Posts from — July 2009

I must apologize for getting off schedule. I haven’t been feeling well the last few days. I’m feeling better now. Here’s an interesting article I found about Networking. I hope you enjoy it.

Funny Networking Poem and Do’s and Don’ts
By Sheryl Nicholson

Networking Do’s and Don’ts

I always enjoy speaking at networking events. I get there an hour early to set up everything for my presentation and then I stand in the back of the room and watch people enter.

Here’s the opportunity for them to rub shoulders and minds with other professionals and yet the most common thing that is done…a hesitation when entering, a “look see” for anyone they recognize, and then a beeline to that person and a flip of a napkin on the back of their chair to guarantee a “safe seat”. What a poor investment!

The goal for networking is to EXPAND and EXCELLERATE opportunities to be of service to others. By far, being a resource of knowledge to connect others with those that can help is a much better position to hold than the “salesperson” who’s pitching their stuff.

Business has changed dramatically. At one meeting this woman had 4 different business cards holders and had to decide which one to give me. At this same meeting a man came up and confronted me with his brochure in my face and quickly told me about all the features of his business. I was looking for a plug I could pull to stop the recording! So in honor of them…I wrote this poem….

The Unproductive Networker
I’m an unproductive networker
I have cards up the wazoo
No one wants to talk to me
Or ask me what I do

I just can’t understand it
Don’t know what the problem is
I have cards of many colors
For that and that and this

I sell insurance and juices
I have vitamins galore
I set up websites on the side
And I sell candles in my store

I teach yoga in my spare time
And help smokers who want to quit
I groom doggies on the weekends
And I even clean up …sh…..oot

I work hard all day and nite
And I’m dedicated too
I want to have that real success
For me and also you

So won’t someone please help me
And tell me what to do
I’m open to receive advice
I’m listening to you

So let me give you some quick do’s and don’ts to prepare you when networking.

DO – Think about the PURPOSE of the meeting you are attending. Who’s going to be there? How can you be a resource to that audience of people? Have that one card ready to give out and only that card.

DON’T – Take out every card of every business you represent. It only looks like you are scattered and not focused or serious about doing business.

DO – Ask more questions about what the other person is looking for and why they came to this particular meeting.

DON’T – Pitch your product or services. Nobody is going to get their check book out and order and pay tonight. Be patient and realize people do business with people they like and know – so focus more on getting to know that person and the product they represent

DO – Follow up! It amazes me how many people stack their cards and put rubber bands around them and that’s it. Can you remember who you saw when? Did you call them, write or send an email to maintain a relationship with these people?

I believe if you breathe air you bring a gift to lifes’ party. When I walk in a room I can’t wait to unwrap those gifts to find commonalities and THEN do business. Try it – it makes networking exciting and FUN!

CSP Sheryl Nicholson http://www.sheryl.com SIGN UP there for more FREE articles

International Professional Speaker and Nationally Published Author Presents training programs on People Skills. Topics include Leadership, Communication, Team Building, Sales and Customer Service

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If you’ve just started a blog, this post is for you.  This post will give you some important principles to follow so you can have a successful blog.

Principle #1-Define success in your own terms.You have to decide for yourself what a successful blog looks like. Is the weblog bringing you a lot of money? Do you have a lot of loyal subscribers? It all depends on what you want.

Principle #2-Post regularly.You don’t have to post three times in one day. You do have to decide on a schedule that you can stick to. You’ll turn your readers off if you post on an irregular schedule.

Principle #3-Check your sources before you repeat a story.I can’t stress this point enough. There are a lot of fake news sites out there. I know you want to be the first to break a story, but you need to make sure something is actually true before you report on it. The last thing you want is to gain a reputation for reporting inaccurate news.

Principle #4-Post original content.People want to see what YOU have to say about your topic of choice. You do your readers a disservice if you just repeat what other people have to say about your topic. Even if you disagree with the mainstream, post your opinion. This is your site, you don’t have to agree with what everyone else says.

This week’s etsy twitter shop of the week is beadworkbyamanda.etsy.com . She has a really neat shop. She takes circuit boards that are getting thrown out and recycles them into jewelery as shown below.

Before I dive into the meat of this blog post, let me give you some background on why I was inspired to write this post. The inevitable happened.

My mom and dad joined Facebook about 2 weeks ago. After I got over the initial panic that set in, I started reading my mom’s posts. One of the first things she posted was, “Oh so this isn’t a blog(parpahrasing)”. Now I could have just commented on that post and went on about my merry little way.

