Twitter and Facebook get a whole lot of face time all over the place.  But, if you are a professional, LinkedIn is where it’s at!

How to Increase Your Presence With Network Updates

An underused—yet valuable—feature on LinkedIn is the “Network Updates” element. The Network Updates box, located on your homepage below your Inbox updates, is the area that you can use as your “professional billboard,” using 140 characters or less. Want to stay top of mind with your LinkedIn connections? This tool, when used effectively, helps you do just that.

How to Monitor Who’s Viewed My Profile

Located about halfway down your LinkedIn homepage on the right-hand side is a box—”Who’s Viewed My Profile”—that gives you two statistics: how many times your profile has been viewed in the last seven days and how many times you have appeared in search results in the last seven days. Here’s advice on how and why to keep an eye on who is checking out your LinkedIn profile.

Should You Upgrade to a Paid Account?

Social networking service LinkedIn is free, but if you choose to upgrade to a paid account, you have access to additional features. Not sure what you get from the paid level of membership to LinkedIn? Here’s the lowdown on four advantages.

How to Reorder Your Profile Sections

LinkedIn announced a new feature intended to give you more control over how you present your profile. Now, instead of adhering to LinkedIn’s templated format, you can arrange the pieces of your profile (such as your summary, experience and recommendations) however you see fit. Here’s how it works.

How to Integrate LinkedIn With Outlook

A new LinkedIn beta feature allows you to sync the social networking site with Microsoft (MSFT) Outlook, giving you more transparency to your contacts and making it easier to grow your network.

You know who really has the ear of the common man?  Bloggers.

But how do you get their attention?

Well, for a lot of them, you probably won’t, but if there are some good ones locally, why not get to know them?

No one can drive traffic to a site like a good blogger!

Find local bloggers with placeblogger.com – you know the saying, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”  Who knows how you could help each other!

Did You Know You Can Subscribe To Your Google Calendar In Outlook?  Yeah, I didn’t either.

Surprisingly enough, they make it pretty easy too.

1. Log-in to your Google Calendar account.
2. On the left-hand side, click on Settings for the calendar you want to use under My calendars.
3. On the Calendars tab, click on the (account name) of your calendar.
4. The Calendar Details tab opens up. Go down to Private Address and click ICAL. Select the Internet Web address that appears, and then press CTRL+C to copy the selected text. This private link is intended for your use only.
5. Open Outlook. Go to Tools – Account Settings. On the Internet Calendars tab, click New.
6. Paste the Internet Web address copied from Google Calendar and click Add.
7. Give a name to the calendar in the Folder Name field. Now, any changes made in Google Calendar will show up in Outlook.

I don’t know about you, but this is going to save me a TON of time.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the fabulous people at Microsoft love to release new versions of their classic software every couple of years (and charge an arm & a leg every time).  And, with Office 2007, they decided to change the format of the default save to a .docx, rather than the old standard .doc.

So what do the folks who haven’t upgraded do to open those documents?

You upgrade with these patches:

Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.1

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Installing these respective updates will allow your older versions of the Office suite to read these new file formats.

The short answer?  Because it not only makes you look more professional – it also is like FREE ad space at the end of your email!

When you create an email signature, you should always include your website, links to your social media (ie. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), and of course your phone number!

Here’s how to set it up in gmail:

Step 1:  Log in to your Gmail.

Step 2:  Select “Settings” in the upper right hand corner of the page

Step 3:  Locate the Signature field, and enter the info you desire to have as your signature (typing in this box automatically turns on the signature option)

Step 4:  Save changes to your account.

Step 5:  TEST IT!!

Trust me on step 5.  You will want to test before you send to the general public!

I’m not going to lie – Photoshop is probably the best image editing software on the market.  It also has a hefty price tag of $699.  So, unless you edit images for a living, chances are you, aren’t going to be buying Photoshop any time soon, right?

Well, I’ve got a great alternative for you – Picasa.

I’ve blogged about Picasa before – it was part of my Technology Makeover series.  It’s no secret that I love it.

But, is it really a good program?  YES!

With Picasa, you can:

• Edit photos (red-eye removal, saturation/brightness fixes, and tons more!)
• Create Albums
• Tag and sort photos/albums
• Tag geographically
• Share with friends
• Make awesome backgrounds
• and tons more!

Check out my friend @keithprivette’s twitter page to see an awesome example of what you can do with Picasa.  He did a great job with his background, and he did it completely with Picasa!

To learn more about Picasa, and all the awesome stuff you can do with it, check out my latest webinar, on Monday February 8th!

Register Here

If there is one tool that you should be using for your business, it’s Twitter.  It allows you to not only find and connect with your market, but it helps you really develop key relationships with them too.

