My birthday is the 23rd of December.  It’s always been a very hectic time, just before Christmas (not to mention my Mother’s birthday is Christmas Eve!) and my birthday has sort of been lumped into the Christmas holiday.

Presents were wrapped in Christmas paper and I even had a Christmas Cake one year! (What’s up with that!)   

But since social media has blasted into my life, my birthday’s are made so special by the hundreds of people who wish me Happy Birthday on my different sites.  I had more than 225 birthday wishes this year on Facebook alone!  Boy, does that make a girl feel special.

If you are not taking advantage of the birthday feature on Facebook, I highly recommend that you do.  And if you are not wishing others a Happy Birthday on their special day, make that a goal for 2012.  You might be pleasantly surprised with the friendships that can come out of a simple birthday wish.

I know it sure made mine special!  Thanks everyone. 

Enjoy this guest post by Ben ~

Social media has become an essential part of web promotion. Not only is it effective and helpful for increasing the popularity of your business or website, but it is absolutely necessary! Proper use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook will not only help your site gain exposure, but it will act as a catalyst for making your content more prominent and even viral.

The easiest and most important step to take when stepping into the “social” scene is adding buttons to your site to help visitors share your content. In other words, make your website “shareable” because the last thing you want to do is inhibit their ability to advertise your business for you. People love to communicate and we also love to share. Social media is the Internet’s analogy for word-of-mouth advertising. Neglecting to add buttons on your site for visitors to share your content is a lot like stripping them of their voice – let them talk!

TweetMeme is a fantastic tool for making your content very shareable. It adds a simple button at the top (or bottom) of all of your posts that people can use to tweet your content with literally 2-clicks. A common trend you will notice when observing popular sites in almost every niche is the overwhelming amount of tweets in comparison to “likes” on Facebook. Tweeting is easier and faster, and in an online world where we skim almost everything we read, we need to have quick sharing options for our visitors.

A common and effective layout for making your site easy to share is to include a button at the top of every post for Twitter and/or Facebook, a set of buttons at the bottom for a few popular social sites, and also the presence of similar sharing buttons consistently displayed on your sidebar. For the sidebar, the most important inclusions are Twitter, Facebook, and your RSS Feed. You might have other sites like LinkedIn that you like to use or a series of videos on YouTube – these would be good additions for your sharing buttons.

To further emphasize the importance of properly using social media, lets cover a scenario:

1. Someone visits your site and reads an article. They really like it, but they don’t see any sharing buttons and so it may not even cross their mind to tweet it or like it, so they move on with their day.
2. This same visitor comes to your site and reads the same article. However, this time there are social sharing buttons featured prominently on the page. This visitor tweets the post and it is quickly exposed to all of this user’s followers (dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people).

And it doesn’t stop there. The people who see that tweet might tweet it too, they might look through your site and tweet another post, or they might follow you on Twitter and become exposed to all of your new tweets. Simple processes like this can quickly multiply and expand upon your daily traffic, and all of this happens simply because you have made your website shareable.

Supplement your social media strategies with SEO. Check out our FREE SEO Course or download our FREE OnlyWire Account Creator to make social bookmarking effortless.

I love friends!  I love meeting new friends and getting to know them and how I might be able to help them in some way.  I really do.  But I wouldn’t just walk up to a stranger and say, “Hey, I want to be your friend! I don’t know you or really anyone else you know personally, but you look like someone that I would want to connect with!”   Seriously!

So why do people do that online?  I get friend requests daily from people I don’t know and they NEVER indicated why they want to be connected with me.  At least a small message saying, I’m a friend of Joe’s and he thought we might be able to help each other in business.  Or something!

Many of my online friends feel the same way and basically “ignore” those requests.  If we don’t know you personally or you don’t write a small note telling us why you want to be friends, then chances are….it won’t happen.

I don’t think people really get the concept yet of Facebook.  Your personal profile (where you have friends) is intended for people you personally know and your family.  Thus the name…Personal Profile!  The Fan Page is intended to have people who you might not know personally, but have an interest in your business or the products and services you sell.  I would love to have more folks join me on my Fan Page (psst, here’s the link Online and Social Media Training)  I would never turn you way, unless you were being rude or obnoxious.

It’s just common courtesy as my friend Kathleen Gage said on my Facebook wall during a recent discussion. When you are requesting to be someone’s friend on Facebook there is a little section in the lower left corner to Add a personal message.

As Nike says, Just Do It!  Remember online social networking is first and always about building a relationship.  You can’t build a relationship with people you don’t know.

I was speaking with a friend today about our businesses.  We chatted for a while about groups we belonged to and acquaintances and how we loved to help others succeed in life and in business.  Toward the end of our conversation, we moved more toward what drives business to us.  And I wanted to share her story.

