I asked this same question last year and I wanted to see if this has changed for you with the addition of the iPad and other devices. When you go on vacation, do you check your email and / or social media tools or do you take a break from these applications? For me, when I go on vacation, I like to get away from all my social media tools and email. I find I then feel more refreshed when I get back from vacation.

What are your thoughts? What do you do? Do you check your email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. or do you turn those off while you are away? I’d love to hear your opinion.

As I was sitting here watching the tape of one of our lacrosse competitors, it came to me that I love finding out what my client’s competitors are doing in the social media world. Are you doing the same thing?

I love comparing companies to see what they are doing via social media, like when I reviewed HomeDepot and Lowe’s last May. I think that is one of the best ways to learn what is working and what you can do differently. As we scout opponents in lacrosse, it is a way to learn what their doing well, what we can do to stop them and also find their weaknesses. You can do the same in social media by reviewing what your competitors are doing.

I just love the power of social media (if you weren’t able to tell before). While my wife and I were on vacation, I tweeted & posted updates on FB about what we were doing, where we were, etc. We received some helpful advice as to places to check out and much more. Instead of googling something I was able to post what we were doing or looking for and people within the area were able to tell us things to check out, go to and much more.

As social media matures, I see this being more and more important for companies to start using. Our good friends that we stay with are even becoming believers of the power of Twitter and the other apps. It’s great to see.

Have you had a similar experience? Let us hear about it here.

I hear it all the time and sometimes I even catch myself saying it… there are so many networking events going on that it is hard to get to all of them. I love using social media to grow relationships. You are able to find out more about the person online and then meet up with them for coffee or lunch. You are able to find some common interests before you meet, so you don’t have to start talking about the weather.

Yes, I know you remember those days. I know I do. I love using social media to meet new people, but for me the only way to really build the relationship is by meeting in person or talking on the phone (based on where they are located). Over the past year, I have met some really great people located here in Rochester and throughout the country. Most of the time I meet them through one of the many social media tools I use and then meet them face to face (or phone) after. It is great to build the relationship this way.

For me and others I talk to, I find better value in having a one-on-one relationship vs. going to a networking event. I do go to a few per quarter, but I do not spend too much of my time going to these events. I have had better success getting business and meeting others through social media and then meeting after to further build the relationship.

Have you had the same luck? How has social media help you network better? I would love to hear your feedback!

As I get ready for Fall and look at how the year has progressed so far, I begin to feel re-energized and ready for what the remainder of the year will bring. I love the fall – the colors, the smell in the air, football, fall lacrosse and so much more. When I was in school, I always loved this time of year, the chance to meet new people, learn new things, etc.

Fall is around the corner and I thought I would ask you, what do you love about this time of year? I live in Upstate NY and the one thing that stands out for us is the fall colors and of course, all of the wineries (and wine tours).

I am really excited about the growth of social media. Many companies, new clients, friends and family continue to ask me about social media and how they can use it for their business. I am not only excited what this means for my own business, but also the advancement of social media with companies here in NY and across the country. As the fall gets closer, I am excited by what it brings and all of the new projects I will be working on.

So, tell us what your favorite thing about the fall is – the colors, the smells, kids going back to school, maybe you’re going back to school to learn some new things, etc. Whatever it is, let us know.

As I reflect back on my vacation with my wife last week, the biggest thing that sticks out to me were the numerous service issues we had along with many others we met on the trip. It seems that not just during our vacation, but many times here in our home town we have had many “service related issues” or have heard about them from family and friends.

I remember my first part time job (I’d like to think it was only a few years ago, but realize it was much longer ). Service was a huge part of my job and not only did I try to help every customer that came through the door, I’d like to think I did a good job at it. During our vacation in Jamaica (Sandals – Negril), we had a few specular people that went well beyond their call of duty and they will stick out in our minds as truly awesome people. You could see they loved their jobs and meeting new people; always going beyond what they needed to do to help their guests. Truly awesome people.

It amazed me the stories of others that we met sitting in the airport waiting to come home on the horrible service they had at other resorts around Jamaica including Sandals Negril. One friend said, he simply asked for a towel so he could jump in the pool and was told that they had none and he should use his room towels. There were many differences from our first stay in Jamaica last year (Sandals – Dunn River) to our stay now at Sandals Negril. Service was a huge one. All the staff at Dunn’s River went beyond the call of duty, but only a few did that at Negril. At Dunn’s River, you could tell they all loved their jobs, maybe it came from upper management, maybe their just happy to have a job (unemployment is extremely high in Jamaica) or whatever the case may be, it just got me thinking.

