How to Use Social Networks!

Most people upload their name and picture and then stop there...hoping a flood of people will try and get in contact with them. As with any thing in life, YOU must spend the time to fill in as much information as possible (truthfully) to get the maximum benefit of the social network. Would you feel comfortable trying to do business with someone who has no information besides their picture and name...and then having the person say check out what I am offering? I wouldn't give that person the time of day. Albeit, some people are new at this and have not gotten around to filling out their profile, but it is something that is a must and should have some time dedicated for its completion. What I've learned online is that you never know who you might meet; some person could be holding the last piece of the success puzzle you are assembling or could become a life long customer, or better yet, a life long friend. And, if you go fishing with just a hook and no bait, then your chances of catching something are slim to none, unless you snag it on accident.

Take the time to give a description of yourself, where you are from, some info about your business, your education, hobbies and the such. Imagine you meet a business contact looking to invest money into a new product and idea, and it was because the person first noticed you read the same books or liked the same hobbies? The possibilities are endless when the social network you belong to attracts millions of people every second of the day and you've taken the time to seriously provide valuable information about yourself.

Even in the event you did take the time to fill out your profile completely, your friendship level will only trickle into shape unless you actively search and browse for networking opportunities. That again means taking some time to build your friendship base. I like to take a few hours on Saturday nights to just browse other profiles and ask for friendship. And once you are out on the networking trail, others will start to see your profile appear more often and friendship requests will start coming your way as well. It becomes a win-win situation for everyone. In this environment, power of numbers is king and builds credibility beyond belief. For example, in one network I'm at, I have 1206 friends and associates; and another network, I have over 368 constituents...and, these friends have noticed me and what I offer at my profile and what ever is connected to that. The more friends you have and continue to seek, the more other people will seek connection with you.

Here are some tips on how I quickly apply for friendships: I click the browse profiles link at the top of the page. I set my browse criteria to find people looking for networking opportunities...this will bring me a relevant search of people I may be interested in asking for friendship. Now here is the key to speeding things up! Scroll down to the profiles of the search results and start with the first person and right-click their link and select open in new tab. Look at the profile and see if there is a common interest or if the person may be a candidate to become a prospect of what you are offering. If they do meet your criteria, click the 'add to contact' link, click the 'send request' box, and then close the tab. Right-click the next profile picture and repeat the process. This technique can get through hundreds of profiles in an hour or so. Do this once a week and your contact based will grow easily. Each time you log in, you will get notices that your friend requests were accepted; also, you will get notices that other want to be friends with you. If you work this technique, it will eventually work for you exponentially.

The next tip to speed the growth of your friendship base mixes with your time spent actively searching for connections because it follows what to do once you have made a new friendship or contact with someone (regardless of who requested the adding). It is taking the time to go to each new friend's profile page and leaving a comment. Doing this shows people you are active and are a strong candidate to help build traffic to their profile page and offer. So, doing this will bring new friend requests from your contact's friends and other people searching profiles like you. Your contact base will grow two-fold for this time and effort. Comments don't have to be long and winded, but must be made. I like to employ the use of small images with positive sayings. You can find many other websites on the net that provide these images for free, or, you can be stubborn like me and create the images yourself (I can give you a free banner creator, if you want to make things your own way).

I conclude with the re-statement of 'you never know who you may meet. You may meet someone that does the same thing you do, and it gives you more ideas that you haven't thought of before. It happened to me last week with a gentleman named Warren. I got so many ideas from his profile page and websites of his he had linked to his profile, I was in disbelief of not thinking of those types of strategies before...Now, Warren can be sure I will be a regular visitor of his profile and as of today, he is a regular visitor of mine at another site. And in the middle we will probably be working together on some type of online endeavor. Touché!

Copyright 1-30-2009 eRixonline