She admittedly is not a social media butterfly.  She use to get on Facebook, maybe once a month to just check in and see what was going on.  During one of those once-a-month visits she saw a post from someone she had met at a conference earlier in the year.  They had gotten to know each other and “friended” one another on Facebook.  And that was the end of the story.

However, on this day my friend noticed a comment from one of her Facebook friends and it really resonated with her.  She felt a strong connection to the post and the person.  So she began to communicate with her and learned more about her business and the services she offered.  Which eventually turned into a working relationship between the two of them.

My friend now has a support person that she get’s along great with and can bounce ideas off of, but also someone that will help her to grow her business in the way she visions.

This little story is just a great example of how social media should work. You post things on your Fan Page or your personal Wall and people read them and hopefully share them with their friends.  You just never know what post might bring you the next big customer or client.  So post great information, thoughtful comments and encouraging words, it will boost your business!

In both our business and personal lives, etiquette holds lot of importance. However, on the Internet, the rules of etiquette tend to blur. The impromptu abbreviations and slang that we often use on social networking sites may not be the language that’s proper for the professional world. When you become part of the website LinkedIn it becomes even more important that you follow the rules of etiquette that define the world’s only professional networking site.

What makes LinkedIn so different from other networking sites is that people you are networking with can be your next boss or colleague, people who can make or break your career. So, all those good manners that you carry into your interview should be applied here. Of course, formal etiquette translates into more than “avoid Capital letters” or “do not spam.” Here are the top LinkedIn etiquette rules to help you make the most of your LinkedIn profile.

1. Presentation

Presentation translates into creating a polished profile. In the virtual world of LinkedIn, your profile is how you first appear to other people – your first impression. A crisp, polished profile is the same as a crisply ironed business suit. Upload a complete profile before you start networking. Incomplete profiles make bad impressions, like mismatched socks. Casual language will make a casual impression. Build your profile like your resume, putting your best foot forward. Your skills, assets, accomplishments – present everything clearly to make the best impression.

2. Networking Protocols

Unlike networking in other social websites, LinkedIn networking has its rules of conduct to follow. First of all, the purpose of LinkedIn isn’t to socialize. While your goal is to connect with professionals who you have worked with and those who want to work with or get help from, unsolicited networking requests are bad manners in LinkedIn. Network carefully, extend your handshake first to known people and then to unknowns, but selectively and with the help of your current connections.

Be polite in your requests to strangers. While people in a relevant field should not have any reason to decline your request, phrasing your request incorrectly can get you into trouble. Repeated requests or requests to people who are not even remotely related to your field or your friend circle are also no-nos. A “best practice” is to use your current network on LinkedIn and find one of your 1st Degree connections that is also connect to the individual you hope to connect with and ask your 1st Degree for an introduction.

If you are asking anyone to forward your profile to someone in his or her network, then remember your profile will reflect on your friend’s credibility as well. So, along with a good profile, word your request politely as well. Don’t lie or give false impressions. Networking with someone on the premises of sharing ideas and then trying to sell him or her product will be seen as bad form.

3. Social Etiquette

Of course, there is a social aspect to LinkedIn. Just like in any social gathering, there should be politeness, small talk and some give and take.  For instance, if someone recommends you, return the favor. If you are introduced to a new contact by someone, send a thank you message. Make a good impression with your entire network and it will automatically fetch you more good contacts.

Good manners also apply to handling requests and messages that are sent to you as well. If you receive a request from a known person that you do not want to connect with, you might not want to reject the request outright. Simply archive it. People tend to forget over time or understand that you do not wish to connect with them.

Similarly, if you are sent a networking request from a stranger from an unrelated field, reject the request with a polite message stating your reason. If a friend extends the profile of a third party contact that you do not want to entertain, reply to your friend stating clearly, but politely, why you are hesitant. However, if you get too many such requests from a known person, you might want to consider if your friendship is worth that hassle.

4. Don’t nag

LinkedIn is not like Facebook or Orkut, where people spend hours chit chatting. Professionals hardly get the time to spend on networking and they don’t like wasting time over unnecessary updates or messages. Since most people on LinkedIn have their daily updates mailed to them periodically, constant activity or buzzing people with profile updates hourly will definitely irritate your contacts. Try to limit your activity to once per day, and keep it professional.

5. Don’t Lie

You’ve heard it all your life, “don’t lie,” and that applies to LinkedIn too.  Even white lies and half-truths can come back to bite you. Just like in job interviews, it never pays to lie about your work history or skill. Since this kind of networking is without any boundaries, if at any point you lose the trust of any one of your contacts, it will filter down to all your contacts.

