I just attended and spoke at the Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle Info-SUMMIT^SM 2009 in Atlanta, GA. It was a packed event with over 800 attendees and an incredible speaker lineup, including George Foreman, Frank Kern, Master Lloyd Irvin, Mike Koenigs, James Malinchak, Sonia Simone, Chris Cardell, Ron Seaver, and Michael Cage.

[Pic: Frank Kern, Mari Smith, Dan Kennedy]

Main highlight – Frank Kern!

For me, one of the highlights of the Info-SUMMIT^SM was meeting legendary marketer, Frank Kern, whom I’d heard so much about for some time.

I love Frank’s highly entertaining style, having read his blog and watched his videos for awhile. I also recently got a copy of Mass Control at the Engage Today event.

But nothing beats live and in person. Frank blends his super smart marketing brain with a complete no-bull, in-your-face hilarious style. (Of course the no-bull part is Frank’s mentor, Dan Kennedy’s, specialty!)

One of the exercises Frank Kern did during his presentation was about getting super clear on what you want to achieve in life and then creating a foolproof system to pay for it all!

Frank brought up on stage the lovely Maritza Parra and proceeded to take her through this process which consisted of three simple columns: (1) Thing you want, (2) How much it costs per month, and (3) Why you want it.

Once you’ve listed a dozen or more things you want (from houses, cars and horses to travel, personal trainer and nanny!), tally up the monthly cost, multiply by 12 then divide by 365 and you have a daily amount you need to earn. Take that daily amount and divide by the dollar amount of the main product/service you sell and that’s how many sales you need to make per day.

Frank makes it all sound so easy! In fact, I created this downloadable form that you can fill out and it will calculate the numbers for you (once you fill in your three columns!): Your Ideal Lifestyle – Clarity Calculator.

Lessons from my social media presentation

Now, on to my own presentation: I spoke about social media success, particularly using Facebook and Twitter to grow your business. I was on a panel first thing on Day 1 as a quick preview of my presentation that evening and all went well.

However, my actual presentation wasn’t my best. In fact – in total transparency – I feel I let much of the audience down by not providing them sufficient content and value, which is the opposite of what I’ve done in all my other talks.

What happened is I chose to work with several speaking/sales coaches at short notice. The impact this had was I deviated from my own natural presentation style so much so that it was uncomfortable for me… and the audience.

My speaking schedule has been super-intense for most of 2009; I had the Info-SUMMIT^SM engagement booked for about six months, so ought to have given myself more time and practice for such coaching.

As my dear friend and personal trainer, Ashley Mahaffey, said to me, I was like a marathon runner who went out to race with a brand new pair of running shoes and ended up with sore feet and blisters! [Ok, I know this pic is high heels - but imagine running a race in these?!!]

Thing is, much of the Info-SUMMIT^SM audience provided positive feedback to me and I had a reasonable uptake of the training program I offered, which I’m delighted about. But I just know I could’ve done a whole lot better in hindsight.

As we say in the seminar business, “Correct and continue.”

I did watch the Twitter stream like a hawk and was able to connect with a couple of attendees who expressed their experience of my talk – I was grateful for their constructive feedback.

This is also a great lesson for other seminar attendees on the importance of monitoring what Jermiah Owyang calls the back channel.

[I have since put up a page of free social media resources for Info-SUMMIT^SM attendees to view/download here.]

Going forward, here are my key takeaways from this experience:

1. Be more selective about such intense travel and events in 2010 onwards – better to speak at fewer events and do a stellar job than pack in three a week and stress myself out!
2. Allow plenty room in my schedule for proper planning, rehearsal, coaching and logistics – particularly prior to major events.
3. Stay with my natural style and my propensity to over-deliver on content and value – even though some schools of thought differ.
4. Strive to attend the full events I speak at, so as to better compliment the other speakers and provide a more cohesive experience for the audience.
5. Integrate coaching input over time… and practice on smaller audiences!

If you attended the Info-SUMMIT^SM, do leave me your feedback below. I’m always open to constructive criticism. Whether you attended the Info-SUMMIT^SM or not, I’d love to hear your own tales from the trenches about public speaking and selling from the stage in the comments below:

A Facebook friend recently mentioned she was intentionally responding to new Facebook friend requests late at night as she didn’t want to clog up her friends’ feeds. Thing is, there’s a setting in your Facebook Privacy to control exactly what gets published on your Facebook Wall and your friends’ News Feeds.

I have my settings tweaked so that when I add a new friend this is not published on my Wall or friends’ News Feeds. One of the main reasons was, like my girlfriend, I didn’t want to clog up my friends’ feeds.

But, also, what I found was that some folks would watch my feed and see who I was becoming friends with, then reach out to them and infer we had a much deeper connection than was so. Such is the nature of Facebook friends — it could be someone brand new you’ve just added or someone you’ve known all your life.

In any case, there are a few settings you may not be aware of either when it comes to what content you choose to publish on your Wall and, by default, out into your friends’ News Feeds.

