1. Find one new person to add to one or more of your networks. They could be a recent acquaintance, colleague, old friend, new customer, etc.
2. Reply or comment to two contacts you have minimal connection with to cultivate the relationship.
3. Connect with one potential customer/referral source by sending them a short personal message.
4. Recommend a LinkedIn connection.
5. Review the profile of a top referral source, send them a short message about a common interest you discover.
6. Post a link to one of your favorite articles or useful bits of information; relate why the article/info interests you.
7. Review second-tier connections for potential new contacts- request an introduction (LinkedIn) or introduce yourself as a mutual acquaintance of your common contact.
8. Read a recent group discussion, post an interactive comment.
9. Post a photo of something you’re working on. A photo is more eye-catching, creative and interactive than a simple status update.
10. Relate a personal experience to something work-related through a status update. (e.g. “Just finished helping my elderly neighbor bag his leaves. I like helping my neighbors and community, which is one reason I love going to work everyday.”)

These three sites offer similar features, such as profiles, status updates, ability to post links, etc., which makes it easy to erroneously see them as redundant. So in preparation for the presentation I gave at the Colorado Entrepreneurship Marketplace not long ago, I decided to address their different “personality characteristics”, rather than address the features each site offers. That approach seemed to click with people and I thought I’d expand on my slide from that presentation here in this article.

Comparing LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Relationship-building
I’m a firm believer that business networking isn’t about who you know, but how well you know them. All three sites offer pretty good tools for building stronger relationships with your network.

Interaction
Networking is defined as “… exchanging information or cultivating relationships for business”. Obviously, in order to network, you must first be able to interact.

Least Distracting
Most people fear that social networking will take over their day and lead to total and complete distraction from their work, so I felt this was an important characteristic to include. Note the correlation between interaction, noise and distraction: Anytime you have noise and interaction, you’ll have more distraction.

Most Professional
LinkedIn certainly leads this charge. You won’t often see many “Going to the store to get kitty litter.” messages here, like you will on Twitter. The site centers around credentials, skills, references and cross-network referrals, thereby encouraging more professional interactions.

Most Viral
No, I’m not talking about the likelihood of catching Swine Flu from Twitter. “Viral” is a term we use in the Internet realm to describe how quickly and broadly information is organically spread between users. That funny email you got that was forwarded to you by your coworker, who received it from their friend, who received it from their brother in-law, and so forth, is a good example. Your coworker’s friend’s brother in-law didn’t ask or tell them to forward on the message; each person chose to do so, feeling that the people they were passing it on to would find value in it.

Viral marketing is the Holy Grail of Internet marketing. Getting regular Internet users to spread your information simply because they find value in it and choose to pass it on isn’t easy. That’s why it’s essential to bring value to the interactions you create, not only to build a stronger relationship with the person you’re interacting with, but also because the more value you bring the more likely it will spread virally.

Least Noisy
It’s hard to talk in a room where everyone is talking and it’s hard to listen and participate in a certain conversation when there are lots of other conversations going on around you. Just like in the “real world”, you’ll find lots of “noise” in social media.  Through practice, you’ll learn to filter out the noise in order to participate more effectively in the conversations that will serve you.

Most Flexible
Flexibility is being able to interact however you choose. For example, the features of Facebook give you a lot more options for how you interact than the 140 character limit of Twitter.

Network-building
I define network-building as both strengthening and broadening your network, and I believe it’s better to have a stronger network than a broader one.

In conclusion, it’s useful to note that none of these characteristics are inherently good or bad, so don’t try to think of them that way. All we’re after is understanding what to expect and which tool will serve you better for different interactions.

“Growing your network” could easily imply that the value of social networking is in the size of your network, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s not about the number of Followers you have on Twitter, Friends on Facebook or Connections on LinkedIn; it’s not about how many times a day you tweet, how many photos you post, or the number of discussions you participate in. The value is in the quality of the interaction, not the quantity. How many people you know is insignificant when compared to how well you know them and how well they know you.

Many self-proclaimed social media “gurus” or “experts” will mislead you and try to sell you  courses, programs, e-books, or strategies for growing your network numbers, making implications (carefully-crafted, legally non-binding ones) that greater numbers will lead to greater success. While these people may be proclaiming knowledge of social networking, their “expertise” is only in making a quick sale of a product which promises results it can’t deliver. 

(Professional copywriter, Brian Burns, wrote an excellent article on the social media guru-complex, which I’d recommend everyone read.)

Successful networking is the cultivation of mutually-beneficial long-term relationships. (Read that sentence again.) Beneficial relationships are cultivated through sincere, genuine interactions, not hurried, self-centered, sales-oriented interactions (who wants to interact with someone like that?). 

With that philosophy planted in the forefront of your mind, let’s look at some methods for expanding your network connections across the primary three social networks I typically recommend for businesses: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. 

Incorporate Existing Connections
All three sites offer tools for searching your current contact lists (Outlook, Palm, Mac, etc.) and/or web-based email list (AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) to discover contacts who may be currently using these services. This is a great starting point for connecting with people you already know in order to use the tools and features of social media to further cultivate those relationships. 

