LinkedIn Story of Social Media Connections | Rock the World (tm) Book Series

This is my first guest post here at ROCK THE WORLD – and this came about because of LinkedIn. Here’s the story:

Mike O’Neil, author of ROCK THE WORLD, sent me a message through LinkedIn asking whether I would be interested in a review copy of the book. He knew from my LinkedIn profile – see http://www.linkedin.com/in/phylliszimblermiller – that I blog about social media and related topics.

As I am always interested in learning as much as possible about social media, of course I said yes. And when the book arrived, I read it immediately.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that, as robust as I had made my LinkedIn profile, some little yet significant items were missing. I sat right down at my computer with book in hand and went page by page to correct the missing elements before writing a blog review of the book.

Flash forward: On PitchRate.com, a free email notification service for people looking for bloggers or other news sources, I saw a request from Lori Ruff, LinkedIn authority/trainer and partner with Mike O’Neil in Integrated Alliances, concerning writing guest posts for one of two blogs.

Since I loved the book ROCK THE WORLD, of course I responded to the PitchRate request. Lori contacted me; we spoke on the phone; and here I am.

This is the power of social media (also called social networking) – connecting people with mutual interests wherever these people may be.

As Lori and I discussed, whether someone starts first with LinkedIn or with another social media site depends a great deal on that person’s goals for social media and his/her comfort level with different social media formats.

For small business owners, book authors, and others with similar types of online marketing goals, I believe that actively participating on LinkedIn comes after you have harnessed what my company Miller Mosaic calls the “power of 3” – Twitter, a Facebook fan page (think “business” rather than your Facebook profile), and a marketing-driven website.

Each one of these online platforms requires a different individual strategy combined with an overall strategy to harness the “power of 3.” And then, once a clear overall brand is established through the “power of 3,” it is a good time to add a professional presence on LinkedIn.

I’ll be talking about social media subjects in subsequent guest posts here. In the meantime, get a jump on the conversation by downloading my free “power of 3” report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller

Tagged as: Facebook, Miller Mosaic, PitchRate, Twitter, websites

http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.rocktheworldbook.com/social-media/linkedin-social-media uberVU – social comments

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by ZimblerMiller: LinkedIn Story of Social Media Connections — my first guest post at rocktheworldblog.com — see http://budurl.com/rocktheworld #fb #in…
http://www.bin95.com Don Fitchett (Industrial Training Bin95.com)

Hi Phyllis: I read all your post here via following Mike O’Neil’s LinkedIn profile links to your blog. Being an internet marketer for my company (which sells industrial training, not marketing services:>), I understand the LION – open networker concept. My question is, what if you are a company like ours who does not want to open network, but instead wants to conduct a “Targeted – open network” strategy?

We want to LinkedIn connect, FB fan, Twitter Follow, anyone (open network) that is in our industry only, engineering, maintenance and manufacturing industry, but that is it. So not open to connecting with anyone, just anyone in our targeted industries. (you and Mike are exceptions to the rule though. :>) So how would yours and Mike’s strategies differ in this situation?

You can find thousands of social networking plans and strategies out there, most have the same basics, a few new tricks, etc. But I have yet to see a targeted strategy out there. (other than our own insider info. :>) I think you all should write some articles/book on that. A targeted open networking strategy will become more popular as social media evolves because most people will be overwhelmed by running just an open network where thousands of irrelevant, un-useful to either party connection request come in.

Thank you for your feedback on this.
Don Fitchett (Follow me on twitter @indtraining, add me to LinkedIn connections)

Business Industrial Network
http://www.BIN95.com
Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Don –

Thank you so much for leaving such an insightful comment. And here’s my short answer:

I do not think “one size fits all” when it comes to using social media marketing strategies to promote a brand, book or business. I do think that you start with the basics and then, from there, each person/company should utilize an individual integrated plan for targeting his/her/its prospective audience.

That’s one service that my company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing offers. We work with people to implement a targeted strategy that company personnel can then run themselves. In fact, we’ve just launched a new service based on feedback learned this past week from a live networking event. If you are interested see http://www.millermosaicllc.com/social-media-make-over

Today a book author asked me which of three names she should use for her Twitter account — her real name, her pen name, or the book’s title. I replied that the answer was not a quick one and instead depended on her overall online marketing goals. This is a good example of why one size does not fit all.

Does this answer your comment?

Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller