Can You Grow your Business Social Footprint, without Putting it in Your Mouth?

 You walk into a party and a sharply-dressed grey-haired guy (not me, I’m in my boxers right now) shakes your hand.  Sporting a toothpaste commercial grin, he says,” Let me tell you about the value of owning a silver-plated casket!” You respectively try to talk your way out of it, but before you do, a slim red-haired woman, sporting a noticeable over-bite grabs your arm. “Hi.  I’ve been feeling your energy from across the room, and there are past lives that want to surface in you…Make an appointment with me, and I will work them out for you at a discounted rate.” 

Twitter is a cocktail party. When I scroll down on Twitter, I am always annoyed by those that just say, “Buy mine!  Buy Mine!”  They offer nothing that can inform me and help me.  Why would I buy anything from them?

Others post words of wisdom (or at least they think they are), like “Is forever longer than always?–Dolly Parton.” How pathetic.

So, I welcomed the article How to Spread Your Business Social Footprint Around the Web by Josh Catone.  Josh, who obviously has a social networking background graces us with a few good points on how to increase your social footprint, or profile.

1. Be Everywhere:  Josh points out a good fact, but as business people, we only have so much time to spend hitting many of the social networks.  I would suggest that a business person choose where they have the most impact and traffic.  Then, you can use your employees, in a limited way, to social bookmark your site in various other networks.  One hour per employee a week can make a big difference in your exposure.
2. Participate in the Conversation:  This is my point above.  Participate by being constructive and helpful.  You will not find any of my blogs pitching the reader.  The author should write to help and to display the author’s knowledge.
3. Share your expertise:  As I said, show what you know.  There is too much knowledge for any of us to know everything, so we are in this together building each other up to create a better society, and smarter business persons.

The points above are tactics to the strategy of growing your business.  Don’t be stuck in the 20th century and ignore the web.  I bet your competitors aren’t.