How to edit your News Feed and Wall settings:

On the top blue navigation bar, mouseover Settings > then click on Privacy Settings > then click on News Feed and Wall as shown in the screenshot below:

On the next screen, check or uncheck the settings as you wish. The screenshot below is exactly how I have my settings:

Add a friend

If you have the “Add a friend” setting checked on your News Feed and Wall privacy section, your Wall could look like this when you confirm friend requests en masse:

Plus, this activity may show up in all your friends’ News Feeds. There could be very strategic reasons to leave this setting checked as maybe you want people to see how many friends you’re adding, or who they are. But my preference is to have it private for reasons mentioned above.

I’ve been at the 5,000 Facebook friend limit since fall 2008 but I do monitor my News Feed very closely to ensure the people in my inner circle are a match for my style and vice versa. (By the way, if ever you remove a friend, no notifications go out at all. I know this is a concern for many folks!)

Show Wall posts or not?

If you also use Facebook for personal purposes and want to keep personal separate from business, you might want to give thought to this Wall setting. In other words, if you prefer to have the Wall posts you write only show up on that friend’s Wall and not be published out into the News Feed of all your friends, uncheck the top setting. (There is a much more granular way to control your Publisher settings which I’ll write about in a separate post).

I tend to be totally open and use Facebook for strategic professional networking 99% of the time. Every action creates visibility so I’m happy for all Wall posts to go into all friends’ feeds.

One thing to consider though is when you’re wishing your friends a happy birthday. Whether it’s you or an assistant that writes birthday greetings, you might want to be aware that every Wall post may go out into your friends’ News Feed assuming the “Show Wall posts” setting is checked. If you have a lot of friends and all you write is “Happy Birthday” on your friends’ Walls one after the other, frankly, I think it looks automated and impersonal. Instead, I suggest mixing up the birthday greetings and perhaps even spacing them out a bit.

Change relationship status

Again, it’s a personal choice. But, for me, I recently went through a personal transition as I wrote about here and I didn’t want to broadcast that news via Facebook. This setting may be irrelevant to most people – but it’s certainly one you should be aware of.

Here’s what your friends might see in their Highlights section on their Home Page, unless the setting is unchecked:

Let me know if you found this post useful and how you like to have your News Feed and Wall settings in the Comments section below. Have you taken advantage of the really granular publishing and privacy settings? What’s your biggest question(s) about these settings?

Related posts:

• Facebook: Personal, Professional… and Private!

Recommended posts:

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

I created this five-part model – the ABC’s of Social Media – to simplify your social media efforts. Many folks come to social media and attempt to short-circuit the process by over-automating, over-broadcasting, over-delegating and miss out the vital component of connecting, engaging and building relationships.

Once you’ve confirmed your target market uses Facebook and Twitter, and you’re happy with your brand, messaging and systems for capturing leads, etc., here’s how the ABC system works:

Automate

First, set up systems to automate your broadcasts, feeds, updates, content. On Twitter, this could be using Twitterfeed to automatically post your blog feed as tweets. To pre-schedule tweets, use TweetLater and/or Hootsuite.

To update multiple social media sites, including Twitter, your Facebook personal profile, multiple Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and many more, Ping.fm works extremely well. To pre-schedule updates to multiple social sites, the best choice is HootSuite > Ping.fm.

Import your blog post on Facebook using the Notes app and/or the Networked Blogs app.

Aggregate all your social feeds into FriendFeed and add the FriendFeed app to your Facebook Profile.

There are many more ways to automate; these are a great start. However, I do recommend not over-automating. Pre-scheduling and auto-broadcasting are great to ensure you at least have some content going out daily. But you’ll also want to generate real-time content/broadcasts too.

Broadcast

Broadcasts are what I call regular tweets (as opposed to @ replies), Facebook status updates, posts on Facebook, blog posts and more. In fact, any way of pushing your message “out there.” This could be seen as more traditional “push marketing” though you’re not being pushy, per se. It’s important to broadcast your content and, in fact, broadcast others’ content in the form of retweets, favorites, social bookmarks and the Links app on Facebook.

Now the challenge with many businesses using social media is they stop at “B” – in other words, they just repeat the cycle of automate and broadcast, automate and broadcast. It’s hard to know who’s behind the Twitter account or Facebook page. It’s all about pushing content and there’s hardly any engagement. So the third step is vital to your success in social media:

Connect

On Twitter, this is the art of joining, initiating and responding to conversations via @ replies. Using popular third party clients like Tweetdeck, Twhirl or Seesmic Desktop, you can easily track and respond to @yourname mentions.

On Facebook, create Friend Lists with your key contacts, drag that friend list to the top of your News Feed and now that’s your default view [see screenshot to the right]. Then, even in just a few minutes a day on Facebook, you can easily connect by commenting appropriately.

Acknowledge your friends’ birthdays on both Facebook and Twitter. [On Facebook, all your friends' upcoming birthdays are listed on your Home Page on the right; you can also receive a weekly list of upcoming birthdays via regular email: click Settings > Account Settings > Notifications > under the first segment (Facebook) click Show More > make sure "Has a birthday coming up" is turned ON.]

