When you want to share another person’s tweet, it’s important you cite who tweeted it in the first place.

This is called a retweet.

Placing “RT” before the user name and posting the tweet to your stream is the most common usage.

“RT @melissawalker Attending the @PSAMA networking on 1/25 http://bit.ly/com/86frtx”

This lets all my followers see that I am sharing this event, its link, and who tweeted it originally. They may be interested in following Melissa Walker, too, if they don’t already, not to mention how to learn more about the event. The tweet also virally spreads news of the event because my followers can also retweet it.

If you receive more email than you can deal with in a day, following an organization’s updates on Twitter is an easier way to stay current – and not miss out on great networking opportunities.

There is a trend emerging with organizations reducing their reliance on email marketing and web sites to communicate with their audiences.

Using Twitter provides a real-time tool that sends communications to people who choose to receive the organization’s news. The threshold to entry is very low and (for now) Twitter remains free with virtually no technical skills required.

Join the Conversations

The openness of Twitter enables any one to join a conversation.

When you want to contribute to the debate, don’t just promote yourself or your blog. Self-promotion is smarmy and unwelcome.

Instead, provide information that is useful and a link to where others can learn more. Pointing back only to content that you have created is a closed loop that is self-referential. If you are tweeting links to your blog, be sure your blog post is not purely promotional about you. The blog posting should have direct value and usability for the reader. For example, a how-to, a coupon, or analysis of a news story.

Enrich Your Tweets with Pictures and Sound

TwitPic.com works with Twitter to post links to your photos in combination with tweets.

This works great when you want to shoot pictures on the go with your cell phone. Whether on vacation, at a concert, or just with friends, adding a picture adds that extra impact to make your 140 characters have more depth.

Sign in with your Twitter log in and password to get a free account. It works in connection with the Twitter application on your cell phone or the TwitPic site.

You can upload the image from your computer on TwitPic’s site or email it to an address that the site will provide especially for you. If you email it, put your photo’s tag line the Subject line of your email – not the body of the email.

Other Twitter-related applications for cell phones have photography capabilities built in to insert a link to make your photo viewable online.

With millions of people to pick from, deciding who you should follow is no small task. Twitter blogged about discovering who to follow, and I recommend you read it before continuing this post.

Additional Sources for Follows: Journalists

Many columnists and reporters now post to Twitter throughout the day. The blog Journalistics provides a handy listing of sites that list journalists who use Twitter.

The publications and shows for which these journalists work also post tweets of interest. Refer to WeFollow.com for the top and local listings.

WeFollow.com is a directory where you can add yourself and select five keywords (hashtags) that define who you are. The site also provides major category directories of Twitter people ranked by the number of followers each has. This is a quick way to find top leaders in many fields, and a way for you to be found by others.

Add yourself to be easily found by others searching for Twitter people on your topics.

Look through your favorite news sources and you can find the publication’s user name or the reporter’s user name. You can also search for them by name on Twitter.

Don’t expect to be followed in return by each of these since they have huge followings – hundreds of thousands of people at times – so it’s not feasible for them to follow every one in return. That means you won’t be able to send a direct message to the person.

Now you can tweet at the user to share your opinions or feedback on stories.

Many news organizations are using this technique also to source information from their audiences to enrich their stories.

With shrinking budgets in news organizations, this substitute method of information gathering can provide a vital link that keeps viewers and readers informed through on-the-spot sources in real time.

Additional Sources for Follows: Twitter Directories

As with all popular sites, related sites appear on the scene to attract traffic and provide unique value.

MrTweet.com is another source for Twitter follows.

MrTweet examines your tweet history, followers, and follows to recommend others with similar activity.

While you will need to accumulate some followers and follows after you have been tweeting for a while to get the best results, the service is a good one to revisit periodically.

Be sure to follow @MrTweet, too, for tweets directed at you about new suggested follows.

These tools are free. Bookmark them and revisit every other month to expand your Twitter network.

When You Get a New Follower

Since Twitter is driven by content and influence, you need to demonstrate both at each opportunity.

When you get a new follower, send a reply “thank you” so that your current followers see who is following you. For example:

@bobthompson Thanks for the great speech last night and the follow!

Don’t thank the person through a direct message. You want to share with others who else follows you.

This is a viral technique to get one another’s followers to follow the two of you as well. Why? Because your follower thinks:

“If David Doe is following Jane McDoe now, then I bet David’s tweets are great like Jane’s. I will follow him, too.”

While some of this sounds like you are gaming the system to increase your follow count, that is not the purpose of these techniques. Your goal is to attract a quality network of people you can share with and influence.

If any of this strikes you as bragging or showing off, remember that the rules of engagement and standards for behavior are different in the world of Twitter. These are accepted norms and not actions that are viewed in poor taste.

How to Be of Value

The best contribution you can make is to answer questions posted by others. Similar to how the best and most popular news articles bubble to the surface based on how many people are sharing links to them on Twitter, the best answers to questions tend to bubble up, too.

These phenomena happen because we trust others in our networks more than information sources we do not know or trust as well.

A plumber may label himself “Five-Star Jim’s Plumbing” in a yellow pages ad, but does he really offer five-star service? I prefer to ask my neighbor who did the best job for him when he’s used plumbers in the past.

Word of mouth provides that unconscious third-party endorsement we like to find as a way to validate our choices.

Be As Good As Your Last Tweet

As with all social networking and social media sites, being an active participant is the key to being recognized and valued in an online community.

With Twitter, influence can be measured in part by the number of followers you attract. That does not mean that Twitter is simply a numbers game, where the guy with the most toys wins. Rather, the way to attract a solid following is by delivering good content that is useful, and to deliver it in the right way.

Status Updates

Twitter prompts you by asking, “What are you doing?” Do not type, “Reading the newspaper, going for a walk afterward.”

Tweets should include opinions, announcements and conversations.

As Joel Comm remarks in his book Twitter Power, “Produce content that’s interesting, fun, and valuable.”

Finding Content

Whether you read magazines, books, listen to radio shows or podcasts, or prefer to watch television, any media you consume likely has an online presence.

Instead of visiting multiple news sites throughout the day, I recommend using an RSS reader to follow your favorites news sources, blogs and web sites. I consume news by the bucket load every day. I use RSS feeds to follow topics in national news, business news, technology, design, and social media along with a few niche topics.

By setting up an RSS reader on your computer and populating it with RSS feeds, you create an easy way to find content of interest to you. Doing so also enables you to easily share content with people in your social network.

RSS readers commonly have sharing functions built in at the news article level. Sharing the item across any network then only takes a few clicks.

RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” It provides a news feed that the reader tool pulls in to your browser.

When you see the icon below, click on it to add the web site’s feed to your reader.

Commonly found icon for RSS feeds

The Google Reader is a very popular reader because of its simple interface and easy method for adding feeds. Google provides excellent resources for learning how to use their reader at http://bit.ly/GglRdr

Building Your Following

What interests you? Is it the latest news about a particular celebrity, athlete, TV show, or musician? Do you want to keep instantly up to date on the latest happenings in your industry, your city, or other news streams?

Whatever information you want to follow, there is a tweet stream to follow.

A good strategy is to identify two to three major topics that interest you.

Using those topics as hashtags, and search for them in Twitter. This will show all the tweets on that topic, from newest to oldest.

Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.

Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.

Read through a few dozen and see if any persons stand out among the crowd. Look for frequency of postings, how well their tweets are written (do they include links and credit others when they retweet?), and how often does it seem others are retweeting the person’s original tweets?

This is not an authoritative means to evaluate a person’s knowledge on a topic, but it gives you an indication of how active she is.

Click the user name to learn more about the person. Active and high profile users (key influencers) will customize this page with their own artwork and details about themselves.

This provides a quick way to judge if you want to follow the person or not.

For example, I scan a person’s latest tweets to see if I’m interested in what they tweet about. I read their bio line and if they posted a link to a site, I click through to it as well.

In 30 seconds you can determine whether the person is a match for you.

Now that you are looking at other people’s profile to see you want to follow them, you can better appreciate why your own profile matters so much.

Follow those who look interesting, and don’t be surprised when they follow you in return. That’s common courtesy in the world of Twitter.

I typically test-drive a Twitterer for a few days to a week. If they appear to post only personal thoughts and opinions at random, or reply to other tweets with “Oh yes! Totally agree!” or other remarks that do not add value to the conversation, I unfollow them.

There are simply too many good tweets with usable content to read that I do not want tweets with little to no value clogging my stream.

People self-select over time who to follow and who to unfollow. Usage on Twitter also fluctuates so you may notice your number of followers go up and down over time, rather than a consistently upward trend.

Twitter demonstrates how publishing on social networks is evolving into two-way participation. Successful users create conversations – not content. Communities form around these conversations.

Twitter was formed by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey in 2006 as a dispatch service accessible via texting on cell phones. They were working on Odeo, a podcasting company at the time. The service was used as an in-house method for contacting one another with status updates on projects and tasks needing urgent attention. However, it morphed into a whole different tool from there.

Twitter bears a frequent misconception by those unfamiliar with it. “It’s people telling you what they’re doing at every single minute of the day. I just don’t care.”

When it morphed into a popular forum, Twitter’s user base was predominantly 18-24 year olds, and such postings were common. The age and motivation of its user, like Facebook, has likewise changed in its first three years.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey said, “The working name was just ‘Status’ for a while. When we came up with this vehicle, we were trying to give it a good name. We liked the SMS (short message system, or text messaging) aspect, and how you could update your friends and colleagues from anywhere and receive from anywhere — even in very obscure places where you wouldn’t be able to have cell phone reception.

“We wanted to capture that in the name — we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word ‘twitch,’ because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But ‘twitch’ is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word ‘twitter,’ and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds.’ And that’s exactly what the product was.” (Wikipedia, 2010)

Twitter achieved popular fame and usage when it won an award at the 2007 SXSW Festival, the annual technology/music conference in Austin, Texas.

Twitter was estimated to have achieved 18.1 million registered users in 2010, and, that year alone, attracted over 10 million visitors per month. While its traffic grew 2,500% from 2007-2010, its user base has grown more slowly. This signals that Twitter is not for everyone.

