Using technology to make life easier and business better – Part 1

By Dina Behrman –

These days if you want to get ahead, you’ve got to get online. From growing your business, to improving your social circle, social networking has many benefits.

It can help you to connect with a wide range of people and is a great way to promote yourself and your business to a new audience.

Whether you’re using LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, social media can open doors for you and help to bring you new and exciting opportunities.

To find out more, take a look at our top tips for getting started with social networking….

Face up to Facebook
Facebook is a fantastic way to stay in touch with friends and family so if you haven’t already signed up, do so today. Once you’ve got an account you can use it to promote your business by posting links to your company website or talking about your latest endeavours. With over 250million users worldwide, Facebook provides fantastic marketing opportunities for small businesses, for free. Creating a fan page on Facebook for your business is easy. Simply log on to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the step-by-step guide.

Tweet your way to success
Twitter offers a brilliant opportunity to market yourself, and to connect with people all over the world. Take a look at Twitter’s simple guide to how to make the most of Twitter for your business: http://business.twitter.com. Once you have signed up, search for like-minded individuals to ‘follow’, e.g look for companies that are similar to yours, people from the same area, or people with shared interests. There are plenty of women in business and networking women on Twitter, so take the time to seek them out and connect with them. Then send them a tweet!

Link up with LinkedIn
Over 100 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities. It’s a business-oriented social network for professionals, so it’s great for connecting with like-minded individuals who work in similar industries to you. Once you’ve signed up you can write about your previous work experience, and specify what kind of people you are interested in hearing from. There are also several small business and marketing groups you can join, which can provide useful resources. Go to linkedin.com to set up a profile.

Blog away
Keep people up-to-date with what you’re doing work-wise, by creating a company blog. Log on to WordPress.Com or Posterous.Com and follow their step-by-step guide to setting up a blog. Post news, events, photos and videos to the blog to help promote your company or show what services you offer. Tell friends, family and associates about the blog and encourage them to subscribe to it.

Get networking!
Once you’ve signed up to your various social networks you need to get networking. Social media is a great way to shout about yourself and your business, it’s also great for finding job opportunities, keeping track of what your competitors are doing and making friends. Get talking to other users online, post links to your website or blog posts, and connect with potential clients, like-minded individuals or potential employers. You can also help to raise your online profile, by participating on other people’s blogs in your industry. Do this by leaving comments on relevant blog posts, and joining in discussions.

Now you have all the information you need to get started with social networking. Once you’re online you need to keep up the momentum, so log in to your social media accounts every day and post a message or send a few tweets. That way you’ll help to build up your online presence, get your name out there and ‘meet’ the right people. Good luck!

Dina Behrman is a freelance journalist, specializing in women’s lifestyle articles. She is available to write features, blog posts, press releases, web content and more. Visit http://www.dinabehrman.com/ or find her at @dinabehrman on Twitter.