Look for other occasions to celebrate and acknowledge. And, look for ways to introduce and promote others, compliment, add value.

Subscribe to a number of popular blogs and regularly post your comments. When writing your own blog posts, encourage your readers to comment by asking stimulating questions.

Delegate

If you’re serious about integrating social media into your marketing efforts, before long you simply cannot manage everything yourself. Depending on the size of your company, you may well have a member of staff who’s sole responsibility is to be the voice and face of the company, often called a “brandividual.”

Or, you may choose to hire a competent, trained VA (Virtual Assistant) or social networking assistant – at least to help set up and manage the basics. I usually recommend you do not delegate your voice, though most of us know some celebrities have “ghost tweeters!” [There are many sources to find good VAs, including on Twitter via the directory Twellow.com - that way you can find, follow and monitor their style before even contacting them.]

One major task you can delegate is to track and monitor your reputation by setting up Google alerts and tweet alerts (via TweetBeep and/or TweetLater which is a suite of helpful Twitter tools). Look for your evangelists who are always singing your praises so you can connect, empower and incentivize them more. And, also look for negative activity that needs to be responded to and ideally nipped in the bud. [The best book on reputation management is Radically Transparent by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss.]

Evaluate

As quickly as you set up your social media systems, something new comes along or the big sites introduce new features. Facebook are constantly adding a tweak here and there, sometimes minor but often major. It’s important you stay informed and regularly evaluate how your systems are working for you. Are you meeting your objectives? Are you getting a good ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on time). Have you thoroughly researched where your target market hang out most and are you reaching them effectively? How can you think outside the box, get more creative and innovative to stay ahead of the curve?

Let me know your thoughts on my ABC’s of Social Media model – did I miss anything critical? Does it help you better understand how you can effectively use the giants like Facebook and Twitter? Please do retweet this post too, assuming you found it valuable!

I’ve been eager for Oprah to join the Twitterverse for some time. As you can see by this fun comic strip I made back on September 24, 2008, my cartoon self was enthusiastically encouraging cartoon Oprah to join Facebook and Twitter!!

Yesterday on the Oprah and Friends show, even with celeb guest Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk on Twitter) and Twitter’s CEO Evan Williams (@ev), Oprah seemed to be getting to grips with what exactly Twitter is, how to use it, why anyone would want such a large following (one million plus) and what to say! But, I do believe she’s starting to catch the vision.

Here’s the thing: can you imagine the even bigger difference we can make on the planet individually and collectively when more and more visionaries, enlightened leaders and luminaries fully integrate the power of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter?!

On Monday, I had the absolute privilege of leading a social media webinar for the Transformational Leadership Council (TLC), with cofounders and members including Jack Canfield, Marie Diamond, DC Cordova, John Assaraf, Raymond Aaron, Hale Dwoskin, Ivan Misner, Donna Steinhorn, Jim Bunch, and many more. I am deeply moved at the power of what I’m starting to call Conscious Social Media and Mindful Tweeting.

See, everything matters. Everything counts. It’s all energy. It’s the ripple effect, or the BUTTERFLY EFFECT.

"The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different." [From Wikipedia]

What if more people on Twitter and Facebook really stopped to think about their messages and how much impact even one tweet or Facebook wall post, for example, can make to a person’s life?

I actually believe having a large following — online or offline, but particularly through social media due to the rapid uptake — is a big responsibility. But not responsibility from a point of burden, but of joy and purpose. Surely we can use these mediums to create more good.

I’d love to hear your thoughts below: do you think social media is helping to transform the world? To raise the consciousness of the planet? Do you think those who are already global leaders and have large followings outside of social media have a greater responsibility when joining sites like Twitter? Do you have any wonderful stories to share of how something has touched your life through social media?

I wanted to give you a glimpse behind the curtains of my business. First, I have to say I feel extremely blessed to be so supported in my community. I’m deeply grateful for all the amazing connections I’ve made over the past two years through Facebook and Twitter.

My business is absolutely exploding through the roof these days. I have a competent team of assistants and project managers. I’m in two powerful masterminds. I have mentors, advisors and role models. Plus, I recently hired a systems expert to help streamline all my processes this year.

And, some time ago, I had the idea to start an international association for social media specialists and to offer certification training programs for both coaches / consultants / marketers and for virtual assistants. I kept waiting for my ducks to be in a row, for everything to be perfect. But that day never comes. As a recovering perfectionist, I figured it was time to take imperfect action.

So, I recently quietly opened up MentorWithMari.com – my new protege program to certify social marketing specialists. The response has been astounding. Truly astounding.

I’m also about to embark on an intense two month speaking tour in the US and UK. I am so honored to speak on the stages of such accomplished leaders as Fabienne Fredrickson, Adam Urbanski, James Malinchak, Bernadette Doyle (in Belfast, Ireland!), Terry Wygal, Mike Lathigee, and more in the fall – Arielle Ford, Bill Glazer, Dan Kennedy and more. [See my public calendar of events here.]

(I should also mention part of my two months on the road includes a wonderful five-day cruise to Mexico with my Mastermind partners!)

[Update from Mari: due to my calendar of events and speaking schedule being uber squeezed, I made the bittersweet decision not to go on the mastermind cruise. I need this one week to laser focus on all the moving parts of my business, my team, and my new systems. I may take my whole team on a cruise in the fall, then!!]

Meantime, for many months, I had this week blocked off for a special retreat for myself, my team and my systems specialist to laser focus on tightening up all my company processes.

So, in order to truly focus, I’m also going to "go dark" on Twitter and Facebook. This will be a first for me in about two years.

[Update from Mari: Ha! Now I see where the misunderstanding came from - many people have been saying to me, "Mari, I thought you were retiring for two years?!" Um, what I mean was I've never once unplugged from Twitter or Facebook in the past two years!! And it was only ONE week that I was unplugging. I lasted a whole 72 hours, you know!]

I have to say, I have a sense of discomfort about unplugging! It’ll be an interesting experiment. But a very worthy and important one.

See, it really troubles me when an important email goes unanswered or direct messages are missed because I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to personally respond to all (even though one of my assistants spends four hours a day reading, managing and replying to much of my email for me).

It bothers me when I’m unable to reply to all @ messages that so many of my wonderful followers on Twitter send to me, or when I’m unable to reply to each friend who emails me on Facebook or writes on my wall… because there are just not enough hours in the day.

Such is the nature of social media. Suddenly, we open ourselves up to a multitude of touch points. There is a new expectation of availability. I love to engage and connect and I know you do too. Yet, where do you draw the line between being available and making sure you have enough focus time and personal time?

In any case, just know that if you’ve ever tried to contact me for any reason through any medium – whether Twitter, Facebook, regular email, Skype or phone – and I have not gotten back to you in a timely manner, it’s not personal. There’s a good chance I’ve read your message but it’s been very late at night or I’m rushing to a commitment so haven’t been able to reply.

Over the coming weeks and months, my systems will be so much more robust that I’ll be able to provide even better service to both my clients and community at large.

I’m happy to share with you what new systems I put in place over the coming weeks as a result of my retreat.

How about you? What do you find most overwhelming about managing a growing business? Are your follow-up systems solid? Where do you most need support? Though social media may have increased your business, have you still been able to maintain plenty time for your personal life? I’d love to know! Please share below:

BREAKING: UPDATE: February 17, 2009, 11:20 PM Pacific

I just logged into Facebook and they have this update posted right there on the Home Page announcing they’ve decided to revert back to the previous Terms of Use while they “resolve the issues that people have raised”:

Way to go Facebook members for speaking out and being heard. Hopefully we’ll see more clearly worded TOS.

[Original post follows]

I’ve been watching the hoopla and panic on the web and in the Twitterverse today regards Facebook’s recently (slightly) revised Terms of Use.

The main change folks are reacting to is the perception that everything you load to Facebook suddenly belongs to Facebook. Not so.

The moment you sign up for an account on Facebook, you ARE agreeing to their Terms of Use, which includes a clause that you grant Facebook a license to use your content.

Yes, the license is “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide (with the right to sublicense).” Phew, we can see why so many members are upset because of all the implications and permutations this clause could mean.

And, yes, it does seem unfair to have members sign up for a service under one set of Terms and then to change them sitewide, even if moderately. As Facebook’s Corporate Counsel for Commercial Transactions, Suzie White, explained Facebook are working on consolidating their Terms.

Interestingly enough, I raised this very issue last month when I attended the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas where one of the panels addressed legal matters in social media. Slides included screenshots of the TOS of giants like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc.

At Q&A time, I got up to ask a question on the mic, posed to one of the attorneys, specifically about Facebook’s Terms of Use – I asked if we are to interpret the TOS literally, Facebook are at complete liberty to do as they please with all users’ content.

Indeed, the attorney confirmed this to be the case. BUT, he quickly added words to the effect of: Facebook would be HIGHLY unlikely to ever utilize member content in any way inappropriate such that it would jeopardize the member experience of trust, safety and privacy. (Otherwise, they might just have a class action on their hands, yes?!)

See Facebook CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg response to the outcry today: On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information.

Excerpts:

Here’s the way I look at it:

1.   Much as I’m one of Facebook’s biggest evangelists and I believe they’re here for the long haul, we have to remember there was life before Facebook. Sure it’s great to share a ton of stuff with friends, family, clients, peers around the world. But caveat emptor. Don’t be sharing anything anywhere online that you wouldn’t want exposed publicly in some way. My rule of thumb on Facebook, Twitter and beyond is: “Would I be cool with this showing up on the front page of the New York Times, found in a Google search or seen by my grandchildren in a couple decades’ time??” If ever the answer is no, the data simply does not go online.

2.   With all due respect to many of my artist and creative friends in the Facebook community, I really feel photos of your artwork is safe on Facebook. It’s highly unlikely you’d walk into someone’s house one day and see a big coffee table book with your artwork published by Facebook. Believe it or not, Facebook really do care about their members and wouldn’t intentionally do something to upset or provoke their users. Adding a watermark to each image may help you feel safer. DISCLAIMER: I’m not an attorney, I’m not giving legal advice here at all – it’s important always to do your own due diligence.

