Social networking sites provide unprecedented opportunities to get the word out about yourself and your business. Unfortunately, many people don’t have a clue how to use these tools effectively. Deb Shinder offers 10 practical suggestions

Date: August 19th, 2010

Author: Debra Littlejohn Shinder

Social networking tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, and Google Buzz, are great for keeping in touch with friends and family and having fun. Once banned from the business world, they are now being allowed or even embraced on many company networks. Some employees use social networking as a quick break from work. Studies have shown that taking short breaks can make workers more productive, and hopping over to your Facebook page for five minutes to check friends’ activities can be a quick and efficient way to “get away” mentally, even if you need to stay physically in place.

Other people are going further and using social networks to build business relationships with colleagues and potential clients. LinkedIn is specifically targeted to that audience. And some are taking it further still and using social networking sites to actively promote themselves and their businesses. This can be particularly effective for self-employed people, such as consultants, writers, and trainers. Many more would like to utilize these tools to increase their business presence but aren’t sure how to go about it. In this article, we’ll look at ways — beyond the obvious — to enhance your reputation (and your company’s) through social networking. After all, it’s long been recognized that word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertising, and social networking is just an online extension of that.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Just showing up is not enough

There’s a saying that “Just showing up is half the battle.” But it’s important to remember that it’s only half. Too many people get stuck at that point. They show up; they set up accounts on a dozen or more social networks — but then they let them languish and never post. People check those sites, see no new content, and after a while give up. Having a “dead” page is worse than having no page at all.

The primary reason people let their social networking sites die is lack of time. Be sure you have the time to devote before you set up a business-oriented site, and have a posting plan (for example, a reminder to yourself to post something every other day). Stick to the plan! Many people get overwhelmed because they take on too many social networks at once. If your time is limited, choose just a few (for example, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter).

2: Just because you build it, that doesn’t mean they’ll come

Even if you faithfully update your social networking pages every day and blast out clever and useful tweets from morning ’til night, it doesn’t matter much unless you have followers and friends to see those promotional masterpieces. Before you can use your social networking sites to promote yourself and your business, you need to promote those social networking sites themselves.

Privacy is a big issue when you’re sharing personal information on social sites, but for business, the more open your site is, the better. To get maximum exposure, configure your privacy settings to let everyone see what you post, not just the people who are already your followers or friends. But before you do that, be sure to read the next item in this list.

3: Separate your business and personal online lives

If you’re serious about promoting your business self, you need to set up a separate social networking “place” for business-related posts. I have separate Twitter accounts for different purposes and one Facebook account for friends and family with another one for my readers and business colleagues. Another alternative is to use one social network (such as Facebook) for socializing and another (such as LinkedIn) for all your business networking.

The key here is that you want to present yourself as a professional when promoting your business, and it’s hard to do that if your old college buddies are posting things on your wall about all the hard partying you did when you were in school.

For more, visit TechRepublic.com