Taking advantage of Black Friday/Cyber Monday

I'm rarely taken in by these deals, as I keep hearing 'its only a bargain if you needed it'.  So that's a mantra that works well for Michael.

But .... I did take advantage of some Black Friday/Cyber Monday (or more accuratley the weeks before and after that weekend;) ) offers.  I'm always, always, looking to 'sharpen the axe' for new books, material, trainings.  And this last week has been excellent for 'sampling' some good and not so good online content.

Many of the people whose work I admire have had 'tripwire' deals where you can sample there content, courses, metarial etc, for a month, for a drastically reduced fee - usualy $1.

Brilliant.  Now, I know I will run the gauntlet of their Infusion Soft, or <insert as apllicable>,  follow up emails, but that's 'mostly' cool as I say, I like their work so why not truly follow them?  And, there's always the options to unsubscribe / divert to spam if they start taking advantage of my audience.

I am not advocating dive in with a view to never purchasing!!  In fact I'll issue a health warning, if you like someones work, you'll probably like their on line content (they know this hence the trip wire 'try before you buy' deals). Having said that I have experienced some woeful material. Oh, and before engaging, bear in mind the regular fee and your budget, you may fall in love with someone's style, content, methods etc then find you need to raise $3000 to complete the course.

So, get a wiggle on, go check out those mentors, thought leaders and people whose work you admire, see if they have a low cost (sometimes FREE) 30 day offer and try before you buy.   Some people have deals that are always available, but Black Friday / Cyber Monday seems to focus many more on the opportunity to gather more followers.

Mick

Lets connect - 
I am on LinkedIn here - www.linkedin.com/in/mickholloway

I am on Facbook here - www.facebook.com/mick.holloway

I am on Twitter - @mick_holloway

www.24-7.so

Fancy a different One to One Strategy?

                                           
                                                Fancy a different approach to your One to One's?

Its no secret (or shouldn't be if my marketing strategy is working :D ) that I am an advocate of Social Media.  Social Networking, Digital Marketing, the whole 'in bound', permission based marketing model.  While I have lectured, presented and trained thousands of people on how to add Social Networking to your marketing mix...  I am also big on 'get it off the screen', the whole people buy from people mantra.

If you ever find yourself attending one of my meetings, the 2nd slide you see will ask .. "Have you had a one to one ?".  I aim to have two a week, trying to lead by example, they never a waste of time because I choose carefully, do my due diligence before hand, so I am sure there's most likely going to be a real expectation of an ROI of the hour we spend together.

I have blogged about having one to one's before - you will find that article HERE

                                                                         Have One to One's


With this blog, for those that are new to networking - I would like to document and share a one to one strategy that I have used recently to spectacular effect...

If its the first time you have met - spend only 10 minutes each talking about you, your business, what motivates you and what type of contacts you are currently looking to meet - be sure to share your 'WHY'...  If its not the first time you have met, and you know each other's business well - spend 5 minutes each updating on what's new...  Remember - you should have both researched each other before the meeting, and be familiar with their business (good old LinkedIn, Facebook and Google).

And that's it with the 'let me tell you in ever more detail how great my business is' time.  Because this is where the meeting could slide into 'sales pitch' territory, this one to one is too precious, your time is too precious, to waste on a futile sales pitch.

Be sure that you go first, and lets reverse the dynamic, no more talking in terms of 'me', 'I', 'we', you now stop talking about your business and focus on the other person and their business. If you have chosen your one to one partner well, (and you are getting on as people!  As if you don't like each other that's a bit of a show stopper), this focus on THEM will be make them feel great, and feel good towards you, which is handy as next up its their turn to think how they can help you. Try it, it works.

Try a Different Engagement Strategy For Your Next One to One Click To Tweet 

Take turns, first YOU simply spend half the time working out how YOU can help the other person. Really, genuinely work at this, try to see how many ways you may be able to help. Then, all grateful and inspired - its their turn to spend half the time working out how they can help you.