3.   For me, all the content I load to Facebook is for public display anyway: I love it that my photos are propagated around the platform in the feeds. I take photos and load them to Facebook on purpose for more visibility. I love it that my blog posts import as Notes and can be shared around Facebook and commented on. And, all my public videos are on YouTube and imported into Facebook. My status updates, wall posts and comments are all strategically written. I *want* droves of people to be looking at my content – and I invite anyone using Facebook for business networking to consider this strategy too.

4.   Another thing, though I share a ton of content online for free, I’m also monetizing my intellectual property with my consulting services, products and training. I believe it is simply not possible to give away all your knowledge. And I highly doubt a third party giant like Facebook would be trying to profit from your IP. Though I don’t doubt they’ll use our data for market research purposes. Again, I’m cool with that as I’m sharing my data on Facebook of my own volition.

Bottom line, I really
encourage the Facebook TOS naysayers to put things in perspective. Facebook are listening. Mark Zuckerberg responded today. He’s had flack before (Beacon!) and has publicly apologized and put steps in place to rectify sticky situations in the past.

Facebook actually consider themselves still a startup! (Even at five years old and 165 million+ active users!) Just shows how much further they plan to go – I do know their #1 focus is growth.

What are your thoughts? Are you more reticent now about using Facebook? Do you think the revised TOS are harsh? How so? Add your comments below.

Related Posts:

• Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit – Mashable.com
• Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos – Cnet News
• Facebook: “We have never claimed ownership” of members’ content – The Standard
• Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information – The New York Times
• Facebook terms of service compared with MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter – Amanda French
• Facebook Clarifies Terms Of Service: “We Do Not Own Your Stuff Forever” – Consumerist
• Do you belong to Facebook, forever? – Chicago Tribune

With the latest trojans, phishers, hackers and imposters floating around cyberspace, especially on Facebook, it’s no wonder members have cause for concern. I’ve put the following suggestions together for you to help protect yourself from identity theft, hacking and the likes:

1. Monitor suspicious activity/links.

Be vigilant in watching for suspicious activity in your News Feed, your Wall and your Inbox. Never, ever click suspicious links. They can often look innocuous, even enticing – e.g. “Hey come look at your photo on this blog.” Before you click, look closely! Do you recognize the blog?

2. Remove friends as appropriate.

Remove any friends immediately who post suspicious links on your wall and/or in emails (especially if they are multiple-recipient emails). (Sadly, these friends may not even be aware they’re posting phishing links – someone may have hacked their account.)

I also recommend removing friends who send you app requests that you do not resonate with. This is usually a sign they’re not quite on the same wavelength as you and may not be someone you care to network with. For me, I do not care to receive invites for apps such as kidnap, or mob wars.

To remove a friend who posted suspicious links on your wall, for example, right click their name from the wall post, open in a new tab/window, scroll towards the bottom right and click “Remove from Friends.” Related post: Annoying Facebook Friends? Give ‘em the FaceBOOT!

3. Keep your wall clean.

Once you’ve removed the friend who posted the bad links, be sure to delete the offending wall post (just in case another person should happen to click on the link). Removing wall posts isn’t so obvious since the Facebook design changed in July 2007. What to do: mouseover the post and the little Edit pencil shows up; click X Delete.

4. Turn off Facebook Chat.

Never, ever chat with people you don’t know at all. (Of course, ideally you actually know all your Facebook friends!) In fact, I recommend turning off Facebook chat completely. I find this feature too distracting and prefer Skype for private instant messaging.

You may have read/heard about the imposters who’ve been watching a member’s activity, then they jump in and start a real familiar chat – ultimately asking for financial help of some sorts. Ugh! See: Fears of impostors increase on Facebook [CNN.com] and Latest Facebook Scam: Phishers Hit Up “Friends” for Cash [TechCrunch].

To turn off Facebook Chat, click the teeny silhouette icon at the very bottom right of your browser when logged into Facebook. If you’re online (online Chat) the dot will be green next to the icon and when you click the icon, in the window that pops up, click “Go Offline” as shown in the screenshot below. Your dot should turn to red.

5. Change your password often.

Don’t use the same easy-to-remember password on all your social networking sites. For the ones you use daily – like Facebook and Twitter – make the passwords obscure with 8 characters or more using a mixture of upper, lower, numbers and characters. The more obscure the better. Yes, it’s tough to remember. But I use the excellent software Roboform to manage passwords. [And, my Mac friends tell me they swear by 1Password].

6. Be careful who you share your password with.

Many super busy professionals use the services of a virtual assistant to help with managing their social networking accounts. If you do so, be sure to do your due diligence when hiring support. There are many, many incredible virtual assistants – and this is a topic for a whole other post, but bottom line is just use your discretion if/when sharing your Facebook password.

7. Hide your year of birth.

Don’t show your year of birth. This may or may not make a difference. I’m not one to be coy about my age/year of birth… however, some time ago I heard from a reliable source that not disclosing your year of birth was just one small step towards protecting yourself from identity theft.

