When you’re dancing, timing is everything. If you’re out of step by even a second, you might wind up stepping on your date’s toes, or yanking your partner across the room, or just falling flat on your face.

The same thing can be said of social media, except instead of embarrassing yourself in front of the masses, you wind up sentenced to an unseen, unheard of place in the oblivion of the blogosphere. The point of social media is to improve audience interaction and promote your name. Remaining unseen and unheard is a death knell for your efforts.

To that end, the best way to be seen is to dance in step. Pop Labs knows that different networks must be synchronized and coordinated in both timing and movement to make sense and gain the attention of the masses.

Here are five ways to make your social media dance in step.

#1 TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Well, maybe not everything, but a heckuva lot. There’s a whole large-scale discussion of when is the best time to post information, with opinions ranging widely from one social media guru to the next. What we may soon discover is that timing varies by type of post update, not only according to the macro (what network you are on) but micro as well (what type of post you are putting together). Whatever your strategy is, make sure not to post haphazardly with lump sums. Use scheduled posts when it makes sense, but don’t fear innovation or the possibilities brought on by more sporadic communication.

#2 DIFFERENT STEPS FOR DIFFERENT STYLES
One of the fastest ways to show the world your ignorance of social media is to misplace a message post. Hash tags (#theylooklikethis) are meant for Twitter and should be avoided on Facebook. Generally speaking, polls are geared toward Facebook. Put the right post in the right place or it will stand out like break-dancing at a ballet recital.

#3 THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT
Your posts should look the way they’re supposed to. When you misspell something, take it down and repost it. Actually, forget that. Try not to misspell things in the first place. It’s unprofessional. You wouldn’t send an advertisement to print with a typo. Your social media networks are no different.
A misspelled word on a post is like a botched version of the Macarena. U-G-L-Y.
At the same time, different networks have different space requirements and allowances. The 140-character requirement over at Twitter means some short hand is allowable. Facebook only shows a certain amount of a post, so there might be room to shorten your words there, too. Google+ shows everything, so spell out every word.

#4 SHARING IS CARING
Make sure your blog posts have all of the relevant share buttons and put them in an easy, eye-appealing location and in a click-friendly shape. You want people to share your posts on all networks. In fact, you can do a bit of this yourself by cross-posting or using post scheduling programs.

#5 EMBEDDED AND IN SYNC
YouTube actually allows you to embed videos in Facebook. Whenever you see the opportunity to actually marry and integrate two platforms in a friendly, clickable way, go for it. Make everything easy for the average web follower.

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Twitter and Facebook may be “what’s hot” for social networking, but with LinkedIn’s network of over 100 million professionals it’s quickly becoming a hotspot to help grow your B2B business. Most people are familiar with how to use LinkedIn on a personal level, but there are several features available to raise awareness and generate revenue for your business as a whole. The top ones are below:

• Make your profile complete and add keywords.
Your profile is the first thing other LinkedIn users see so it’s very important to list all relevant information about yourself. Also, LinkedIn profiles have a high PageRank on Google, so by completing your profile, adding keywords and making your profile available for search engines to index the easier it will be for people to find you.

• Make connections.
LinkedIn is a social network, but for building relationships with other professionals. You need to remember that this isn’t Facebook, Twitter or Myspace (heaven forbid) – we aren’t trying to be friends with everybody. Make valuable connections with other professionals that can help you promote your business and your own personal brand. You can search by industry, keywords, company and title to name a few. Take a look at business descriptions and connections to determine who would be the best contacts for you and don’t connect with anyone you don’t actually know – LinkedIn is not a popularity contest.

• Get recommendations.
Recommendations are the most looked for feature on your profile and can enhance your professional credibility, which will help make connections. Most importantly, don’t ask everybody for recommendations – only people that you know well. Always be sure to return the favor when appropriate!

• Use LinkedIn Answers.
The most powerful tool LinkedIn has to offer is LinkedIn Answers, which allows professionals to ask and answer questions about every possible business topic. The more answers that are chosen as the “best answer” can earn you the title “expert” in a certain field. Now that you demonstrated your knowledge or “expertise,” you have the opportunity to connect with the question-asker and anyone else that read the question and your subsequent answer.

• Join groups – or start your own.
LinkedIn’s Groups feature is a great way to stay informed and make new connections with other professionals that share your interests. There are hundreds of thousands of groups on LinkedIn and chances are you will find a few that will work for promoting and discussing your business. The more you interact with your groups the more exposure you will receive. Select groups that are appropriate for a business professional of your kind, but also be sure to get involved in groups where your PROSPECTS are – this way you will be on hand to sniff our opportunities.

LinkedIn allows professionals to connect with people they already know and to search for people they want to know. Spending some quality time on LinkedIn and using its features will help grow your business and generate revenue, especially for those of us who are too busy to do the amount of face to face networking we should be doing. LinkedIn is proving to be a very credible substitute for such in any B2B focused social media strategy.

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Three weeks ago I was awakened out of my sleep by my phone alarm, telling me that I had an email message. Half-awake, I opened the message to find a flight confirmation email from Southwest Airlines. This must have been a mistake because I certainly did not book a round-trip flight to Florida. After sitting up, turning on the lamp on my bedside table, I noticed there is a message attached from my boss:

“Pack your bags, you are going to Florida. Hope you can find a babysitter. – Gene”

Was this a new employee appreciation program where people are randomly awarded with a vacation package? Nope. It was one better! I was getting the opportunity to attend the @IncEvents conference #GrowCo, in Orlando, Florida!

Perfect! Except, I have never networked for my company before, and certainly not at an Inc Magazine event. Before departing, my boss gave me a few pointers to lead me in the right direction. Below are the 5 things to know when being a beginner networker. (more…)

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