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10 Ways to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile by Terri Seymour

Social media sites are more popular than ever and with over 100 million users LinkedIn is in the top five most popular. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and is an extremely resourceful tool for job hunters, recruiters, business owners, etc. Once you sign up for a LinkedIn account, you must create your professional profile. The more effective your profile, the more professionals can find you and connect with you.

Below are ten things you can do to enhance your profile so it is the most effective it can be in building your network of connections.

1. Complete the Profile – This is very important in that you do not want a half-done, unprofessional profile. This will not accomplish much in the way of building your network of connections. Complete each section, completely and professionally to make the most of your online professional identity. According to LinkedIn, you are 40% more likely to be found in a LinkedIn search with a 100% completed profile as opposed to one that is not completely finished.

2. Always Use a Photo – There are many people who do not want to use photos for various reasons but you need to post a photo on your LinkedIn profile to get more results. You do not have to have a professionally taken photo but you do want it to look professional. People will be more likely to remember your profile if you present a photo of yourself. Photos can also increase the chances of people trusting you.

3. Use a Persuasive Headline – Don’t just plaster your name and title as your profile headline. Add a short slogan or benefit you provide. Compare the two headlines below and decide which one would capture your interest more.

Jane Doe

Virtual Assistant

Jane Doe

Virtual Assistant – I will free up your time and grow your business.

You don’t even have to have your title, you can just stress the benefits you provide or the skills you possess. Use something that makes you the one to choose.

4. List Your Websites – Be sure to add your URL and/or blog to your profile. You can add up to three urls. Customize the tiles of your links as opposed to My Site, My Blog, etc. You can do this by choosing the “Other” category in the Edit Profile section.

5. Get Recommendations – Having people give you recommendations will increase your chances of being found as well as give people more reason to choose you and/or your business or connect with you. You can ask people who have worked with you or past customers for recommendations. If they like your work/service, they will be glad to give a testimonial. You can also trade with people you would recommend but always remember, your reputation is on the line every time you recommend someone so don’t ask random people to trade recommendations.

6. Video Presentation – Add a video presentation to your profile highlighting your skills, services, products, etc. You can do this by going to Google Presentations under “More” in the toolbar at the top of your profile page. Click on More Applications….. then scroll down to Google Presentations. Add the Application and follow the directions on creating your presentation. Be sure to check out the other apps as well for a more productive profile.

7. Experience and Skills – Be sure to list all your experience and skills using relevant keywords. Be thorough, precise and complete when describing your skills and your experience. Be sure to be grammatically correct and proofread every sentence.

8. Professional Summary and Specialties – When writing your summary, let people know what you are about and what you can do for them. Use short precise paragraphs. Get to the point and be convincing. List your Specialties so they are much easier to read and capture attention quicker.

9. Keep Active – Do NOT fill out your profile and never come back. You need to keep updating regularly and be active on your profile. Get involved with LinkedIn and become a participant. Nobody wants to connect with a dead page!

10. Join Relevant Groups – Joining groups is one way to stay active and become involved with other LinkedIn users and professionals. Participate in the discussions and offer help, advice, support whenever you can.

When joining networking sites such as LinkedIn, you have to take the time to create productive profiles and pages. Put the time and effort into all the above enhancements and your LinkedIn profile will be much more effective.

Terri Seymour has over twelve years of online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site for resources, $1 and $2 resell ebooks & software, informative articles, and affiliate programs. Sign up for the RSS Feed for a free business ebook with MRR. http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Article Source: WAHM Articles

One of the most popular online social media networking sites happens to be called Twitter.com and when you visit and use Twitter.com you will quickly see why it has become one of the favorite online networking sites for those who are in Direct Sales or a Service-Type of home business.

When you are marketing your business on Twitter, it is very important that you NEVER do any of the following things that I am going to list for you today. Why you might ask? These are the top pet peeves of experienced marketers on Twitter and they absolutely hate it when newbies do these things. With that said, if you want to lose followers and not gain them…then by all means, do these things!