That being said, if you have ever been on Twitter, it can be a teensy bit overwhelming.  Especially if you are following a large number of people.  How can you manage it, and still have a productive work day?

If you are trying to do it on your own, chances are you will fail.  It is super easy to be sucked into the world of your “tweeps”, and lose a whole day chatting with them.  But, that isn’t going to get your or your business anywhere.

You need to use Twitter to your advantage, and not let it take control of you.

Here are my Top 10 Tools for Twitterizing Your Biz:

1. Socialoomph

Socialoomph has a free service that is great for scheduling tweets.  Please, don’t schedule all day every day, because that isn’t going to get anyone anywhere.  And definitely don’t rely solely on your scheduled tweets to interact with people.  If used wisely, you can use this tool to schedule inspirational quotes and catchy tips relating to your business.

You can also do their paid service, and post your updates to your Facebook profile and Fan page.

2. Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is a desktop application that you download to your computer to get the constant stream of tweets from the people you follow, any topic that you search for, and your own tweets.  You can also watch the tweets of your favorite tweeps.  It can get hectic, so you might just want to keep it to a minimum.

You can post to Twitter and Facebook with Tweedeck.  Last I knew, you could not schedule tweets ahead.

Tweetdeck is FREE.

3.  Hootsuite

Hootsuite is very much like Tweetdeck, but it’s an online application.  Nothing to download, and you can schedule tweets ahead.

BUT, if you want something that you can download, now you can.  I LOVE THIS.

I like the usability of Hootsuite and the general look of it.  Hootsuite now allows you to update Facbook and LinkedIn as well as Twitter and Ping.fm.  Hootsuite is free too.

4. FriendorFollow

FriendorFollow is a handy little tool that allows you to see who is reciprocating your frienship, and who is ignoring you.   You can then easily unfollow them if it offends you that they aren’t following you back.

5.  Twittergrader

See how you fare on the ratio of friends/followers and number of tweets.  Valuable information to have, becaue it gives you perspective on how popular your tweets are, and which direction you should steer future tweets.

6.  Tweepler

Super awesome program that allows you to sort and categorize your new followers.  You can view of list of your new followers and decide whether to keep them or ignore them.

Reduces clutter (I’m a big fan of that…) and helps you sort out those crazy porn people before they put icky status updates in your stream.

Incorporate at least one or two of these applications to make your twitter experience more profitable and less overwhelming!

Now that you know how to brand your channel, and upload your videos, let’s talk about how to really use these videos to market your business.

Let’s revisit 5 of my earlier top 10 reasons to use YouTube, and talk about how to specifically use them.

Create short videos of valuable tips of interest to your clients and prospects to show off your expertise.

There is no better way to position yourself as an authority on any topic than to make a series of videos that show people how to do something.  If they learn one thing from you, great.  But if they learn a whole series of tips from you, they will keep coming back for more – and they will tell their friends and colleagues about you.

Introduce your staff to add authenticity.

Doesn’t it make you feel better when you know that there are real people behind a business?  It not only increases the comfort level for your clients, but it also makes you and your team seem more authentic.  Building relationships is key to good business – and whether you know your clients well or not – it’s important that they feel like they know you.

Promote your events using recordings of previous events.

If you have footage of other events you’ve spoken at, post them.  It’s a great way to introduce your style, and encourage people to come to your new events.  It will allow potential clients to connect with you and realize they totally dig the way you present material.

Post customer video testimonials to add to your credibility.

Another way to prove you are the expert is to have real customers talk about how awesome you are!

Okay, now you are all set with your tricked out YouTube Channel.  The branding reflects your main web site and your profile is set up.

Now what?

Start adding some videos!

This seems like a semi-intimidating idea, but it’s really super easy.

Here are the steps to get your started.

*Two things to keep in mind – The max size for videos is 2GB – and you can only upload videos that are saved as .avi, .mpg, .mov or .wav (if you don’t know what that means, comment on this post, and I’d be happy to help you with it).

1. Click the “Upload”  button in the upper-right-hand corner of any YouTube page.
2. Click the “Browse” button to browse for the video file you’d like to upload to our site. Select the file you want to upload.
3. Click the ‘Upload Video’ button to start the uploading process.
4. As the video file is uploading, enter as much information about your video as possible in the relevant fields (including Title, Description, Tags, and Category). You’re not required to provide specific information, but the more information you include, the easier it is for users to find your video!
5. Click the ‘Save changes’ button to save the updates you’ve made to the video file.

It can take just a few minutes or up to an hour for your video to upload.  Be patient, and follow the directions that YouTube gives you.

That’s it!

Once your video is uploaded, start tweeting and mentioning your video on Facebook.  Make sure you interact with the comments that you receive – it’s a great way to build lasting relationships!