social network

May 14

Choosing Your Social Media Name

If you look at Twitter, you’ll immediately notice that very few people are actually using their own names. Instead, you’ll see names like “problogger”, “thegourmetmama” and “aplusk”. Some people do use their own names, but since there are thousands of people with the same name in many cases, your name may not actually be available. Even if it is, is it in your best interest to set up shop with your real name?

Your name on any social media network, forum or blog, should be carefully considered. Sure, “boogerboy” might be funny, but it doesn’t set a very professional tone. So the first thing to consider is how professional potential names sound.

At the same time, you don’t want something totally boring, like “ComputerTech”. No one will really remember it. Instead, look for something a bit catchier, if you can.

Don’t forget to bring your business into the equation. Your business name could be perfect if you are planning to use social media for business. However, keep in mind that if you plan to tweet and post about more than one area of your life, you might want to reconsider associating everything with your business name. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it, but you should definitely reconsider just what you want available under that name.

There are many things to consider when selecting the perfect name for your social media profile. You’ll want to give a good, professional impression right away and it is usually good if the name reflects what you do or plan to tweet and post about. Write down several different ideas, look at them for a while and even have someone else take a look. This can all help you make the right decision and choose the perfect social media name to represent you.

A few more tips when choosing a name for social media . . .

Keep it short and memorable
Don’t use anything that’s too similar to someone else, such as “littletechies” when someone else has “littletechie”, since you will lose a lot of traffic.
Watch that blends of words don’t create an odd sounding name . . . get someone else to proofread for you.
Don’t use someone else’s name, you will probably lose it, particularly if you choose a celebrity name
Use the same name on all social networks for the best branding possible. Before you assume that the name is available, check on NameCHK. It lets you check 149 social media sites concurrently.

Your name really does matter and you’re pretty much stuck with it once you’ve started in on social media, so be careful what you decide to use. However if something deep inside your heart tells you that you must change your name (because it’s too complicated or inappropriate for your business/goals), please do it now. Better earlier than later.

Apr 30

5 Ways to Avoid Problems on Social Media

Beginner's Track, Social Media Classroom 6 Comments »

image credit to Thesu

Have you ever typed something out in the heat of the moment on Twitter, sent it out into the Twitterverse and then realized that it might not have been the most appropriate thing to say? It happens to all of us and it can cause problems, particularly if what you had to say was insulting to someone else. So, how do you avoid this situation when social media is so instant?

1. Count to 10. It’s a cliché method, but it works! When someone says something and your first instinct is to shoot back a snarky reply, stop, count to ten and reconsider. In fact, that is good advice for anything, even pleasant responses. Give yourself a minute to think about your response and to craft a thoughtful one, rather than sending out something you’ll feel bad about afterwards.

2. Have a goal. Knowing what you want to accomplish with your social media networking is key in posting the right messages. For example, if you want to promote yourself as an expert in conflict resolution, you wouldn’t post a horrible insult to your husband or wife on Facebook. Keep your goals in mind as you post.

3. Turn it off. If things are bugging you on Twitter and the insults are about to fly, just shut it down. This isn’t face to face, so there’s absolutely no reason to put up with it. You don’t even have to walk away, just click that little red X in the corner and do something else instead.

4. Skip the personal chit chat. While some would argue this point, there’s rarely a good reason to post about what you had for breakfast (unless you’re a food blogger or chef!). There’s nothing wrong with adding some of yourself to your social media network, but don’t go overboard. No one needs to know every little gritty detail of your morning routine and posting live updates often results in the sharing of too much information.

5. Write it somewhere else. If you aren’t sure about your response to something or whether you should be sending it out into the Web, write your thoughts in a note on paper or in a word processor instead of in your status update. This makes it that much harder to send it accidentally and you’ll have a chance to reread things when you type it into the social network.

Mostly, if you want to avoid problems, you have to start thinking before you type. Most of us are so accustomed to IM and instant tweets, etc. that we find it difficult to sit back and think for a minute. We tend to fire off those sentences without waiting and that’s what gets people into trouble. Train yourself to wait a moment before responding to anyone and your quality of social media will go up.

Tagged with: Facebook • Social Media • social network • twitter

Oct 05

Top Twitter Search Engines

Today's Best No Comments »

While Twitter is a pretty useful networking tool, it works best when you have access to the information you need. It would be very tedious to go through hundreds of profiles, looking for people who are interested in the same things as you. Twitter does have a search, but there are now many other options that will let you find the people or tweets you are looking for quickly and easily.

Finding People

Until recently, it was pretty time consuming to find people that you wanted to network with. You could search for relevant blogs and sites on Google, then follow anyone from those that was on Twitter. These days, though, there is a much easier way . . . several, in fact.

Twellow: The Yellow Pages of Twitter, this site lets you quickly and easily find people related to your field. You can search by profession or subject and Twellow will pull up profiles that match the search.

Tweetscan: This very simple site allows you to search by topic. If you’re looking for people in social media, for example, you would simply type in “social media” and you’d get back the results of everyone who uses those keywords in their profile.

