Have you seen the reality shows, coming into help those over-packed home owners who collect everything in sight and never throw anything away.

Have you noticed how many people have become great at generating large followings through auto-follow programs?  Just one important ingredient is missing, engagement.

It’s not just about growing your following, it’s about engagement.  When you think about collecting followers you should be asking what do you know about them?

Do you know where they are?

Do you know what they like?

Do you know what they don’t like?

What are their interests?

What are their beliefs?

One thought you may want to consider is to create folders that identify the specific characteristics or demographics of your followers.  Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook allow for this type of filing through various applications.

So what do you think, are you just hoarding followers? What is your engagement process?

When you get into the realm of the small business owner, you will find that social media is truly creeping in at an amazing pace. The majority of this can be found by the usage of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Some of the basic benefits of using these sites would include the ability to make business contacts and maintain the links that you need between yourself and them.

The sites that I mentioned can be utilized in several different and very beneficial ways.

With Facebook, both an account for yourself as well as for your business can be created. By developing good communication with customers and contacts, you can eventually get people to just opt in to get messages from your company.

Creating a LinkedIn account is an amazing way of finding and communicating with professionals all over the world, even those who are already in a field specific to your own. This is a great way to share ideas with someone who already knows about what you do because they do the same thing.

Finally, when using Twitter, remember the great benefit that you get of promoting your business in such a few short words. You will find that when you look at other tweets from business owners that they are short, sweet, and to the point most of the time. This is yet another way of bringing customers to you.

Always remember that it’s the content of what you have that is most important. Useless and boring information will get you nowhere, but the opposite will provide for a truly strong and growing business as you head into the future.

Learn more how you and your small business can get started on Linkedin: LinkedIn Power User Strategies Webinar every Thursday at 4pm EST with live Q&A

It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, people are always curious and taking a look at their favorite social media sites. An independent study was recently conducted and 1,000 online users were surveyed. Some of the interesting statistics of this study are as follows.

- 12% of respondents check/use Facebook every couple of hours
- 62% of individuals over the age of 25 see electronic communications during a meeting, meal, or bathroom act as unwanted interruptions
- 23% of iPhone owners primarily get their morning news from Twitter and Facebook

Apparently, the use of Facebook and Twitter doesn’t stop after we go to bed either, with nearly half of those surveyed saying that they get up in the middle of the night just to check out what is going on. This particular behavior leans heavily toward those of us who are 25 or younger. It is increasingly obvious that social media is definitely something that many people even obsess over, and that is also very good for business and those professionals who are engaged in social media sites and really know what it means to utilize such services to grow their field.

Of course we cannot look at all of this and think that this would represent the entire population, but it certainly does give us a great feel for where people are trending.  As business professionals these simple statistics should cause us to step back and think about how we go about tapping into Social Media for our business.

As a complimentary gift, grab out guide on How Your Business Can Profit From Social Media here.
***Grab This Complimentary eBook to specifically see how to begin***
to engage, capture, and create buzz around your company
Grab our complimentary eBook:
How Your Company Can Begin to Profit Using Social Media

Creating a system and plan of action is the most important thing you can do on LInkedIn to drive business. If you don’t, you will spend all your time answering questions that are irrelevant to your business objectives and end goals.

As an Insurance Agent you are faced with a different set of regulations than most other professions. Your brokers social media policy will dictate to a large degree, you ability to market yourself widely to the market. Your strategies must be different, unique, and specifically tailored to your needs and industry.

The following 7 steps are necessary for you to optimize your business opportunities through LinkedIn:

1. Know your objectives: ie how many new clients a month do you want/need?
2. Identify your Target Market and the Titles they Hold
3. Master the Search Process to Find this Market: Join their Groups
4. Create compelling content for your market & post articles on sites such as www.Ezine.com
5. Share the URL Link from your articles in the News Features in applicable groups in your Licensed Region
6. Master Networking Events in Your Area Through LinkedIn Events
7. Begin Your Own Networking Events

These 7 steps will help you engage your community and provide you the opportunity to meet new prospects and ultimately close more deals.

Remember, being social is about building relationships. You can’t do this with a “What’s in it for Me” mentality, true relationships begin with giving; this is the starting point of creating real success on LinkedIn or any social media program.

For more information on LinkedIn, join us for our complimentary LinkedIn Power User Strategies Webinar

****************************************************
Post by Guest  Contributor~ Nathan Kievman
CEO, DemingHill
Founder, Linked Strategies (#1 LinkedIn Strategies Group)

Hummingbird How To Videos, Learn how to use an automated twitter following software that is intelligent. Growing a targeted twitter following is an art and a science and these videos along with the software will explode your twitter account.

So you know LinkedIn is a powerful business tool, but you’re not sure how to capitalize on its business capabilities. LinkedIn can be used for some many reasons such as business development, sales, marketing, hiring, recruiting, advice, job hunting and much more.

I have put together some practical resources that will help you in learning some key LinkedIn strategies:

• LinkedIn Questions and Answers Section of the LinkedIn site, you can get expert advice from people around the world right at your fingertips.
• Linked Strategies Group on LinkedIn this groups membership is in the tens of thousands for one very good reason. You learn very practical LinkedIn strategies. You can join the group here.
  
• Linked Strategies Webinar, this is a complimentary webinar that teach power user strategies you can learn in a ninety minute presentation and live Q and A.  Currently this webinar happens every Thursday at 4pm EST with playback for those who can’t make it. You can grab your reservation here:

If you are considering paying for expert LinkedIn advice then I recommend you get the book on the upper right of this page, you may find all the answers you need right their.

If you have a great tip or tool please share.

Post by  Guest  Contributor~ Nathan Kievman CEO, DemingHill Founder, Linked Strategies (#1 LinkedIn Strategies Group) One of the most frequently asked questions we get about LinkedIn from over 10,000 submitted questions through our webinars, in posts, or directly by email is: How do I maximize my use of LinkedIn? In many ways this questions resonate  throughout the social platforms, but for today, let’s focus on LinkedIn. To answer the question “How do I make the most of LinkedIn?” I would like to share with you a new way to look at LinkedIn. I propose that you should look at this platform as a small version of the internet. Meaning LinkedIn is its own world. Your webpage is your profile, the leading companies are the groups, the people are in the answers and questions sections as well as in the groups and so on. To master this new world, you have to understand it’s 60 million members behaviors, attitudes, rules, language and etiquette. You also have to master your own voice, message, ability to communicate, processes, and rules. The following list will give you the outline needed to truly start building your LinkedIn presence the right way.

The 7 Stages of LinkedIn/Social Media Mastery

1. Assess your Assets and Capabilities – Opportunity 2. Identify your Social Media Strategy – Clarity 3. Lay your Social Web – The Foundation 4. Optimize your Presence – Get Found 5. Build Your Communities – Become a Leader 6. Develop a Marketing Funnel – Lead People 7. Integrate Business Process Outsourcing – Don’t do it Alone

Applying these Stages will certainly ensure you are moving in the right direction on LinkedIn and that you are creating proof along the way.