And by 'help' I don't mean whether you can use/buy their products/services yourself (that's a short term bonus if you can).  I mean - think -

• Who do you know that might be interested in them, their products or services?  
• How could you, your business or anyone in your network help them grow their business?  
• Could you work together, maybe on joint ventures?
• Who do you know that might be able to work with them on a joint venture?
  ...etc

Its clearly far more strategic than hoping to get lucky and meet someone that could end up buying from you, far more productive and respectful than pitching or being pitched.  And a fabulous way to start or maintain a mutually beneficial relationship.

                                                      Try a new approach to one to one's

OK - I sense the need for some anecdotal evidence - which of course I have plenty and happy to share them with you... I know !  Lets have a one to one, face to face if you are in the South East UK, otherwise no excuses we can do this on line as I also have :-
     Skype                       michael.holloway1
     Google Hangout      mickholloway@gmail.com

Remind me to tell you the one about the multi £Bn UK PLC, or the Driving School, the Photographer, and I must share with you the opportunities that came from a one to one with a s/w house discussing ways to help them launch a radical highly disruptive product - that resulted in us having to re-think our whole business model...

Hope to talk - Soon.

Mick

Lets connect -
I am on LinkedIn here -  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mickholloway
I am on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/mick.holloway
I am on Twitter here -    @mick_holloway

www.24-7.so

Repurposing your Social Media...

Repeats, oh yes - there's gold dust in repeats...

Are you making the MOST of your excellent content?  Those considered, researched, drafted, written and re-written blogs can be working much harder than you may think...

In this blog, I am not looking to discuss which platform you should be blogging on, maybe that's a subject for a later post.  This blog is to encourage you to make the most of the blogs you have created by carefully re-purposing them.

So what is Repurposing?  Simply the recycling, re sharing of original content.  Sharing in different formats (audio, video, infogram...).  Sharing on different platforms, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.  And Sharing at different days / times.

Recycle your Content

Why would you do this?  Surely repeating yourself will discourage people form following you?  Not if you give it some thought, a little planning, a Re-Purposing Strategy no less...

The benefits include -

Efficiency - Making your good content work hard for you.  Increasing your reach, your audience and engagement.

Effectiveness - Repurposing can help you ... BE EVERYWHERE !
      Different People like to engage using different media...

      Different People like different social media platforms...

      Different People engage with social media at different times...

So - your fabulous blog, once posted as a blog, could, when re-packaged, sliced up and 're-purposed', provide you with weeks and weeks of content to share.

As an example lets look at the following... consider a blog, "My Favourite 5 Social Media Tools" (There's a title for the future, 'my top 5' hasn't been done before ;) )

Consider the following (simplified) chart of a proposed re-use strategy...

Even on these modest figures you can see the blog would provide over 35 posts and tweets.  And that's just the blog as a 'text' based medium.  We can also present this as a video, audio mp3/podcast, infogram, many more ways to share the blog and its components.

But, it gets better, there's a further dimension, TIME.  Ignoring the affect of Ripples in Space/Time (that too may be a future blog ;) ).  A key strategy in re-purposing is to share your content on different days and at different times...

How many posts / tweets is that now?  We're going to need a bigger calculator...

Actually, we ARE going to need some help.  To have any chance of doing this effectively you have to consider automating the sharing of this content.    Otherwise, all you will be doing all day long would be posting content, I love Social Media - but that's not the way.

LOL - I sense a future Blog 'My top 5 Social Media scheduling tools'.

Mick

Lets connect -

I am on LinkedIn here -  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mickholloway

I am on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/mick.holloway

I am on Twitter here -    @mick_holloway

www.24-7.so

The Top 8 Mistakes of A LinkedIn Profile Photo

Importance of your LinkedIn Profile Photograph

I LOVE Infographic's.  Good Info graphics, obviously - I just find it easy to grasp the information being shared, particularly data and numbers.  I think that puts me into the psychological learning category - Visual-Lazy... Sounds right ;)

Recently, with our members and students, we've been looking at content, and encouraging our members to keep their various profiles up to date... Which starts with their profile photo.  I posted a blog on the subject Does your Profile Photo Matter?