TwitterPacks: If you are in a hurry, this could be the way to go. Pick a “pack” which is based on a specific niche or location and follow everyone on it. This gives you hundreds of new contacts in a very short period of time, but you might want to be careful, since there are bound to be a few bad apples. These are all user recommended though.

Who Should I Follow?: Like the name suggests, this is a site that recommends people for you to follow, based on your existing friends. It then tells you which of your friends each recommendation is similar to.

Twubble: This is an interesting Twitter search. It goes through your friends friends and recommends the best ones for you to follow. This saves you time searching through everyone’s contact lists, which can be quite daunting.

Just Tweet It: Search for Twitter users by career choice on this handy search engine. There don’t seem to be huge numbers of people using this site yet, but it could still be very useful.

Mr. Tweet: Billed as “your personal networking assistant”, this site allows you to follow influencial people on the popular social networking site.

Just these sites should keep you pretty busy adding people to your contact list, but you can also still do things the old-fashioned way, through Twitter search or by befriending people who publish their Twitter ID on their blogs or forums.

Tagged with: people • search engine • social network • twitter

Sep 25

6 Ways to Be More Interactive on Twitter

Intermediate Track, Social Media, Social Media Classroom, Twitter 3 Comments »

Picture credit: Bubblefriend

Twitter might be about social networking, but it’s amazing how many people tweet away without ever getting any real response. You need to interact with others if you want social media to really work, so it’s important to get as much interactivity as possible. Here are a few tips to get people talking.

1. Ask a question. It might seem simple, but it’s very effective. However, the question you ask will determine just how much of a response you get. People love to help, so request a recommendation for invoicing software, ask for help choosing a restaurant or anything else that they can feel useful responding to.

2. Comment on a link. When someone shares a link, take a look and see what it’s about. If you like it, send them an @ message to let them know your thoughts. Chances are they will respond back and you can really get a conversation going.

3. Post a quote. Not surprisingly, a lot of people love quotes, particularly funny ones. They are quite likely to re-tweet and get your name out there, or respond and discuss the quote, so make sure you choose a good one. It’s fairly easy to find quality quotes on specific topics by searching on Google or your favorite search engine.

4. Say thank you. Gratitude is something that gets lost in the hustle and bustle of online messaging, so you will gain points for saying thanks. What should you be thanking people for? Anything from giving you some information to following you. Those who regularly thank their newest followers tend to gain more quite rapidly.

5. Respond to messages. When someone sends you a direct or @ message, be sure to respond. Even if you missed it at the time and noticed a few hours later, it’s the polite thing to do and will make people more willing to send you messages. Of course, spam can be ignored.

6. Use hashtags. This is a great way to interact outside your usual group of friends on Twitter. Anyone can join the hashtag group and respond to you, so it’s a great way to meet others with similar interests. People are far more likely to respond when you have use a hashtag, as well, since they know that you are interested in that topic.

Carrying on a conversation is really the best way to make use of Twitter. Often those who have issues with the social network have never really made the attempt to interact with others. Unless you are talking to people, there’s not a lot of reason use Twitter . . . or any other social network. So get out there and be social!

Tagged with: conversation • Social Media • social network • twitter

Sep 17

5 Tips for an SEO Friendly Profile

Intermediate Track No Comments »

Picture Credit: Greg Gaskill

When you set up your profile on a new social media site, how much thought do you give to whether or not it’s search engine optimized? Most people don’t think much about it, but this is a very valuable method of gaining traffic and increasing name recognition. The main reason you are on a social media site is to gain followers and build up more traffic, so it makes sense to make yourself easier to find.

Here’s how you can make sure that you are getting the search engine recognition you need.

Use keywords. It makes sense to use keywords in your profile. Since most social media sites limit your space, make sure you write a great description of yourself, utilizing as many relevant keywords as possible. Don’t forget, while this is about SEO, real people will be reading, too, so you should make sure that it is interesting, as well as keyword rich.
Label your photos. This may not apply to all social media networks, but it’s a good idea to give your profile photo a good, keyword rich file name. When people search on Google or Bing for images, your photo should come up for specific keywords.
Have a good URL. You are usually allowed to place at least one URL in your profile, so make it a good one. Website URLs should be chosen for their keywords anyway, so adding this to your profile will help boost SEO.
Use a worthy user name. Your user name should either be your name or your business name for the best results, but you can also use relevant keywords. Having the same user name on all social media sites not only makes it easier to remember, you’ll also be easier to find when people are trying to connect with you on more than one network.
Keep them fresh. Changing things up from time to time can be good. Make sure your keywords are still relevant, change your profile picture, etc. It’s a good idea also to make sure you post on a fairly frequent basis to keep your value up in the eyes of the search engines.

We all know that social media is important and can be used for SEO, but many forget that your profile can also serve as a huge boost in search engine optimization. Not only will you be more visible on Google, but also on sites that offer site-specific searches for Twitter, LinkedIn, and others like these.

What else? Did I forget anything? How SEO friendly is your social media profile?

Tagged with: profile • SEO • Social Media • social network