I go back and forth on this all the time with people.  I must be the weakest link in the chain of people I know, because I just get cold feet when it comes to un-friending a person from my Facebook account.

Cover of Friends Forever (I Am Reading)

I asked several people with high friend counts recently what the criteria is that they use to make this decision.  Mike M told me he follows his gut for some people, and he also purges his lists of MLM-ers and “get rich quick” types.

Christine E told me she removes people she doesn’t really know who jam up her news feed and that was after I asked her why she deleted me.  Seriously.  In fairness to her, I get it.  I post a lot.  I experiment with my postings too.  Sometimes I post to the public.  Other times I just post to friends.  Then I will customize and post to specific lists, and that usually means hiding my post from my “None of Your Business” list.  Christine and I do not know each other well, and in kidding around about it she sent me a friend request, but I in turn put her on my “None of Your Business” list and she rarely gets my updates on her newsfeed.  I actually added two more people to this list today because I knew in listening to them I was showing up too much.

I thought about this and decided it was time to start to use my lists more often.  I have over 850 friends, and they are all on a list, but posting to a specific list becomes a chore after a while so I get lazy and let the updates fall where they may.

However the other day I started looking at all 856 friends and I realized that some of these people have to go.  That started the nightmare of who should stay and who should go, and being that I am in business, I subscribe to the reasoning that if I choose the wrong person, I may have just lost a business opportunity.  You never know who knows whom and that is why I hesitate when it comes to removing a friend.

I prefer to unsubscribe if I have that option or to hide that person entirely.

I have not un-friended anyone in a long time.  These are my reasons:

1. It hurts people’s feelings
2. I don’t know who they might know
3. I live in a smaller town
4. If I make the wrong choice it could kill me in the world of networking.

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Image via CrunchBase

Image via Wikipedia

I know you are all upset about the new Facebook changes and they have your panties all in a wad (or your shorts if you are a guy or a

woman who wears shorts.)

The truth is you need to be ready for this, and there is no better time than now to clean up your old photos.  I didn’t and the other day I had fun with an app that makes a movie out of your Timeline.  In the middle of my fun movie this idiot showed up in a picture with me that made me want to barf.  I had to spend over 2 hours going through all my old photo albums on Facebook to get rid of this idiot.

So clean up your old sh*t because Timeline is coming – like it or not it is coming.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Carole Sanek

Timeline finally arrived in splendor (or not) and I have been reading what my friends have to say about it, and I have paid particular

Image by Omnitographer via Flickr

attention to those friends who have not embraced it (yet).

I did a “legal” hack into Timeline last summer so I had plenty of time to get used to it, but I do not have enough time in the day to use it to the max.  Adding events to my Timeline is low on my priority list.

One of my gripes is that I don’t seem to get notifications for things people say or like on my wall.  I posted that and someone pointed out that happened with the “old” Facebook.  It probably did but on the wide screen of Timeline, where things bounce around, I notice it more. In fact I have to go look at my wall more now to see if I missed anything.

Speaking of missing things on your wall – I found the fix for that too.  It took time, it took me 5 hours last week and a neck ache, but I fixed it and this time it is going to stay fixed.

I put every single friend on a list.  First I went to all my lists and deleted ones I don’t use any more.  Then I created new lists and I painstakingly added everyone to a new list.

Image via Wikipedia

I have Super Friends, I have Special Friends, I have an In General list.  I have a list named None of Your Business, I have a local list to where I live, a 2 lists for organizations I belong to, you get the idea.

Then I would mouse over the pictures of my friends and add them to a list, then I would mouse over the Subscribe area and choose either “Close Friend” or “Acquaintance” – and my final step was to then select how many posts I wanted to see from these people, I would uncheck “games” and I also unsubscribed to some whose posts are not what I want to see.

I like the unsubscribe option.  I don’t like to unfriend people, mostly because you do not know whom that person could be connected to (unless they are a total dirt ball) so I unsubscribe to them instead and “poof” they are gone from my wall.