And, today I came across, this great little Infographic, informative, accurate and humorous... Tick's all Michael's boxes :D

Dear reader, I present to you, by Jamie Shanks, 8 mistakes people make with their LinkedIn profiles. A fairly comprehensive list, although I would add the wide angle holiday shot with our hero a dot on the horizon, skiing down a mountain or waving in front of the Eiffel Tower / Big Ben / White House / Great wall / Taj / Ayres... etc.  

I can confirm I have witnessed all of these...

Here's the link to the original article : http://www.salesforlife.com/linkedin/8-things-to-avoid-in-your-linkedin-profile-photo-infographic/

Mick

Lets connect -

I am on LinkedIn here -  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mickholloway

I am on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/mick.holloway

I am on Twitter here -    @mick_holloway

www.24-7.so

Pitching a new follower on Twitter #EPIC #FAIL ?

Pitching a new follower on Twitter #EPIC #FAIL ?

Once again, I'm pondering, asking myself a question I have asked myself an awful lot, and an awful lot more lately...  Is It Me?

Could it be?  It could be, maybe so!

What now, what just happened Mick?... I hear you ask.  Well thanks for asking, because this would be a short Blog if you didn't.     I'll tell you what just happened...

Twitter relax the rule over the number of characters you can send in a Direct Message (DM).  No longer are you limited to 140 characters.  I get that, its a good strategic move.  Remember you can only DM people you follow and they have followed you back.  People you are engaging with (or should be) so why not relax the message size and accelerate the relationship - allow more, rapport?

Day one, a new follower on Twitter.  I go check them out, as I do, and I find things of interest, synergy and reasons to follow them back.   Which I do.  Tick, one more worthwhile connection, adopt smug mode and reward myself with a coffee, it's tough work... I've earned it.

On returning to my desk, caffeine levels slightly improved, there's a DM from my new connection. Get in there, see, SEE, knew I chose well, I was right, good call - here we go another Networking connection of value, to learn from, to help as I can, to grow with etc etc .

You can see where this is going, no doubt.  It was such a disappointment.  My first DM greater than 140 characters and it was 1021 characters of crude, direct sales pitch, <sigh>.  Worse, it was selling me 'Done for you' outsourced Social Media services.  A couple of things...

1. Someone hadn't read my profile.
2. Someone was just grabbing followers = I'll pick one from - 'Block', 'Remove', 'Mute', 'Unfollow'    
3. Someone, maybe, doesn't understand Social Media?
4. Nelson will get his eye back before I would let them near my business, let alone my social media.

My work is far from done, we train entrepreneurs and SME's how to use Social Media Effectively and Efficiently.  Connections and relationships then if its right the sales funnel appears all on its own.

Long story short- Pitching on a DM to a new connection is a wrong as it gets, so last century - I wonder if they are on MySpace?


Love this quote "Its called Social For a Reason" (I first heard this from @childsdesign).

A new follower pitches you in their 1st DM Tweet - How NOT to do #Social #Media?  Click to Tweet 

Is It Me?   LOL - Of Course Not ;)

Mick

Lets connect - I am on LinkedIn here -  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mickholloway
I am on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/mick.holloway 
I am on Twitter here -    @mick_hollowaywww.24-7.so

LinkedIn Pulse - Part 2

Part 2 of my look at LinkedIn 'Pulse'.

My last Blog - Should you have your finger on the linkedIn 'Pulse' ?  discussed some of the benefits of using LinkedIn's Pulse.  I ran a little experiment between posts on Blogger and Pulse.  Not massively scientific, more a quick check...

Any way - here's my (modest) results after a couple of weeks :

A couple of observations: 

-  Not a great deal in it with regards to the number of views.  

-  The LinkedIn post did very well on Pulse, understandably.

-  The pulse posts achieved far more engagement, likes and comments.

While there was not a great deal in it with regards to the number of views, I should point out that I re-purposed a few of these blogs, the original blogger post have been around for up to 12 months.  

To re-iterate a couple of the benefits...

1.  I get to see who has liked and commented on my LinkedIn Pulse Posts, so following up is possible.
AND

2.  LinkedIn will have delivered my post to interested people outside of my network. 

All things considered, I think these are encouraging results and given the benefits, I will continue sharing content on LinkedIn's Pulse, especially blogs on  'linkedIn', as ever the key to making this all worthwhile is to follow up.

