I’ve already talked about how you can integrate LinkedIn with Outlook (click here for the Outlook toolbar download). I’ve also talked about how important it is to make the most of your LinkedIn invitations to connect. (I know that’s not a tool, but I wanted to work it in up front because it’s just so darn important.)

But did you also know LinkedIn has browser toolbars for Internet Explorer 3.2 and Mozilla Firefox 3.3 that make LinkedIn even easier to access in a single click? It’s true. I wouldn’t kid ya. Check them out! If for nothing else, the toolbar across the top of your browser will remind you that LinkedIn is there for you to leverage.

Do you have an email signature setup? LinkedIn can help you create a customized email signature for Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

Are you smartphone equipped? Keep your digital LinkedIn rolodex at your fingertips.

Are you making the most of LinkedIn Apps? They’re free and they can automatically integrate with other tools you may be using to further enhance your profile. I just added the Legal Updates app by JD Supra to my LinkedIn homepage so I can stay informed of legal issues in the categories of interest to me.

If you’re job-hunting, then downloading the browser tool for LinkedIn Jobs Insider is a MUST. When you open any job posting at Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, SimplyHired, Dice or Vault, you’ll be able to instantly and automatically see the people in your network that work at the hiring company. You can then request an introduction to the hiring manager, get your resume to the right person or find out more about the company via LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Jobs Insider Sidebar box

It’s all there for you to use. And they all work to help you save time.

For the record, this isn’t a plug for LinkedIn. It’s a plug for WEB TOOLS! I try to keep my blog’s RESOURCES page up to date with all of the great web tools I come across, but every now and again, I come across a few that I find worthy of a little special attention. If you use LinkedIn at all — and, as of July 2010, 70 million professionals do — these tools are unquestionably handy to have in place.

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(Click here if the video is not appearing below in your feed reader.)

Love the action at 0:52. I’ve actually seen people doing that in meetings when social media comes up.

Key takeaways?

• B2B is leading social media adoption (over B2C…Business To Consumer)
• The B2B buyer process is fundamentally changing: 93% of B2B buyers use SEARCH to begin the buying process
• If you don’t have a social media strategy, you should

I gave a presentation today and told the room of B2B folks that what I love about social media is that it is forcing B2B companies to look at their websites — and the web traffic that runs through them — in a whole new way. Marketing is communicating with the IT department again…and not just because their email isn’t working. Social media has breathed new life into how websites are being integrated into the overall marketing strategy and I, for one, think it’s rather refreshing. Now, if we could only get the whole “social media strategy” thing off the ground…

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Here are a few social media backup solutions you might like to check out. Some free, some not. I use one or two of these myself. You may find, as I did, that the search functionality they offer is reason enough to set up an account.

Backupify

Backupify provides daily automatic backups, archiving and export for all your social media and SaaS (Software As A Service) data. You’ll get regular emails confirming when your backups have completed. They have a free basic plan or paid plans for more robust needs.

Here’s a look at backupify’s archive dashboard for Twitter:

Socialware Sync

Socialware Sync provides “marketing departments, power users and socially-enabled businesses” with “enterprise-class archiving.” Sounds good to me. I’m in. Here’s what I have with Socialware Sync: a 30-day free trial for backup/archiving support for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This solution has some pretty cool search functionality if you’re into that sort of thing. You can search a term across all three of your profiles just by entering it into the search box. Easy breezy. Not sure if it’s worth the price of admission for an individual…but for a large organization I would think it would be rather handy in managing and monitoring multiple accounts.

Here’s a look at the Socialware Sync search dashboard. You can see where you enter the search term in the upper right and that you can select the profiles you wish to search with a little check box.

Need more basic backup for a single social profile?

Maybe you only want to focus your backup efforts on a single network. That’s cool, too. I’m not here to judge. There’s a few solutions I came across, but — disclaimer — I don’t use any of them because I prefer having one solution that covers multiple profiles. But that’s just me. Different strokes for different folks, right? That said, here are a few you might want to check out.

Back Up My Tweets

BackupMyTweets.com provides more control over your Twitter account. They also offer like-solutions for email, blogs and pictures (BackupMyMail, BackupMyBlog, BackupMyPics).

Tweet Backup

Tweetbackup.com provides a free, daily backup of your Twitter account.

Tweetake

Tweetake.com allows you to backup your Twitter account without revealing your name and password.