Now I make sure I remember to add people to lists and choose my subscribe options immediately when we become friends.

Why are lists important?  I have said this before – because you can open the list and see a live stream of conversation from everyone you have put there.  How is this going to help you?  Well let’s say you are selling a service – maybe social media, and you open the list and see that someone is saying they need to hire someone to help them be better at it………wouldn’t you send them a private message listing all the wonderful things you do?  I do.

Lists are the only way I know to not miss anything your friends say – and yes it is something extra to do in your already busy life, but a live stream of conversation that could put some coin in your pocket?  What sayeth you about that?

Come Fly With Me again soon.

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Image by tinyfroglet via Flickr

Have you been running around in circles trying to figure out a way to get the word out about an event you or your company is having? Have you used traditional email blasts over and over again with not very impressive results? Are you dialing for RSVP’s? Are you tired of spending hours of your precious time doing these things when you could be doing things that put money in your pocket?

Boy have I got an idea for you.

I bet you have never considered using an event service such as Eventbrite. You type in a few words and hit send and the site handles the rest. You can customize the event and send it out all neatly packaged in a format to match what you are doing.

AND it’s FREE as long as the event you are creating is also FREE!

Who doesn’t love FREE?

Who doesn’t like setting up an event in 3 minutes too? I am President Elect for the Tampa Women’s Council of Realtors. We are going to hold monthly tech/social media roundtables and I have already seen what using Eventbrite can do to make my work easier. Invitees can accept or decline as soon as they open an invite and this will just make everyone’s life simpler all the way around.

We all know snail mail gets tossed in the trash can before it gets read and snail mail doesn’t fall into my favorite category of FREE. Try it – I guarantee you will like it or I will give you your money back-oh that’s right it is FREE!

JUST SAY NO TO SNAIL MAIL!

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Image by oriolsalvador via Flickr

It can take you to infinity and back if you work it the right way.  The keyword in that statement is of course “work”.  Those of us who are serious about our businesses know that.  I commented on a link today that my time spent in social media is 90% business and 10% social. I preach being social because otherwise your friends have hidden you by now.  Being social builds trust too, people will want to do business with you because they feel they do know something about you.

With that being the case I will ask this again.  Where can social media networking take you? If you follow the walk I walk called the “3 C’s to (insert platform of choice) Success ” you may find yourself much in demand as a public speaker like I am.  Of course you have to like being in front of a crowd to do this with panache.  I will share with you that having people come up to you at an event and know whom you are by your face is a big ego boost.

I wanted work in the public speaking arena.  I accomplished that by using social media the right way.  Questions on that?  I got there using the 3 C’s.  Still wondering about those 3 C’s?  Ask me I am only an email away and I promise I do not try to sell you anything.  I don’t have to sell, my reputation does that for me.

Where else can social media take you?  The top post on your follower’s personal profile walls would be a good place to be.  Agree?  Or maybe to a list of people that your Twitter followers put you on because you Tweet with relevancy.

My husband’s favorite social media platform is LinkedIn.  He followed the 3 C’s and landed an interview with a national real estate company whom he contracted with for 5 years as a Broker for the ENTIRE STATE OF FLORIDA.  Now that’s a major accomplishment.

Just remember nothing, or almost nothing, this good happens overnight. It takes time and effort to build a following but if you build it right they will come.  Social media networking can be the method of transportation that takes you to infinity and beyond.

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Image by cindy47452 via Flickr

I am taking a detour from my usual rants and raves about social media marketing and stepping up to the plate to write about networking face to face.

For over a year now I admit I have been attending various different networking events in my area and while I have gotten business from these events, I also realize that in many cases they are a waste of my time and they get expensive.  There is always a meal of some sort involved and usually food that isn’t good for you.  I picture all of us in 10 years as overweight people barely able to fit in a restaurant booth saying “Eh?  What did he just say?”

