In my LinkedIn presentations I often ask the following two questions:

1- How many of you are on LinkedIn and have a profile? I usually get about 80% of the audience to raise their hands.

2- How may of you are generating business out of LinkedIn? I’m lucky if I get more than 1 or 2 people who raise their hands. More often than not, I get zero.

Most people who are on LinkedIn don’t understand how to use LinkedIn to generate business.

I would venture to say that this is even more prevalent on Twitter. And I would count myself among those who don’t fully understand how to generate business using Twitter.

I just finished reading an article that has an excellent  (and short) case study of how to use Twitter successfully to generate business.  I do believe that if people were exposed to more examples (case studies) of practical, tactical activities that lead to success using Social Networking, it would make it much easier for them to embrace it. You can read the article here.

I you have or have heard about other specific examples involving Twitter such as the one covered in the article, please share them with me.

One of the three pillars of building an effective Social Networking strategy is increasing your credibility. When people trust you they will listen to you. So I’m always looking for ways to increase my credibility online.

ReallyWho.com can help you increase your credibility online. They have a pretty slick system that allows them to verify that you are indeed a real person with a real physical address. This greatly reduces the chances that spammers would use their service – since the last thing that they want is for people online to know their real name and/or location. As you can see from my picture below, they add a verify banner to your image that you can then place on your Social Media sites to increase people’s trust in you.

Remember that trust and credibility are built over time and in little increments. This is one step that will help you. I highly encourage that you at least check them out.

You can now have your Twitter account visible on your LinkedIn profile. This is great news because you will be able to easily follow your LinkedIn connections and vice versa. This development together with the Twitter lists makes it for some very interesting possibilities.

Go ahead and add your Twitter ID to your LinkedIn profile

This tip came courtesy of Mary Gillen.

Want to search for links shared by a specific person on Twitter, and avoid the rest of the blah blah blah? In the Twitter search form, be more specific:

from:Twitterusername filter:links

Example:

from:stayingintouch filter:links

Ivana Taylor is a friend of mine whom I met via LinkedIn, recently published a wonderful post on a question that is on a lot of people’s minds when it comes to Social Networking: “How will this make me money?” Click here to read her post.

This excerpt was written by Andy Lopata – a fellow writer from The National Networker (TNNW). It is excellent advise for both newbies and seasoned Social Networkers alike.

It’s very easy to drop your guard when networking online. There tends to be a lot of banter and discussion. It’s also a form of networking that’s very accessible at any time, irrespective of your mood or sobriety.

As someone recently said on Twitter, “It can take 1,000 tweets to build a reputation, and one to ruin it.”

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If you are using Twitter, you have probably seen tweets that contain the “#” symbol followed by something else i.e. #quote. This is called a hashtag and it is a way for you and others to keep tabs on a particular subject. One of the best elements of Twitter is that it allows you to listen to what others are saying about a myriad of topics. So by having a hashtag associated with a topic, you can more easily follow the content related to that topic.

Check out this short video by Mari Smith that explains all about hashtags

Among newbies, I find that Twitter is probably the least understood Social Networking sites among the top three – Facebook, LinkedIn & Twtter. Check out this great article: Understanding Twitter by Naomi Pollack in Biznik. In it Naomi explains the Twitter in a way that most newbies will understand and also offers some good instights as to how to go about embracing the platform and getting value out of it.

I read this blog post from Ken Rochon, co-founder of Perfect Networker where he suggests that we should stick to 3-4 sites and work them rather than spread ourselves out through 20. I wholeheartedly agree. Deeper is better than wider.

Remember to look at your VCP strategy – Visibility, Credibility & Profitability – to guide you.

By the way, I currently focus most of my Social Networking efforts on LinkedIn, Biznik, Twitter & Facebook.

Twitter is one of those platforms that you can use any way you want.  However, here’s a concept I just learned from Twitter Genius Dan Hollings. He mentioned that the main purpose of Twitter is to increase the number of people who LISTEN to you vs. the number of people who FOLLOW you.

Great distinction!

People following you is good for your Ego. People listening to you is good for your pocketbook — or your relationship building efforts.

So if you are new to Twitter, think in terms of what would have people want to listen to you? What content are you going to be sharing that makes it worth listening (following) you?