GREAT video. Simple, and powerful and true! 9 minutes and 21 seconds worth your time to watch, laugh, and cry!

Thanks to Mitch Joel for pointing this one out.

This article assumes you are signed up for a Twitter account. If you’re not, go ahead and sign up and then come back to learn a little bit more. While you’re there, make sure you follow me (I’m @philgerb)

I was a little late to really USE Twitter. I signed up for it right when it came out thanks to my involvement at the first SOBCon, but I didn’t really get the power of it until the last 6 months. Now, I’m hooked, and here’s why.

It’s only 1 idea at a time and not spammy – You only get 140 characters so there isn’t a lot of chance to share spam. Those folks that do spam, you can easily remove them  with one click. Just unfollow and they are out of your friend’s feed. That didn’t hurt a bit. 

Share a link fast – If you find a great article, great site, or great anything, you can easily share a link. Just post it out there (use a URL shortening service like http://is.gd), give it a little context, and soon, the whole world is going to see it.

Connect and re-connect to your friends – Any of your friends that are using Twitter offer you a great way to connect and keep up with them even if you don’t see them all the time. 

Connect to the stars – If you’re looking for a conversation with Shaq, Jimmy Fallon, or Oprah, you just might get it with Twitter. 

Dip and dive into any conversation you want – If you see something of interest, you can contribute your ideas to the conversation right away and help propel the idea forward. 

Still skeptical?

Tell me what your concern is and I promise to answer it in a future article.

If you’re hooked on Twitter, please share why below!

LinkedIn is one of my favorite tools I use to connect with folks in my network. I use it for a TON of different reasons, but before I share some advanced tips, I thought I’d share some basic tips about how to best use the free service out there. 

Top 10 11 LinkedIn Tips

1)      Your photo – Always include a picture of you smiling in your profile. It humanizes you and makes you seem more approachable. Mine is the same picture you see on the side of this blog.

2)      URL – Always customize the URL to be your name or something folks can remember. Mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgerb 

3)      URL – If you don’t have your own blog or website, buy whateveryournameis.com and forward it to your LinkedIn profile. Don’t forget to include the www in your profile or it won’t work. 

4)      Name – Always include the way folks would know you so when they look for your name, they find you. Include your maiden name and/or nickname if applicable.

5)      Requesting Connections – Always customize your invitation when you ask people to join your network. Include how they know you, how you can benefit them by being a part of their network, and even how you hope to work with them in the future. Leaving this as the default says “You’re not important enough for me to customize this to you” or worse “You sent this to 200 people and are probably going to spam my network.” The default message of “‘I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” is NOT very compelling. 

6)      Email address – If you’re going to use your work e-mail address, always put your personal e-mail address on there as backup just in case you leave a company and forget your password.

7)      Export EVERYTHING – Monthly, export your entire profile and all your contacts so you have a hard copy backup. Email them to your Gmail account for double backup.

      Recommendations – Give folks you work with/for recommendations when they do great work. Be willing to revise them if folks find typos in your recommendation or if they want you to use different words to say the same thing. 

9)      Recommendations – Ask for recommendations after you do great work. Don’t be afraid to offer a suggestion of what a good recommendation to you might look like. Make sure you ask the right people for the right thing. The last thing you want to do is put someone in a place to give you a recommendation on something they can’t honestly say you did.

10)  Answers – Answer questions in your area of expertise, or recommend the questions you find to experts you know can answer them.

11)  Answers – Ask questions of your network when you need help (and for bonus points, publish the answer on your blog for all to read). Never ask folks to respond privately so everyone can learn from your questions.

What are YOUR best LinkedIn tips? Share them in the comments below.

If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please invite me to your network, and let me know how I know you, and I will be happy to connect to you. If you give me a generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” and we’ve never exchanged e-mails or I don’t remember you, then I can’t add you. I can’t let just anyone in my network.