According to Twitter’s blog, about 50% of Twitterers follow and are followed by just 10 people (“Twitter Power” by Joel Comm). That means you can be in the top 10% of Twitter users by attracting only 80 followers.

And who are these Twitterers? In 2010, Twitter’s largest age group was 35-44 year olds, with 60% of the service’s traffic originating outside the US.

More so, Twitter has attracted high profile users such as the 44^th U.S. President Barack Obama who used it as a very successful campaign tool during his run in 2008. The American Red Cross has continued to use it as a way to communicate updates about local disasters.

Not-for-Profit organizations have also utilized Twitter to raise instant funds — at the click of a button – that keeps them afloat during times where accessing local support is less likely.

What It Is, What It Isn’t

Like a micro-version of Facebook, Twitter lets you set up a brief profile, post a photo of yourself, and send status updates of personal or professional interest to you and those who “follow” you.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter, to date, does not let you post series of photos, audio or video recordings, or long chunks of content.

Facebook is a well-rounded, complete picture of you and your life – depending on how full you make your profile. If all you do is complete your profile but never interact with Facebook, people can still find you, perhaps contact you via the information you share, and get an up-to-date impression of who you are (or who you portray yourself to be).

One of the agreed upon values of Facebook comes from the content in your profile and your interaction with your friends on the site.

Twitter, in contrast, is more like a stream of consciousness tool. It includes the basics like your photo, your location, your website link, and your latest tweets, or postings to Twitter. But its core value comes from how you engage in the conversations you follow. To make Twitter relevant to you or your followers, it will require participation, not passivity. Like a garden, it must be attended to or the connections dry up.

Whom you follow will make a big difference in how you tweet, too.

Where Twitter differs from text messaging is that your tweets are posted to your stream (a web page that shows your tweets in reverse chronological order) on the web. People who choose to follow your streams are “followers” and the people you follow are “follows.”

For example, if I follow a person and notice that his tweets are frequent but adding no value to the conversation (e.g., “Oh I like this a lot!” with a link to web site with a picture of kittens) then I usually unfollow after a week of valueless tweets. Don’t be shy about unfollowing. To unfollow means to remove a person from the list of people you follow.

Twitter requires consistent interaction to derive value from it. Try to deliver the kind of value you want to derive from it.

Saying A Lot In A Little Space

You get 140 characters and that is all.

The 140 character limit comes from the service being originally designed for use primarily on cellphones. If you use text messaging features on your mobile phone, there is a limit to how long your messages can be. This is a technical limitation imposed by the cellphone carriers.

These short messages are referred to as “tweets” in the Twitter nomenclature. They are also referred to as microblogging since your tweets are essentially very short blog entries, but tweet is the most common reference.

You can follow or unfollow anyone at any time. You can also block someone from following you. Notifications are sent to you when a new follower begins following your tweets, but nothing is communicated when you are unfollowed by a person. The same applies when you follow and unfollow others.

By posting your tweets on a web page, it’s like sending a text message to hundreds or more of people with one simple effort.

The value of Twitter lies in who you follow, who follows you, and what you tweet about.

Twitterspeak

Before moving forward, let’s orient you to how people and activities are commonly referred to among the Twitterati.

Twitter uses avian references to itself (its logo is a stylized bird). There are many bird-related references and mashed up terms beginning with “tw-.”

For example, the people whom you follow can be referred to as “tweeple.” Topical conversations are called “twendz.”

The jargon might leave you feeling like Elmer Fudd so use the terms that you are comfortable with but be aware of what they all mean. Visit Twitter Glossary for a complete dictionary of popular terms.

As you read tweets, you will notice that a tweet will contain a reference to another person but it will have the @ symbol before the person’s name. User names always have the @ symbol before their name. To refer to another person in a tweet with the @ symbol before her name is akin to pointing at the person in real life. It directs the reader to finding the person by clicking on her user name.

Another common use of one’s user name is at public events. Next time you attend a conference, look around to see who is using their Twitter handle instead of their name or below it. This is a good practice to start with your next name tag. By doing so, you make yourself publicly findable in a crowd and simplify the connection process.

Twitter as Community

As I’ve mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, many people mistakenly assume that Twitter is for narcissistic people who want to announce to the world that they are hungry; that they are walking to the store; that they are bored at work, stuck in traffic, using the bathroom, and a thousand other mundane aspects of daily life.

Yes, in fact, there are many who use it that way. But I recommend you do not follow them.

Instead, look for people who are using Twitter wisely. Either as an extension of other online activities they practice, or who use Twitter as their primary social networking tool.

For example, Twitter has become an extension of how people use their blogs. When the writer posts a new entry on his blog, through a simple addition of a utility to his web site, he can post a tweet that he just added a new posting to his blog.

This immediacy is what empowers Twitter to provide a real-time stream of content. Like a virtual postcard updating friends, it gets sent out to audiences (followers) that are usually interested.

For example, many top blogs such as TechCrunch and Mashable post tweets about new articles on their site as they are posted as a way to drive traffic to their sites. Before Twitter, they waited on users to visit their sites. With Twitter, users can quickly scan a day’s worth of postings by headline and click through to the ones they want to read. This drives people to use the sites more often than before. Such attention may facilitate direct purchasing for people selling products or services via the websites.

Twitter also makes sharing content very simple. By “re-tweeting” another person’s tweet, all of your followers see an item that you have deemed interesting enough to share. This passive endorsement suggests to your followers that you thought it was worth passing along, so it’s implied that they will find it useful, too.

This draws on the concept of crowdsourcing, where we rely on the judgments of groups of people to divine what is worthwhile and what is not. The good stuff bubbles to the top while the mediocre sinks downward to microniches or obscurity.

If celebrity news is your thing, Twitter was made for you. Nearly every celebrity around has a Twitter following and either has a ghost twitterer to update fans or tweets herself to be closer to her following. If famous people are your thing, get ready to drink from the fire hose like never before.

Twitter and You

If you choose to blog, and you blog frequently, installing a simple Plug-In (a small piece of programming that adds new functionality to your blog) to your blog will copy your blog post’s headline to become a tweet. It will automatically send this out and include a link to your blog posting. Tweeting done.If you use Facebook primarily to update your social networking status, there is a plug-in available via Facebook that performs the same function.

Pay attention that you don’t exceed the 140 character limit to avoid tweeting partial entries. That may confuse readers.

If you use Twitter as your primary, or optional, update tool, you’ll find it easy, if not addictive, to use throughout your day.

When you first join Twitter, it’s a good idea to read what others tweet about for a while and get used to the lingo, formatting and topics. When you’re ready to join the conversation, jump in. Just remember, add value to your reader and you’ll get back value or at least a more substantial following.

A great way to start tweeting is to use the “share this” feature found on most content sites, like newspapers and magazines. These publishers want their content to spread like a lively virus across the web so they add this feature to make it simple to do so.

When an article grabs your interest, and you think people in your immediate circle would also like it as well, like one birdie to another, tweet it.

This approach is part of how you build an online persona that establishes what your interests are and areas of expertise.

For example, I know an interview coach who frequently posts links to advice columns that discuss questions he addresses with his clients. This is a value-added benefit to his followers and clients alike. Intermittently, he inserts a tweet that encourages you to take a free 30-minute consultation with him to improve your interviewing skills. Check him out on Twitter by clicking on FIND PEOPLE and searching for  @interviewcoach.

Many small businesses have begun using Twitter as a way to create professional visibility and promote their company’s offerings.

Healeo (@healeo) is a health food store in the urban neighborhood of Seattle called Capitol Hill. Healeo tweets throughout the day when they begin serving fresh batches of soup and pastas made that day. They tweet about beverage specials; that the visiting massage therapist is on site and available, or just comments about how busy their store is on a given day.

These tweets cost nothing to produce aside from a few minutes of time. They generate business for this small company, help Healeo measure their audience, and determine which followers use the coupon codes that only appear on Twitter.

Dell Computers is another commonly cited case study of business using Twitter for fostering and tracking sales. Dell uses Twitter to promote specially discounted computers, sales that are not available anywhere else. By using this free tool, they estimate generating an additional $2 million in sales through their tweeting alone. In the old days, $2 million might have been Dell’s entire advertising budget.

In our personal lives, Twitter offers an excellent resource for finding answers to questions.

Whether you’re a student conducting research or a traveler looking a good hotel while on a trip to Chicago, you can tweet to ask for referrals – or slog through pages of user reviews from two years ago and make your best judgment call from there.

Whatever your need or desire, Twitter is a tool for putting your query out there for a quick answer. And when you see others asking questions, try to provide a useful answer.

Since this is all done publicly, you are adding to the knowledge of others along the way.

Flashmobs, or Instant Gatherings

Despite the strong arm efforts of repressive governments to limit or suppress free speech, technology offers clever workarounds that are near impossible to shut down.

Twitter has proven its usefulness among dissenters and protesters time and again as a tool for organizing, communicating banned information and locating one another.

For example, Iranians opposed to the current regime have used Twitter to great effect to organize themselves beyond the purview of government officials. When the law limits how many people can gather in a place at any given time without a permit, Twitter lets everyone gather simultaneously without skirting the law – and achieve their collective goals.

URL Shortening on Twitter

When you post a link, the link may be longer than your 140 character limit. To work around this, use a URL shortening service like Bit.ly or Twitsnip.

This online service converts your long URL (the web site link) down to a small URL so there is more room for your tweet. With Bit.ly, you will have the option to accept the random series of numbers and letters it generates or customize the URL with plain English of your choosing. Sign up for a free account to customize the link.

An added advantage with Bit.ly is that it also tracks how many of your links are clicked on. If you are into data, that’s a fun measurement to watch as you tweet more and more links to stories across the web.

I have used these Bit.ly customized links throughout this series as a shorthand to point you to various off-site resources.

While we’ll cover the steps to joining Twitter and setting up your profile in the next section, this unit focused on how you can utilize Twitter for the best results.