Mick

@mick_holloway
www.24-7.so

Should you have your finger on the LinkedIn 'Pulse' ?

As you know I publish my blog using blogger - big reveal huh ;)  Recently though I have been increasingly impressed with LinkedIn's ability to deliver appropriate news and blog posts via their 'Pulse' hosting platform.

The more complete your profile and the more active you are on LinkedIn, the more LinkedIn can learn about you, things you do, things you like, groups and people you engage with.  LinkedIn have always been pretty good at analysing profiles (See how I resisted the temptation to say 'profiling profiles' - I have Ninja levels of self control), remember LinkedIn's roots were in recruitment - and they are still very good at matching profiles with vacancies.  Some of that $9Bn IPO seems to have been invested in very smart algorithms for really understanding ... us.

So, at least for me, LinkedIn was delivering good material that I was interested in... Now, that's really attractive for someone like me, into the whole Inbound, Social Media, Organic Content led marketing.  Not being the bluntest tool in the box, I figured I ought to check this out.  If I could bank on LinkedIn delivering my blogs to interested readers, connections outside my network, what's not to like about that?

A quick review of the history and what Pulse is and is not...

LinkedIn presenting 'on topic' articles

Pulse was an iOS news feed app, a business in its own right, in 2013 LinkedIn acquired the business for $90m initially integrating with the LinkedIn platform and allowing an elite few 'influencers' to host blogs on the platform.  In early 2014 access was rolled out to all English speaking users.

A blog hosting platform, a social platform and a news feed in one, should be epic, shouldn't it? Simply and easily you can publish your blog and LinkedIn will notify your network THEN LinkedIn distributes you work wider afield to appropriately interested parties outside your network, simply extending your reach for you.  If Carlesburg hosted blogs... !!


Layout and formatting is limited, but intuitive, its like one big text box.  And your blog can include pictures, video and hyper links back too... wherever you wish.  And here we come across the first downside of Pulse as a blogging solution - these hyperlinks back to your web site don't bring any 'Google Link Juice', or Page Rank benefits.  LinkedIn label these so the search engine bots ignore them (if you want to get techy - read up on 'no follow links').


Moreover, there's no scope for peripheral messages, up sells, links, calls to action, branding etc etc that you can have on your own blog page.  LinkedIn own that real estate, and like Youtube, your post will be followed immediately by someone elses, and you have no control over that either.

So why host on LinkedIn Pulse, there's limited branding and marketing, up sell or cross selling opportunities, no link juice benefits?  Is it enough to drive traffic where you wish to send it, and the extended reach LinkedIn offers by delivering your post to interested recipients?  It all depends on what you are looking to achieve, peripheral marketing and link juice may not matter to you - if you are looking to raise your profile with an extended network for instance.

This extended reach really resonated with me - I sensed LinkedIn would be good and able to 'aim' well on my behalf, after all I liked the material Pulse delivered to me, and I wasn't following those authors!  Question was then - would my posting on Pulse result in more engagement?

I had to know, so I started using Pulse... I'll let you know how it went in part two of this blog... I have always wanted to end on this line ...

To be Continued...

(Bucket list -=1)

Mick

@mick_holloway
www.24-7.so

Are Christmas Cards - Ghosts of Christmas Past ?

I read a recent head line suggesting Christmas Cards, your proper paper/card ones, are 'Greetings Cards' Ghosts of Christmas Past, and the email / landing page / PDF / animations etc are taking us all digital...

Interesting hypothesis.  Begs some other questions, do people under 30 send cards, or have they outsourced this to Facebook or compressed Christmas greetings into 140 characters and a bunch of followers?

Having a technical bias I got to thinking where's this going?  Indeed, what would the 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of Christmas future look like?

Tooled up with me Galaxy tab, Google, mince pies and a neighbours home made 'Mulled Port', off I went.

As an aside - a quick word on this 'Mulled Port'. DON'T! I know, I know - it's not big and its not clever, and I should have know better, etc etc, but its Christmas my shields were down, and he was SO sure this batch wasn't toxic... what could I say.

