Become a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 4)

Phase 4 of 5
In this installment, we’ll be setting up the rest of your online social media presence. After you managed these sites for a while and your confidence grows, you’ll want to go through and add more customization to each. And if you want to get really sophisticated, you can design each in such a way as to use a similar color scheme, profile language and image of you so that they have a consistent theme throughout. You’ll also want to include links to the each of the other sites from every site so people can interact with you in different ways, or at least the way of their choosing. In a future blog post, we’ll get you set up with your YouTube account. Happy socializing!

4. Setting up Facebook and LinkedIn
4.1. Go to www.facebook.com
4.2. Complete the mini form right on the home page and then “Sign Up”
4.3. Give yourself at least two hours for the next step.
4.4. There are no specific instructions here, complete as much information about yourself as you can, then have fun uploading photos of yourself, searching for friends, and interacting with whatever you find here. Facebook has a very friendly user interface, so you can confidently interact and know what’s going on at all times.
4.6. Click the Applications tab in the bottom left corner
4.7. Click "Browse more Applications" at the bottom of the list
4.8. Search for the "Twitter" application and add it
4.9. Add in your Twitter login and password, and hit "Submit"
4.10. Now when you go to Twitter and update your status, it will update your status on Facebook as well.
4.11. When you’ve had enough of Facebook, go to www.linkedin.com
4.12. Complete the form on the right side of the page and click “Join Now”
4.13. Once in, you can spend about an hour building and tweaking your profile here. You’ll want a nice head shot of yourself, you can build your profile out very similar to your resume.
4.14. After you feel you have completed everything here, search for some coworkers by company name or people you know.
4.15. From your home page, click the “Applications” link
4.16. You can search for and add any number of widgets to your page, and the first ones I recommend are the Twitter application that will feed your tweets to your profile page and the BlogLink application that will do the same for your blog posts.

Becoming a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 1)

Phase 1 of 5
This post is a step-by-step guide to get you set up in such a way that your social media presence is integrated and automated, so that one text message can update your status on four social media sites. This post assumes you are relatively new to computers and have no social media presence as of yet. It will get you set up for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogger and include your cell phone.

1. Getting set up for Twitter
1.1. Visit http://twitter.com/
1.2. Click the "Get Started, Join" button
1.3. Complete the fields shown and click "Create my Account"
1.4. Click the "Settings" button in the upper right-hand corner of the page
1.5. Complete the Account information and click "Save"
1.6. Click the "Devices" tab and enter your cell phone number
1.7. Now grab your cell phone and you should receive a text message. Text back to confirm.
1.8. Add the five digit number to which you just texted to your phone's list of contacts and call it Twitter.
1.9. Now send a test message to it. Try something like, "Hey, glad to be on Twitter!"
1.10. Now send a text with the message "off."
1.11. Send it a second time. This will prevent you from getting buried in text messages with everyone's tweets.
1.12. Click the "Picture" tab
1.13. Click the "Browse" button to upload a photo of yourself. The best photos here are just of your face, are crisp, clear images and should be flattering if you care what people think of you.
1.14. Click save and then click the "Design" tab
1.15. (Optional) You can create a custom background (to be explained in a future post) or choose one of the canned backgrounds by clicking on your favorite.
1.16. Click "Save Changes"
1.17. Now click the "Profile" button in the upper right-hand corner of the page and you should see your picture, the background you chose and the test text message you sent.
1.18. Click "Find People" in the upper right-hand corner of the page
1.19. Type "Phillip Barnes" into the search box and my name and picture should come up.
1.20. Click the follow button to the right of my bio. You are now following your first person! I will follow you back within a couple of hours, so you will have your first follower. Then you're official!

I know you don't think you do, but here's why you need to be on Twitter

Okay, I get it. You don't understand Twitter, you don't see value in it, AND you think it's a fad. But here is my case for why you should sign up today (and I'm not even getting a commission for this).

1. Satisfy your need for celebrity
You have two options, you can either read about pop culture icons in the pages of US Weekly, or you can get off the sidelines and talk to them directly! All your favorites are here, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Suze Orman, Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Oprah...the list is extensive. Twitter enables you to follow and be followed by these celebrities giving you direct access to what they're doing right now, or on what projects they're working. Sometimes you might even get a gem and watch Lindsay Lohan break up with her latest boy/girlfriend! AND, you can send them a message and have an actual conversation! Too cool.

2. Promote yourself and/or your small business
It's all about "me," isn't it? If you have a fledgling blog or business (particularly in the consulting, beauty, real estate or online marketing industries), or are responsible for promoting the business for which you work, Twitter can help you big time! Using related sites like TweetLater.com and MrTweet.net, you can automate the process of finding, attracting and starting relationships with the people you want to reach around the corner or around the world! Plus the search engine optimization you get from it and the direct links to your site can't be beat! If you have a Web site, blog or other social media presence like Facebook, you need to add Twitter to your promotional mix. I'll give you some more "how to" steps in a future blog post.

3. It's free and not a huge time-sucker
Unlike some other social media sites, you can get on Twitter, make a quick post (under 150 characters), check to see your number of followers or direct messages, and be back to whatever you were doing in a very reasonable amount of time. Now, if you have the time, you can spend hours searching for and following people (up to a maximum of 2,000 per day) to have a huge number of followers, but it's not necessary.

Here is information from LinkedIn regarding what business people think of which social media applications are important. Twitter seemed to have come up big here. See the results at http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/35931/uxtqg.

Media Overload

The dishes were washed, the baby put in bed, and I was all set to get comfortable and watch some American Idol when I remembered that there was a presidential press conference tonight.

I began watching the conference and listening to President Obama explain the budget that came out this week, when I decided to also check my e-mail. Of course, while I was there, I checked out Facebook and Twitter and thought about putting in another blog entry.

So I've got on the TV while following what George Stephanopoulos was saying about it on Twitter, and that's when it hit me, this may be more information than I need (or can properly digest) at one time. The thing about integrating social media with offline channels is that it becomes very easy to get swallowed up in media overload!

I'm sure at some point a proper balance will be struck and folks will find an appropriate place in their lives for social media, but until then it's funny to see how ingrained these things can become into our lives.

Why do we love social media so much?

I should be in bed now.

My wife has probably given up waiting for me and is fast asleep. I'd join her, but I just need to tweak my Twitter design and check Facebook one last time, in case I missed something vital in the last 20 minutes.

Some people seem surprised by the social media phenomenon, but it's really no mystery at all. People were built to be in relationships with each other, they just can't help it. And social media makes it ridiculously easy to dig up old high school buddies, feel connected to celebrities and people of power, and scratch that itch for a connection with another human being.

If you ask me, social media is here to stay. This digital version of friendship and communication is only going to get more prevalent and more ingrained into people's everyday lives. In fact, for millions of people around the globe, that day has already come.