6. Read the fine print

In case you haven’t already, go through the User Agreement you accepted when you registered with LinkedIn. There are certain obligations on your part that LinkedIn expects you to follow and you should be clear about them. LinkedIn is not a market place where you can make a profit. It is more like a gathering of like-minded people where you can develop ideas. Understand the LinkedIn mission and you will be able to understand what is the right etiquette for such a place.

Remember, your online presence can be the first impression you make, so make it a good one! By following these steps, you’ll be on your way to connecting with those important people in your field.

Do you have other “etiquette tips?”  List them below.

If you enjoyed “Top 6 Things You Need to Know About LinkedIn Etiquette” please share it with your friends by clicking the links below.

Don’t you love simple and easy stuff?  Well, here are my 5 Simple Steps for getting started with LinkedIn.

As you know, LinkedIn is the professional networking site where you connect with like-minded business professionals or prospects that you would like to do business with.  LinkedIn is not as “social” as Facebook and Twitter or even YouTube, it’s truly about building a strong professional relationship with others that you would like to do business with whether you are the buyer or the seller.

To get started with LinkedIn is quite easy:

Step 1 - Establish your account at linkedin.com.  Enter your email address and a secure password. (Be sure to jot it down so you don’t forget, or you can use Roboform.com to assist with remembering passwords)

Step 2 - import your current contacts, those that you are already connected to and/or doing business with, into LinkedIn through the Add Connections Tab located under Contacts.  This is an easy way to build your connections in LinkedIn without having to search for them.

Step 3 – Build your Profile to 100%. LinkedIn walks you through the process of building a strong profile, shows the progress you are making and what remains to be completed.  Work toward 100%.

Step 4 – In order to reach that 100% completeness of your profile, you need to be recommended by former clients, colleagues or co-workers.  Don’t be afraid to ASK for these recommendations.  All they can say is NO.  Or better yet, recommend others and maybe they will return the favor by recommending you.

Step 5 - Search and Join “niche” groups and get into the conversation.  What better way to position yourself as an expert than to respond timely and accurately with answers to questions.  Those who are not connected to you will quickly want to be connected because you are the expert or “Go-To” person for this topic.  And you can answer as many questions as you have the answers for.  So Become an Online Celebrity by responding to questions on LinkedIn.

Just those 5 Steps will get you started and racing out of the gate on LinkedIn to quickly build your connections and potential clients.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How LinkedIn will fire up your career (via money.cnn.com) (smbar.posterous.com)

If you enjoyed “5 Simple Steps to Getting LinkedIn” please share it with your friends by clicking the links below or posting a comment.

Want to send a message to your friends on Facebook, but don’t know how? Here are simple steps to help you send messages through your Facebook Inbox and other helpful tips for sending messages in Facebook.

• Type the person’s name into the Search box at the upper right of any Page. When the search results are returned, click on the “Send a Message” link to the right of the result. A box will open to type in the subject and message. When finished, click “Send.”
  
• Open the Inbox and click on “Compose” the same box will open to type the specifics of your message
• To learn how to send a private message on Facebook, visit my YouTube Channel to view a short video where I walk you through the entire process.

Here are other tips to help with sending messages on Facebook:

• You can message up to 20 friends per message
• If you have a Group or Fan Page, you can send to all of your Group Members or Fans with one message
• Users can receive messages from anyone on Facebook, regardless if you are friends or not. To avoid this, go to Settings/Privacy/Search and under “Search Result Content” uncheck the box for “A link to send me a message.”
• Photos, videos and links can be attached to messages
• The Inbox is not intended for “live” conversations. The Chat option can be used for instant messaging others on Facebook
• Be careful of promoting a product or service or any type of advertising to your friends through the Inbox as it is considered spam and against Facebook policies
• The Inbox has search features for finding messages by sender, keywords, recipients or Friend Lists
• You can manage your Inbox notifications by going to Settings/Account Settings/ Notifications. Here you can select which information you would like to see in your Personal Email Account. For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook for your email management, you will receive an email each time you get a message in your Facebook Inbox. You can uncheck this notification to stop those emails from going to Outlook.

The Facebook Inbox is a great communication tool when used properly. It is just another alternative for connecting with your online friends and business contacts.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the current news related to Social Media? Take a look at this video.

http://facebook.com/socialmediatraining

Well, today’s your lucky day! Today at 1 pm est. is the official launch of the Blastoff network. It is free, easy and fun, plus you can make money with your Blastoff site.

Watch this short video to get more information and then click I Want a Free Blastoff Site

Take a look at this video to help you evaluate and develop a strategy for accepting Facebook Friends.