Anyway - off I went.  Did you know 20% of all searches on Google are unique!  You think that's impressive... quite soon ALL of mine were unique, typo's, fat thumb syndrome and Mulled Port Chuckles really nail it to Google.

By the way, is Port a hallucinogen?  Because it wasn't long before I was seeing 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of  Christmas Future everywhere.  But, remember, I am a techy, and I tell you, I have seen the future!!

Its .... '3D' / Hollogram cards, that's where its at, trust Michael.

Don't believe me?  Well - check this bad boy out I brought this classic Santa comedy routine  back from the future, if you're reading this blog on old an '2D' medium, trust me this is HILARIOUS, and remember you saw it here first !

I got quite carried away with all this - I was going all in with this one, even had a brand name all ready to go.   iHollo.way    How cool is that !  Has a certain subliminal message an inevitably successful future acquisition perhaps?

Anyway - like many a good idea, turns out I wasn't first to pick this one up.  Aha - you thought this was rambling nonsense.  iHollo and Future communications with 3D / Hologram technology, well - seems I have been beaten to it I am afraid.

Don't believe me? Well I wonder who else had the idea.... go on, Google 'iHollo.way' or Click HERE

Ho hum, back to the day job ... want help with these Twitter Christmas Greetings ?  :D


Here's wishing you a merry Christmas and I hope you have a fabulous time and if you like Port, maybe get to drink some of what I have been drinking ;)

Mick

What's LinkedIn's Connection Strategy ?

Back in July 2014 I posted a blog on how I reviewed and modified my LinkedIn Connection strategy.  There's a link to that blog HERE

Basically when I started out on LinkedIn I was looking to grow my network and I was very relaxed and not at all selective, 'promiscuous' as I put it in my blog.  And like all strategies, that strategy was regularly reviewed and once I had a large enough network I changed and currently my connection strategy is far more selective.

Well, I am not alone in reviewing my connection strategy, as LinkedIn have done the same ... Imagine my delight, where I lead, LinkedIn follows.  I know, in my dreams I should be so influential, but hey - its my blog, the sky can be any colour I like  ;)

So what have LinkedIn done?  As far as I can tell, as at the time of writing I can't find any announcements, LinkedIn have radically changed their policy on who you can send invitations to connect too.  Before, when you wanted to invite someone else on LinkedIn to connect with you a pop up box would appear and you had to give LinkedIn evidence for how you may know the target... choose from ...
     We worked together
     We studied together
     We share a group
     Were friends in the real world and here is their email address..... etc

Well, that barrier / gate keeper to sending invitation to connect has gone away.  Now you can connect with anyone... You do not need any prior association at all.  That's people that you are 2nd or 3rd degree connections with, and people entirely outside you network.

Now when you visit a profile there's a blue button "Connect" - hit that button and a default invitation has been sent.  You can customise these invitations, its not obvious how - next to the connect button there's a 'Send Mick Inmail' button and next to that a drop down menu with an option to send a customised invitation.

So - LinkedIn gets all promiscuous and is letting us all connect, at least for now :D

What's your LinkedIn Connection strategy ?

It's a lovely sunny Monday morning, I love my job and have an exciting week ahead.  I have my coffee and my diary tells me its time for tending to my social media .... for me that's fun not ever a chore...

All in all i'm in a good place for early on a Monday morning, you just know some some rotter is going to come along and ruin it all for me ... so did they ?  No, that would be to cliche' for me.

But I did get inspired to create this blog.  I was in LinkedIn mode, 11 invitations to connect came in over the weekend, which was nice.  But then, not one had included an introduction of any sort, and not one had visited my profile before sending the invite.  <sigh>

But I am a player, in the networking / LinkedIn sense !!  I understand were all on LinkedIn to network, so I persist and check out all the profiles and where there was some synergy, interest or value I quietly accepted.  Which is in keeping with my 'current' connection strategy, in the early days I was extremely promiscuous, in the networking / LinkedIn sense (stop making up your own punch lines!!) and I would connect with anyone and everyone.  I was keen to grow my network, fair enough.

