors of your parks and grounds, getting your news out there, and advertising to potential visitors.

If you perform a Twitter search for “camping” or “state park” you’ll quickly find hundreds of users talking about different state parks through the country, people looking for activities to do in parks or cities, and people trying to find recommendations on places to go camping (with tents or RVs).

Twitter is a very powerful way for you to connect with your potential users and your market. You need to be harnessing it. One of my favorite things to do is assist people in growing their business, brainstorming ways to gain exposure, and helping people get on Twitter.

If you run a website for a State Park, a local campground, RV park, tourism spot, or any other related business or attraction, you need to get on Twitter. Contact me about details on helping you to do so!