Facebook and Twitter Basics: Newbie Social Networking skills

Now I get it!

I went to Matt Bacak’s Marketing Madness #16 in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend.

Now, I am listening to Adam Urbanski, Mari Smith and Carrie Wilkerson on a phone call as I started to write this blog post.

I get some very basic things that I did not get before. I now get the big picture. That is why it is so important to go to such events. You get to see yourself as part of the marketplace and share ideas. I only met one person that I would consider a competitor and she is an awesome lady that I learnt a lot from. So, no threat there in any way shape or form. Also, she learnt a lot from me.

I get that I am an Internet marketer because I have a website and I am trying to sell my goods and services online. I have met so many other people online that do not get this very key point. My online relationships are as sacred as my offline relationships.

You maximize social networking like Twitter and Facebook by approaching it this way:

1.  You have entered into the room at a cocktail party (Twitter and Facebook);

2.  You say hello to others (add or invite followers),

3.  Read their business card (click on their website on twitter and see what they are about; read their bio on Facebook and be interested in them)

4.  Notice the few that you are interested in taking your knowledge of them to the next level (have a conversation with them)

5.  Maintain a relationship with them (keep exchanging notes on Facebook and Twitter – respond to them.

6.  Be interested and be interesting (share information and goodies with them.)

7.  Appreciate your sacred relationship with them (do not pimp followers out or ignore them or take them for granted in any way);

8.  Don’t just walk up to someone at a party and ask them for a job (do not sell something to them immediately. Give something first and infuse your communication with a lot of good vibes, quotes, interesting things you are doing. Let your sales tweets or updates on Facebook be one out of ten as a good rule of thumb.)

9.  Introduce your newly met friends with one another so you can have more connections and interaction (connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that you are consistent and you save time).

10. Be polite and say hello and goodnight to those at the cocktail party (say good morning and good night on Twitter and Facebook and tell us what is going on in your life. It makes you more human.

11.  Take your conversation to the next level. Plan to see each other again. (Connect in real life with some of your connections on Facebook and Twitter by going to Tweetups and Meet ups. Better yet, make one happen.)

12.  Celebrate your new friends lives with them. Make a note of people’s birthdays and wish them “Happy Birthday.” (Facebook will tell you your friend’s birthdays. Do not miss out on that. Be sure to wish them blessings on those special days.)

Enjoy your new found relationships. They are sacred.

Also, you can follow me:

Twitter: CoachIyabo

Facebook: Iyabo Asani

I look forward to connecting with you.

Authentic Internet Social Netorking

Writing the first post on my blog and reading the subsequent comments was an eye opening experience. First of all, writing the post made me see my own patterns of behavior with social networking.

Now that I look back at my social networking experiences, I realize that I got on Twitter and got comfortable on Twitter and developed a more formal relationship with my other social networking sites. It is kind of like feeling “at home” on Twitter and when I go to other social networking platforms, I behave as if I am a stranger: “company.”

Since the post, I have gotten a lot of feedback from uber-Facebook users and now I have a greater appreciation for Facebook. I have gotten way past the first level of setting up a profile and getting folks to follow me.

The first step was getting my Twitter feed to talk to my Facebook feed.

The second was grouping my friends so that I can find that needle in the haystack of a particular comment or feed from a particular person.

The third was putting up a couple of videos.

The fourth was getting my blog post on Facebook.

All these additional steps have me “nesting” very nicely on Facebook.

Now, I am not feeling that when I get to Facebook, a bunch of stuff is just being thrown at me and I do not know how to sort through it all.

I am more deliberate about what I do now that the vibe that I get when I log on to Facebook, is that “This is familiar” and “I have mastery and I am here to connect and give value.”

Yeah, Facebook rocks and I am enjoying my time there!

Lesson learned:

As humans, we feel that we “belong” to those things that we know. That is our default definition of identity. It is based on what we know, not what we want.

So back to Facebook and Twitter.

If the culture of a particular social networking platform seems that it does not resonate with you, go back to your original intention for joining: Connecting, getting good information, meeting great people, connecting with like minded people and ultimately making great business connections.