I won’t go much more into our vacation, as it was not the best we have ever had, but it did get me thinking about other service issues that we have had here in our home town over the last few months. Not just us, but many of our other friends and family as well. Is it just me, or have you noticed that the quality of service has been going down over the past few years? Many times over it feels like people working at the service type jobs don’t even want to be at their jobs. It amazes me.

I hope as social media evolves that many more organizations will start using social media to help with their quality of service. I had some great discussions about social media while on vacation and over the past few months. Some people I met have never even heard about social media and don’t know how they could use it to improve their service for their own companies.

Do you think social media will help improve company’s service over time? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Many people spend a ton of their day on the big three social media applications. I was the same way when I first started using Twitter and Facebook.  I would let the day slip away without even knowing where it went. As I gained more experience in the social media world, I have learned to budget my time much better. I try to only spend a certain amount of time on each of the big three per day.

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, I spend a majority of my time on LinkedIn, then Twitter and finally Facebook. I have talked with a number of other people in the past few weeks and many have good solutions for limiting their time on social media websites.

Top 3 solutions for budgeting time on social media websites:

1. Have a plan:  What are your to do’s for the day? Fit in your social media tools as a break, only after you accomplish the major tasks for the day. This has always worked well for me. Complete a major task and reward yourself!

2. Set a certain time for each tool:  I like using LinkedIn first thing in the morning and then again later in the afternoon. I really feel energized by networking first thing in the morning and then later in the afternoon to keep me going. I mix in Twitter throughout the day, but I do not spend more then 15 to 20 minutes per session.  I usually save Facebook for the end of the day or later at night.

3. Use an application:  I like Cool Timer as suggested by my friend Laurie (@laurie_stewart). It will really help you to see how much time your spending on social media tools. I have had friends that thought they only spent a few minutes on the sites and come to find out they were spending more then half their day on them.  Many people say that after using the Cool Timer application they have become much more productive as they have a better sense on how much time then spend on each site.

Those are my top 3 suggestions for having a better, more productive time using social media tools. Do have any suggestions that work well for you? Have you found something that works well for you? Please post them on here. We’d love to hear your feedback.

As I get closer to my vacation, it will be interesting for me to find out how much I will miss the social media tools over the break. We are going to Jamaica and internet access is about $20 a day, so it will be good for me to take a break and stay away. I’m pretty sure after the first or second day I’ll be fine, but I may have the shakes for the first few hours away. I’ll let you know how I did when we get back.

The other day I was curious to see if some of the national clothing stores are getting the social media (focusing on twitter) buzz. My analysis says no. I’ll leave the names of the offenders out, but if you do a quick search of the most popular teen and adult clothing stores, you should be able to figure it out.

The two teen stores have a decent list of followers, but they are not following many people back. Also, the larger brand only has about 4 tweets since May. One has many more tweets, but they still have the same issue of not following many people (only 3). They are also using their twitter account to correct customer service issues (similar to how Home Depot is using their account). The third brand (adult – national brand) only uses their account to push information out about their sales. However, they are doing a much better job of following the same amount of people that follow them.

As you can see, each store has a different way of using Twitter. Good and bad, it is their own style.  As social media matures, I am really excited to show how companies will use social media to get the word out about their brand.

How are your favorite stores / brands using social media (focus on twitter)? Good? Bad? What could they improve? I would love to hear your feedback. Many of these companies utilize Facebook better, so I will do a review in the coming week or two on how they use it.

Over the course of the past two months, I’ve had many discussions with individuals and companies, small and large, about social media. I am really excited to talk with people who are either planning on using or already using social media. The questions I always ask are:  do you have a plan and how are you going to monitor your social media presence?

Many times these questions seem to stump them.  First off, I can not stress enough the importance of having a social media plan. There are so many companies out there where they bring in an intern to do the social media work. I think this is great, but what happens when the intern leaves? Chances are the social media presence dies when that person leaves. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to have a social media plan. Also, many social media experts will recommend that you don’t need to use every tool out there. Use the ones that fit with you and / or company.

How are you going to monitor your social media presence? There are many tools out there including Techrigy (www.techrigy.com), Radian 6 (www.radian6.com) and ViralHeat (www.viralheat.com). I am currently using the Techrigy tool, but I will be evaluating the others in coming weeks (look for an upcoming posting). I have found that many of the companies I have spoke with over the past few months do not know the correct way to monitor their social media presence. Using one of these tools is so important, I can’t stress it enough. I love showing these companies information that they can track (demographics, positive / negative feedback and much more) and how they can interact better with their clients / customers. I love seeing their eyes light up when they see how they can use these tools to improve and monitor their social media presence.