However, I figured that if my mom, savvy techie that she is, had that question, I bet a lot of other people were wondering the same thing. So here is my attempt to explain the difference between a blog and social media.

The main difference between a blog and social media is that most social media sites don’t have an rss feed. Basically the rss (really simple syndication) feed is what makes your blog a blog and not just a regular website. That is the biggest difference that I can see between a blog and a social media profile.

Agree? Disagree? Put your thoughts in the comment section.

Yes I know this is outside of my normal schedule.  However, I felt like this  was an important enough topic to deviate from my normal schedule just a tad.  I firmly believe in supporting charities whenever I can.  Read on for more information about how you can support charity through social media.

This post is a collaboration between Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell‘s “10 Ways” series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs.

Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That’s one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you’d like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Write a Blog Post

Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a charity or cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days — whether that means a site running WordPress, an account at LiveJournal, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you’re passionate about, you’re helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential.

Recently, a group of green bloggers banded together to raise individual $1 donations from their readers. The beneficiaries included Sustainable Harvest, Kiva, Healthy Child, Healthy World, Environmental Working Group, and Water for People. The blog-driven campaign included voting to determine how the funds would be distributed between the charities. You can read about the results here.

You should also consider taking part in Blog Action Day, a once a year event in which thousands of blogs pledge to write at least one post about a specific social cause (last year it was fighting poverty). Blog Action Day will be on October 15 this year.

2. Share Stories with Friends

Another way to spread awareness among your social graph is to share links to blog posts and news articles via sites like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and even through email. Your network of friends is likely interested in what you have to say, so you have influence wherever you’ve gathered a social network.

You’ll be doing charities you support a great service when you share links to their campaigns, or to articles about causes you care about.

3. Follow Charities on Social Networks

In addition to sharing links to articles about issues you come across, you should also follow charities you support on the social networks where they are active. By increasing the size of their social graph, you’re increasing the size of their reach. When your charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, statistics or a link to a good article, consider retweeting that post on Twitter, liking it on Facebook, or blogging about it.

Following charities on social media sites is a great way to keep in the loop and get updates, and it’s a great way to help the charity increase its reach by spreading information to your friends and followers.

You can follow the Summer of Social Good Charities:

Oxfam America (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube)

The Humane Society (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr)

LIVESTRONG (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr)

WWF (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr)

4. Support Causes on Awareness Hubs

Another way you can show your support for the charities you care about is to rally around them on awareness hubs like Change.org, Care2, or the Facebook Causes application. These are social networks or applications specifically built with non-profits in mind. They offer special tools and opportunities for charities to spread awareness of issues, take action, and raise money.

It’s important to follow and support organizations on these sites because they’re another point of access for you to gather information about a charity or cause, and because by supporting your charity you’ll be increasing their overall reach. The more people they have following them and receiving their updates, the greater the chance that information they put out will spread virally.

5. Find Volunteer Opportunities

Using social media online can help connect you with volunteer opportunities offline, and according to web analytics firm Compete, traffic to volunteering sites is actually up sharply in 2009. Two of the biggest sites for locating volunteer opportunities are VolunteerMatch, which has almost 60,000 opportunities listed, and Idealist.org, which also lists paying jobs in the non-profit sector, in addition to maintaining databases of both volunteer jobs and willing volunteers.

For those who are interested in helping out when volunteers are urgently needed in crisis situations, check out HelpInDisaster.org, a site which helps register and educate those who want to help during disasters so that local resources are not tied up directing the calls of eager volunteers. Teenagers, meanwhile, should check out DoSomething.org, a site targeted at young adults seeking volunteer opportunities in their communities.

6. Embed a Widget on Your Site

Many charities offer embeddable widgets or badges that you can use on your social networking profiles or blogs to show your support. These badges generally serve one of two purposes (or both). They raise awareness of an issue and offer up a link or links to additional information. And very often they are used to raise money.

Mashable’s Summer of Social Good campaign, for example, has a widget that does both. The embeddable widget, which was custom built using Sprout (the creators of ChipIn), can both collect funds and offer information about the four charities the campaign supports.

7. Organize a Tweetup

You can use online social media tools to organize offline events, which are a great way to gather together like-minded people to raise awareness, raise money, or just discuss an issue that’s important to you. Getting people together offline to learn about an important issue can really kick start the conversation and make supporting the cause seem more real.