Build Your Nest, Little Birdie

Twitter is a terrific and powerful social media tool. Want to talk about getting started or how you like it so far? Post it in the Comments section for a response.

These groups are an excellent approach to enriching your network. They offer a low-threshold way to connect with liked-minded people, or to find people in need of your expertise.

Whatever your reason for joining a group, let’s explore how you can search for groups, join them, and begin to participate.

Finding Groups Relevant to You

Start by logging in to your LinkedIn profile. Click the Groups button in the toolbar along the top.

The default tab is “My Groups.” Here you will see the Groups you belong to. You can rearrange their order by clicking on “Edit the order of your groups” at the top right of your list.

Since you are probably starting your list now, you won’t have any groups listed.

Let’s Join a Group

Click on the “Groups Directory” tab and let’s explore the types of groups you can join.

LinkedIn hosts some groups that attract tens of thousands of members. These are are shown along the right in their Featured Groups category.

Read through this list to see if anything catches you eye.

You will see groups with political affiliations, university alumni, and professional or trade industry.

Selecting groups relevant to your career is a smart first stop.

Another way to find relevant groups is to use the Search Groups function on the left hand side.

You can choose Categories and Language in your search filter. I recommend choosing a category that’s relevant to you and your preferred language, but leave the search field blank. This returns the broadest array of results for your review.

Let’s say you want to attend conferences as a way to build your network. Select the “Conference Groups” option in English. As of March, 2010, that returns 7,880 groups!

Run your search again using one keyword to narrow this down. In this example, I’m using “marketing” as my keyword.

That reduced the list to 301 – much more manageable!

Now I want to restrict the results to my locale since I am not able to travel around the world to conferences.

Click in the Search Groups field again. “Marketing” is still there but add a city to it. I’m using Chicago.

This delivered two results: Marketing To Women, and Marketing to Men.

Now I have targeted two events that may interest me. I would not have known about these otherwise most likely.

The Marketing to Men event strikes me as the more interesting of the two.

Click on the link to learn more about the group and find links to the event’s site. Even though this group only shows 17 members, the conference itself has likely attracted 100+ attendees.

If you are really aggressive, you will research who is a marketing professional in Chicago for companies for whom this type of marketing is important, and reach out to those individuals for input on whether they are attending the event. If they are, you have set up a new networking contact in another city that can help you meet others along the way.

How to Joining a Group

When you find a group that piques your interest, click the yellow “Join Group” button. Most groups provide instant membership but some group moderators prefer to review applicants before granting membership.

This is commonly found among Groups who focus on alumni of universities or companies. Trying to join groups when you don’t have a legitimate affiliation mark you with questionable intentions. You can contact the group moderator directly if you need to appeal to their reasoning and you have other circumstances.

That is, you may have worked at the company for a brief period and do not want it known publicly on your profile but still want to connect with people in that industry or field.

Once you join a group, it’s time to share your input.

In the Overview tab, you have options to “Start a Discussion,” “Submit News,” or “Share group.” To share a group means inviting people in your network to join the group, too. This viral effect is a great way to reinforce your network.

If you want to discuss a given topic, use the “Start a Discussion” link. In the example above where you wanted Chicago hotel recommendations, this is the right place to post that question. When you read the article about Starbucks’ new store concept, you would use the “Submit News” link instead.

Explore the other tabs of the group to see what content has been posted.

Some groups share job leads by posting them in the Jobs tab. Others are such large groups that they have divided themselves into subgroups to provide a tighter focus on specific topics relevant to the group at large.

If the group’s manager has empowered you to have administrator’s rights, you have the ability to contact members through individual or group emails, and edit other people’s membership in the group.

If the time has come for you to leave the group or adjust your privacy settings, click the “More…” tab to adjust your settings.

Connect With Others

Monitor the group’s activity to see who regular contributes and who doesn’t.

If you are looking to grow your network base, you can reach out to other group members whose profile and interests match your own.

Send a message to that person with a short introduction of yourself, and why you would like to connect. Don’t use LinkedIn’s default sentence – it’s not personalized and people recognize it. If you don’t take the time to write a sincere introduction versus using a canned sentence, others are less likely to care about connecting with you.

Two to three sentences is plenty but make sure they are your sentences, not a pre-written one.

That does not mean you have to write a fresh message every single time. Instead, craft a basic message you can repeat with others. The point is to be authentic and human. I use this technique by keeping my standard notes saved in a Word document for my networking activities. This saves me from having to dig up old emails each time to remember what I wrote before.

Finding More Groups

Continue to explore the Groups section of LinkedIn to find at least 10 groups that have subject matter or activities relevant to your needs.

Managing Membership

While you can join as many groups as you like, remember that you will want to monitor their activity levels through the periodic updates that LinkedIn sends out.

Many groups are formed with the best of intentions but quickly wither and dissolve due to a lack of nurture by the group’s owner, or the group was only meant to serve a temporary purpose whose time has past (and the group owner didn’t delete it yet).

I recommend reviewing your groups at least once every three to four months. Look at the ones with regular updates, ideally at least once a week. Those who haven’t updated in several weeks or more are candidates for removal.

