Did you ever go to a networking event or a conference and get stuck with that guy who could only talk about his business?  You know the guy (or gal) I’m referring to:  they’re focused on the hard sell, pitching their product, constantly promoting themselves or their company.  Or they’re trying to nail down an appointment with you so they can sell you something later.

I don’t know about you, but these kinds of people make me uncomfortable and I avoid them like the plague.

They have an online equivalent in the real estate industry:  real estate professionals who use their accounts to spam their followers with unending messages about the their company and the properties they have for sale.  But just as blatant self-promotion is unwelcome in face-to-face situations, it’s a turn off in social media, too.

A better strategy is to position yourself as a thought leader in the profession.  You do this by listening to prospects, communicating with colleagues, sharing knowledge, and offering ideas.   You do more listening than talking, and you strive to make your social medial presence more of a conversation than a commercial. You bring value to the table.

Granted, it takes a little more work to bring a thoughtful, value-added approach to your social media campaign.  But, if you do it well your following—and your business—will grow.

When someone starts following you on Twitter, Twitter sends you an e-mail so that you have the opportunity to follow them back.

Recently, I received a follow notification from a real estate professional who was obviously new to Twitter.  Up to that point she had sent out 7 tweets—all of them describing properties for sale.  Also up to that point, she was following about 2,300 people.

She was taking what I would call the shotgun approach to using Twitter:  blast as many people as possible with your message.  Don’t worry if you don’t know these people and they don’t know you.  Don’t worry if your messages are repetitive or even boring. It doesn’t even matter if the people you’re following are in other countries and speak a language other than English (as is true for some of her followers) and therefore not likely to be interested in property for sale in your small Midwestern town.  At least you can tell your clients that you are using a Twitter to market homes.

True, but irrelevant.

Twitter is a great tool when used well.  It’s wonderful, for example, for staying in touch with people, building relationships, keeping abreast of what’s going on in your community or the world, and sharing timely, valuable information.  You can use it to meet people you might not ordinarily have met, enlarge your circle of contacts, and maybe even become known as an expert in your field.

But to use Twitter like a billboard, to constantly post useless messages about your own agenda—sadly, that squanders Twitter’s potential.

Need some ideas to help you put Twitter to work?  See our recent post.

Let’s say the name you selected for yourself on Twitter just isn’t right.

Maybe you selected it without thinking.  Or maybe you’ve changed your focus and you want a Twitter handle that more accurately reflects the direction your business is going.  Or maybe you just didn’t understand how Twitter worked when you first started using it.  In any event, it’s easy to change your Twitter name and you can do it without losing any of your followers.

1. Log on to your Twitter account and click on “Settings” at the top right.
2. Type the new username you want to use.   Twitter will confirm that your choice is available.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save” to keep your new choice. All of your tweets, followers, and settings will go with you to the new name.
3. To minimize confusion, it’s probably a good idea not to change your image right away.  Use your old image with your new name until people catch on to the change.
4. It’s also probably a good idea to recapture your old name and use it to announce your new name.  So, log out of your new Twitter account.  Log back in to Twitter as if you were a brand new user and create a new account using the name you just discarded.  (Yes, Twitter will let you do that).   Use the bio to direct visitors to your new account.  Send out a series of tweets under your old name redirecting people to your new name, something like:  “I’ve got a new name and a new attitude.  Find me at @SaunWashington.”
5. Be sure to change the links on your website and update your account information on affiliated sites like TweetDeck or Hootsuite

And that’s it.  You’re good to go.

Ning is the do-it-yourself social network application that allows anyone to create a social network centered around any topic or concept.  There are Ning networks focusing on neighborhoods and communities, Ning networks for fans of individual artists or entertainers, Ning networks that support causes and social issues. In fact, millions of Ning networks have been established, and until recently they were free to create and free to maintain.  But that’s about to change.

Recently, the creators of Ning made the decision to start charging for Ning networks in return for providing more features and more support.  The change will take place starting in July.  That means if you created a social network using Ning, you’ve got to decide whether to keep your group and start paying, or dissolve it.  And that can be a tough decision if you have a vibrant group with many members and lots of activity.