Here’s how: on your Facebook Profile, click the “Info” tab, then click “Edit Information” (or mouseover the Basic Information section and click the little pencil. From the drop down menu next to Birthday, select “Show only month & day in my profile.”

8. Keep your private info private.

Many folks think you have to live in a glass house once you get online and use social networks. My take on this is the lines are for sure blurred between personal and professional. However, you still get to maintain a private life and don’t have to reveal all. See this related post: Facebook: Personal, Professional… and Private!

9. Adjust your privacy settings.

Facebook have done well over the past 18 months or so to really tighten up their privacy settings. You can get quite granular with a variety o
f settings. I choose mine to be fairly open as I’m okay with anyone being able to see my Facebook Profile and content I add. [For some peeps though, I do choose to block them completely - thus making myself practically invisible to them.] Refer to my bud, Nick O’Neil’s great post: 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.

10. Protect your mobile device.

Given most apps keep you logged in on your mobile device, as with #6 above, just be mindful about who might have access to your phone. And, yes, it’s a nuisance to have to change passwords across multiple sites and platforms but at least you’ll have more peace of mind!

Sage advice from Facebook:

“Remember that although using fake names is a violation of the Facebook Terms of Use, people are not always who they say they are. You should always be careful when sending friend requests to, or accepting friend requests from people you do not know in the real world. And it is always risky to meet anyone in person whom you don’t know through real world friends.”

See: Facebook safety – from Facebook.com

What’s your experience with Facebook safety and privacy? Have you had some challenges and concerns to deal with?

[UPDATE: Wow, just since writing this blog post, I received this email:

You’ll notice this guy’s name is not hyperlinked – meaning I can’t click through to his profile. This shows me his privacy settings are set very tight; you can’t look at his profile unless you’re his friend. But he can still receive email.

Best course of action:

1. Add this person’s name to your BLOCK list: Click Settings > then Privacy Settings. And you’ll see a field at the bottom – type the person’s name then click the big blue BLOCK button. Facebook will identify the person’s profile; click block again.
2. Click Report Message (just under the person’s name in the message). Facebook gives you two choices: “advertisement/spam” or “harassment.” I chose the latter.
3. Delete the message.

Last week on Twitter, Viveka von Rosen [@linkedinexpert], Peggy Dolane [@freerangemom] and I [@marismith] hosted the first "#lion" Twitter discussion: a tweet-in that asked the question: How open a networker are you on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter?.

[#lion = LinkedIn Open Networker - a person who grows their network as broadly as possible.]

This week we’re continuing the #lion conversation with this question:

Do you limit what you share about yourself on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn?

To get the conversation started, here’s some food for thought:

• Lisa Nova poked fun at the over-tweeters among us in her YouTube satire Twitter Whore (viewed by over 730,000 to date.) None of us want to be that person, do we?
• Smart businesses know that a real person tweeting will win you more loyal followers. Just ask Scott Monty at Ford, @Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, or @TypeAMom, Kelby Carr who wrote a great post about this issue last summer.
• On a more serious note, Canadian child protection authorities were contacted by Twitter recently when a mother made comments about how she might get her children to go to sleep.

There are many aspects of my life I choose not to Tweet about. Everything I do online and offline is with deliberate and strategic intent. "Mindful" you might call it. My underlying questions when sharing are "Would I be comfortable with this information being on the front page of the New York Times? (or found in a Google Search!)" and/or "Would I be proud for my grandchildren to read this information in 20-30 years’ time?"

Here’s the thing, I don’t believe you need to live in a glass house. Sure, many business owners and independent professionals have personal lives very much merged with their personal lives; the lines are blurred between personal and professional. BUT, you must still have a private life as I wrote about here last year.

Does your tweeting have any limits? [Did you know every single tweet is an individual web page indexed by Google?!] Or do you share every minute detail of your life online? Or, perhaps you save more personal information for Facebook and Twitter and keep LinkedIn strictly business?

Join Viveka, Peggy and Mari LIVE on Twitter on Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5pm PT / 8pm ET to explore more about the pros and cons of open vs. strategic networking.

HERE’S HOW: To read and participate in the live networking tweet-in, log in with your Twitter username at http://tweetchat.com and enter the room for #lion.

[Or, watch the tweets at this search string and chip in with your own #lion tweets from your favorite Twitter app.]

Related posts:

• Facebook: Personal, Professional… and Private!
• Be Careful What You Post

[Blog jointly written by Peggy Dolane and Mari Smith.]

Peggy Dolane, @freerangemom:

Peggy Dolane,  principal at Provient Marketing, designs  affordable marketing programs and writes engaging copy that turns your audience into customers.

Viveka von Rosen, @linkedinexpert:

Viveka Von Rosen is the CSMO (Chief Social Media Officer) of Integrated Alliances, and the Social Media and Marketing Director for The Executive Center.  A victim of expensive and ineffective traditional marketing, Viveka was able to double TEC’s business through social and F2F (face to face) networking.  It is now her passion in life to help others build their businesses through social media strategies. 