Remember that a key part of using social media effectively is not spreading yourself too thin. Focus your energies and resources on where you will get the most return because belonging to a group also requires contributing in some way.

Contributing to Groups

A nice advantage of belonging to a group is that there are always people in it who stand out and help others.

If you need a recommendation on a good but affordable hotel near a conference in Chicago, this is one good way to utilize your networking instead of scouring hotel review sites. Recommendations from others like yourself tend to be more reliable than trusting even the best written – but essentially anonymous – postings in travel review sites.

Social media is an excellent resource for surfacing the best recommendations because you get an honest answer from the people answering your questions.

Another way to participate is to post links to articles in the media relevant to your audience. Don’t just post a link though – you need to add value to your posting.

Keep the posting on topic for the group (i.e., don’t post sports stories in a financial advisors group on the assumption that someone in the group likes the same team – that’s not why people are in this particular group).

When you post the link, add some analysis or opinion to the story.

For example, Starbucks has begun opening a new style of cafes that mimic local, independent coffee shops. Their intent is to blend in to the neighborhood better by being a part of the neighborhood versus installing their standard blueprint store with its consistent branding, push-button coffee dispensers and merchandise for sale.

If you are a Starbucks regular who has experienced one of these new concept stores, what did you think about the experience? How would you have executed the idea differently?

By demonstrating your thought processes and ideas, you strike up conversations. Others will respond, with their own pros and cons.

The point isn’t that you have to defend your ideas. The point is to start conversations, and nurture them until they naturally dissolve. That is, don’t start a conversation and abandon it once people begin posting their comments. Respond to each and every poster – this is how you engage and participate.

Creating a Group

I encourage you to explore extensively the groups that match your interests before creating a new group.

However, if you cannot find a group that matches your needs exactly (for example, there is not a version of the group you need in your city), then create a group.

Before you create it, though, take time to prepare for how you will manage and nurture the group’s growth and sustenance. The motto of “Build it and they will come” has deluded many an internet enterprise into believing a massive audience was waiting at their doorstep when really only a few were interested. Don’t fall into this same trap.

Considerations for Creating a Group

Be sure your group has a broad enough base of interest to attract a viable membership base.

What are your group’s goals? Is it to foster networking among a particular group? Is it to coordinate actions to achieve a common goal or objective?

Perhaps you are self-employed and you want to establish your presence as the go-to professional in your field. Having a LinkedIn profile is not enough. Add a group that focuses on your business, too, as a way to corral customers and recommendations around what you do and the value you provide.

This is free advertising, and provides a forum where you can speak to people who are opting in to hear your messages.

Make Your Group Thrive

But what do you do with them once they show up?

Brainstorm with a pad of post-it notes by writing down one idea on each sticky. Each idea can be a topic you can write about, advice you can provide, stories you can tell about success you’ve had with your clients, or news about upcoming events.

Now place these in a sequence that makes sense. It may be by event date or a multi-part series with each component building on its predecessor.

Congratulations, you’ve just created an editorial calendar.

Update whatever calendaring system you prefer, whether it’s a printed day planner, Outlook, Google Calendar or other tool. This becomes your to-do list so you can focus on the content and not stress over what to contribute.

Wrap Up

LinkedIn Groups offer the quickest access to expertise across the expanse of disciplines considered professions. You can easily connect with others near and far away. Start a Group if you cannot find one that meets your exact needs but be prepared to nurture it, keep it vital and of value to others so it will grow.

Let’s Have Coffee

Which Groups have you found to have the most value for you? Have you created a LinkedIn Group? Pull up a chair and share in the Comments section for a response.

Currently, LinkedIn provides a free app for the iPhone and Palm Pre only. A version for Blackberry is forthcoming.

Visit http://www.linkedin.com/mobile to access either edition.

If your phone does not support apps, there is also a mobile phone version of the web site at http://m.linkedin.com. The site does not require the installation of any applications or other software.

Direct your browser to this address, and bookmark it. You will need Internet access on your phone to access the site at any time.

LinkedIn App Features

The LinkedIn app is a slimmed down version of the site. It provides many of the core functions of the site.

Specifically, the app lets you:

• See all the latest updates on the members of your network
• See the current status updates of all the members in your network
• Updated your own status
• View your LinkedIn inbox for connection invitations; email messages, and sent items
• View profiles of LinkedIn users
• Search for individuals

This can be handy to look up someone when you are at an event, or check in for the latest updates to pass the time at the airport.

If you are frequently away from your computer due to travel or other obligations, this app is a smart solution to easily manage your connection invitations and updates until you return to your computer.

Relationships matter. Relationships are about individuals connecting to share information, discover meaning together, and expand their mutual knowledge.

As social media expands its presence among the facets of our lives, the professional realm receives special focus.

Long considered the premier social networking site for business professionals, LinkedIn boasts over 50 million members in 200 countries in 170 industries as of October 2009.

Whether for meeting a new recruiter, business partner, vendor or job candidate, you can expect to be researched on LinkedIn. It is regarded as the web site to research people and companies.

Salespeople use it to mine for leads. Recruiters research job candidates before deciding to move resumes forward. Job seekers use it to uncover who they know at the companies they are targeting — and who those people know by extension.