If you’re a WordPress users have a third option.  You can use BuddyPress, a free WordPress plug-in that lets you transform a WordPress blog into a social network site.  Then you can use a Ning to BuddyPress importer to migrate your users to your BuddyPress-created social network.

BuddyPress is completely customizable so that it can have the look and feel you want.  It gives network members an activity stream that lets them follow the actions of their friends à la Facebook; it also allows them to create profiles and set up blogs.  It has groups, forums, private messaging and a growing number of plug-ins that extend its capabilities.

It has the potential for a number of really great real estate applications and—better than Ning or Facebook—you own the content, you set the terms of service, and the members and their information belong to you.  What could be better than that?

If you have network built on Ning, take a look at what  BuddyPress can do.

It’s almost impossible to be successful in any field of endeavor without promoting yourself.  Yet, in Western culture, at least, egregious self-promotion is considered taboo.  This is especially true in social networking where the best way to create a negative image is to shamelessly and inappropriately call attention to yourself.

You’ve seen people who do this.  They write comments on other people’s blog posts, but the comments have nothing to do with that blog; the comments are about them with a link to their stuff.  Or, they invite you to connect with them and soon you’re deluged with messages about them, their product, their next seminar, or whatever it happens to be.

These people are boors.  Like the guy at the party who corners you and won’t stop talking about himself, you always want to get away from them.  And of course, you don’t want to be like them.

So how can you use social media for self-promotion without coming across as offensive?  Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Never Use Someone Else’s Platform To Advance Your Cause. Recall how shockingly rude Kanye West appeared when he stole the mic from another artist during an awards ceremony to promote his own agenda.  Never try to promote yourself on a site that’s about something else and never try to call attention to yourself in the comment section of someone else’s blog.
2. Promote Yourself by Promoting Others. Find people in your network whose work you admire or who are doing things that are laudable and talk about them.  When you promote others, people notice you too.
3. Be Humble. Give lots of praise to others. Take little for yourself.
4. Take an Interested in Others. When you’re genuinely interested in other people, they will be interested in you.  Don’t beat people over the head with messages about what you can do for them.  Instead, get to know them.  Ask about what they do.  Invite them to talk about their projects or what’s going on in their lives.  Rejoice in their successes.  Empathize with their challenges.
5. Help Your Contacts Find Clients. If people in your network are in business, ask them what they’re looking for in a customer, then introduce them to people in your network who meet that profile.  The contacts you help in this way will always be on the lookout for ways to return the favor.
6. Introduce Your Friends to One Another. If there are people in your network who have much in common or who would certainly become friends, introduce them to each other or arrange a get-together.  As their relationship grows, both parties will remember you fondly.
7. Be Subtle with Blogging. Blogging is one of the best ways to subtly make people aware of what you know or what you can do.  When you publish articles in your area of expertise week in and week out, people come to understand how knowledgeable you are without you having to explicitly say so.
8. Bring People Together with Blogging, Wikis or Other Interactive Sites. The most successful sites bring people with similar interests together by inviting them to write articles and make comments.  All of the people who participate on your site will see you as the expert because you made the venue available and you moderate the discussion.
9. Beware of Spamming People. Self-promotion can easily cross the line and become spam.  When you want to let people know about a new project or a success, send out one or two messages and let it go at that.  Never bombard your contacts with constant or repetitive messages about what you’re doing.  It’s the best way to get people to disconnect and start ignoring you.

What else would you add?

It’s easy to schedule social media posts so that they appear automatically when you’re busy or traveling.  WordPress lets you schedule posts to appear in the future, Twitter lets you automate direct messages, and applications like Sendible and Ping.fm let you pre-post to just about any social media site you belong to.

But just because something is technically possible doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. The ability to automate your posts can be a huge convenience for busy professionals, but used in the wrong way, it can be a nuisance, an insult to friends and followers, or even unethical.