SocialSafe (For Facebook Backup)

SocialSafe will backup your Facebook Friends, photos, profile and wall status updates to your computer for a modest (one-time?) fee. I looked for the language “one-time” fee, but couldn’t find it. It seems to be a one-time license fee of $2.99 USD, but call me needy for wishing the copy were a bit more clear on this point. I actually had to click on “Buy” in order to satisfy my curiosity on this pricing issue. Perhaps that was the strategy, or maybe I’m just slower than most, or just very used to monthly fee plans. Halfway down the FAQ page, they mention that there might be an upgrade fee for a major version update. Really, we’re talking about a very reasonable fee here, I just was a little frustrated at how much time I had to spend to find all those pricing details as I’m trained, like most, to look for the fine print in today’s disclaimer culture. Would have been easier if that messaging were more clear on the homepage, IMHO.

ArchiveFacebook

ArchiveFacebook is a free Mozilla Firefox add-on tool that allows you to “save content from your Facebook account directly to your hard drive” so you can archive your photos, messages, activity stream, friends list, notes, events and groups. But you need to be using Firefox. If you’re using Internet Explorer (IE) or some other browser, you can’t use this cool add-on or any of the other supercool add-ons and plugins that the Firefox browser supports. (See that? I refrained from launching into a whole spiel on why I think Firefox is superior to IE. I’m maturing, I guess. To show just how objective I have become on the subject of browsers, I offer you this little test to see which browser is right for you.)

Want More Backup Solutions?

Get your Google on, friends. There’s a few out there for Flickr (Downloadr and FlickrEdit, for example) and I’m sure for other major networks. If you’re blogging, you naturally will need a backup solution there, as well. Make that priority one. If you’re looking for off-site backup storage, there’s a few “cloud storage” solutions, like Lifestream Backup, Mozy and Memopal that might be worth checking into.

Bottom line?

If you’re living a digital life, probably worth leveraging the digital tools to back it up, eh? No pressure. Just something to think about.

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Reclaim Privacy

Great tool that scans your settings. Just install the bookmark, log in to your facebook account, go to the Privacy Settings page and click on “reclaim privacy” in your bookmark bar. It runs a scan of your settings in seconds.

OpenBook

Interesting little site. Openbook is working harder as an awareness tool than anything else, I think. But if your privacy settings aren’t buttoned up, it’s easier than ever for people to find out what you’re posting. That said, I’m fascinated that people say the things they say on Facebook (or anywhere else online) that would be damaging to their professional reputations. But they do! And they do it in droves as this site showcases.

SaveFace

SaveFace^™ by Untangle is a free, easy-to-install Bookmark utility that automatically resets your Facebook settings back to Friends Only for all the following:

• Contact Information
• Search Settings
• Friends, Tags and Connections
• Personal Information and Posts

I haven’t used this one because I don’t want to limit everything within my settings to “Friends Only,” but that might be what some people prefer, so I’ve included it here.

One Final Thought…

I know it’s tough to keep up with all the privacy changes Facebook has been making lately. And I know it’s easy to get frustrated. Supposedly Facebook is going to launch simplified privacy settings soon. My privacy concerns are the same today as they were when I first created this blog and setup my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and various other profiles. I continue to maintain that these are all great tools and technologies — but also that we need to be thoughtful users. That is, THINK before you POST! Same goes for email. You always have to consider that anything you write could be made public, so turn on your internal editor and proceed intelligently. It shouldn’t take all of these privacy smoke and mirror games Facebook is playing to make you mistrust “online privacy” as a whole. Better that you ALWAYS mistrust “online privacy” and post accordingly.

Agree? Disagree? Indifferent? Always happy to hear from you…

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2.) Analytics App: If you blog, this is handy when you’re feeling lonely or unloved. It gives you mobile access to all of your Google Analytics data. (No guarantees that seeing your stats will turn your mood around.)

3.) U.S. Postage App: But this isn’t “social,” you’re saying to yourself. Sure it is. Ever send things out to your network via snail mail? This helps you do it without having to stand in line at the post office. Tell your friends. I love this app. Seriously. If I had a stamp for every time I used it…

4.) Mashable App: All the cool kids have it on their iPhones. (The uncool ones, like me, have it on their iPod Touches.)