I know some people are going to stop reading my article right here thinking I am one of “those” anti-networking people.  I am not.  I just had to set boundaries and stop thinking and believing that if I went to all these things I was running with the big dogs.

My husband would willingly go along for one or two meetings and then he would remind me that I am seeing the same old/same old people everywhere I go and gaining weight along the way.  :-)

About a month ago I attended a wonderful seminar by a group of hometown guys (Chicago) who are very successful at what they do.  They still market the “old” way.  Yes they use social media, but they also send handwritten notes, they do pop-in visits (we called these cold calls in the day) and they only attend networking meetings in their niche market.

In other words if they were in landscaping they might attend meetings they find advertised about yard care.  If they are in real estate, they might attend a short-sale seminar. If they are in car repair they might be giving a seminar on how to make your vehicle last longer especially in this economy.

I belong to my local Chamber of Commerce.  Now that is where networking really got started.  If anyone knows how to do it right, they do.  The membership you can reach is more than you will ever reach sitting in a restaurant.  I chose to belong because this is where my own business will grow.  But I know I cannot stop there.  I cannot think locally with what I do and expect to survive.  I have to think statewide next, then nationally.

I do believe that there are good networking meetings. In fact I believe there are great networking meetings.  The great ones know how to run meetings that motivate people.  They bring in people with the skills to do that.  They help people develop skills they might be missing.  They teach leadership. When you leave a meeting like this you are inspired, you are not leaving asking yourself “why did I eat that?”

In all my years of sales and marketing training I know you have to press the flesh. I know you have to meet people one on one.  I know you have to make some cold calls.  I know you are not going to be successful seeing the same people over and over with no results.  That is a play on the definition of insanity.

I left that seminar several weeks ago with a reminder that the old ways still work and that using a mixture of what is popular today, sprinkled in with setting a goal of talking to so many people you don’t know, will equal success eventually.  People say no 7 times before they will say yes.

The next time you walk into that networking meeting I want you to take inventory of who is there.  Count up the businesses and then ask yourself how many of these people are really going to buy from you or refer to you.  What are the chances they will?  Now, ask yourself how are you going to meet the thousands of people not at those meetings?

The bottom line question to ask yourself is this; what is my ROI (return on investment)?  You have your time spent, the gasoline to get there, the food you eat – add this all up.  Now figure out how much business you have gotten that has given you cash in your pocket.  If the cash in your pocket is more than what you spent, keep doing what you are doing.  If it is not, it may be time to think of a new plan because you are throwing money and other opportunities away.

If you want to run with the big dogs, try being the only dog out there for a while and when people start to sniff out your success you will be the leader of the pack.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Carole Sanek

The number one question I get asked every time I give a presentation is this; “How do I get more likes (fans) on my Facebook page?”

My answer, in my head is oh crap what do I tell them now?  There are 100+ posts on Google I am sure all answering this question and all spewing bullshit.  I am serious.  Getting more fans on your page has to do first of all with what the page is about.

For example I have a page called (here comes the shameless promotion) – After Breast Cancer Reviving Surviving Thriving.  I built this page for women and men who want to let go of the fear and thrive but can’t.  It has been growing slowly, very slowly, drive me crazy slowly.  Now it is doing better and the reason is simple it goes back to what the page is about.

If someone is afraid to thrive they still want the comfort of a warm fuzzy blanket and hot chocolate, so I had to change my posts.  After all it isn’t about me (while it really is) but it is about them in their minds.  I added pink photos about 3 times a week.  I don’t mean pink ribbon photos, no anything pink and relaxing to them.  I also added inspiring quotes that I borrow wherever I see them.  Yes I give credit to the original post person as that builds my credibility as a good person and I am.

This page will grow now because I am giving my likers what they came there for and they will pass the page on to others.

Are you getting this?  I use photos and videos, music and inspirational to build trust and more fans.