Mari Smith, @marismith:  

Mari Smith is a Relationship Marketing Specialist and Social Media Business Coach.  Dubbed the Pied Piper of Facebook by Fast Company, Mari helps entrepreneurs grow their business profits using an integrated social marketing strategy with particular focus on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re reading this post after the #lion Twitter discussion [quite possible as I'm posting it at DFW airport just as the discussion is starting, lol!] – you can still view the tweetstream here or here.

Whether you’ve purchased Facebook Social Ads or have in some way interacted with these ads, you may be underestimating the power of this Facebook feature.

First, as an advertiser, you can select very targeted demographics for your ad campaign, much as you can with Google Adwords.

Second, as a business owner utilizing Facebook to grow your brand and network, engaging with ads is a powerful way to increase your visibility.

Justin Smith wrote a great review of the Six Types of Facebook Ads which are:

1. Event Ad
2. Video Ad
3. Gifts Ad
4. Page Ad
5. Website Ad
6. House Ad

I love interacting with Facebook Ads! For example, during election time last November, Ben & Jerry’s ran both an Event Ad and a Gift Ad. With the Gift Ad, you could give your friends a “virtual” ice cream cone – and it would just post on their wall. No app to install, no “forward to friends” enforcement. Just a playful way to say “hey, I’m thinking of you” and, in return, creating additional visibility for both the friend and yourself because the action is pushed out into the News Feed.

Now with the inauguration imminent, CNN are running an Event Ad which you’ve likely seen on your home page. Regardless of your political orientation, by RSVP’ing for the Event and writing a short (relevant/positive) comment in the text field, you’ll gain additional valuable visibility for yourself.

Whatever you write in the text box gets automatically transferred to the Wall of the Event page. (Same goes for Event invitation request you receive from all your friends!)

Ads on social networks may not be as effective as ads on search engines, simply because web users are in “social mode” on the former and “search mode” in the latter. However, ads on high-traffic social networks, such as Facebook, are a powerful way to further your brand and gain name awareness – especially when you ad in the component of Social Actions.

As an advertiser, you may find more click-through success by advertising an Event, Group or Fan Page with a Facebook Social Ad, e.g. keeping users inside Facebook. When a Facebook member interacts with the item being advertised, the “social action” shows up next to the ad – usually in the form of “Jane Doe became a Fan of…” with their avatar.

From a user standpoint, just be aware that you are essentially endorsing that ad and what’s being advertised.

What’s your experience and opinion of Facebook Social Ads? Have you run an ad campaign with success? Do you enjoy interacting with ads as a user?

Related posts:

• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page 
• Facebook Groups vs. Facebook Pages – Which Is Best?

Do you accept all friend requests on Facebook? And all contact requests on LinkedIn? Do you follow anyone on Twitter?

Or, are you more strategic in who you befriend?

Those people who tend to accept everyone into their network are typically referred to as "wide-open networkers." Those who are more particular about who they let into their circle of friends may be called "strategic networkers." (Then, there are those who use LinkedIn for professional purposes and Facebook for close personal friends and family, for example.)

Whether you’re a wide-open networker, like Viveka, or a strategic networker, like Peggy, or a bit of both like me, you’ve probably had to spend a little time deciding who to befriend and who to ignore on your various social networks.

[Blog jointly written by Viveka Von Rosen, Mari Smith and Peggy Dolane.]

Viveka Von Rosen, @linkedinexpert:

Viveka Von Rosen is the CSMO (Chief Social Media Officer) of Integrated Alliances, and the Social Media and Marketing Director for The Executive Center.  A victim of expensive and ineffective traditional marketing, Viveka was able to double TEC’s business through social and F2F (face to face) networking.  It is now her passion in life to help others build their businesses through social media strategies. 

I am what you might call a promiscuous networker.  In fact, I never say no to anyone (on LinkedIn that is!)  Folks like me are known in LinkedIn as LIONS (LinkedIn Open Networkers).  And to be completely transparent, LinkedIn doesn’t like us much.

Since I am in the field of social media strategy and marketing, I feel I need a giant network as a service to my clients.  In numbers this means I have 4200+ direct connections and 17+ million in my LinkedIn Network (and growing).  Both my Twitter and Facebook networks are significantly smaller only because I am a late-comer to both. 

In my experience, the larger the network the bigger the portal into the LinkedIn world, and the more likely I am to find the diamond amongst the gravel that my clients are looking for.  It’s true I might not be able to give the warmest introduction to someone I don’t know well, (unless I do) but I am at least able to give an introduction.  A large network is most useful for Job Seekers and people in Sales and Recruiting where it is a numbers game. 

“C” level folks will probably want to remain “LaMBs” (“Look at My Buds”) LaMBs (like Peggy) know everyone in their network, and if you are lucky enough to connect with one, you will find their network much more useful than a LION network.  LIONs love LaMBs. I can contact Peggy and I know she knows everyone in her network and could – should she choose – give me a very warm written, perhaps even verbal recommendation.

Peggy Dolane, @freerangemom:

Peggy Dolane,  principal at Provient Marketing, designs  affordable marketing programs and writes engaging copy that turns your audience into customers.