1. Do not send out automatic direct messages to people who follow you. People who follow you view this as Direct Message Spam. Not sure what this is? Let me explain. Some people set up their Twitter accounts to send out automatic direct messages to those who follow them and it does nothing but junk up their message inbox and it “irks” your followers with business spam.

2. Do not set up your Twitter account to automatically spam out numerous Tweets for your account every hour of the day, 24/7 as it is considered to be Tweet Spam. Your account should always have MORE real-live tweets made by you than prescheduled spam tweets. People want to network and chat with a ‘real live human’ and not some set-up spam factory Tweeter over there on Twitter.

3. Do not post unprofessional photo’s of yourself as your business avatar on your Twitter profile home page. Whatever graphic you decide to use as your company’s avatar does reflect on you and your professionalism so please choose an appropriate avatar graphic.

4. Please watch your language when Tweeting on Twitter!!! I have been spending some time this past week reading a lot of people’s Tweet streams and I have been “disgusted” with some of the language I have seen used on Twitter this past week. Please…keep the trash talking language to yourself.

These are 4 very important things you should avoid doing over on the social media networking site called Twitter. If you ask me…they are pretty common sense but apparently…they do need to be repeated since a lot of people are still networking incorrectly on Twitter.

Take your time with your business networking tactics….learn to do things the right way so that you avoid mistakes down the road. Happy Networking!

Twitter Abbreviations to Shorten Your Marketing Tweets by Tammy Embrich

There have been so many times where I wanted to say a whole lot more than 140 characters on Twitter. We’ve all been there! And honestly, that amount of space IS quite a bit to convey a message. However, there are many that simply don’t agree. Still, we all have to abide by that one limit.

There are many clever abbreviations we can use to shorten up tweets. Most people like short and to the point. Make it a long, long message and folks often get lost in it. And what do they do? They move on!

You of course want people to stay long enough to read your post. I know for myself, on a website for example…if there is a super long welcome message, I will most often click away. However on Twitter, the platform takes care of that issue. We have 140 characters, use them wise!

Below is a handful of abbreviations, link and tweet shorteners, for your use

DM = direct message

RT = retweet

LOL = laugh out loud

BTW= by the way

b4 = before

1 = one, won

2 = to, too, two

fab = fabulous

fave = favorite

GR8 = great

FB = facebook

FYI = for your information

LMK = let me know

peeps = people

plz = please

TYT = take your time

L8er = later

thx = thanks

TY = thank you

2u = to you

Tweeple = twitter people

JK j/k = just kidding

K = okay

IMHO = in my humble opinion

IC = I see

fwd = forward

Shortening Links

The links we use on Twitter can be very long. Fortunately there are many link shortening services at our disposal. I prefer bit.ly, as I have it in my favorites so all I have to do is click and enter my URL, and click shorten, and it instantly gives me the shortened version.

However, there are various shorteners I see others using, as there are a lot of alternatives. Below are a few I have listed for your convenience.

bit.ly

twitpwr.com

ow.ly/url/shorten-url

su.pr/

is.gd/

tinyurl.com

Need to make your tweet less than 140 characters?

140it

Tweet Compressor

Twonvert

TweetShrink

TwitterEyes

Twitblogs

shortText.com

BigTweet

Twittermail.com

Twitlonger.com

tweetitin.com/

Hopefully the resources I’ve provided will be of some help with your marketing, and also make your Twitter experience a better one.

Article Written By: Tammy Embrich

Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for many years now. She is an Internet marketer, article marketer, and ghostwriter. She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other free resources, work at home articles, tips, and more at Work At Home Jobs.

You can also find Tammy at her Grandparenting Articles and Tips blog, offering grandmother’s experiences, brags, recipes, tips, photos, and more.

