The networking need for business cards has not disappeared because of online marketing. Unless you never leave your computer to venture into the real world, you do need something to hand out to people who want to know what you do and how to contact you.

But as on probably everything else in marketing, social media has had an impact on business cards.

There was a time not long ago when few people would consider putting their photos on business cards. Yet now that we are so accustomed to seeing people’s photos on their social media profiles, a photo on a business card doesn’t seem that unusual.

And as people have pointed out at networking functions I’ve attended in the offline world:

When you meet several people at one event, it is helpful to have a photo on each business card to remind you which person went with which card.

Thus I admit I was rather annoyed when I was cced on an email that informed the email recipient that someone in the same professional field stated “he had never seen a photo on a business card” for someone in that particular field.

In my opinion “never seen” are not acceptable words in a global online world where major changes are happening every day and where Facebook has over 500 million members worldwide, the equivalent of making Facebook the third largest country in the world.

While things should be considered against a standard of “good taste,” we should all be open to new ideas that can assist us in letting our target markets know how we can help them.

For more information on business cards, see the blog post “Signs of Local Social Media Marketing Are Popping Up All Over”

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her social media marketing company partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) work with clients to effectively use social media to get in front of their target markets.

For more social media marketing information, sign up now to get blog post email notifications at www.millermosaicllc.com/get-miller-mosaic-llc-blog-feed/

Warning

…there will be a little bit o’ rock & roll here like all things Rock The World^TM.

Technology professionals have it both good and bad on LinkedIn. For the good, there are all those great people that can provide the opening to the next client, the next job, the next friend. LinkedIn is loaded with peers and clients for technology people. Lots of great music out there, you could say.

The bad part of LinkedIn for technology professionals is that everyone and his uncle is out there on LinkedIn and it is harder than ever to STAND OUT. How many people need a T1 nowadays? One call can get you 20 bids! It’s a tough business.

An irresistible tip right from me – “Fit In and Stand Out”. If you must wear a tie, make it a Jerry Garcia tie and a colored shirt. Make sense? Read on…

LinkedIn Recommendations Set You Apart

For the bad, there are so many people just like us out there that it’s easy for us to get lost in the shuffle. There are so many bands that all sound the same.  The LinkedIn Profile and specifically, the LinkedIn Recommendation can help a LOT. It can help show the Rockstar that you are in your line of work.

You don’t have to be a LinkedIn Rockstar to understand the importance of LinkedIn Recommendations. Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan) did an excellent write-up in a recent Blog Post.  See the post. Some of our readers have reached out asking for my to jump in on the conversation, specifically since the topic has great application to my fellow technology professionals, whom I now train to use LinkedIn. Why?

First of all, a recommendation shows that you were there, it is proof that you DO the things that you SAY you do. It is a way to “Back it up” as Kid Rock might say. A good book is like a good album isn’t it. Songs are chapters.

We were in the studio cuttin’ a record, oops I mean writing a LinkedIn book, and it came out pretty good.  Rock The World with your Online Presence is 188 pages devoted entirely to LinkedIn Profile development and SEO optimization. Over the last year, readers have contacted me and suggested that I share some of the material and the LinkedIn Recommendations part was suggested. I couldn’t resist the request, so here is the single best LinkedIn Recommendation tip we talk about in the book.

This tip is particularly well suited to technology professionals with whom I most closely relate, but it really works for just about everyone. One should speak from what one knows and you can see that 250 LinkedIn Recommendations (from real customers, co-workers and partners) can show you a nice array of what this looks like in action. Notice that they are spread out so that they paint a broad, yet detailed picture.

I suggest that most business professionals have 10-20 LinkedIn recommendations from customers, partners, co-workers and maybe even investors. This is your 3rd PARTY VISUAL PROOF. Spread them out.

My Best Recommendation advice…

…for technology professionals: Ask others to describe projects you worked on together and say some nice things about the result of your contribution. Ask them to use numbers where it makes sense.  It paints a picture of what it is like to work with you in business. LinkedIn is about business after all.

The LinkedIn Rockstar

A recommendation that is not specific has deflated value. Should it say: “I really like their music” or: “Once I heard that 7-minute guitar solo on Free Bird, I had to go to the show, get the album, join the fan club, play it for all my friends”. You decide!

Describe Project Results

LinkedIn Recommendations cater especially well to projects and that is where technology professionals can benefit especially well. An example:

“Franklin and I worked on a 20-city telecom roll-out. He helped us design it and was with us all the way through the turn-up including the ribbon cutting ceremony. This project was a success because of Franklin. I suggest you reach out to him!”

