Updating your status on LinkedIn can both help and hurt you on LinkedIn. Used properly, they can be a very powerful component of your LinkedIn strategy. On this post I’ll focus on how they can help you.

Your updates should be used to increase your and/or your network’s Visibility / Credibility. You can also use the updates to promote – as long as they are subtle! Remember that people on LinkedIn want primarily relevant information and connections. They don’t want to be sold!

I recently posted that I had booked a presentation while traveling abroad to the U.K. (I live in San Diego, CA.) My main purspose with this update was to increase my credibility as an International Speaker. However, I also got an unexpected bonus – see below:

I had recently connected with this person on LinkedIn and thanks to my post we started a conversation and we are now likely to meet face-to-face in a few weeks.

This is the magic of integrating online and offline networking

Last week an order came if for my Social Networking for Business Profits – In 30 Minutes a Day or Less eBook. I also got an email from the person who purchased it and it turns out he is someone I hadn’t seen or been in touch with in over 20 years. We had met many years ago at a previous company where I used to lead Personal Growth seminars.

The interesting part is how he found me. He was doing a search for a business podcast and he stumbled upon an interview I had done for an Internet Radio station. Based on our previous relationship and his current interest in Social Media, he decided to purchase the eBook.

He then wrote me an email which allowed us to re-established a connection and started a new conversation. Who knows where this new conversation will lead?

This is what Social Networking is all about. Making new connections, sustaining existing or rekindling previous ones. This is a different mindset than looking at the particular ROI of every activity on-line.

Granted, there needs to be an ROI to Social Networking – otherwise it is easy to get carried and take away from doing business. However, determining how to measure the true ROI of Social Networking may be a bit more complicated.

MSNBC.com conducted a poll and found that 75% of 4,000 business responders believed that online Social Networking could increase their bottom line. Learning how to do this is a smart investment of your time. Devote at least one hour per week to your Social Networking education and you will see a significant increase in your business in 2009.

My Social Networking for Business Profits – In 30 Minutes a Day or Less eBook will get you get started (or continue) your education. Best $12 you ever spent. Guaranteed.

One of the reasons I haven’t posted much lately is that I’ve been very focused on publishing my eBook. I’m thrilled to announce that I finally finished it. The book is called Social Networking for Business Profits – In 30 Minutes a Day or Less and you can click on the image in the sidebar to purchase it.

When I first started this project, I figured I would write a 6-8 page eBook. However by the time I was done, I had partnered up with Mike Hayden who is an excellent technical writer and the finished product is a 45 page book. The purpose of the book is to help the Social Networking newbie get started in this exciting arena. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten so far, I accomplished my purpose.

If you find value in this blog’s content, you will definitely find value in the book.

Now that this part is done, the most difficult part begins – the marketing of the book. My guess is that this will lead to another eBook.

In the meantime, this whole experience is like Rubik’s cube. Every time a piece is completed, it affects several others. Exciting stuff!

If you have read my book would love to hear your feedback.

We live in a fast-paced society–one with very little patience. We eat fast food. We drive fast cars. We multitask. We all have been conditioned to expect immediate results. So we usually give our social networking a few weeks or months. If we don’t get any sales, we quit.

Steven Covey tells a story about what it takes for the bamboo plant to grow. He states that there are certain types of bamboo plants that take up to four years before they come out of the ground. Prior to them coming out of the ground, the plants are growing by spreading their roots underground. If you didn’t know this, it looks like nothing is happening. On the other hand, once they break ground, they surge upward from 12-36 inches in a 24-hour period!

Networking is very similar to this. I’m not saying that it will take four years before you see results, but it certainly won’t be immediate. So building your visibility and your credibility takes time. It is like the bamboo plant spreading its roots. Eventually you will start generating business. You just have to be patient.

What results have you gotten out of all this time and effort you are putting into this (Social Networking)? I get asked this question a lot. As I mentioned in my previous post, people are concerned that Social Networking will divert much of their time and produce little in terms of results.

I’ve learned that results in Social Networking are not linear. What I mean by this is that you don’t get from a to z in a straight line. For example, in the old paradigm of direct sales you could count on sending a certain number of direct mail pieces and getting a certain number of responses. That process was linear and predictable. Social Networking is not.

The way information travels through networks is very dynamic. It goes all over the place. In doesn’t follow a particular path. Which is why you need to be patient. You also need to plant a lot of seeds to see which ones grow.

A blog post by itself will probably do very little. However there may come a time when you have built your visibility and your credibility through multiple conversations and relationships, that one post can have a huge impact in the results you will get.

To date I have published several blogs, have a podcast series and I’m just about finished writing an eBook. What is happening is that I’m getting connections and conversations through these various efforts that probably would not have happened if I had only done one.

Remember this concept when you are evaluating your ROI for Social Networking.

This seems to be a common reason I hear from many folks as to why they are not participating in Social Networking. Having worked in the personal development field for almost 30 years, Time is one of the most prominent reasons people have for NOT doing things.

Fact is that you can gain benefits from Social Networking if you invest as little as 10 minutes per day or one hour per week. Obviously if you have big goals, you will need to invest more time than this. However when I first started in this arena, I limited myself to one hour per week and was able to get results.

The key is to remove the inertia and get started. At first, your purpose should be to just learn something new. Ignore results. Simply focus on getting comfortable with the tools, the language and the concepts.

As you do this, you will start getting into some conversations. You will connect with people you know or meet new people. You will see that it is OK to participate at a low level at first. Gradually your level of comfort and expertise will increase and when it does, so will the results you get. As you get more results, you will WANT to allocate more time. And once the desire is there, you will FIND the time.

One of the most powerful concepts I have been toying with is the idea that you are only one person away from having someone support you in achieving your dreams. What would happen to your business if someone who is highly influential decided to back you and promote you? Let’s say Oprah or Bill Gates, or maybe the president of an association with thousands of members. Get the picture?

Earlier this year, my company launched a product called QuoteActions. It is a system that allows the small business owner to stay in touch and open conversations with their entire database. We set a goal of selling 200 subscriptions for this year, and we have a good chance of achieving our goal. Our business plan projects 1,000 sales in two years.

However, based on this post’s title, the truth is–there is no reason why this couldn’t happen a lot sooner. All I would need to do is attract one highly influential person who already does business with my target audiences.  This someone would serve the needs of small business owners and/or independent service providers.  If they were to endorse my company and product to their clients, I believe the timeframe would be significantly reduced.

Here’s the interesting part. Last Wednesday I was attending a networking meeting with my BNI group and one of the visitors ended up sitting next to me. We chatted for a few minutes, and he told me that my business sounded interesting to him. We exchanged cards and decided to explore how we could work together in the future.

As it turned out he contacted me that very afternoon. After reviewing my website and my blog, he made the call to let me know that we had something he and his company were looking for. As a business development leader of a successful sales training firm in Southern California, they had been looking for a company that does experiential learning to help their clients. They have a database of over 100,000 members—all are small business owners, entrepreneurs and service providers. Imagine what could happen if his company decides to promote and become an affiliate provider of our product? When you combine the database numbers with the credibility this person enjoys with his clients, we could possibly reach our 1,000 within weeks. Think about it–if only 1% of their contacts respond positively, it’s a win-win for both companies. I’m not saying this will happen, however, it is now a very real possibility.

We have a tendency to project the future based on what has happened in the past. We often extrapolate numbers based on averages from previous months or years. While this approach seems logical, it doesn’t have to be so. Just remember, you are only one person away from blowing those predictions away.

So who is that person and how do you find him/her? Well, in the immortal words of Jack Palance to Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers — P: “You know the secret of life boils down to one thing.” C: “What is that one thing?” P: “Well, that’s what you have to figure out.”

I don’t know who that person is or where I will meet them, although sites like Biznik.com & Ecademy.com greatly increase my chances.  But I do know one thing, the odds that I will find them – or them find me – are greater the more I believe and trust in this process. The mind works like a missile. Once it locks into a target; it finds a way to get there.

People often say this to me during networking events (both online and offline.) This is especially the case if I have done something that has provided value for them or has helped them. This is part of the reciprocity cycle. Unfortunately, many of us are not prepared to answer this question in a way that

a) will allow the other person to help us.

b) actually provide some help for us.

The problem is that we often ask for things that require a much stronger relationship and a deeper level of trust than what we have at the time. So if someone asks me the question, “how may I be able to help you?” and I respond with: “if you know someone who is into personal development and would like to do a course, please send them my way,” the odds are that they will nod theirr head and say, “OK” and that will be the end of it.

Compare the above response with this one: “thanks for asking. As a matter of fact there is. I have recently written a new article and would appreciate it if you were to take a few minutes to read it, rate it and possibly make a comment. May I email you the link to it?”

I’m much more likely to have the person help me doing the latter than the former. And in the process I will have strengthened our relationship.

So go ahead and make a list of things that people can do for you that require a relative low investment of time and risk and have them ready the next time someone asks you how they can help you.

Please share with me what are some of those ways so that I can add them to my own list.