As the use of social media improves and matures many companies need to have these two things in order to be sure they are reaching their current & potential customers. Check out one of the social media monitoring tools and see if it is something that your company can use.

Are you using one of these tools to monitor your social media presence? When you started your social media work, did you have a plan? If not, what happened? Any lessons learned from having a plan or not having a social media plan?

I had some great comments and emails come in regarding my post last Tuesday about “What percentage of time do you spend on the big 3 social media sites?” Many of my blogging friends and followers asked me: 

1. Why do you spend 60% of your time on LinkedIn? 

2. How do you use LinkedIn

3. How do you find new connections?

4. Any tips and / or tricks on using LinkedIn?

Why do you spend 60% of your time on LinkedIn? 

I honestly enjoy the layout, even though in some areas LI could use improvements, it’s fairly easy to use. For me, it’s very easy to meet new connections and I find I can post questions and help others by posting answers and it works well. I’ve also noticed that if I post a question on Twitter, I sometimes don’t get a response, so I may have to repeat the question later in the day or on another day. When I post a question on LI, I usually get some great answers back. 

How do you use LinkedIn?

I’ve found LinkedIn to be one of my best networking tools. I’ve met a ton of helpful people that I can bounce questions, ideas, etc off of. The great thing about using LinkedIN, is that people are located around the world, so your not limited to just your city. 

I would say part of my time is spent reading the groups discussion areas and helping answer  questions, asking a question or checking out new data that I can use for my job or clients’ projects. I’ve really learned a lot and since I work directly at home, I feel that I’m working in an office with 1 million co-workers. I’ve found LinkedIn very helpful in growing my network and bandwidth of experts around the world. The rest of the time I spend on introducing myself to new connections and following up with current connections. I really enjoy networking using LinkedIn. 

Before LinkedIn, I would say my networking skills were very low, but now I’m much more comfortable meeting new people and I enjoy going to networking events. As a business owner in this economy, that’s one thing that separates the great one’s from the rest, how much does the CEO / business owner, VP’s, etc network with others? Many people say in order to find a job, you need to network but I also believe it’s important to network even if you have a job. Many employers realize that in order for their employees to learn and grow for the company, they must attend networking events and network themselves. If you’re looking for some great networking ideas and help, check out the book “Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-how for Business And Career Success” by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon. 

It came recommended by one of my contacts and now friends that I met through using LinkedIn, Sue Schnorr. I highly recommend this book. I’ll try posting a book review in the coming weeks. 

How do you find new connections?

One of the things that works for me and will probably work for you, is to join a few groups and introduce yourself to others. Message people that have similar backgrounds, jobs, etc and find out if you can “connect” with them. I found this to work about 99% of the time for me and I’ve met some really awesome people in the process. 

If you have the time, create a group or two, join a few groups and ask to be a manager and help out with the group. The groups can be something that you specialize in or even a hobby or something you enjoy doing in your spare time. I help out with three groups and have met some really great people. One of the groups that I created, The Original Steelers Nation, is a fun group of guys and gals that enjoys talking about football and other things. This group that I created has helped us build some great friendships but also a few of them have turned into new business leads as well. 

Any tips and / or tricks on using LinkedIn?

Sure, I have a few tips and tricks for using LinkedIN. 

1.     Read this book to help you better understand and improve how you can use LinkedIn. I highly recommend it. “I’m on LinkedIn–Now What??? (Second Edition): A Guide to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn” by Jason Alba

Yeah, I know I know, two books recommendations in one blog post, what is this a summer reading list. HAHA. No but I highly recommend these two books. 

2.     Spend time searching out groups of topics that interest you. It could be something that you already do, something that you want to find out more information about, or a hobby that you really find passionate about. 

3.     Don’t be scared to ask or answer people questions in the group discussion area or in the “Answers” area on the top of the page. You will help many other people out by answering questions or asking questions that I’m sure somebody else was thinking of as well. 

4.     Don’t be afraid to send out messages to people in the same group to connect with. You will meet some truly great people this way and down the road or even that day, it could be somebody that needs your expertise. Just ask, it can’t hurt. 

I hope that this posting helps you on ways that you can start using LinkedIN. Reading those two books should really help you on your way to successfully networking on LinkedIN. 

In what ways are you using LinkedIN? How do you use it for business? Any suggestions for newbies out there that you’ve learned along the way? 

As I’ve said earlier in this posting, one of my weaknesses was networking, but I feel it is now one of my strengths. Here’s a great quote that to this day I live by – “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points. “

Knute Rockne

I truly believe in those words, spoken by a great man. 

Coming up in the next blog, I’ll talk about some interesting metrics that I’ve found on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.