If you plan to schedule your posts, keep these considerations in mind:

1. Don’t send an automated Direct Message to everyone who follows you on Twitter, especially one that says something like “check out my website” or “buy my product.”  It’s inauthentic and many people on Twitter hate those automatic DMs.
2. Don’t autopost every Twitter message to Facebook or LinkedIn.  Twitter followers expect frequent posts all day long, but constant posting can be annoying on Facebook or LinkedIn.
3. Honor the application.  If you must post to several sites at once, make sure your post is relevant.  A message that’s perfectly OK on Facebook, for example, may be highly inappropriate on Linkedin.   Likewise, lengthy blog posts sent to Twitter are silly.
4. Don’t repeat the same Twitter message over and over again.  It turns you into a pest.  Repeating Twitter messages to impact the workday in other time zones is OK, but limit your repeats to 3 or 4 spaced 8-10 hours apart.
5. Don’t schedule automatic posts so that they come one after another.  Instead, space them throughout the day.
6. Never use automatic posting to fake, deceive, or pretend you’re something or somewhere that you’re not.
7. Beware of autoposting schemes that will use your account to spam friends and followers.
8. Avoid autoposting schemes that scrape or steal content from other people and post it as yours.  If an autoposting service is offering some spectacular result that seems too good to be true—it’s probably not true.
9. Don’t use autoposting exclusively.  Use it from time to time when your schedule keeps you from posting when you want to, but be sure to also post live so you can interact with others.
10. Don’t autofollow everyone on Twitter who follows you.  Instead, interact in a personal way with as many new followers as you can.  Remember, its called social networking for a reason.
11. Don’t just set it and forget it.  Monitor your autoposts to be sure they’re presenting you in the way you intended.
12. By default, autoposting is about me (what I’m reading, what I’ve written, what I’m doing), but social networking should really be about others.  This is one more reason to limit your autoposting and to interact live.
13. It’s OK to use automatic birthday reminders, but be caring and real enough to send a live birthday message to friends instead of one you schedule in advance.

What else should be included?

If you use social media to promote yourself or to attract and engage prospective customers, your blog posts and status updates gives friends and prospects a glimpse of what kind of professional you might be if they were to hire you.  So every post should be well thought-out and critically evaluated before you press that enter button.

Readers have a limited amount of time and because there’s so much content online, they have to pick and choose.  Why should they follow you rather than someone else?

Therefore, before you post, consider the following:

Value.  Is this message important?  Does it impart value to the reader? Does it answer a question or solve a problem for them?  Does it give them information they don’t already have?  Better yet, does it give them information they can’t get anywhere else?  Does it make them want to comment or answer back?  Does it make them want to save your message or share it with someone else?  By reading it, will they see you as someone who adds genuine value and is worth doing business with?

Viewpoint.  Let’s face it, everything you post is not meant to be a learning experience.  Sometimes your status updates will be insightful or personal.  So the question is, do you present a unique point of view?  Will friends and followers relish your posts for your good humor or your unusual take on the day’s topic?  Do you possess an outlook that sets you apart?  Are your messages worth reading because each contains a special little bit of you?

Verve.  Finally, are you exciting, energetic, entertaining?  Do you move people emotionally or spiritually?  Do your messages uplift?  Do they make people laugh or at least smile?  Do they make people think?  Does the information on your site or its very design convey something that grabs people? Will this post make people want to read more? Will readers feel like they’re missing out if they don’t subscribe or check back another time?  What is it about this post that will make readers want to come back again and again?

Certainly, everything you post is not going to meet all of these criteria every single time.  Your aim, however, should be to gradually, through a series of posts, shape the image your readers have of you.

Keep in mind that the words and images you post become you, especially for people who’ve never met you.  So craft your online image with care.

It’s a New Year and that means it’s a good time to take stock of where you are with technology and marketing.  So to go along with your New Year’s Resolution, we offer this Technology To-Do List for 2010.