Now, ask yourself the following questions:

Are you presenting yourself to this social networking platform or are you hiding and lurking?

When you present yourself, do you present from a place of value or are you feeling so insecure and wondering if anyone will like you?

A year from now, if someone were to look at your social networking footprint, what will it say about you?

Did you add value to others lives?

Did you express your authentic self and can that we consistently traced on your social networking footprint?

Twitter culture vs. Facebook culture

My husband has watched me loose my mind over Twitter over the last four months. I am always tweeting and reading my tweets: On my PC, on my new MacBook and even on my phone.

He just looks at me and shakes his head.

Well, today, he hears about how Dell announces computer deals on Twitter and has made over a million dollars through their Twitter announcements. Well, being the business mind that he is, Mr. Geek MBA now wants to know all about Twitter.

Imagine my gleeful delight that I discovered Twitter and have been using it religiously long before he even saw the value. Maybe I am a “unfolding geek” after all.

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to type in messages that your followers see but you can only use 140 characters at a time.

He wanted to observe my Twitter stream and see what people were talking about. Now he is all excited and wants to get on the Twitter band wagon.

I tried to explain to him, rather disdainfully, that Twitter has a “culture” and he would be wise to observe it.

“You see,” I said, “Twitter people are very nice. They are helpful. They do not like just a strong sales pitch. They want to know who you are and what your message is. You can ask almost anything – people love to help on Twitter.”

“But isn’t that just like Facebook?” he asked with the unspoken look of “What is the big deal about Twitter?” written all over his face.

I sighed.

“No. Twitter and Facebook have distinctively different cultures. People on Facebook either want establish commerce connections to sell you something. (Including myself.) Or they want to connect with their friends.”

“But they are both Social Networking tools. They are pretty much the same.”

“Look, I have spent time on these sites. My ultimate goal is to make connections and expand my knowledge base and make great connections with authentic people. I have been able to do that more naturally on Twitter than Facebook.”

He got quiet and said, “You think they have different vibes, different cultures?”

“Of course. I never really thought about it. But Twitter is more my tribe, my culture. I prefer the vibes I get there.” I said.

Now this conversation taught me a couple of things that I had not paid attention to. I spend more time on Twitter because it feels good. It feels good because I have received a lot of love and support and made new friends on Twitter.

I also realize that as I created more resonance with Twitter, I default to Twitter. Now, being the out of the box thinker than I am, I realize that I want to challenge myself out of my comfort zone.I think I need to spend more time on Facebook and develop those relationships.

I read the feeds. I do connect with some people there. But not like I do at Twitter.

This is how we naturally gravitate to “our own.” Those that think like us, accept us, show us more love and we feel comfortable with that. Every group of people have their own culture. Seth Godin calls it “tribes.” I am not saying it is bad. But sometimes we get too comfortable in that culture or tribe.

What do you think? Does Facebook have a culture that differs from Twitter? Are you conscious of your tribes or the cultural groups that you belong to? Your company culture? Your church culture? Your Internet culture?

I would love to get your response on this.

Starbucks Barista’s: Self Leadership and the holiday season

The phone rang very late last night. It was my sister concerned about a high powered friend of hers that she could not track down. She was concerned that she may have lost her job. She said almost everyone she talks to is very nervous about their jobs and the best thing she knows to do is to support them by checking on them.

I love that about her. She has mastered the skills of caring and connecting with those she loves.

Well, this morning, I was at my local Starbucks drive through and they were featuring a new holiday drink. I asked what was in it and they offered me a sample. It was some gingerbread something or the other.  I thought I would get a tiny, tiny taster cup but I did not. Instead, I got a whole espresso sized cup of the drink as its base was espresso. Well, I am not a coffee drinker: I went for chai tea but, if I were, I would have loved that drink. The server at the window told me the name of the barista who prepared my drink and pointed her out to me. I asked them to write her name down and I went to their website and of course, I have not figured out how to give her a great recommendation but I will.

Starbucks may not call it that but they allow their employees to practice self-leadership by giving them the power to make such decisions. It is truly a great innovative company in many ways.