For LinkedIn, click this link
or login and click “Contacts”, then “Add Connections” on the right of the blue section at the top, then the “Import Contacts” tab at the top. From this screen you’ll see several options for importing webmail contacts, address books, etc. 

For Facebook, click this link
or login and mouse-over the “Friends” link at the very top of the page, then click “Find Friends”. From this page you can search webmail contacts or click the “Upload contact file” link to import other types of contact files. 

For Twitter, click this link
or login and click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, then click the “Find on other networks” tab to search your webmail address books. 

Send Invitations
After you’ve searched through your contact lists to connect with people already using the networks, it’s time to send invites to those not already using them. Most of the networks make it fairly automatic to invite people after searching a contacts file, with messages like “We couldn’t find Jane Doe or John Doe on our network, would you like to invite them to join?”. Additionally, you can initiate the process independently from importing contacts using the instructions below. I’d recommend personalizing and customizing the email message that gets sent, and mention some benefits for participating. 

For LinkedIn, click this link
or login and click “Contacts”, then “Add Connections” on the right of the blue section at the top. From this screen you can enter First Names, Last Name and Email of each person you’d like to invite, as well as customize the invitation email they’ll receive. 

For Facebook, click this link
or login and mouse-over the “Friends” link at the very top of the page, then click “Invite Friends”. From this page you’ll need to enter the email addresses of the contacts you’re inviting, and add a custom message to the email invitation. 

For Twitter, click this link
or login and click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, then click the “Invite by email” tab. Twitter, unfortunately, doesn’t allow you to customize the email message that gets sent, so it’s not a bad idea to send a mass email from your email program to the same list of addresses with a personal message (be sure you BCC the recipients for privacy). This way they know it’s legitimate and it’ll be much more meaningful than the generic email Twitter will send them. 

Search for People and Groups
You’ve found your existing contacts that use social media and invited contacts from your address book to join you in utilizing social media, now it’s time to get serious and search the peripheral edges of your known network and start expanding your contacts. 

If you attended either of my social networking seminars, you heard me talk a lot about contributing value to the interactions you are seeking. Before you go adding new contacts who may not know you, or joining new groups which will bring new people to your profile, it’s important to be sure you have a completed profile and enough content on your profile to give someone a feel for what you’re bringing to the interaction. 

LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a very prominent search, with a text field and “Search” button at the top of the screen. Note the dropdown left of the text field which has options for searching people, groups, jobs, etc. Select what you’re searching for, enter the name or keywords in the text field and click “Search”. Click the “Join this group” or “Add to network” link when you find what you’re looking for. 

Facebook
Facebook’s search is the text field (says “search” in the field) and magnifying glass icon at the top-right of the screen. You can enter a name or keywords and click the icon (or hit enter). By default, the results will show “All results”, but you can click the “People” or “Groups” tabs to narrow the field. Similar to LinkedIn, you can click the “Join Group” or “Add as Friend” link when you find the friend to add or group you’d like to join. 

(Groups note: Be sure you join your local Chamber of Commerce groups on LinkedIn and Facebook!)

Twitter
Twitter doesn’t have groups (in the primary application), but you can still search for people. Click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, type in the name in the text field and click “Search”.

Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com
Twitter has a very powerful search utility which, in all honesty, warrants its own article. It’s useful for searching for topics of interest (by keyword), researching information, seeking partnerships, following markets, industries and competitors, connecting with potential customers, and much much more.

The real art, especially when trying to connect with potential customers, is searching for the types of conversations those people may be having. Imagine you were overhearing a conversation that a few of your “A”-list customers were having, what would they be talking about? Search it and see what you find. 

Group Discussions
Once you’ve joined various groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, look for ways to participate in the discussions posted on the group page, and consider starting your own discussions as a member of the group. This way you’ll be growing the awareness of your brand, communicating with prospective new contacts, bringing group members to your profile page (and from there to your website), establishing expertise, etc. Treat these group discussions like you would any business networking event and allow the specific topic to be a launching point for broader communications, new topics and relationship cultivation. 

Connect with Group Members
Both Facebook and LinkedIn list the members of any given group to other group members (not to non-members). Browse through them and see who you see, this can be a good “in” with your peripheral network.

LinkedIn, with its strict connection policy, allows you to extend and invitation to connect to someone whom you share a common group with, bringing new connections within reach that otherwise were outside of your network.  

While Facebook does not offer any different connection methods or additional profile-viewing privileges, it’s still a great way to connect with other individuals and organizations which you share a common bond with. 

Etiquette
This topic is also worthy of its own article, but for now I’ll mention two of the most important elements of social networking etiquette: 

1) Listen. As with any interaction, listening, asking questions, and reflecting back are essential ingredients for engaging with another person. 

2) Don’t pitch me! I’m not interested in interacting with someone who is constantly trying to sell me something. Company news, services offered, new products, specials and coupons are all acceptable to mention, but be sure they’re in balance with interpersonal, mutually-beneficial interactions. 

Other strategies will likely be covered in future articles, but for now let me conclude by saying, be you, be consistent, be interactive, lead by example and commit to slow and steady long-term growth of your social networks. By doing so, you will radiate sincerity and value in everything you do, which will invite others to want to connect with you. 

Questions or comments? I’d love to hear them, please post them below.