5.) E! Online App: How else is a busy businessperson supposed to keep up with pop culture? Besides, what makes for better small talk before a meeting?

Why didn’t I list other social business apps on my iPod Touch (that’s right, I STILL don’t have an iPhone because of my stubborn refusal to be told which service provider I must use…take that Steve Jobs), like the Hootsuite App, Tweetdeck App, AP Mobile App, LinkedIn App and the like? The truth is — and please don’t let this get around — I find them cumbersome to maneuver through on that tiny little touchscreen.

Is it possible that the only solution to my problem is an iPad?

Until then, there you have it…a Top 5 list in 60 seconds or less. I aim to please. In case you don’t already have them installed, here are the links to download these babies:

• Facebook App
• Analytics App
• U.S. Postage App
• Mashable App
• E! Online App

Oh, and yes, I realize that technically these are not my top 5 “iPhone Apps,” but using “My Top 5 iPod Touch Apps” as a title sounded way less sexy, so be a sport and go with me on this. Thanks.

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1.) How will we maintain control over our brand in the social sphere?
The most cited answer to this is: You don’t own your brand in the social spheres – you own the ability to share your brand in the social spheres. You won’t have control over what people say about your brand, but you can control how you respond to what is said about your brand. Control can also come in the form of a continuous commitment to publishing your own new content. Quality content that is industry-specific, keyword-rich, relevant and recent can help you rank better in search results, so in that way you can leverage some control over what comes up in organic search results. Another question a business might consider is, how can we lose control over our brand in the social sphere? The answer to that is to jump in without a strategy, without a community manager and with a hyper acute need to “control” your community. If you deliver value, your community will reward you – for, online, it is they who are in control. But that certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t participate. And, as already mentioned, make sure you have a social media policy firmly in place before you publish. For legal considerations, read what Cobalt Law has to say.

2.) If we allow broad employee access to social sites, how will we manage threats to productivity?
Before you can address this concern, another issue should be addressed post haste, if it has not been already: Does your company have a social media policy in place? Even if you have blocked Internet access and your brand is not engaged in social media, it is likely your employees are on the socialwebs in their off time. It’s been said, there’s no such thing as free speech in the workplace. If they work for you, you need to provide clear policies about social media conduct (I’m sure legal would agree – for more on legal considerations, read this blog post about legal issues and social media from Houchin & Associates). Here is a Social Media Policies Superlist that can provide insight into how other companies manage their social media policies. Productivity concerns should be addressed in your social media policy (and the training that should follow it) in the same way you address/manage employee conduct/usage of phone and email. You need to legally protect your company, its proprietary information and logo usage. Abuses should be managed/addressed should they occur. This post from Guy Clapperton provides additional considerations about social media and productivity concerns.

3.) How will we manage negative comments?
The same way you manage them offline – professionally and politely. It really is that simple. Read more about handling negative comments in posts by Matt Collier and Amber Naslund, or google it. This is where your customer service skills should (and will surely) kick in. Fear not.

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Me? I see a HUGE missed opportunity here…and I’m not picking on Michael, because there are plenty of people that — innocently — just haven’t taken a moment to think about the broader networking opportunities that LinkedIn can create.

Here’s what I see:

1. He used the default message to connect. Why? Why not take an extra second and give some context to your invitation? Let the person know why you’re connecting or remind them of how you know each other if it has been awhile since you chatted (in person or online). It takes 2 seconds to personalize the message. I think it’s very worth the time.
2. I opened a door of communication. I took the time to look at his work on his web site and was actually very impressed. I responded accordingly, and tried to politely ask and obtain some of the basic information I just described above since his invitation didn’t give me anything to go on. Then I opened the door to have a conversation. So how did he respond?
3. He answered my question and closed the open door…which is perfectly fine…that’s his prerogative, of course. But this, to me, is the opposite of what LinkedIn positions you to do from a networking standpoint. Needless to say, I didn’t accept the invitation because he didn’t give me a reason to do so.

How well are you leveraging the professional networking potential of LinkedIn?

Are you moving your online relationships offline? Are you creating or responding to opportunities to have further conversations? Why not? I always tell professionals that there is typically good SEO value to being on LinkedIn because if someone googles your name, your LinkedIn listing is likely to rank highly in the search engine results…in which case you want your LinkedIn profile to be buttoned up. But don’t you want your LinkedIn correspondence to work just as hard for you? Whether sending or receiving invitations, think of them as opportunities to make a good impression, just like you would at a traditional (offline) networking event.