As I did that, I thought, wow, I am hopefully adding to her job security as I do this and yes, that is the type of cheerful, out of the box, customer service focused individual that I would like to put my energy into supporting.

Fast forward to Twitter. I love this social networking tool. I have met some of the most wonderful people on Twitter. I find so many juicy tidbits as we all love to share on twitter. So someone tweeted ( oops, twitterspeak – twitter language) Jeremiah Owyang’s blog and for the first time, I understood the excitement around a tweetup. More twitterspeak. It is where people in the same area that have connected on twitter meet up and get to know each other. Jeremiah put together this tweetup and his authenticity shines through the entire post as it became a way for prospective employers in Silicon Valley connected with those looking for jobs.

This is leadership at its very best so I know he has developed strong self-leadership traits.

What can you do to support those around you that are going through job uncertainty and economic issues? Let us expand the mindset of helping others by giving gifts this holiday season and be creative so that we are helping others in ways that are more meaningful to them?

Gift giving is wonderful and perfect. I am not knocking it. We are all doing it this Holiday season.

However, with others being so concerned about the economy, how do we help them increase their happiness.

I want to know how creative we can all be in supporting others?

Feelings: How do I feel? .#7

Actually, this is a great question for today. I feel positive and excited about the possibilities. Yesterday, my computer crashed. It was hijacked and I was somewhat scared at first. I felt shock and I could not believe it. I discovered Twitter a couple of days ago and I was so hooked, it was not even funny. So, I first went through withdrawals from the computer. But then I kept checking my email and Twitter on my iphone. Well, I finally realized what was going on.

Last week, I had a coaching client whose computer had crashed and she was absolutely devastated. I coached her through it and we talked about appreciating our technology. Well, I did spend some time appreciating my technology. I even asked my husband about the back up system on the computer to make sure that my data was safe. I thought through it all and felt comfortable that we had McAffe anti virus software.

Well, I tend to leave a whole bunch of webpages and documents open on my computer at night and I never really power down my computer. I am always working on several things at the same time. So it turns out that the anti virus software did not have a chance to work as effectively as it could have.

So, I got this bug and interestingly enough, as I type this, I realize that I also had a bug yesterday. I caught some sort of summer cold or something. That is interesting. Two bugs in one day!

Anyway, back to my feelings. I think a few months ago or even a couple of years ago, I would have had a complete and thorough meltdown complete with temper tantrum and tears but now I am actually kind of amused. It is as if I almost saw it coming. The way God talks to me is through repetition. Yes, that is how I get many premonitions. I keep hearing the same thing over and over again, from different sources.

Another person I know lost everything on her computer this week. Anyway, this much I know, I told my client to handle it by being grateful and recognize that on some level, her computer crashing was consistent with her vibre and there must be some sort of silver lining. Guess what, the same applies to me. In the back of my mind, I was concerned about my computer and all the stuff on it.

In fact, now that I think about it, my premonition about it was so strong that I woke up in the middle of the night the previous night to write and post articles on Ezinearticles.com. I recently wrote the articles and they may have been lost, if I did not post them. So what a huge blessing. I am excited about that.

I really do want a new computer. I want a MAC computer. I have used Dell computers for as long as I can remember but when I fell in love with my ipod, I decided I love Apple’s technology. My iphone is probably the best piece of technology I have ever owned, before that was my nano ipod and before that was my classic ipod. So I am here to tell you that I am ready to make that complete switch to Apple. So I want to manifest this Mac computer with ease and grace.I want it to be a great experience using it. My husband also told me that Macs do not have the same level of problems that Microsoft based computers have as the hackers out there tend to focus on Microsoft. So there, I am on to a new MAC.

Now, this was not in the budget so I am talking it up and calling it to me and having a love relationship with my Mac in anticipation of receiving it in. I can have what I want and I love that feeling. Great possibilities are coming my way. Now, of course, I prefer that I manifested it when I first wanted it and easily transitioned into the new computer and blessed the old computer away, but….. we are still growing and learning!

How do you feel today?

Affirmation: I know how I feel and I feel great.