My strategic network isn’t huge – it’s somewhere around 300 people.  That includes about 100 people I follow closely on Twitter, about 100 LinkedIn contacts (all of whom I have worked with or know personally), about 100 Outlook contacts, and perhaps 50 friends on Facebook.  I’m not counting the hundreds of families I know through my kid’s school, church or community service projects I’ve been involved in – but I probably should!

What it doesn’t have in numbers, it makes up in relationships.  I define my strategic network as my community – people I know well enough to ask for a favor.  My goal is to build relationships, not numbers of contacts.  I don’t accept every invitation I get on LinkedIn, for example, because every one of my LinkedIn contacts are people I’d feel confident in recommending their work and having it reflect back on me.  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t actively mine LinkedIn via participating in groups and answering questions as opportunities to connect to new people. 

I’m an open networker on StumbleUpon, Digg, and BizNik.  I use these networks to reach out to new and broader audiences.  Frankly, I’m still growing into my open network strategy.  I believe open networking has great value, but I’m still cautiously opening my network doors.  I’m fairly open on Twitter – following back nearly anyone who looks like I have something in common with and who isn’t just amassing followers. 

Mari Smith, @marismith:  

Mari Smith is a Relationship Marketing Specialist and Social Media Business Coach.  Dubbed the Pied Piper of Facebook by Fast Company, Mari helps entrepreneurs grow their business profits using an integrated social marketing strategy with particular focus on Facebook and Twitter.

For Facebook, I would call myself a strategic networker more than an open networker. Unlike LinkedIn or Twitter where there are no limitations to the size of your network, Facebook caps your friends at 5,000. (Which is why I strongly recommend setting up a Facebook Fan Page – where you can have unlimited fans). I reached the 5,000 friend limit after about 16 months of strategic networking on Facebook.

My strategy from the beginning of my Facebook journey (July 2007) was to reach out to many well-known influential people in my industry: authors, speakers, trainers, internet marketers, even celebrity actors. (Leonardo Di Caprio was one of my first Facebook friends!)

If certain people were not yet on Facebook, I would find a way to contact them and help them understand the power of Facebook (which is why Fast Company calls me “the Pied Piper of Facebook!”)

Then, what I endeavor to do consistently is what I call "Radical Strategic Visibility" – that is, to be seen in all the right places at the right time by the right people.  Because of the News Feed feature of Facebook, by deliberately and strategically choosing all my activities, I can consistently appear in the Feeds of these highly influential friends and – over time – position myself as the industry expert.

I like to say “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know… and, more importantly, *who knows you.*” Facebook provides an unprecedented opportunity to position yourself consistently as THE go-to person in your niche/industry.

I’m also a huge advocate of the micro-blogging site, Twitter and tweet heartily in conjunction with being active on Facebook.

People to Follow

One of the great aspects of networking is meeting new people. With that in mind, here are a few recommended peeps to follow:

See also Twitter follow recommendations by Viveka and Peggy.

Twitter:

• @guykawasaki
• @garyvee
• @scobleizer
• @dhollings
• @coachdeb
• @unmarketing
• @simonleung
• @problogger
• @copyblogger
• @chrisbrogan
• @denisewakeman
• @mike_stelzner
• @alohaarleen
• @lizstrauss
• @nancymarmolejo
• @websuccessdiva
• @chrisgarrett

LinkedIn:

• Mike O’Neil, http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoneil , CEO of Integrated Alliances – premier LinkedIn training site
• Lori Ruff, http://www.linkedin.com/in/loriruff, CAO of Integrated Alliances
• Stan Relihan, http://www.linkedin.com/in/stanrelihan — Great blogs on LinkedIn – LinkedIntelligence
• Shally Steckerl,  http://www.linkedin.com/in/shally, another LinkedIn Expert
• Dawn Todd,   www.linkedin.com/in/executivelifecoach , Excellent Networking Maven

Digg:

• Mike Witt, http://digg.com/users/wittmc — Mike’s passion is helping people grow their at-home businesses.  He has a network of 750+ friends on Digg that he uses judiciously, without spamming.

Facebook:

• Chris Brogan – President, New Marketing Labs, a social media agency and education company.  Facebook Fan Page.
• Jeremiah Owyang – Senior Analyst at Forrester Research and popular web strategist. Web Strategy Facebook Group.
• Ali Brown – Founder & CEO of Alexandria Brown International, leading women worldwide to create amazing lives for themselves via entrepreneurship.  Facebook Profile.
• Kevin Nations – Specialist in Big Ticket profits. Facebook Fan Page.

Join Viveka, Peggy and Mari LIVE on Twitter on Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 5pm PT / 8pm ET to explore more about the pros and cons of open vs. strategic networking.

HERE’S HOW: To read and participate in the live networking tweet-in, log in with your Twitter username at http://tweetchat.com and enter the room for #lion.

[Or, watch the tweets at this search string and chip in with your own #lion tweets from your favorite Twitter app.]

What type of networker are you?  Open ("lion"), Strategic ("lamb"), or your own hybrid style? Write your comment below about your networking style.