Just something to think about the next time you log in to LinkedIn…

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Why Create A Corporate Blog?

An organization publishes a corporate blog to meet its defined communication objectives and goals, which can include relationship building with target groups, positioning itself (or one or more of its employees) as industry experts, providing industry news/education, recruitment and media relations. Corporate blogging has evolved as an increasingly useful business technology over the past several years (as shown below in Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle) and is becoming increasingly valuable as a communication and marketing tool for businesses who are willing to make the commitment – and it is a commitment.

Here are some key considerations…

Objective

What is the purpose of your blog and how will it deliver value/interest to your target audience?

Voice

Who is going to write it? Will the CEO make/have the time? Does accommodating/managing multiple contributors make sense for your business (i.e. employee contributors, guest contributors)? Who will manage the online community that forms around your blog (and other related online “outposts” in the social spheres that can work to help promote your blog and support your objectives)?

Protocol

Once objectives are defined, blogging guidelines and a commenting policy will need to be set up and the company will need to be prepared to set up interdepartmental response channels to manage comments that require follow up. (There are a variety of free and paid tools that can support this workflow.)

Content / Editorial Calendar

Content is king in that if your content isn’t of value, the traffic will not come. If you deliver valuable content, your community will rise up and help promote your content and boost your WOM (word of mouth). Strategic (and ongoing) discussions around content frequency, quality, resources, workflow and purpose are critical to successful blogging.

Benefits

“Corporate blogging is the best way to get information into the hands of your prospects. Those who benefit most from your services are those who are actively searching for your solution.” (Source: Compendium Blogware, Third Generation Corporate Blogging) Traditional marketing “pushes” or broadcasts messaging and information to targets in mass markets, whereas niche blogging “pulls” targets to your content. Traditional marketing is one-sided, whereas blogging can work as a two-way communication platform, enabling greater opportunities to build relationships with those most interested in your industry, your products/services and your ideas – and to create lead generation opportunities. (Consumers often seek your blog out online – and subscribe to it – because it provides them with a “solution” to whatever they are searching for online.)

Challenges

In short, it is my opinion that the biggest challenges to corporate blogging are time, traffic and legal. The internal operational logistics behind blogging can bog some corporate workflows down – from content generation to blog post approval processes to real-time responsiveness (when it comes to comments or other online mentions of your brand). Issue number one (time), drives issue number two (traffic). Without consistent, quality content (posts at least once or twice a week), the traffic you’re hoping for won’t be there. And in some cases, legal likes to take a look at content before it posts, so that can slow things down a bit – but it’s also critical to include legal early on as you establish rules, policies and guidelines. Ultimately, you want to empower and provide your community manager with the flexibility to respond to comments in real time without legal or management approval. Guidelines need to be set first so as not to hinder prompt responses to your community, who will expect it of you.

Comment Management

Some businesses might feel concerned about managing negative comments. The first question to consider is, what volume of negative comment traffic are you currently getting via traditional mediums? The next question is, how much negative content is there about your brand online right now (you should be monitoring for this regardless of whether or not you are blogging)? Many businesses feel it is more important to be proactive in addressing negative content should it occur online. As part of your online strategic plan, you can prepare for negative comments and you can address them professionally as they may occur. If people have really negative things to say, they’ll say them regardless of whether or not you have a blog, so the perceived risk can alternatively be considered an opportunity to address issues should they arise. In this way businesses can work to nip problems in the bud. If you’ve done a good job at building a good rapport with your community, you may find that they are willing to respond to negative comments on your behalf, as well. Negative comments may very well be surrounded by positive comments; businesses should be prepared to trust their community to spot “complainers” in comment threads and only give serious weight to serious concerns that may (or may not!) be raised on your business blog.

Want More Info?

15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging
Dealing with Detractors
Corporate Blog Trends and Samples

In Conclusion

Corporate blogging can create or extend opportunities for cross-channel marketing, organic SEO, email marketing, lead generation, brand awareness, brand loyalty, multi-channel customer service — you may even benefit by working with an affiliate marketing program to monetize your blog. The marketing case is easy to make, but it’s important to ask — and answer — the strategic and operational questions first.