1. Clean Out Your E-mail Inbox.  Seriously, do something with all those messages!  Put them in folders or delete them so that you can start the year fresh.  Ditto for the documents cluttering your desktop.
2. Change Your Passwords.  It’s not a good idea to use the same password on all of the websites you visit and the passwords you do use should be changed from time to time. The start of a new year is a good time to change them.  See my article on password security and tips on how to remember your new passwords.
3. Develop (or Review) Your Social Networking Strategy.  If you’re not actively social networking, you’re missing the potential to connect with hundreds of friends, former clients and would-be clients.  If you’re already active in social networking, consider what applications you use, how much time you spend, and what’s working and not working for you.  Adapt your strategy accordingly.
4. Set Up Your Fan Page.  Make sure that your social networking strategy includes the creation of a Facebook Fan Page.  Fan Pages help you separate your professional self from your personal self and allow you establish and strengthen your professional brand.
5. Organize Your Contacts.  Are there people you’ve been out of touch with?  Are there others you need to look for on Facebook or LinkedIn?  Are old names and e-mail addresses cluttering your contact list?  Take some time to clean out old information and to reconnect with people you haven’t seen or heard from in awhile.
6. Create Your Marketing Plan. Where will you get business in 2010?  What can you do to make it more likely that people looking to buy or sell property this year will work with you?  Prepare a written plan that describes how much you intend to make this year and the specific things you intend to do to meet that income goal.
7. Always Be Learning.  Technology never stands still and neither should you.  Determine what new skill or new technology you need to master this year and develop a plan for how you will learn it.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”  That’s a refrain my dad used from time to time and I guess it was his way of admitting that he was far from perfect.  In the same fashion, I also say that I’m not perfect when it comes to handling social media over the holidays.

Blogging presents the biggest problem; when I’m taking time off, I don’t want to have to write and research articles.  Fortunately, there are ways to work around that.

One solution is to blog in advance.  In WordPress, for example, you can write an article today and schedule it to be published automatically at some date and time in the future.  My article Blog While You’re On Vacation shows you how to do it.  To make this option work, of course, you’ll need to write all of your vacation articles ahead of time.

Alternatively, you can rerun articles you’ve written previously.  TV and radio shows do it all the time so that media stars and their staffs can take vacation.  If Oprah can show reruns, why can’t you?

Another option would be to find one or more guest bloggers to write in your absence.  Guest writers can sometimes bring a fresh perspective to your blog and help keep your readers engaged.  This option assumes, of course, that you can find someone to write your blog who isn’t also planning to take some time off.

In the end, I did none of these things.  Instead, I took a break from Twitter and only posted brief Merry Christmas and Happy New Year messages on my blog.  But if social networking is about establishing and maintaining connections with friends and clients, is that the best approach?

There are three types of social networking posts. Each does something a little different, but each is an important ingredient in successfully creating an online presence.

Blog Posts. Think of a blog as the main element in a stew, the meat of your Internet mélange. Blog posts can be as long or as short as you wish.  They can be tightly edited and written in a journalistic style, or they can be rambling, freeform essays that chronicle your inner thoughts and feelings.  And because you can use them to write as much as you want, blogs give you a huge degree of freedom to craft your online personality.

But with blogs, it’s not just what you write.  It’s also how your blog looks and feels. When you decide to make a stew, you get to choose the main ingredient; will it be a Louisiana-style gumbo with crayfish and crabs, or will you be boiling corned beef and cabbage?

It’s the same way with your blog.  You choose the style.  Will it be colorful and crazy?  Or will an understated black and gray color scheme suit your purpose better?  Will it have a slick, polished look?  Or will it be more folksy and friendly?  The words you choose, the slant and style of the writing, the look and feel of the site—you get to put it all together.   And the choices you make impact your image online.

Status Updates. Status updates give you the opportunity to let people know what you’re doing throughout the day.   They’re kind of like the vegetables in your stew:  add some of this and some of that.  If you’ve got carrots, put them in.  If not, the potatoes and onions will be fine by themselves.

Status updates are what’s happening with you now—whatever you happen to have at the moment.  They can be funny and personal or they can herald your latest professional accomplishments.  It’s all up to you; whatever you can share in a few sentences. Throw in some pictures if you have them.  Get feedback from your friends and fans.  Stir it all up to blend the flavors nicely.

Micro-blogging Posts.  Finally, there’s micro-blogging.  Think of it as the seasoning:  a pinch here and a dash there.  The best cooks know how to work magic with seasoning and you can do the same with micro-blogging.

Twitter has become the cornucopia of micro-blogging.  And while some people use Twitter mostly for status updates, it’s really most powerful as a micro-marketing tool.  Share blog posts and news stories about events that interest you.  Give people a sense of who you are by what kind of content you link to.  Gain followers by adding value based on the content you share.  Remember all the while that—just like in a well-seasoned dish—simplicity and subtly often work best.

These three kinds of blog posts are the elements in your online mix.  Combine them well to create an appetizing and irresistible brand.