Just don’t get all worried about numbers of likes because I am here to tell you right now you can have 10,000 fans and zero Google spiders crawling all over your page because your content sucks.  Google loves photos, and Google loves videos even more.  I have 153 likes on my breast cancer page – and I am on the first page of Google if you search “surviving breast cancer”.  Google spiders love my page and THAT is the answer – THAT is how you grow your fans.  You must understand them first and then make it all about them. Got it?  Now get them!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Carole Sanek

Image via CrunchBase

Let’s start with Privacy Settings since I truly believe this is one of the most important parts of being on Facebook.

I am a user of lists.  I create lists for everything.  So when my changes happened last week naturally I was out of town teaching Facebook.  I was blind-sided.

The first thing I noticed was that now when I chose the dropdown before sharing I have 3 choices.  Public.  Friends. Custom.  Public took the place of “everyone”.  I always use the Custom option so when I went to do that the first time everything was fabuloso.  When I went to use it a second time my “Custom Privacy” from my main Privacy Settings did not override per usual and I had to enter the people the post was not to be shared with.  I did not like this.

I am still waiting on an answer to that one.  I liked the fact I had created a default privacy setting.  Now I have a postie note on my computer reminding me to not just post.  Bummer.

I did some digging and found a video and I will share the link at the end of this post but it doesn’t address my default settings on who can see my wall posts.  Doubly bummed.

It’s cool that if you shared with the wrong people you can change your update quickly so you don’t spoil a surprise hopefully.

Here are 2 more new features for privacy on Facebook.

1.  You can approve or reject any post or photo you are tagged in before it’s visible to anyone else on your profile.

2.  You have the option to review, approve or reject any tag someone tries to add to your photos and posts.

I will talk about this more on Friday when I blog again.  Meantime happy privacy to you.

https://www.facebook.com/about/sharing/

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Carole Sanek

Image via Wikipedia

I do, so I took a week off because this week I go to the biggest event of the year in Florida on Social Media.  I am attending ReBAR Camp in Orlando followed by 3 days of my state convention – Florida Realtors.

Yes, I am a proud REALTOR.  I keep my license active not necessarily to sell real estate but because I do all the marketing for our agency. I also like partying with the real experts in Social Media.  I want to point out that you can learn a lot from REALTORS who use Social Media.  We are a huge group up on the latest and the greatest.

I will be blogging everything I learn and I will also be posting several times a day on my Facebook page – you do follow me there right?

My Facebook Link

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Carole Sanek

Image via Wikipedia

I would be willing to bet there are over 1000 articles giving advice on how to get great SEO, how to be successful on whatever, how to get 10,000 fans and so forth and so on.

I read them too, and then I start to see a common denominator, they are almost all the same, just authored by different people.

Last week I had the chance to talk with a very successful business woman, whose success has multiplied since being on social media.

I asked her how she feels she is different.  Her answer surprised me.  She uses Facebook, for example, for social reasons.  I started paying more attention and even went to her personal wall, and what to my wondering eyes should appear?  She has no business comments on her wall.  She has a business page, but her wall is all about her plans, her new car, her life.

Then I remembered a webinar I had been on recently where the host stated that for every 1 business post you make anywhere, you need to post 10 personal posts.  I don’t totally agree with that.  I feel 5 -6 personal posts would probably work just as well.

I decided though to give it a whirl.  People do like to know you, it builds their trust in you if they know you.

People also do not like to be sold, they love to buy though so why not make yourself a little more personable?

I have a friend on Facebook who is 100% business all the time, nights and weekends, holidays included and I groan inwardly when I see his posts.  He needs to stop the insanity or he will lose his audience.

Social Media is about being social – so my advice in jump starting your road to success and pull ahead of the rest would be that you should post personal tidbits AND more often than you post business posts.

Come fly me with again soon and let me know how it is working for you, or share your ideas.

Carole

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Carole Sanek