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Over the past year, I’ve had countless conversations with people about online privacy (or the lack thereof). What does the vast amount of information that we put online every day mean for us as individuals and as a society? Why does it feel like nothing is private anymore? Is it generational? Is it cultural? What does it mean for getting hired or fired? How can you protect yourself in today’s VERY transparent world?

I’ve been writing, rewriting and rethinking this post since last year (yes, it’s caused me a bit of blogger’s block).  Here’s what started the ball rolling: I wrote a post about how I used social media to connect and reconnect with things I care about. I received a comment expressing deep concerns about such online transparency and referencing a site called 123people.com.  (This website is actually one that I list as a link on my Resources page. It aggregates both real-time and crawl search data on people. In short, when you type in a name, you get a picture of that person’s digital footprint.)

Now, 123people.com is doing what every business should: monitoring their brand online. Following the best practices of online brand monitoring — which, FYI, can be as simple as setting up a Google Alert for starters — a gentleman from 123people.com received an alert that his brand name was mentioned on my blog. Upon further review, he realized that the mention included misinformation, so he posted a follow-up comment to correct the false assertion that 123people.com purchased individuals’ private information. The presence of an information industry professional on my blog gave me the opportunity to ask some specific questions about privacy to someone from one of the very sites that are often vilified for the search/data services they provide.

The next thing I knew, I was on the phone interviewing Russel Perry, CEO of 123people.com, who was generous enough to take the time to answer my questions. What I learned during the call was eye opening and it encouraged me to read more about the topic myself.

This is, of course, an ENORMOUS discussion, so I’m just going to tackle a few points here that seem to speak most directly to major fears and concerns:

Guess What? Privacy Laws in the U.S. Do NOT Protect You.

123people.com collects information and functions differently in the European Union (EU) than it does here, as do other social networking sites and data collection organizations. This is due to one simple difference – in Europe people OWN their own data. The EU has “an independent supervisory authority devoted to protecting personal data and privacy any promoting good practice in the EU institutions and bodies.”  It also has drawn up an article that directly addresses privacy concerns specifically on social networking sites.  If long inter-governmental papers aren’t really your favorite read, here is a great article that breaks down the purpose of Article 29 and its implications.

What does all of this mean for Americans? Well I’m no privacy law expert, but if we want to catch up with the EU in terms of online privacy protection, we need to contact our lawmakers and tell them that this is important to us. Perhaps we can even use our social networking sites to contact others of like mind! We can tell them that in Europe a citizen has the right to his or her own data and that we want the same ownership in the U.S. There’s been some recent movement on this in regards to reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which is from 1986 and is in need of some serious updating. But I’m not sure it stops there (if that reform even happens). Here’s a quick video on that (click here to see it on YouTube if it does not appear below)…

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – How People Search is Actually Used

We all know that if we leave our valuables unattended in the “real” world, we open ourselves up to risk. The same is true in our online lives. We wouldn’t write our cell phone number on a bathroom stall (I hope…), so leave it off your “about me” page. If you wouldn’t put a photo from a bachelor party in a frame on your desk at work, there is no place for it on your Facebook or MySpace page either.

This being said, if you have protected yourself, a website that does a quick search of everything about you online could be as useful to you as knowing your credit score. It can be a way to monitor your online reputation.

But why would anyone but the most nefarious ever search someone else’s name, you ask? Well, “people search” can be used in beneficial ways and I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide a few scenarios:

• For Human Resources purposes
• To learn more about docs/lawyers/specialists
• By respected news organizations to find experts in various fields
• Education (research and references)
• To check into an online date (to see if Mr./Ms. Wonderful is who he/she promises to be)

You should know what is out there about you and know the source. Also remember that a name search in and of itself is not harmful.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

So what are you supposed to do until the U.S. gets with the privacy program? (And there’s no guarantee that they will!) Get educated and smarter about monitoring your important information. Check the privacy settings on all of your social networking sites.  These sites provide their users with control over their information, but don’t just rely on the default settings. If you do, then political opinions, in-jokes on a friend’s wall and “funny” pictures may be open not only to your friends, but also to your networks – sharing that information with hundreds or thousands of strangers! Don’t tell people in a post when you’re about to leave your house unattended — PleaseRobMe.com recently ran an important awareness campaign about this potential risk. (Read more about LOCATIONAL PRIVACY and CONSUMER PRIVACY.)