The advice of friends

Sales professionals everywhere know the power of testimonials. For those in sales roles, we suggest you check out our partner Townsend Wardlaw’s wisdom on the subject - Top 10 ways to Use LinkedIn for Sales Success. Townsend rocks the sales world but he’s into a bit more modern music than the “analog-driven” vinyl-recorded LinkedIn Rockstars.

About me and why I can write this particular focus

I spent 20 years in technology sales and started training on LinkedIn over 4 years ago, showing others how to become accomplished with LinkedIn by following our LinkedIn Business Methodology.

I lived the technology sales life: I carried a monthly sales quota, went to President’s Club, worked in a cube at a branch office, worked at Corporate HQ, home-officed, VPN’d in, got LAID OFF (more than once). I did it all.

Networking for me was Twisted Pair, DS3, Servers. Now my networking is all LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WordPress, Meetups and everything that goes with it.  You might call what I do now Layer 8 networking.

It seems events are a central part of Social Media, which has its roots in Social Networking. We are talking about the PHYSICAL, in-person interaction between individuals, particularly at live events.

As such, the major Social Media platforms either have direct support for events or they are used to support the promotion of events and even activities AT events.

In this multi-part series, we examine some techniques for maximizing exposure for your event on Social Media. We highlight our just-completed 2010 8th Annual Integrated Alliances’ Denver Holiday Party (Nov 30, 2010) as the real world example; because real world is better than theory.

The series will cover some strategies, techniques and explore some simple, yet amazingly powerful extras along the ways – Super Tips.

We will explore all of the major platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Meetup.com, YouTube and Blogs) and what they offer to help you promote and manage events and to manage invaluable follow-up after events.

PART I

First, you must use care and consider scope. What actions happen first is VERY important as you spread the word and try to avoid making mistakes, some of which cannot be corrected.

On the scope side, this series is not designed to teach event planning, although these cutting edge practices from the front lines will be of a lot of interest to event planners and even to event attendees.

We start with this information given – date, time, location, cost, descriptive text, pictures, links. See the event information for the real world case study – the 2010 8th Annual Integrated Alliances’ Denver Holiday Party.

Super Tip #1 - Promote the event using an easy to remember, nice looking Domain Name (URL). There are many reasons for this. You will want to forward but NOT mask the domain if your target is using a payment button such as Paypal.

1. The vanity URL looks good in text and in print. You can’t click on a flier (i.e., www.DenverHolidayParty.com).
2. The vanity URL replaces ugly URL strings with something attractive that reinforces your brand and makes it easy for people to remember (i.e., www.DenverHolidayParty.com).
3. It gives you the flexibility to redirect it to any place you like (e.g. Landing Page, Primary Registration Site, Backup Registration Site, Event Closed Screen, Post-event site).

In our case, we used 2 such domains – DenverHolidayParty.com and SocialNetParty.com. In fact, after the event, each is now redirected to the pictures on Metromix, taken by photographer Howie Grapek. Metromix is a division of Colorado’s #1 TV channel 9News.

Super Tip #2 - If you want others to promote your event, make it easy for them. Create a simple 1 page flier and host it on the web, like on your web site or blog site. You can update it as the events shapes up and interested parties can always get the latest version to download. It works with tip #1 as well. We still have our promotional flier for the event up at SocialNetEvents.com; check it out.

And then check back for Part II and Part III coming soon! Get more tips and insider real-world strategies for using Social Media to promote and support your events and improve your business outlook.

Related Story

The LinkedIn Rockstars, Mike O’Neil & Lori Ruff, recently recorded a 60-minute Webinar entitled Event Networking with Social Media. Learn to find events, work events properly and follow up after events using Social Media like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs.  The recording is available for free playback.

Lori Ruff and I have been a part of CouchSurfing.org now for almost a year. In the last 6 months we have ramped up to the point where we had three individual Couchsurfing visitors at ONE time this week.

Couchsurfing.org has a process to certify individuals in the program and it costs a nominal amount to get setup in the system. Check it out!

If you’ve seen the movies “The Big Chill” or “The Breakfast Club”, you know how strangers are not strangers for very long when couped-up with one another. Such is the case here.

