Valerie Maltoni, of Conversation Agent, posed this great question on LinkedIn Answers about a month ago.  I thought you, my readers, might like to be in on this conversation.   Go to Valerie’s LinkedIn Answers question for the original content or the Conversation Agent blog post where she distills it all.

After you read this, then weigh in with your thoughts.  Are you or your company feeling the pressure to be present online in a more “social” way?  Will you outsource all or some of the project?  If you are in PR, what are your thoughts about offering this as a service?  Will you become the voice of a company if they ask you to?

So, I’m reading the blogs that I subscribe to when I run across this very good one from Amber Naslund.  She’s the Director of Community for Radian6.  In the post titled, The Quest for Firm Answers, she says, “I’m finally going to answer some of the questions that have been burning in your mind. The ones that your boss is demanding. The ones you say you aren’t getting from books or blogs or conference sessions. Ready?”

Are you ready?  Go to her blog post by clicking on the title above to see what her answers are.  I think you’ll be surprised!

Wow, I’m really loving You Tube.  Until now, if I wanted to see someone show me the steps of the latest dance craze then You Tube was my Google.  But since I’ve become very serious about using it to research more serious subjects, I can see that there really is a lot of valuable information to be had.  Many people are very generous.

I’m sharing this video with you because Kyle Flaherty at Breaking Point Systems gave a great talk to the company’s global sales force.  In the presentation he shares some key points about using LinkedIn for B2B sales.  With over 60 million members, of which all Fortune 500 executives are a part, LinkedIn is not to be ignored if you’re serious about growing your business.

In general he reminds us to:

Be a resource: what’s in it for your connections

Don’t interrupt: be helpful

Connect after meeting: keep up with the people you meet in person

Be current: use LinkedIn applications to make your profile interesting

Update your profiles everywhere: when you find yourself listed on LinkedIn like sites update the profile

How helpful has LinkedIn been for you to grow your online presence and prospect for sales?

Burson-Marsteller recently released the results of a survey they conducted to determine where companies engage the most using social media tools.  The study indicates that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs.

It’s interesting to find that companies are not just posting and tweeting randomly.   Real conversations are going on.  

For an evidence-based approach to social media, the reports suggest the following 9 tips:

1.  Monitor your own, and your competitors, social media presence.

2.  Get top management “buy-in”. 

3.  Develop a social media strategy.

4.  Define and publish a social media policy.

5.  Develop internal structure.

6.  Contribute to the community.

7.  Participate in good times and in bad.

8.  Be perpared to respond in real time.

9.  Beyond monitoring, measure the impact of social media engagement.

You don’t have to be a big company to harness the power of social media engagement.  The rules are the same for any size business.  In fact, social media has leveled the playing field in such a way that a small company or individual can have the same kind of reach as a bigger company by using social media tools.   But you do have to follow the rules.  If you are the top management then you must agree with yourself that you will be committed to using the social media tools you select.  Do publish your social media policy even if you are the only one who will see it at first.  This will give you a guide to help you remember what you said you would do.  Don’t think that just because your business is local that you don’t have competitors.  You do.  Social media tools provide a great way of finding out what they are doing.

So, what is your social media tool of choice?  How is your engagement through that channel improving your business outcomes?  Have you performed a social media checkup lately?

Are you a technology expert?  Well, I’m not!  There is so much to learn and new developments emerge daily.  It’s no wonder that a person who is really a marketer or lawyer might struggle a bit when it comes to managing hardware, software, applications and such.  While I was surfing the net today, I found this really great article, Managing the Technological Side of Your Business When You Don’t Understand Technology.  The article gives practical information about finding help with technology for e-commerce businesses.  However, it’s still good advice no matter what your industry.

Additionally, here are my top 3 reasons for why it’s a good idea to get help with technology:

1.  Save your sanity.  Sometimes it takes hours to figure out how to answer a technology questions and that’s if you ever find the answer at all.  Why not save time by having someone who already knows to help you.  Often times, clicking on one little box will give you the results you need.

2.  Increase your productivity.  Technology, after all, is supposed to help us work faster, connect better, be more informed and more.  Do you know the all the right tools to use to help you reach your business goals more efficiently?

3.  Organize yourself.   In real estate it’s location.  For technology it’s organization.  Consider your email.   Have you created rules for your incoming emails so that they will be categorized and easy to find?  Do you use a toolbar to help you easily utilize the different areas of Outlook?  For example, I use an Outlook toolbar that allows me to see a profile complete with picture of anyone who sends me an email.  That little add on allows me to see how to connect with the people who email me through other means such as Twitter or LinkedIn.  It also threads all the email conversations I have with a person and keeps the attachments in one place.  As a social media consultant, this tool is very valuable to me.

 I hope this advice is helpful when you find yourself short one IT department.