Article Source: WAHM Articles

Direct Sales Marketing – 6 Tips For Social Networking Success

By Lisa Young

Sitting at my desk yesterday, I checked my tweetdeck and found a message from one of my tweeps saying that social networking is the future of direct sales. I tweeted back saying that, in fact, social networking is the now of direct sales. We had a great conversation discussing the various issues that consultants face trying to make a name for themselves in a wired world.

If you’re not familiar with social media sites like MySpace, Facebook and twitter, chances are good you didn’t understand half of that last paragraph.

That’s no excuse to stick your head in the sand! Social media is here to stay, and it’s a powerful tool to add to your direct sales arsenal. Professional marketers are reaping the rewards of online connections on a daily basis. They’ve taken the art of networking and building relationships from the offline world to the online marketplace, and cashed in on the revolution in the process.

But before you jump headlong into social networking, there are six concepts you need to understand. These caveats can turn your social networking into a lead generating machine – filling your inbox with leads and building your business in unprecedented ways.

1. Social Networks are not a PITCH fest. You can’t just join a social network and start telling everyone how great your company or product is. That’s the online equivalent of shoving your business card into the hand of everyone you meet without saying ‘hello’ first. Depending on the social networking site, you can share about yourself, your company and your products to varying degrees – but only AFTER you’ve established a relationship with your audience. Who is your audience? Anyone that’s following your page, signing up for your updates or trying to become your ‘friend’. The term is different for each service, but the idea is the same: people want to get to know who you are before they want to learn about what you have to offer.

Just like in the offline world, you need to show people you can provide value to them before you start talking about your company. Social networks essentially force you to share a bit of yourself with your audience before they’re going to respond to any offers you try to make. If you don’t, you’ll come off as pushy and people will stop following you – or worse yet, block you all together.

2. Brand YOURSELF First. It bears repeating, so I’ll say it again. YOU are the most important product your company has to offer. Successful consultants make a name for themselves even while they’re promoting their company’s products and services. It is up to YOU to promote yourself. No direct selling company is going to do that for you.

People have to know, like and trust you before they’re going to do business with you. It is your responsibility to provide the information your audience needs in order to build a lasting relationship with you.

Let your company handle the marketing and promotions for your products and services. You need to worry about making a name for yourself. Your company can’t stop you from creating your own website that is about your interests and your life. They CAN (and usually will) prevent you from using their product names, descriptions, images and trademarks. They have every right to do so. It dilutes their brand. It’s also a sign of a weak marketer to tie your marketing back to your company.

Some companies will let you use their content – but what happens if you leave that company? You have to start all over again. If instead, you promote yourself, then no matter what company you’re with, you’ve got a consistent social networking strategy that’s built around your reputation, rather than your company.

3. Don’t Do It All In One Day. Social networking sites are designed to be “sticky”. That means once you visit, they entice you with lots of content to suck up your time and get you to stick around for a while. You need to view social networking as a piece of your marketing puzzle – not the whole enchilada. Start with ONE site that appeals to you. Strictly limit your time, and be sure you’re using it for networking activities, not for mindlessly playing games or adding “apps” to enhance your page. Your time is best spent building and creating relationships with others on the site – not playing games with the computer!

Once you’ve “gotten the hang of it”, then consider other social networks, but realize that each site requires a bit of time to navigate and participate. Don’t commit to more groups than you can handle. Only YOU know your time availability and building marketing relationships takes time.

4. Social Networking Is Like Offline Networking. Just like offline networking groups, they are NOT the backbone of your direct sales business. Booking, selling and recruitng are the staples of a successful home party business, and nothing will ever replace that. Social Networking is a marketing tool that you can use to move beyond your family and friends and reach out to a global audience. The global audience can help establish yourself as an expert, but it doesn’t always help you get a show on your calendar for next week. Like all networking functions, building relationships takes time.