You never know who you might have request to “crash at your pad” or where you might stay. Here’s who we’ve met: a Guatemalan diplomat, a German filmmaker, a family from Poland, a National Geographic scale photographer, global travelers, an IT manager, those in town for the Widespread Panic concert, those considering a move to Colorado (a good idea).

It is a bit like a Grateful Dead concert where you don’t actually go in to the show – you just explore “The Village” outside for hours and hours, meeting people every few yards. Lori Ruff and I did just that in 2009. It is a highlight of the concert year for both of us. You meet the darndest people and some you would just NEVER expect (i.e., a high school football coach).

I felt this was such an interesting and powerful series of experiences that I actually put it on my LinkedIn Profile as a current position – Couchsurfing Host & Guest at IA Social Media. A quick LinkedIn search on the Boolean search term “Couchsurfer OR Couchsurfing” yielded over 800 hits just now!

See Mike O’Neil’s LinkedIn Profile with Couchsurfing listed: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoneil

Want to see the AMAZING work of our German Filmmaker friend Chris Dahm ( @crisdahm ) before he completes his documentary-style footage of Lori and I?

.

At Integrated Alliances HQ                                With Lori                                        With Mike

See Cris’ Video Diary as he travels the world – WOW!

www.youtube.com/user/crisdahm or  www.crisdahm.com

One last thing before I leave you today…

We just finished up our second Rock The World Social Media book, Rock The World with Social Media. It’s “The Ultimate Social Media Guide for LinkedIn Users”.

Find out more and pre-order at www.RockTheWorld2.com. $21.95 gets you a Signed First Edition copy.

In my opinion the purpose of an effective website is to convey the information of interest to a specific target market in such a way that the information is easy to read and easy to find on the site.

Thus I was surprised when a cousin of mine, building a website for an upcoming family reunion, emailed me: “I’m building content for it but I want someone to really jazz it up.”

I replied: “Websites should NOT be jazzy — they should be easy to read. NO reverse type except in headlines. And they should be easy to navigate.”

What has happened in recent years for websites is a sea change in what’s considered effective design for engaging a targeted audience.

Now the truth is that, 10 years ago when I worked for a website design company, we spent considerable time on usability factors (including navigation) based on the recommendations of Jakob Nielsen. (See his site at www.useit.com/)

Somehow in the intervening years website design seems to have gotten consumed under the competitive rush to have the best Flash animation on a site regardless of how that Flash animation might interfere with a website user’s experience on the site.

I am assuming that my cousin is personally responding to sites that he likes with “jazzy” features that are most likely Flash animation. But what he should be asking himself is: “What are the most important elements to engage our relatives – some of whom are in their late ‘80s or early ‘90s?”

Fortunately or unfortunately, in our current Internet age we tend to pass judgment on a website usually within a few seconds. Those few seconds of an impression of a website can drastically reflect on the impression of the business being promoted on that website.

My business partner Yael K. Miller and I frequently speak with small business owners who have sites built several years ago. If you go to one of these sites, it is often the same as if you are looking at a fashion designer wearing out-of-fashion clothing. You wonder how “with it” the designer’s business could be based on how the designer himself/herself looks.

In a weak economy, it is even more important to put your best foot forward to attract more clients or customers for your business. As Yael told someone, “Every day that a business still has its old website is another day of potentially losing customers.”

To attract more prospective clients or customers, make sure your website is up-to-date with few if any “jazzy” elements while including many user-friendly and search-engine friendly elements.

Miller Mosaic Power Marketing provides a written review of what older websites are missing in order to be up-to-date in attracting more business. Check out our website review package now.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing, which coaches clients on how to effectively use social media to attract more business.

‘Outside-The-Box Technology, Internet and Startup Pioneer’, Jeff Hoffman will share his wealth of experience with the Colorado Technology and Entrepreneurial Business community on innovation, successful execution, proven techniques for raising capital and more at three events hosted by Startup Guru,

Jeff Hoffman is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator in the fields of Internet, e-commerce, and media/entertainment. He has been a featured business expert on CNN, NBC, FOX News, Inc., and the Wall Street Journal.  Perhaps best known as a former managing partner and a CEO in the Priceline.com family of companies. Hear a interview with Jeff at: www.W3W3.com

Details on the upcoming events to see Jeff:

Wednesday, May 12, Rocky Ventures Club, Colorado Capital Conference keynote speaker: “The Science and Technology of Innovation”

(Please stop by Startup Guru’s booth in the afternoon to meet Jeff Hoffman)

Wednesday, May 12^th, 6:00pm-8:30pm, Startup and Founder Meet Up

A Free ‘Meet Up’ hosted by StartupGuru

Thursday, May 13^th, 8:00am-12pm, Workshop: ‘From Idea to Execution” in Boulder

Thursday, May 13^th, 1:30pm-5:30pm, Hands-On Mentoring, “Proven Techniques for Raising Capital” Startup Guru Office, Boulder,

Details for both events at www.JeffHoffman.EventBrite.com

Inquires welcome: Contact Jewels Marshon at 720-327-9681 or Jewels@StartupGuru.com

I’ll admit that, no matter how careful we are, there will be mistakes that will slip onto our websites.