Think of LinkedIn as an expanded edition of the yellow pages: not only can you find the right person at nearly any company but you can review their history and relationships, too.

Use it to create awareness of you among people you do not know but want to know. You can also use it to demonstrate your company’s strengths and build business relationships.

Who’s Using LinkedIn?

Who are those 50 million users?

• Executives from all Fortune 500 companies
• Entrepreneurs seeking new clients and investors
• Recent college graduates connecting with classmates and instructors
• Sophisticated job seekers
• Independent consultants of all stripes
• Individuals building professional networks for career and business development

What You Get From LinkedIn

Rather than exchanging a business card (buried on your desk never to see daylight again), LinkedIn keeps your connections vibrant and sustains your interactions with them by you maintaining your profile and network regularly. Otherwise, your connections can easily turn into that forgotten business card.

Many companies post job openings exclusively on LinkedIn to attract higher caliber candidates, and to recruit for those golden slots in the hidden job market.

Thousands of Groups, Discussions, and Answers offer a wealth of free expertise to help you solve specific problems. Just ask!

The more active you are by posting Status Updates, building new connections, participating in Groups and Discussions, and providing Answers to questions asked by others, the more value you gain from LinkedIn. With daily or weekly email updates, you are easily kept up to date with the goings on of your network, too.

Making Introductions

A terrific feature of LinkedIn is the ability to introduce your connections to one another. Since we can’t always meet in person, this enables you to connect two people who can benefit by getting to know each other.

Whether it’s a candidate interested in a recruiter’s company, or a friend needing services from a firm you recommend, the ability to introduce and build connections demonstrates the value you offer your connections. This value grows your network into a potent resource others will want to tap.

Degrees of Connection

As you build your network, people you connect with one-on-one are “first-degree” connections. Their connections are “second-degree” and those connections are “third-degree,” relative to you.

You might think a first-degree connection is better than a second- or third-degree connection. It’s counterintuitive but second degree connections often prove more vital.

This is because you cannot know everyone. But the people you know bestow a level of trust in the people they connect with, just as they do with you. This shows that if they trust you, they likely trust the other person also.

By extension, you can probably trust this person, too. Ask for an introduction through your mutual contact if you can offer value to that second-degree connection. Don’t just connect to ratchet your numbers higher. Building a network is not solely a numbers game but your number of connections strongly correlates with your reach.

Growing your network organically allows you to curate your base of contacts. Choose quality over quantity.

LinkedIn Tutorials

For a quick but thorough lesson on getting started, try LinkedIn’s online how-to’s for step-by-step instructions.

http://bit.ly/linkedin101

Looking for a Jump Start?
Unsure of how to create a profile or what certain settings mean? Post your question in the Comments section for a response.

As businesses began to enter social networking sites to market their goods and services, it did not make sense for them to create Profiles like a person would. Instead, they did the next best thing and created Groups around their brands.

Groups were not meant to promote brands, however. They were meant to build communities and interaction around a given topic.

To rectify this, Facebook created Pages in 2009. Pages are like Profiles. Pages are for businesses like Profiles are for People. Instead of friending a Page, you Like it.

The functionality of Pages is more conducive to marketing and public relations efforts that brands employ to drive interest in their offerings.

By Liking a business’s Page, you access special offers directed at their Likers only. You are included on discussions and announcements that bypass the regular world. Many companies continue to discover how social networking sites like Facebook increase the reach of their brands with little to no cost beyond a dedicated staffer to conduct social media efforts.

Have a brand you love? Search for it, and Like their page. Whether it’s a consumer good, a community organization or your favorite coffee shop, by Liking their Page you become a part of the inner circle where you can participate in what the brand is.

As you find Pages you want to Like, don’t forget to suggest the Page to people in your network who you think would Like it also.

Viral Power

Remember that a key power underlying social networking and social media is its ability to spread virally. That is, your actions do not happen in a vacuum (unless you really nail down your privacy settings). What you say and do is shared back out to your network as a way to drive similar behavior in others. This herd mentality is a natural response we have to want to belong. Social networking capitalizes on this to drive its growth.

This is why I remind users to always think about their actions thoughtfully, and not act impulsively.

We do not have to censor our every action. We reserve the right to behave and think as we choose. We just have to remember that now every one else knows about it, so it pays to think ahead.

Apps, Games, Polls and More

One big draw on social networking sites is the applications, games and other add-ins you can add to your profile.

These are entertaining ways to explore the site and connect with others. However, not everyone is interested in giving you a sheep to complete your farm (search for FarmVille, with over 78 million daily users).

If casual gaming is your thing, then dive in. The myriad of games will keep you on the site for hours at a time if you like.

As mentioned before, use good judgment when including others in your game play. Speaking personally, I find these very annoying and not a request I would impose on anyone.

If you notice your Wall becoming clogged by game updates from people in your network, move your mouse over the user’s name in your Wall. The button labeled “Hide” will appear to the right of their name. This lets you hide all updates by this person from your Wall. In the case of games, it selectively removes only updates generated by games on the person’s Wall.

This is a gracious way to turn off the annoyance of game updates but retain the person in your network, and to see their updates – not their games’ updates.

Adding Games

To explore the casual games available on Facebook, click the Games link below your photo on the left-hand side.

This opens a directory of all games. The ones you subscribe to are listed first, followed by the ones your friends most recently used.

Below that you can see which of your friends are playing which games.

To add the game to your profile, click on its title. Facebook will request that you allow permission for the game to access your Profile (this is how it updates your Wall). From there you are taken to the game’s page and can learn how to play it, and start playing.

Adding Applications

Similar to games, Applications add specific functionalities to Facebook.

For example, you can add a birthdays application to round up all the birthdays of everyone in your network. You will see reminders in your Profile page, making it easy to send (real or electronic) birthday cards. Birthdays are easy to forget so I love this feature.

Chat in Real-Time

The Chat feature in Facebook is very similar to any other instant messaging system you may have used.

The Chat feature is located in the bottom right of the screen. The number next to it is how many people in your network are logged in to Facebook at a given moment.

Click on the Chat button and a list of these online users is loaded.

If you sorted your friends into Lists, they will be organized by Lists here, too.

To start chatting a person, click on their name and you’re done. Note that the ones with a green dot to the right of their name are the ones actively using the site. Those with a gray crescent icon are idle.

Unlike full-fledged instant messaging systems, there is no file sharing, screen sharing, video webcam or audio functionality with Facebook’s Chat feature.

More Than Just Friends

Facebook offers a constant stream of new tools, applications and features to keep the site fun, fresh, and engaging. Keep trying out the ones that interest you for a little variety, and find something different to share.

Want to Join the Game?
Looking for tips on the best Pages, popular games or apps? Just want to ask a question about this? Post your question in the Comments section for a response.

Etiquette Matters

Although social media is famous for having somewhat loose standards of formality, propriety does hold a central place in any society, like it or not. Every social media platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) lays claim to its own particular cultural rules and mores. Be sure that you understand the customs and expectations of each platform before you make a gaffe, lest you cause tongues to wag, or worse, offend society.

Conversation Matters

The most prized currency in any refined society is the witty, charming conversation of its habitués. Your conversation may be clever and amusing, but do stop short of being overly self-promotional. It is a delicate balance, to be sure, but eminently achievable by the accomplished practitioner. How? Strive to focus on other people, be courteous, be helpful, be modest, be kind. Avoid gossip and vulgarity at all costs.

Connections Matter

No, you needn’t be the cousin of every A-list blogger or member of the Twitterati. Rather, you should strive to cultivate a true circle of friends who share your interests, whose trials and triumphs you can share, and with whose problems you can empathize. Try to make connections between people who should meet, but have not yet; be a matchmaker where one person’s needs and desires meet another person’s strengths and qualities. Create networks of friends who are sincerely glad to know each other, and give them frequent opportunities to connect and help each other.

Love Conquers All

Share your passion, and those who share your passion too will find you and follow you. Speak from your heart, do not endeavor to deceive, and all shall be well.

Which Fork Do You Use for Salad and Which for Entree?

Jane would tell you but she’s busy preparing for guests. Have an etiquette question or a pet peeve to share? Post your missive in the Comments section for a response.

Facebook originally provided Groups for likeminded people to create on their own for a given topic. These persist in over 100,000 member-created Groups across Facebook. Imagine a topic, and there’s likely a Facebook Group for it.

Groups are great ways to organize people around social, cultural and political issues whether in your neighborhood, city or across the country.

As Groups were discussed in the unit on LinkedIn, they serve a parallel purpose on Facebook.

Before you create a Group, take a few minutes to search for what interests you. Most Group owners have open membership policies so to become a member just click “Join Group” on the Group’s profile.

That you just joined the Group will also be posted to your Wall.

If you create a Group, it will be tied to your Profile. Groups cannot exist without being tied to a user’s Profile. This enables you to invite your friends to join the Group, too. It is also a means to prevent spammers from setting up shop.

Join Facebook Groups

To find Groups that interest you, use the Search feature on Facebook. You can then review the search results to pick which ones are right for you. You may have friends in those Groups already.

Don’t forget to suggest the Group to your friends who would be interested.

Events on Facebook Groups

Groups serve as a terrific hub of information for hosting live or virtual events.

Rather than sending out an email to dozens or more of people inviting them to attend, posting the event to a Group enables you post the information once. Members receive invites in their Facebook Messages feature, can RSVP, or decline from there.

You will be able to include all the traditional who, what, when, where, and why details, too. Strong integration of calendaring tools enable users to easily add events to their Outlook, Google Calendar or other calendar tool.

As people respond to attend, the headcount clicks upward one by one. When your event date arrives, you will have a very close idea of how many to expect.

Another good practice is to send out a reminder invite about a week before the invite. This reminder usually bumps your attendance up a few percentage points, and only contacts those who did not already confirm their attendance.

Which Group Do You Belong To?

What’s the low down on certain Groups? Want to create a Group? What’s your favorite Group? Let’s talk about it! Post your question in the Comments section for a response.