Social media allows people and companies to connect with others online faster than through traditional networking. To succeed, one must listen to conversations in their industry, engage and converse with others, and promote their brand across multiple social media platforms. Key steps include learning where your industry community discusses topics online, engaging in conversations on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, developing relationships, and automating promotion of your brand using tools like Ping.FM. The goal is to become known as an authority and leader in your niche by providing value to others.

1. Part 2 - Social Media
Social media is all about connecting with people. If you want your company or personal
brand to be known you better start meeting people. Luckily, there is a faster way than
going to hundreds of cocktail hours and networking events. It's all happening online.
1. Listen
In today's day in age we can pursue our passion in any industry regardless of geographic
location. The ability to connect with millions of people in our industry/niche is at our
fingertips. If you are in Kansas and want to brand yourself as an expert open ocean
fisherman, you are in luck. Finding friends, readers, evangelists and customers is all
within your reach. Listening will also help you solidify your point of attack and find an
opening in your niche.
Learn your Industry
• Where are your industry hangouts? How can you piggyback those sites?
Differentiate yourself from them? Learn from them? Advertise or collaboration
opportunities?
• What are they reading?
• What do they talk about? What are people saying? And more importantly what
are they not saying? Look for your niche.
• Who do they listen to? Know the major players. Find out how they got big and
craft your own strategy.
• What's hot? Certain content online spreads quickly, other stuff will never catch
on. We all know funny cat pictures and college humor catches quickly....
• Who's making the money? How are they doing it? Can you connect with these
people? Follow them closely.
• Who is your competition?
• Who are your customers?
Where to Learn?
• Google it: It's where most of the world starts their internet quests. Search
everything you can regarding your niche.
• Google Blog Search: Anytime you, your company or a specific search term gets
mentioned on a blog--google will send you an alert to your inbox. This is a great
way to keep your ears open for anything new going on.
• RSS: Setup your Google Reader and subscribe to all the top industry blogs. Read
them.
• Search.Twitter: See what people are saying about your industry in real time.
Who's chatting it up? Follow these people. Everyone has a voice, so listen.
• Forums: These are where the most intimate discussions go on. Figure out where
they are.

2. • Niche Social Networks: This is where you really get to know each other. Check
out http://ning.com
2. Engage and Converse
It's time to hop into the conversation. Remember: everything you say is an extension of
you, every time you type you are cementing your personal brand. Use this power with
caution. This is where you make real connections with real people. Promoting yourself
has never been easier with the power of social media. You need to find friends who will
pass your link onto their thousands of contacts.
Why join the conversation?
• Relationships: Meet people to work with. Looking for some help? Someone on
Twitter will be out there waiting to assist you.
• Word of Mouth: You need people stirring up buzz, chatting about your company
and telling their friends. Seed the message with people online.
• Evangelism: These are your mavens, people who will shout from the rooftops
about your company, pass your links to friends, constantly retweet you and
comment on everything.
• Become a leader: Become an authority on a subject, have a voice and become a
spokesperson on an issue.
• Public Relations: Communicate effectively with those outside your company,
book press, get on TV, spread the word about your company.
• Get Known: Nobody will know you unless you put yourself out there. Have a
presence and start telling people about yourself.
• Traffic: What good is your website if nobody is viewing it? Find readers, viewers
and customers by conversing about your industry online.
What platforms should I be using?
"Twitter is my home, Facebook is my vacation home"--Gary Vaynerchuk
Twitter
• You MUST use your company or real name. Don't brand yourself as
Princess1423
• Who should I Follow? Find your niche at http://wefollow.com
• Tweet: some personal, some professional, questions, ideas, RT, introductions,
converse, but overall BE HELPFUL and PROVIDE VALUE.
• Use TweetDeck
• Find out who your followers are and engage with them
• Treat every follower like a handshake--try to learn more about them.
• Use Search.Twitter.com and engage with people talking about your niche.

3. Facebook
Fanpage vs. group vs. personal profile? 9/10 times I suggest Fanpage. Use personal
profile for your personal network.
Post links as your status
Search on Facebook
Be Social!
Promote your events
Send updates to your fans!
LinkedIN
• For Professionals it's like a business card exchange
• Get Reviewed
How to develop your voice and provide value
• Resources
• Social media is like a party
• Twitter Tips for Beginners
• What to Tweet about?
• Facebook Fan vs. Facebook Group
• Facebook Search
• How to Get the Most out of LinkedIN
• 3.Promote and Automate
Find a network of people with an audience who will like your stuff. Cross promote their
links across all the social media platforms. Digg, Stumble, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Ping.FM - Use Ping.FM to automate. Everyday I Ping: Facebook, multiple Twitter
accounts, LinkedIN. It's fast and effective.
TwitterFeed - Feed your blogs RSS feed right into your TwitterFeed
Digg
• It's all about titles
• Submit the hottest news
• Get them with humor!
• Use the Digg Bar
• Make friends who are digg users! Digg their stuff, add them as a friend and they
will eventually reciprocate.

4. StumbleUpon
• Use the Send To button or better yet, contact them off Stumble and have these
people promote your stuff.
• The Stumble URL shortner http://su.pr
• Stumble their stuff, send it back and forth
Social Bookmarkings Rules from Remarkablogger.com
• Sign up and install toolbar.
• Spend some time stumbling some sites and giving thumbs up to generate activity
so others see you’re not completely new.
• Do up your profile page–add a picture.
• Do not submit your own content.
• Add friends who share your interests–many will reciprocate.
• Use the “send to” feature to send your blog posts to your StumbleUpon friends,
but make sure to also send other quality, relevant links from time to time.
• Be the first to stumble sites because you’re given “discoverer” status and people
are more likely to click through to see who you are (remember, that’s the purpose
of social media marketing as I’m describing it)
• Create arrangements with other friends so that you continually submit each
other’s content to SU. Make sure you do this with real friends whose content you
enjoy. You want to build up a list of quality stumbles, because that’s how other
stumblers decide to be your friend.
Cross Promotion
• It's all about your network; form some strategic alliances. Create a group of
people to help promote each other's work!
• Stumblers tend to have accounts at Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, etc.
Resources
10 Sure Fire Headline Forumlas that Work
Increasing Blog Traffic with Digg
5 Tips to Increase Blog Traffic with StumbleUpon
Twitter Feed
Remember this is a marathon not a sprint

5. Homework
If you don't have profiles
1. Set them up and make yourself look like a rockstar
2. Get reviewed on LinkedIN
3. Set up your automoation at Ping.FM
For Everyone
1. Make a list of the top places online where your niche hangs out
2. Make a list of 5 industry keywords and google and twitter search them
3. Download Tweetdeck