Social Networking should be considered as a way to enhance your traditional book, sell, recruit activities – not as a replacement for them. Just like you wouldn’t rely only on live networking events to build your business, neither should you rely completely on online social media to build your business. The Internet can speed the relationship building process along, but it still takes time.

5. Don’t Expect Miracles. You get what you give in social media. The more you interact, the more people will interact with you. The better content you provide, the more people will want to hear from you. Unless you’re already a celebrity, don’t expect that you’ll have overnight success with any social networking site. Miracles do happen, but to expect them would be social networking suicide. Often times, you can connect with other direct sellers, coaches, and trainers, and find yourself hob-knobbing with the rich and famous – people you might not otherwise have ever met – through social media. But this should not be your expectation or purpose for social networking. Connect and share with “regular Joes” like you and watch your network grow.

Twitter is a great place to start. With only 140 characters, there are no lengthy pages to read, and it’s easy to start. Plus it can work with some other social media sites as well. If you sign up, follow me and I’ll follow you!

6. Stories Sell. The best way to connect and build an online network is to share yourself – via stories and videos – and let your audience know more about you. A word of caution, though: don’t share anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable having the whole world know. This is the internet, after all, and anyone could see those pictures, that video or hear those stories. Transparency is one of the great qualities of the internet – it’s also one of the curses. It only takes a second for everyone in your social network (friends, family and business associates) to see those compromising details. Be sure you’re sharing quality information that builds your reputation.

It can be challenging for direct sellers that aren’t very tech savvy to get connected to social networks. Take your time, start slowly, and do what you can. Don’t get sucked into the time vacuum, and get distracted from your core business building activities. Great business relationships can be cultivated online, but you need to enter the fray in a controlled and meaningful way. Otherwise, you’re just spinning in circles.

After nearly 10 years in Direct Sales, Lisa Young stopped listening to her up-line and started seeking professional sales and marketing wisdom from the far corners of big business. Today Lisa offers ready-to-use insights, tips and inspiration to others in the Home Party Plan community looking to run their business like a business and achieve success. Lisa’s free monthly newsletter “PartyOn!” features articles from a business perspective designed to help MLM reps reach their booking, sales and recruiting goals. You can sign up for the newsletter at http://www.HomePartySolution.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Young
http://EzineArticles.com/?Direct-Sales-Marketing—6-Tips-For-Social-Networking-Success&id=2058504

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Twitter Marketing – Avoid the Hard Sell by Tammy Embrich

Twitter marketing can be a powerful tool. I see professional home based business owners capitalizing on this most widely used social network every day of the week. And most prove to be quite successful.

However, I see other online entrepreneurs using their 140 characters to post their sale ads and links every chance they get. They overwhelm their followers with pushy tactics to get their sales. This is labeled as “hard selling.” Many people who utilize this reputable social media (that houses well over 150 million members), find this rude and unprofessional, including myself.

What do you think these folks gain by using this hard sell, in-your-face marketing approach?

I would definitely venture to say, “not much!” I know for certain that this does not encourage a follow. In fact, these type of marketers get a large number of unfollows and blocks. And more importantly, they certainly don’t gain credibility for their online reputation.

I learned by trial and error when I first tested the Twitter waters, just as many others have. And I’ve provided a set of social networking tips below for avoiding the hard sell and making your marketing experience a positive and successful one.

* Engage in friendly and helpful conversation, don’t log in only to post your ads and links.

* Always address others politely and ask them how their day is going. Show genuine concern and interest.

*Provide beneficial tips (without web or affiliate links) and talk about your product first, before actually providing a link.

* Always space out your tweets. Don’t tweet every single minute. If you practice this, your followers will probably not be able to catch all your tweets. And what’s the point of tweeting if they won’t see them?

* Offer advice and answer questions when you know the answers.

* Connect with others and discuss and ask questions about their business. Of course, always use good tactics when doing this. Show your followers you are interested in them, and build effective relationships. This will encourage them to find out what you have to offer, visit your website, and possibly result in a sale.

