Spinning Your Web: How influential are you online?

Fast Company’s The Influence Project

The Influence Project is open to anyone and everyone. All registered participants will have their picture appear in the November issue of Fast Company as part of an amazing photo spread. The more influence demonstrated by a participant, the bigger their picture will be. Even those with smaller social networks can learn something about their influence by participating.

To learn more, and register your profile, go to http://fcinf.com/v/chou or click here.

Contributors may discover that they are more influential than they think. Influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. It’s about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation. That’s what The Influence Project will measure.

The competition for 2010’s “Most Influential People” ends August 15 at midnight EST. Fast Company has created a blog dedicated to the project at www.fastcompany.com/influenceproject, where coverage will continue through the publication of Fast Company’s November 2010 issue.

Ah, privacy…. Not the first thing that springs to mind when you are posting something out there, on the Net.

But here is a nifty little tool that allows you to shorten and also password-protect URLs. It can help you turn your very public information into something a little more private.  Or you could use it for a promotion. Or just for a bit of fun…

Here is an example of how it works:
I could tweet or post on LinkedIn “Found this great mentor and coach! http://trick.ly/35O“.  Anyone can see the link, but only people who can figure out my clue can discover the site my link is pointing to.

You can try for yourself on the trick.ly website here.

Until next time,
Daniela

I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who is changing careers and starting his own business.

We chatted about layouts & copywriting for websites, and social media.  I was singing the praise of blogs and LinkedIn (and Twitter and facebook, but we’ll leave those for another time) and the many ways of meaningfully connecting websites with social media.  I talked excitedly about he possibilities of writing in a professional yet personal way to bring your business and value to your audience – and generally displayed my inner communications nerd -, when I heard a big silence spread at the other end of the line.

Assumption is a dangerous thing, they say.  Luckily, sometimes it’s just impolite. Phew!

My friend was new to social media for business, and especially a”LinkedIn virgin”.  He, understandably, felt a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities and confused by the mechanics.  So we ran through the gist of set up and options – and I think I created a fellow LinkedIn devotee. And all in half an hour. It’s easy to get started and quite a bit addictive to keep going and growing.

Try for yourself: Read here about the essentials that will get you a long way, and here for a few further bits of how to utilise LinkedIn for your business.
Drop me a line via the comments box below. I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences.
You can connect with me via my LinkedIn profile here. Let’s get connected….

Until next time,
Daniela

First there was the Website…

You own a business and have set up your website. It’s informative, it looks fab and it gets a lot of hits.
But does it get you customers, clients – and sales? Hmmm….

So, you start spreading the love, trying to find your potential clients elsewhere and keep in touch with your existing clientele.  These days, your next step is entering the world of social media: you get a facebook page, spruce up your LinkedIn account and you are Twitter-ing away.

But what next? How can you use your social media presence to grow your business, spread your ideas and create a following – all while contributing something valuable? Is it only looks that count, to be seen to “do the social media thing”?

Content is King

Potential clients are people, not just an abstract construct. And people want substance, something useful and not just a sales spiel. Getting your product, brand and marketing message across in a way that is valuable to you as well as your target market gives everyone something to be happy about.

Taking without giving or contributing does not work in 2010. Content, value and sharing is what your target audience – your “tribe” – needs and wants. Write a blog, offer some free resources, share your thoughts. Your readers want substance.

Give it to them

Find 10 tips on website content and social media strategy here.