Be sure to check out Mashable’s guide to organizing a tweetup to make sure yours goes off without a hitch, or check to see if there are any tweetups in your area to attend that are already organized.

8. Express Yourself Using Video

As mentioned, blog posts are great, but a picture really says a thousand words. The web has become a lot more visual in recent years and there are now a large number of social tools to help you express yourself using video. When you record a video plea or call to action about your issue or charity, you can make your message sound more authentic and real. You can use sites like 12seconds.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube to easily record and spread your video message.

Last week, the Summer of Social Good campaign encouraged people to use video to show support for charity. The #12forGood campaign challenged people to submit a 12 second video of themselves doing something for the Summer of Social Good. That could be anything, from singing a song to reciting a poem to just dancing around like a maniac — the idea was to use the power of video to spread awareness about the campaign and the charities it supports.

If you’re more into watching videos than recording them, Givzy.com enables you to raise funds for charities like Unicef and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital by sharing viral videos by e-mail.

9. Sign or Start a Petition

There aren’t many more powerful ways to support a cause than to sign your name to a petition. Petitions spread awareness and, when successfully carried out, can demonstrate massive support for an issue. By making petitions viral, the social web has arguably made them even more powerful tools for social change. There are a large number of petition creation and hosting web sites out there. One of the biggest is The Petition Site, which is operated by the social awareness network Care2, or PetitionOnline.com, which has collected more than 79 million signatures over the years.

Petitions are extremely powerful, because they can strike a chord, spread virally, and serve as a visual demonstration of the support that an issue has gathered. Social media fans will want to check out a fairly new option for creating and spreading petitions: Twitition, an application that allows people to create, spread, and sign petitions via Twitter.

10. Organize an Online Event

Social media is a great way to organize offline, but you can also use online tools to organize effective online events. That can mean free form fund raising drives, like the Twitter-and-blog-powered campaign to raise money for a crisis center in Illinois last month that took in over $130,000 in just two weeks. Or it could mean an organized “tweet-a-thon” like the ones run by the 12for12k group, which aims to raise $12,000 each month for a different charity.

In March, 12for12k ran a 12-hour tweet-a-thon, in which any donation of at least $12 over a 12 hour period gained the person donating an entry into a drawing for prizes like an iPod Touch or a Nintendo Wii Fit. Last month, 12for12k took a different approach to an online event by holding a more ambitious 24-hour live video-a-thon, which included video interviews, music and sketch comedy performances, call-ins, and drawings for a large number of prizes given out to anyone who donated $12 or more.

I’m doing an online event this Thursday.  I’m holding a teleseminar with Willie Crawford designed to teach you how to use Easy Push Button Traffic to streamline the process of getting free targeted traffic to your website.  I’m giving $1.00 per sale (after expenses) to Water Aid America.  You can find out more information and register for the telecall by going here: http://www.deannatroupe.com/telecall

Bonus: Think Outside the Box

Social media provides almost limitless opportunity for being creative. You can think outside the box to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to raise money or awareness for a charity or cause. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, for example, he created Blame Drew’s Cancer, a campaign that encourages people to blow off steam by blaming his cancer for bad things in their lives using the Twitter hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer. Over 16,000 things have been blamed on Drew’s cancer, and he intends to find sponsors to turn those tweets into donations to LIVESTRONG once he beats the disease.

Or check out Nathan Winters, who is biking across the United States and documenting the entire trip using social media tools, in order to raise money and awareness for The Nature Conservancy.

The number of innovative things you can do using social media to support a charity or spread information about an issue is nearly endless. Can you think of any others? Please share them in the comments.

Special thanks to VPS.net

A special thanks to VPS.net, who are donating $100 to the Summer of Social Good for every signup they receive this week.

Sign up at VPS.net and use the coupon code “SOSG”to receive 3 Months of FREE hosting on top of your purchased term. VPS.net honors a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so there’s no risk.

About the “10 Ways” Series

The “10 Ways” Series was originated by Max Gladwell. This is the second simultaneous blog post in the series. The first ran on more than 80 blogs, including Mashable. Among other things, it is a social media experiment and the exploration of a new content distribution model. You can follow Max Gladwell on Twitter.

This content was originally written by Mashable’s Josh Catone except for the intro and the part about my telecall-that’s all me.