* And finally, try to avoid posting just 1 or 2 tweets, and then leaving. Invest your time wisely, and try to offer worthy information that others will be interested in.

Associating with other business professionals and partners is what the Twitter platform is all about. Use it to your advantage and use it properly, and the benefits can be substantial for your business success.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for many years. She is an Internet marketer, article marketer, and ghostwriter. She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other work at home resources, work at home articles, tips, and more at Work At Home Jobs.

You can also find Tammy at her Grandparenting Articles and Tips blog, offering grandmother’s experiences, brags, recipes, tips, photos, and more.

Article Source: WAHM Articles

10 Proven Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page by Terri Seymour

Social media marketing is absolutely essential in today’s online business world. It has taken the internet by storm both professionally and personally. Social media marketing means to market your business with the use of social networks, blogs, message boards, discussion groups, online communities and other such media. Some of the most popular social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social marketing involves a lot more than just signing up and pasting up your page. You need to maximize your page’s effectiveness and keep it fresh, updated and alive. Below are 10 things you can do to optimize your Facebook page to make sure your business is getting the maximum benefits.

1. Create an Effective Profile – Do not use a half-done profile. Fill in your profile completely. This is for your business so be professional yet show people you care about your customers and will be there for them. Make sure your photo (if of yourself) is professional. You could also use your logo. Let people know what your business can do for them. Write an effective mission statement. Let your visitors know why they should do business with you but be careful what you reveal for security reasons.

2. Get Your Visitors Involved in Discussions – This is a great way to get your visitors to “Like” you and to keep coming back. Start helpful and informative discussions about topics related to your products or services. For example: if you sell home décor, start discussions about home decorating ideas, budget decorating, home improvement, etc. Encourage people to join the discussions and leave their business signature for more exposure.

3. Customize Your Page – Don’t let your page be one of the cookie cutter pages like everyone else. Customize it to fit your business needs and the needs of your visitors. Use images that brand you and your business and make it enjoyable and memorable.

4. Events and Contests – Keep your page alive and active with special events and contests. Each time a fan RSVP’s the event, it shows up in his profile. And so on and so on. Thus creating a ripple effect for your business.

5. Special Offers and Sales – People are always looking for good deals and special offers so don’t disappoint. Show your visitors you want to give them the best possible deal on your products/services.

6. Multi-Media Integration – Use audio and video content for your page. Audio and video can be extremely effective in capturing and holding the attention of visitors. According to webnox, video is 58% more effective than just using plain text!

7. Make Your Tabs More Memorable – Facebook does allow you to change the usual boring tabs to more suit your needs. Make them unique to your page and business. You can also change the order in which you present your tabs. You can find easy to follow online tutorials on how to do this.

8. Utilize Your Sidebar – Take advantage of your sidebar space. This is a great place for testimonials or newsletter sign-up forms. You can also use this space for affiliate links, a survey for your visitors to help improve your page/business. Add links to your main website or special offers you may have going.

9. Add a Poll to Your Page – People like knowing their opinion matters so add interest to your page with a poll. You can add them using a free poll creator from Vizu. Polls can attract attention and encourage your visitors to interact with your page.

10. Post Regularly – I cannot stress this enough! Do not start your page and then let it sit for weeks at a time. You have to be there every day updating, adding new content, checking things over, and finding ways to improve your page. I recently started using social marketing and unfortunately need to take my own advice on this one. I have just not been involved enough with my Facebook page but that will soon be changing. The hold that social media has on the internet is astronomical so do not be left out in the cold!

So far I am involved with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so feel free to come over and see me. I would love to see your page as I am learning more about this phenomenal marketing tool. I hope we all can use these types of sites to help each other improve our business and increase our sales!

Terri Seymour has over twelve years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site for resources, $1 and $2 resell ebooks & software, articles, and affiliate programs. Sign up for the RSS Feed for a free business ebook with MRR. http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Article Source: WAHM Articles