Is Privacy Dead Or Does It Just Require More Effort?

For as much as is out there about me, with this blog and my social profiles, I still maintain a strong awareness and boundaries around my privacy. How is that? Well, I follow a few basic personal posting policy guidelines (which is not to say I don’t occasionally stray). Those personal posting policies will vary from one person to another based on one’s comfort zone with information-sharing. Bottom line: set up alerts on your name and do an occasional search on yourself to ensure that any data about you “out there” is accurate. (At least then you can correct misinformation giving you a sliver of control in an online world that may feel out of your control.)

Second, and I know it seems obvious, but enough people have gotten themselves into trouble with an inappropriate tweet or post…THINK before you POST and IF YOU DON’T WANT IT OUT THERE, DON’T POST IT! Get to know your internal editor. If you don’t have one, conjure one up if you plan to sit in front of a keyboard and type something to the masses (even if you think you’re only sharing it with a small group of friends). Want to turn off your editor? Pick up the phone or go meet for a beer. Take your unedited self offline. It’s not about pretending to be someone you’re not online, it’s about being SMART about your reputation when you’re online.

What Are You Afraid Of?

I had to ask myself this question when I decided to get on my very first social network, and then again when I decided to start blogging. Fear is not a terribly useful emotion, but it sure can be a rampant one. Education usually overpowers (and quashes) fear. Once I learned about my options and did everything within my power to protect my personal data and set up tools for monitoring my name (and my brand) online, there wasn’t much left to my fears. Hope the same holds true for you so that you can enjoy the rewards of using today’s online technology to strengthen our offline relationships.

Thanks for your time and I urge you not to be afraid, but instead, to be smart online.

A special word of thanks to Cameron Barry and Colleen Hughes for helping me edit, rewrite and (repeatedly) revise this post. I’ve sat on it for many months because it feels like such an overwhelming topic to tackle. I know this post is longer than it should be…frankly, this topic is worthy of a white paper, and if I could find a few more hours in a day, I’d be busy about turning it into one.

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Elliot Schmukler has offered up 3 easy steps to get you started:

1. Download the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector from Microsoft (Outlook 2003, 2007 or 2010 is required)
2. Once that is installed, download the LinkedIn Outlook Connector
3. Restart your Outlook and follow the instructions to connect your LinkedIn account to Outlook

Here’s a video to if you’d like a visual introduction to the process. (Click here if the video is not appearing below in your feed reader.)

There you have it. Now go sync up and leverage your contacts and connections!

Oh, wait…hold on, before you go…just one back-to-basics suggestion from little old me on LinkedIn etiquette. (Make that two suggestions…)

1. CUSTOMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN INVITATIONS: Please do NOT use the default “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” unless you literally just got off the phone with that person. Say hello, tell people (especially if you don’t know them well) WHY you thought it would be good to connect. And if you’re connecting to someone you haven’t seen in 100 years or only met once 5 years ago, remind them of how you know them. Remember this is a professional network — so be professional and personable.
2. CHECK YOUR PROFILE, PEOPLE: By all means, please fill in your LinkedIn profile to as close to 100% completion as you can get it BEFORE you start sending out invitations to connect. It sounds obvious, but I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t see a need/reason to say it. Tips for your profile? Be succinct. Address the “here’s-what-I-can-do-for-you,-Mr./Mrs.-Visitor-To-My-Profile” benefit quickly and right up front in your summary. Use keywords relevant to your business/job/industry. Post a logo or image of some kind if you don’t want to use your own portrait, but DO NOT leave the image blank so that default human outline pops up.

That’s it. Link up and link on, my friends.

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I hear ya.

Your sense of personal privacy is being tested. Your understanding of work-life boundaries is being challenged. And you would simply prefer to remain virtually underexposed. You would prefer the security and familiarity of “controlled,” offline socializing in the “real” world.

I’ve been there. So how did I get here?

The answer? One connection at a time.

With every connection I have made on any of the social platforms — and I mean “real” connections…the kind where a real dialogue happens and you find yourself typing your reply with a smile or even scheduling a coffee meetup to further the conversation — I have become more and more comfortable with all of this information that “belongs” to me being released. Out there. To the world. To whomever may find it interesting.

And despite what you may be thinking…it doesn’t feel like a waste of my time or theirs.

I’m writing about this because people keep asking me about this. Here’s the deal: It’s fine with me if people don’t read what I write and it’s fine with me if they do. Throughout all of this “exposure,” my respect for personal privacy remains fully in tact. Believe it or not, I’m actually a very private person. I’ve set my own personal boundaries in these online spaces that preserve my sense of privacy. I also take personal security and identity theft rather seriously, so I’m not blind to the perceived risks. (Standby for “Online Privacy: Part 2 of 2.”) But, at the end of the day, what I’ve learned from social media is that the group exposure you allow yourself to engage in leads to one-on-one connections (nurtured old ones, interesting new ones) that are as tangible to me online as they would be if I were chatting with or introducing myself to you at a party or professional gathering. The risks can be managed and the rewards can be meaningful.

It’s not just staying in touch with people you know, but opening yourself up to meeting NEW people.

And once those online connections are made, it doesn’t feel so strange to “tweet” to the world that your basement flooded, or that you just got back from Jamaica, or that your fish just died or that you need another cup of coffee. While “personal” posts like those do not represent the bulk of what I post on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else…the life-stuff just slips in there every now and again. And whether it’s a great business link or a personal side note, what I post is of value to me FIRST…then I share it via these handy little (free) social tools to (perhaps) provide some value (or a little piece of humanity) to whomever might find it…um…interesting. These things I say online are the same things I’d be telling you in person because they matter to me. They represent part of my experiences. They may even resonate with yours and they may even ignite a new conversation.

“Silly” is in the eye of the beholder.

If it’s not privacy concerns, again and again and again I hear people who are not online talk about why they’re not online — because of how ridiculous some people’s status updates are and how they don’t care about what Sally had for breakfast, and they don’t have time for all of that nonsense…yada, yada, yada. Well that’s fine. But chances are that someone cares what Sally had for breakfast, so get over it. If it feels like noise to you, it’s pretty darn easy to scroll right on by to something else that may be of great interest to you. We all lead busy, busy lives these days, and I’m THRILLED that social media tools enable me to remain connected to people I do care about but aren’t able to see quite as often as life once allowed. If the choice were between never getting to see those people or getting to see one of their so-called “meaningless” status updates, I choose the meaningless status update — and when it’s a good one, I’ll likely retweet it or give it a “like” when I can.

Does telling “the world” that I have a dog (or three), that I have a life outside my business, that I like sailing, that I love Nanci Griffith, that I went on vacation or that I love a particular song make me somehow more vulnerable or less productive than people who aren’t publishing online content? Does it make me feel like my privacy is compromised? Does it make me feel a tad bit silly?

The truth is, it just makes me feel…good.

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Q: How has social media impacted the way you market your business?
A: It works toward awareness and as a reminder. It’s a vehicle in which we can share project info without hard selling and it reminds people that we’re here, busy and it tells them what we’re doing, but not in an interruptive or “sales-ey” way.

Q: What social media tool(s) do you use the most?
A: Twitter and Facebook.

Q: How much time each day do you spend using social media?
A: About 2 hours per day.

Q: Do you consider your time on social sites “time well spent”?
A: Yes, absolutely. Our business has been built by WOM (15 years). Social media is an extension of our existing WOM efforts and has expanded our web of influence and contacts. Social media makes it easier to find local resources and it puts us in touch with so many more people every day. Our reach is based on people who choose to hear what we have to say. They have opted in. When we go to social events offline people come up and say, “I love reading your twitter posts or Facebook posts.” We’re on their radar.

Q: What percentage of your new clients comes from social media?
A: Because of our engagement, we’re getting business that might otherwise go to an ad agency. They’re shopping and come to us because they see what we’re doing. Many times, we’re providing traditional media services and then integrating Social Media into the project/campaign where it makes sense.

Q: How are you gauging “ROI”?
A: We know when we’re getting business and buzz because people tell us. We have also positioned ourselves locally as leaders in this media and the reputation we are building makes the time-cost worth it.

Q: Can you describe your “social media successes” at the local, regional and national levels?

A:

Local: We’ve started HoCoMoJo, a hyperlocal news and community resource for Howard County, Maryland. (It’s MObile JOurnalism showcasing the “mojo” of HOward COunty.) Print media is in serious trouble and HoCoMoJo is our attempt to fill the local gap for news, information and community engagement. We seem to have struck a chord and the response has been encouraging. Since we’re already set up with production and editing equipment, HoCoMoJo didn’t require any additional investment. We’re still in public beta, working out some kinks, but new users are signing on every day, posting new content and becoming part of the conversation.

