I’m really beginning to like Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans).  She is always interesting and has great information to share.  Here’s something I read on her blog just recently. 

The social ask is when you ask someone to fan, like, follow you on social media.  What do you think?  Is it time for us to stop asking people to get on board with us and just let them make up their mind without the push?  I’m not saying that we should stop putting links or buttons on our various sites to give people a way to find us.  Sarah isn’t saying that either.  But it seems that by now people know what to do once they get to your site.  Won’t they like you if they really like you?

Let’s talk about it in the comments section below. (Opps, I think that I just made a social ask.) Well, you know what to do.

flickr creative commons attribution: juliocrockett

I love to read!  The only thing I love better than reading is sharing.  So, who else better to share the content that I find interesting about social media than with you, my dear reader. 

Here are a few articles I found interesting:

Social Media and Home Improvement:  This is an article about Home Depot’s development of a new social media customer service representative.  In addition to their regular duties, this employee will spend 3 days a week creating how to videos and answering customer questions through social media.  Could this be a hit?

You can learn something from a grandmother:  I’m a grandmother so this article from Social Media Today caught my eye.  It’s true that many of the ideas about relationship building with social media are just plain old stuff your grandmother taught you.

Ways to use LinkedIn to build business:  Using LinkedIn has gone from what is it to how do I use it effectively.  This article gives 16 great ways to develop your LinkedIn prescence.

Sharing is caring.  What have you been reading lately that you’d like to share? 

Social media has been around for a few years now and is finally becoming useful for personal, professional, and business reasons.

However, many B2B companies still believe social media is just a fad.  Some companies might see that social media is not a fad but believe that it is not applicable to their industry.  Often, even when a company acknowledges that social media is valuable, their online life does not reflect that understanding.

Has your B2B company fully accepted the power of social media?  If not, perhaps the following satistics will be very convincing:

Original source:  Social Media Today

In what ways has your company embraced (or not embraced) social media?

Well, just when we all think that social media is getting to a manageble level it happens again.  Another social networking platform, Facebook, adds a few new features that make you go, hmmm…  Now, I do like what LinkedIn changed, but I’m not sure exactly what FB is going for.

First, they have changed the way people join fan pages.  Now, we can only like each other because apparently, according to FB, fan was too strong of a word.  Also, on the fan page you now see your personal FB friends along with the people who “like” you.  The thing that I loved about facebook’s personal profile and fan page was the separation.  I liked having people who only want to see pictures of my granddaughter separated from the other people who want to talk about social media.  It’s down right frustrating, I tell you.  I’m almost afraid to teach my next social media class because while I’m explaining a feature of some social networking site it might change that very hour. 

Second, Facebook is now introducing another level of networking (I guess that’s what it is) called community pages.  So what’s the difference between community page, fan page, personal profile and group?  I don’t believe anyone know yets.  If someone does then like the Bush’s Beans dog, they ain’t talking.  For now what is known is that individuals can create a community page.  I think that the page will be owned by the one who creates it at first but once it reaches a certain number of people who like it then the community takes over and it becomes more like a wiki.  If you understand that, please explain it to me!  LOL!

So the question again becomes should people/organizations go ahead and create a community page to have first in advantage or just wait to see what happens.  How will people use the community pages?  What will having these well liked community pages do for fan pages.  Will it make fan pages obsolete?  The world is waiting for an answer. 

Here’s my biggest question:  Are the big drug manufacturers working on a pill to combat social networking chageitsis?  I might need a perscription.  In the meantime, I guess margaritas will have to be enough.

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?