A few years ago a friend of mine who ran his own business used to tell me that his frequent visits to the local pub where actually where the large part of his business was generated. It's hard to believe. Although I had to give him that as a mechanic who specialised in MOT's, Exhausts and Tyres he did service pretty much every other regular at the pub including myself. Don't think for a second that it was chore from him though, I'm sure he enjoyed his after work drinks as much as anyone. The clever things is he'd made this normally time consuming and costly pursuit into a plus point.
So how does this transcend to social media. Do contracts and money exchange in the same way on social media website. It may not be as powerful a method of being chosen to for jobs as knowing someone in the physical world but you can use these tools to your advantage in promoting yourself and what you do.
Your ONLINE Social media CV
Are you aware that potential employers and clients will try and search you online. Keeping this in mind then you need to keep in mind that your Social Media presence needs to show your good points.
Here's some things you should remember.
* Make sure if you get tagged it goes into quarantine first.
* when writing status consider whether if that's in with image you want to put forward of yourself.
* Loads of photos of 'nights on the town' aren't going to look good. Although letting you hair down once in a blue moon shouldn't be anything to worry about.
The fact of the matter is Facebook isn't really geared up to help you promote yourself in a business but it is the leading Social Media site so unfortunately we have to deal with it.
They're are better social media platforms for businesses. LinkedIn is widely recognised in business circles as leading social website for professionals. It can often get forgotten though as other platforms are more dynamic and engaging. Here's some tips on usage LinkedIn Profile Tips
After I initially making creating my account on LinkedIn and entering only basic information - to get some insight into what LinkedIn is all about I hadn't made many visits back there. On recommendations from others though in that LinkedIn has given them proven results in increased revenue I've now spent a half an hour following the above tips. Why not add me as a contact on http://uk.linkedin.com/in/littleripples - it's always good to have more contacts.
A new player to the social media circus is Google Plus - and Google Pluses Circles is absolutley perfect for being able to present yourself in the way you want it to the people you want to get that message to. To be honest it's a format I've been craving for ages. In the realms of twitter I've now got a handful of accounts. One for every hobbie or interest I have. This has happened on the basis that I reasoned that people who sign up for my feed on Polzeath Beach wouldn't really want to hear me going on about SEO techniques . And with facebook I'm more fussy about who I add to my friends list, as I don't want to be showing pictures of the family on the beach to every tom dick and harry that I meet. Google+ is the perfect solution to that the only problem at the moment is that take up is slow and thanks to an oversaturate social media market may not take off.
Check out this movie about Using Google Circles.
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Spending time on Social Media websites may not be as a bad usage of your time as you may think. Used wisely it may help you reach some of your business goals and on the flip side you can use it as an excuse to chat to your mates online !