National: Our national connections have become part of our supplemental network. We get tapped when people come to town because we’ve connected on twitter. Our engagement increases the likelihood of our being tapped as a resource for out-of-towners.

Q: What would you say to other local business owners about social media?
A: Get past your natural fears and get in on the conversations. It’s happening – and it’s up to you to be part of it. It’s like attending a giant virtual cocktail party. It can be very interesting and you can do it without leaving the house/office.

Q: What question do you have about social media that you’d like to ask your local business community?
A: The ones who are successful at social media are fearless. The minute a large company tries to do “social business” without authenticity, they’re dead. A lot of companies are adopting a “wait & see” approach. But we look at social media more like it’s the “wild west.” People are experts in social media in the same way that Louis and Clarke were experts on the western frontier. They were only experts because they explored – that’s where we are. We’re exploring. So our question is, “If you can’t quite make sense of the ROI, do you see any value in exploring the potential of this new frontier?”

Click here if you’d like to be a part of Social Gets Local, a FREE local directory supporting businesses located or based in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Annapolis that are using social media effectively.

However I opted to step aside and let it pass me by. (Traffic schmaffic.)

When I look back and consider my time in social media in 2009, it’s not the cool marketing tools I’ve experimented with, the great content that I’ve consumed or even the new business opportunities it has created — it’s with complete humility that this anti-social curmudgeon confesses (with uncharacteristic optimism and utter embarrassment at my public display of “joie de vivre”) it’s the people I’ve met and reconnected with that made my 2009 brighter, more interactive, more professionally rewarding and, even, more entertaining.

So as I look at 2010, I hope to continue to experience all of the spectacular and unexpected side effects social media, social business and social networking put before me each and every day.

We are all of us so much more than the sum of our work and it is the people with whom we work that make the work itself more pleasant…or unpleasant.

Social business provides more consistent, personal and direct access to people we like — people we want to be around and work with — which can bring greater value and meaning to how we spend our workdays.

If you’ve interacted with me here on this blog, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, meetup.com, blip.fm, slideshare.net, at a local Panera, at a conference, at a seminar or event, through email, on google wave, by phone, at one of my presentations, on a sailboat or through Social Gets Local… I just want to say thank you.

You have enriched my life — online and off.

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Thank you all so very much for supporting our holiday heifer campaign for Heifer International.

We raised $415 toward our $500 goal.

I feel VERY confident that we would have actually hit the $500 mark this past Friday had it not been for a “user error” committed by yours truly when setting up the “end time” on my ChipIn fundraising widget. (I accidentally set it to end at 12 noon instead of 12 midnight. Woops.)

Live, learn, mooooove on, right?

I look forward to sharing what I learned about social fundraising with you in a forthcoming post. Until then, congratulations and thank you for your kindness in passing on the gift.

Click here to view my official Heifer Thank You card to all of you who supported this effort — from donations to retweets to facebook posts and emails. I know you’ll miss my #heifer-inspired “Cow Tips” and action-packed cow videos as much as I will.

If it doesn’t appear above, you can view the video on YouTube: Holiday Heifer.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our community cow thus far. This has been a wonderful opportunity to experience the generosity of friends — and strangers!

I’ll write a post-holiday heifer recap of the campaign as a mini-social fundraising case study. I learned a lot about social fundraising tactics and tools (and cows, for that matter) and have a lot of ideas about what I might have done differently which I hope will be of value to both individuals and nonprofits.

Heifer International: Passing on the Gift

Thanks again. And we wish you very happy holidays.

Why a Heifer?

Here’s information direct from Heifer International:

Heifer
Heifers Equal Hope

When a family has a cow, every morning there’s a glass of rich milk for the children to drink before heading off to school. Classes are paid with the income from the sale of milk, and there’s even enough to share with the neighbors.

A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day – enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors. Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing and home improvements.

Better still, every gift multiplies, as the animal’s first offspring is passed on to another family-then they also agree to pass on an animal, and so on.

And because a healthy cow can produce a calf every year, every gift will be passed on and eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self reliance. Now that’s a gift worth giving!