Not surprisingly, his article got a nice mention over at Small Biz Trends.

I think that you can only do this that well every so often, especially to keep it as a great technique which readers do enjoy (otherwise it may become common currency).

There are thousands of blog posts out there covering social media strategies. Today, inspired by Ivan’s technique I only want to focus on the idea of making things less about you and more “about them”. Hopefully these ingredients might encourage to spice up your upcoming strategies in 2011:

Tag like you mean it

Remember the early days in Facebook when someone was selling a car and uploaded a picture of it tagging all their friends? The first attempts seemed original; down the line it just felt impersonal (especially with situations like a female friend tagging you on things like a pic of an upcoming garage sale of unused lady shoes).
There are plenty of platforms where you may be tagging people (in your blog through mentions, on Twitter, Facebook, even commenting on someone else’s blog and mentioning a third person). Take your time to say something worth saying, spread something worth spreading, but above all, tag, to give other people or companies visibility. What goes around comes around.

Develop the habit of referring

Publicly refer people or companies on a weekly basis. This is one of my goals for 2011 and you are still on time to also make it one of yours. We all consume products and services, both at a company & personal level. Even referring people who are not online yet may have the double power of the gift & enlightenment (e.g. refer your favourite coffee shop or the old fashioned printers who sort your company’s needs just in time, every time)

Replace reactivity with pro-activity & reciprocity

If we look at re-tweeting for instance, although still effective, it is not as personal as spotting an opportunity (e.g. someone that you know who is looking for something on Twitter) and emailing the people involved. In an era full of noise, personalisation makes a difference and you’ll be putting a big quota of pro-activity there.

People commenting on your blog: Someone leaves a comment and you are prompt to reply with a compelling answer. Very good, now what? Well, jump to their blog and spot an article you like & leave a comment. Still good… but reactive. If you really like their blog, bookmark it somehow and come back recurrently & comment. Or maybe share their content without being asked. There’s some reciprocity with some extra pro-activity.

Within your content plan, include at least one monthly blog post about someone else. It could be a review, or a simple mention of a favourite service. Just do it somehow. The more you do it the more natural it comes out.

Any of these attitudes can be applied by Organisations or individuals. It’s true that many individuals may need to stand up to some selfish decision makers who want it to be all about them. But it’s probably also true that if individuals break some rules with acts of generosity, there’s little room for reprimanding.

I guess that this very blog post could be considered a “Meta”blog post, in the sense that it covers a bit of that go-give-attitude found on another post, using similar tools like the tagging & recommending.

I wonder if someone could write an article about my post and continue the chain? Regardless, if I managed to plant a few seeds in your mind I’m already happy, and thankful

What other ideas do you have? How can we bring others more and more into our updates & content?

Now people are making public (checking in) their location in social networking sites. It means that you, as a manager or business owner have a phenomenal chance to see who are those people that visited your “Place”, keep in touch with them and also, by having your company registed in these sites, more people will naturally find you.

Facebook Places has launched already in the US, UK and other countries. However, we don’t see businesses taking action, so here’s the opportunity:

At the moment, when you check into any “Place” on Facebook (or will check-in when it’s available in your region), here’s how it will look. Simple, not too appealing:

We have registered officially our “Place”: Channelship Web Agency. London and here’s how it looks when anybody checks in

HUGE difference: You get to include a picture, a description and users can also see a link to your company’s website. Also, depending on what type of Facebook page you opened, the link to your “Place” will show on the “Information” tab and on the left sidebar as well. Currently those location links point to Bing Maps but they’ll be connected with Facebook Places very soon.

Another great benefit of Facebook Places, that will help your company get more exposure, is the fact that you can geo-tag other people and vise versa.  Here’s how it looks:

Don’t panic. Those of you that don’t want to get geo-tagged, can do so from your Security Settings.

How do I register my company in Places?

First, you need to check into the place you want. If it doesn’t come up in the list,  click on “Add a Place”. Then you’ll see a link at the bottom of any Place page that says “Is this your business?“.

Simply click there and follow the instructions. Facebook will request that you attach with your application any business document (bill, statement) that verifies the name and address. That’s it!

Your “Place” page will look like this

Finally

By registering your company with Foursquare, people will be able to also find you through Facebook Search! Another way to easily to get found.

Facebook Places hasn’t fully launched yet worldwide. That’s why there are a lot of unanswered questions. For example, Dennis Taylor asked on our Facebook page: “Can you merge your Facebook business Place with your current business Page? It seems creating a new page just for location based users is silly – rather have all my likes in one place“.
For now it would make sense to register your business with Facebook Places (plus other geolocation sites) and what’s most important: use it to check in and analyse the insights to find new people (possible customers) and keep your community growing. Yes, it would take a bit more time based on Dennis’ question but it’s worth it. Hopefully Facebook will come up with a nice “blended” option in the near future.

Will you take action? What do you think?
Best
Fred

The first one was : “How to build your business network with social media” and as promised, we compiled all the relevant info below:

• Full recording of the webinar
• The slides
• The conversation thread under the Twitter tag #sm4biz
• Some questions…

Subscribe to Channelship’s You Tube channel

The slides are already available on our Slideshare account!

My Power Point slides also contributed to the Twitter conversation
Have a look at what was said during the webinar by clicking on the image below:

Thanks very much to everyone that helped us spread the word in the different social networks.
We’re looking forward to have you on our next free monthly webinar:  “Social Media for Sales & Marketing Departments“.

Got questions or comments? Add them to the thread below!