But strategies need to be reviewed and 18 months ago I decided my network was vast enough so I became selective over who I connect with and always check out profiles of invites I receive.  Also, I always visit someone's profile to decide if I wish to invite them to connect with me.  And always, ALWAYS send a custom invitation - if they are worthy of connecting with they are worthy of my time and attention and ... its professional and ooh getting radical... its polite!

One of the reasons for the change in strategy from 'connecting to anything with a pulse' to being selective was to help LinkedIn understand more about ... 'me' so LinkedIn can profile me better.  Which will help them more accurately filter 'Pulse' news, blogs (now linkedIn is a publishing platform), suggest companies to follow, groups to join and suggest people I may wish to connect with.  LinkedIn have invested millions in search and selection software that 'profiles' you so they can connect you with other LinkedIn members, groups, posts, news and now blogs.  I will be blogging on the whole 'Big Data' scene shortly.  Remembering LinkedIn started as a recruitment platform, so they have been good at vacancy / candidate matching for some time, and no doubt are continuing to apply this software to match vacancies with candidates ($'s)

And its working.  I get presented with excellent, relevant content, and some well aimed introductions to other members too.

So what's your Connection Strategy, is it working for you, and when was the last time you reviewed it?

Me - a 'Fearless' Keynote Speaker ! How did that happen ?

"Unaccustomed as I am ..."

This time last week I was looking forward to giving my first presentation as a Keynote speaker.  I was nice and early, all set up … even the projector linked to the PC (phew) and I was catching up on some emails and Social Media while I waited for the audience to gather …

An Oasis of calm.

That I was ‘looking forward’ to the presentation, ‘genuinely’ looking forward to addressing a room full of people, all strangers of unknown mixed abilities, some who would be cynical – hostile even – regarding my message, that I was looking forward to this is a staggering indicator of the journey I have been on over the last couple of years.

I have always been a techy, and my presentation - on how to make the most out of that LinkedIn account you opened but have done nothing much with – is a subject I know well, and my technical knowledge allows me to talk on Technical, Social Media, WEB, Cloud or IT matters very wide of the core subject being discussed.   And in the Engineering and Technical sales/marketing phases of my career I was at ease presenting complex technical matters to both technical and non technical audiences.

What was so different here then? I guess you can see it coming … it was the public speaking, not so long ago I was FIRMLY in the “Fear Public Speaking more than Death” camp.

Driving to the venue I confess to wondering why I was so calm and whether I would be OK when the time came.  But those thoughts didn’t take hold, I didn’t allow them too – some simple NLP stuff I picked up on this journey.

It dawned on me that personal development comes in many guises, reading, mentoring, coaching and training for sure, but also in my case it was the ‘doing’ that has helped.  While this was my first key note speech, over recent years I had presented many tutorials and training courses on Social Media and Business Development – and I guess all that practice gave me confidence.

So – my blog message – to all those I have trained, mentored or coached – the most important thing and the new closing message for all my training… “Now go do it”.

Well – Whatever next ?  As I find myself saying more and more…

Showing your geographic contact details.... ?

I manage a number of Social Media Groups and Communities.  They are pretty dynamic groups with some excellent contributors and proactive members .... so you would think they take some managing?  Not at all, we have very few rules (no spam or blatant sales, keep it legal) and I rarely have to remove any content.  Of course I am regularly engaging with the groups - but then I would do wouldn't I?  So I don't see that as managerial overhead.

One thing I do do, I get to know every one that applies to join.  Doesn't take long, by definition they usually have various Social Media Profiles, so its a few clicks, a few minutes and I am up to speed.  And... BONUS - I grow my Network.

TIMEOUT to cartwheel for an observation, of course the points made above should encourage you to do more with groups, and consider administering your own group ?

Back on piste... Reviewing a recent applicant, and I found myself trying to find where they were from, geographically.  I easily found an email and mobile number, and could connect socially with a click... So they weren't 'Networking by Stealth' - which if you have been to any of my training courses or meetings you will know ... Doesn't work ;)

However there was no mention 'anywhere' of where they were geographically based.  And I found myself looking hard, checking Profiles, Blog posts, Group discussions, Tweets, I even checked their web site - I would have looked in the Yellow Pages if I had a copy ;)  And it was quite clearly a conscious and well managed decision not to reveal where they were based.

