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The Power of Facebook

This just happened to me last week and I wanted to share the situation as an illustration of how Facebook can bring you business.

I worked with a client several years ago. Recently we connected on Facebook. We really did not have much interaction, but we were Facebook Friends. I noticed the other day that he had posted on his wall that he was having a very serious health issue and was worried. I posted a note on his wall in support and as I am a Christian I offered to pray for his need and family. I followed the progress of his situation closely and actively prayed as he went through his testing and diagnosis. Everything turned out fine fortunately for him and that was a blessing for both of us.

By sharing his need, he had a well spring of concerned friends on Facebook rise up to help pray for his need and offer emotional support. This was a wonderful blessing to both him and to his friends who read the messages of support from his Facebook community.

What happened through our online exchange afterward though proves the real power of connecting and sharing using Facebook.

In my specific case this previous client, due to our recent interaction then referred another colleague to me for services and then approached me to do more work for his own website and book project. Now, I did not post to his Facebook wall to get business, but to express a heartfelt concern for him, but when people connect, they sometimes like to do business together. This is the power of Facebook. Facebook provides an environment to share, to connect, to help. In doing so you can sometimes reap the rewards of a connection with increased business opportunities.

If you are not showing the “real” you on Facebook, now’s the time to drop your “corporate mask” and stretch yourself. People want to connect with the you on Facebook give it a try and  you may find out as I have, that Facebook can definitely bring you business.

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What Can Twitter Do For You?

Twitter is hot, but many people still do not understand why they should Twitter for their business. Here’s my answer in a nutshell: Twitter gives you a voice. Twitter drives traffic to your website. Twitter allows you to go viral with a message.

Just those three things that Twitter does for you makes it an incredibly valuable tool as part of your marketing arsenal.

Twitter gives you a “voice”

What do I mean by that. Well, Twitter puts a voice and persona behind your corporate message. When you interact with followers on Twitter you exchange personal information and points of view. You remove the corporate mask and become a “real” person to followers – someone they can relate to and may want to get to know better.

Twitter drives traffic to your website

If you do not understand the value of Twitter yet, sign up for a bit.ly account and shrink every one of your tweet URLs in your bit.ly account first before you put it in TweetDeck. At the end of the week look at the number of clicks to the links you tweet about. The figures will stagger you. If you have worked to really connect with your followers on Twitter they will reward you by clicking your links. If some of these links are to your website, you are actively driving traffic to your own website.

Twitter allows you to go viral with a message

You just cannot put a dollar price tag on this one. It ranks up there with invaluable exposure. When you have something important to share, a hot news tip, a new point of view, or a discovery when you share it on Twitter your message can go viral. First you tweet it and share it with all of your followers, them some of your followers will retweet your link and note to all of their followers, some of their followers will retweet and so on and so on. It is easy to get massive free exposure or have a message go viral using Twitter and the power of personal connection.

If that’s not enough?

Remember this is all free! You just have to take the time to tweet. Certainly anyone can write 140 characters with a link and take advantage of all Twitter has to offer. You really should give it a try!

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Check Out Our White Papers and Downloads

If you haven’t browsed our website recently, I would like to invite you to do so. We have a wealth of information on many important and interesting topics. All of our papers are free. For just a few top papers you may have to share your email address with us and that will subscribe you to our monthly e-newsletter. But never fear, we never spam you and we do have great articles in our newsletter and you can easily unsubscribe anytime.

So, without further ado, here’s the link to our download and white paper section. Below is a list of some of our topics to whet your appetite.

Twitter Demystified for Business Users
Twitter 101
How to Use LinkedIn for Successful Social Networking
The Tangible Benefits of Blogging White Paper
AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search Compared White Paper
Advanced Digital Photography
Computer Network Set Up For High Speed Internet Access
Domain Name Spoofing, Our Candid Experience
Google Sitemap Instructions
Hawaiian Screen Saver–Free Download
How to Turn Your Vinyl Albums into CDs
Networking Basics
Washington DC Screen Saver — Free Download
Yellowstone National Park Screen Saver — Free Download
And more…

I usually do one big white paper a year and this last year my white papers were on Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have a topic that you would like to learn more about, just click comments below and I’ll consider it for my next white paper.

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Creating a File Shortcut in Office Applications

windows-tipI think that you will love this neat little shortcut that I have been using, if you don’t know about it already. Follow the instructions below to add a shortcut link on the system file menu screen for any Microsoft Office Applications. Now, I just wish Microsoft would allow me to create these handy shortcuts from any Windows and systems application.

I’ve inserted an image from one of my file menus just to the right so you can see exactly what I am talking about. As I do not save my files in the My Documents folder, it is helpful for me to have shortcuts to file locations that I use frequently on the file menu bar. Here’s how to do it so you can save time too.

  1. Open the office application of your choice (Word, Excel etc.). Microsoft calls this file menu the “My Places” bar. Navigate to and select, but do not open the folder that you want to add to the menu.
  2. Click Tools and then Add to My Places. Your selected folder will now appear at the bottom of the My Places menu bar. If you don’t see it, right click on the bar and select small icons as it may be hidden for the moment or resize the dialog box so you can see your new folder.
  3. To move your new folder up to the top of the menu on the My Spaces bar, right click on the item you want to move and click move up or move down as needed.

I find the addition of my most frequently used files to be very helpful and only wish that I could do this in all my computer applications. I think that once you try it, you’ll be doing custom file additions to your My Places bar too!