Personally, although years and years ago I taught copyediting courses at Temple University in Center City Philadelphia, I’m sure there are a few errors on this website that have gotten past my copyediting. (Plus there are two major schools of thought on commas — and I belong to the less is more school.)

But I try very hard to have accurate copy because I know that typos and other errors can reflect badly on my brand.

WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE WHO HAS A WEBSITE GET THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS?

If you’re not good at spotting errors, or if you know that your English could be improved, hire a copyeditor. The money you invest in your professional image is well worth it.

And this brings me to my second point about what your website says about you:

Does your website say that you care how easy it is for a first-time visitor to navigate your site? Or does your website say that you don’t care?

In other words, have you taken the time to look at your website through the eyes of a person arriving on your site for the first time?

If you had done this, would you really put the login button in very tiny pink type against a black background? (Yes, I just had to hunt all over a home page of such a site to find the login button. Imagine how pleased I was to FINALLY discover the tiny pink button.)

Of course on your own site you know where the login button is. It’s your site!

But why spend time and money on SEO and links and guest blogging and article marketing and everything else if you’re going to lose people’s attention because you haven’t provided a well-thought-out user experience?

I know that most people reading this post who have a website will say to themselves: “It’s not my site she’s talking about. My site is very easy to navigate.”

And I challenge you to go to your home page and truly look at every element:

• Do you have so many navigation choices that a visitor is overwhelmed and can’t figure out what to do so she/he leaves your site?

• Do you have a main headline that has very little to do with what is on offer on your site? (And if you have WELCOME in gigantic letters you’re really wasting prime home page real estate.)

• Do you have a membership site where the login button is very hard to find? (Sure, after the first time or two people might remember where it is — even if it is in tiny pink lettering against a black background. But do you really want to frustrate people when they are deciding whether they want to commit to being active on your site?)

Bottom line? Try to look at every element on your home page through the eyes of a first-time visitor. Then objectively evaluate whether you have made this experience a pleasant one or a frustrating one. The power is in your hands to tip the balance one way or the other.

I hope you choose making the experience a pleasant one. And if you want help identifying elements on your website that could be improved, check out the Miller Mosaic website review. It’s a great way to kick start improving your website’s user experience.

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Get her FREE report “How to Monetize Your Site/Blog Without Ads” at http://www.millermosaicllc.com/monetize-your-site

Our Old Chicago Rock Band night location in Denver is done for a while and we are seeking a new location in or near downtown. Perhaps The Blake St. Tavern. Looking for ideas, open to all nights.

See some of our rock band action on video at Rock the World Facebook Fan Page

For TiE-Rockies’ Members, this is a FREE event. If you’re not a member, it is just $25 and you can pay at the door.

DATE: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2-4 pm.

Become a Rock Star on LinkedIn!
Repeat Event—Back by Popular Demand

Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff, nationally renowned LinkedIn Rock Stars, will share inside guidance on how to extract the very most out of LinkedIn and avoid making costly mistakes along the way. LinkedIn is increasinging recognized as THE tool for business professionals and this event will help you get a real handle on it. This is a FREE event for TiE-Rockies members. $25 for non-members. Pay at the door. Register early – Space is very limited.

Get ready for an afternoon of high energy that, at times, resembles a classic rock concert.

Location:

Sales Productivity Consultants
2727 Bryant Street, Suite 230*
Denver, CO  80211
Phone 303-568-1500

Just West of I-25 near Speer Boulevard–this new facility for our trainings is larger with a more central location.
Parking is available in the main lot and on the street.

Please RSVP to me at RH@RaymondHutchins.com.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Seating for 25 people.

Best regards,

Raymond Hutchins
Chair, TiE-Rockies Mentoring Committee

Why is promoting your Twitter presence outside of Twitter so important for effective online positioning of your brand, book or business?