It was an entirely understandable position to take as this was an online 'virtual services' business, however I still found myself disappointed and a little curios [I flirted with saying 'suspicious' there] as to where they are based and why not let us know...

So, am I alone... what do you think ?  Is it preferable to clearly state where you are geographically based, or doesn't it matter?

I feel a Poll coming on ;)

Mick

Does Social Media take too long? - A Guest Blog from Jon Baker

Does Social Media take too long?

Jon Baker of venture-Now (see below) has written this guest blog for 24/7.

I've always been told, but now I’ve actually discovered that I get most benefit from Social Media when I engage in discussions, in a structured manner.

Underlying this is a need to have clear objectives, linked to your strategy. This article is about my daily one hour routine - my “socmed hour” (it’s normally more like 40 minutes by the way).

What’s your routine – or when are you going to create one?

My LinkedIn morning routine

• Groups: I’m a member of many groups which I break into 5 categories. I scan one of those categories daily. It takes 10 minutes, the objective: Contribute to interesting discussions, share information etc.
• My profile: Check to see who’s visited my profile. Often I’ll drop them a quick LinkedIn mail to say Hi. It takes 2 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts
• Group discussions: I review responses to any comments I’ve made in discussions. LinkedIn only emails me when somebody responds to one of my comments, I focus on those threads. Those emails go to a specific folder in my email, not my inbox. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts and prospects.

My Twitter morning routine

• Scan through the followers I’m most interested in. Respond to interesting comments. If you think there are too many tweets and not enough time, try using lists differently. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts.
• Produce 10 RTs: Scan through source material looking for interesting tweets and schedule RTs throughout the day (one of my favourite tools, bufferapp is great for this). It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to become known for providing useful material, attracting new followers and engage with existing followers.
• Review best responses to RTs: Look at the retweets from the previous day, look for the one that created the most interest and consider using it as a LinkedIn discussion group topic. Total time 2 minutes and the objective is to source good material for LinkedIn
• New Followers: Review the tweets from my new followers, respond to some and decide to follow them, or not. I take no more than 5 minutes, and engage with new followers

Twitter spare time.

A couple of times through the day I spend 10 minutes (and no more – use an alarm clock), look at tweets mentioning me and respond where appropriate.  Read tweets made by people I’m most interested in, respond where appropriate (A-listers). Time: 2-3 minutes. Favourite any tweets I see that I might later RT

LinkedIn spare time.

Look at my home page, like or comment on entries as appropriate, for no more than a minute.

LinkedIn weekly activities

• Group discussions: Start an interesting, useful discussion in each of the groups I’m in every 2-3 weeks. These are based on useful material I can share, seeking views on issues. Using LinkedIn groups for growing business makes lots of sense. Time: 10 minutes. Objective: Engage with potential contacts and prospects.
• Connections: Seek target connections and either connect, get alongside or develop the relationship off line. Time: 10 minutes (excl speaking offline). Objective: Increase business.

Summary

That’s about 4 hours a week (equivalent to one networking meeting) during which I get to influence and “meet” a lot more people than one face to face networking meeting.

Fundamental to this philosophy is that:

• providing useful and interesting material is important. This may be mine (blogging) or based on other peoples (sharing good content)
• Social media success requires one to engage in conversation and getting to know people – not pumping out your message and waiting for clients to arrive at your doorstep.
• Doing the right things gets the right results, being unfocussed doesn’t. The default diary and time blocks help with this.
• Some people are far more interesting than others – even if they’re not prospects! Knowing not all networking contacts are equal is important.
• There are some great tools to save time, my 6 favourite social media things in 2011 show some of those tools. But you can’t just automate social media

That's the thinking behind the way I use my time; what's yours?

Jon Baker is a 24-7 Group Director in Milton Keynes. He is a Business Coach, Sales trainer and experienced public speaker. He works with the owners of businesses that have 5 to 50 staff and helps them to create focus, clarity and more profit in their organisation.