Because as Twitter, in my opinion, is the easiest social media platform (of the current most popular platforms) on which to create relationships, you should be maximizing the number of people who check out your Twitter presence because of the link you provide.

If someone clicks on your Twitter link and likes what he/she sees, that person can instantly follow you without waiting for you to agree to be friends as on Facebook or connections as on LinkedIn. This is a powerful potential relationship formation strategy with no barriers to entry.

If you understand using the power of Twitter to connect with your target audiences, then thinking of relevant online places to leave your Twitter username/link should be an important element of your online marketing strategy.

Wherever you are interacting online, if appropriate promote your Twitter presence by including your Twitter username/link. And when you see someone else’s Twitter username/link on a blog comment or a website/blog, click on that link to check whether this is someone on Twitter you’d like to follow.

Here’s a “cheat sheet” to help you include your Twitter username in places outside Twitter:

Your email signature:

Do you include your Twitter username on your email signature? Options include a Twitter image that can be clicked through to your account or the URL link in your signature block.

Blog comments:

When you leave a comment on a blog, do you put your Twitter username at the end of your comment?

Blog posts:

Whether you are writing a post on your own blog or a guest blog post, do you include your Twitter username at the end of the post?

Your website/blog:

Of course your Twitter link should be prominent on any website or blog that is yours. Do NOT put the link at the very bottom of a long page. Put the link “above the fold” and on every page.

FYI — Here is the link to get official Twitter buttons — http://twitter.com/goodies/buttons Note that you must be signed into your Twitter account to access these.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn has recently put a separate field on the profile page for a person’s Twitter username/link. Have you updated your LinkedIn account to take advantage of this new opportunity?

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is co-founder of www.MillerMosaicPowerMarketing.com. Her new FREE report is “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” – download the report now from www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

OK, so most people will not be in the same situation I am in I admit.  It is an intersting story either way.  About a year ago, LinkedIn did a REALLY WEIRD thing. They capped the size of one’s LinkedIn network at 30,000. Now, that is a lot I admit.  It affected about 10 us us super networkers immediately and it is affecting another 20-30 of us here in 2010.

Now, I have a lot of people in my that I don’t know and THAT IS GOOD. They bring in prospects, new relationships, make my searches much more meaningful. More on the ‘Open Networking” element that makes our phone ring with business from NEW customers in another post.

At 27,900 connections and growing by 20-30 a day, I have to do something and relatively quick. I have to eliminate people of little or no value to me so there is room for people that have greater business value. How does one do that?

1. Eliminate people with fake profiles, people that don’t exist, spammers in many cases.
2. Eliminate people that cheat the system
3. Eliminate people that are not using LinkedIn, inactive users

I have developed some strategies in each of these areas and I will report back how it is working so you can see the thought process of a LinkedIn Rock Star, in this case, THE LinkedIn Rock Star (myself).  See My Profile.

Side note…

LinkedIn capped the number of groups you can be a member of as well about 2 years ago. In that case it hit a lot of people REALLY HARD. That cap was 50 for primary groups and 50 for subgroups. This did affect each and every one of us. If there were just 500 groups and you got to choose 50, no problem. Make that 500,000 and you get to choose 50 and you get the idea how DEAD WRIONG they were for doing that. More on this in another post.

I have had tremendous success networking at rock concerts recently, especially classic rock concerts – REO Speedwagon, STYX, .38 Special, Poison, Def Leppard, The Dead (Grateful Dead circa 2009), John Mellencamp, Counting Crows, The Police, etc. Best concert ever for networking – Australian Pink Floyd at the Paramount Theater!

Look around the audience and you see “your peers” all around you. They are Tweeting and they are LinkedIn and Facebook users as well.  These folks are having a great time and they love to meet people that share their same interests.  In this case, it is their interest for music and it is EXACTLY the same musical taste as YOU.  How powerful is that?

So, here are some tips for making the most of it:

1. Wear a concert T-Shirt to a concert. I suggest one that is from an artist of the same genre.  I recently wore a Pink Floyd shirt at a Counting Crows concert. A Tie Dye is a must for a Dead show of course.

2. Bring your camera phone and take pictures at the show.  Ask others around you to take pictures with you in them.  Best part – offer to e-mail the pictures to them.  Of course, you will need a business card from them or at least an e-mail address and that is where the networking starts.

3. Get good seats down front. People in decision-making roles do not sit in the back.