How do I create my personality on Social Media? What do I talk about so people will listen? Do I talk about my personal life or keep it strictly professional? Is it okay to talk about stuff I don’t like?

If you related to any of the questions above or have asked yourself any of those questions, then trust me you are not alone. During 1:1 consults and Q/A calls that I host for my clients, these are by far the most common questions I receive. I think that after creating the profiles this is the next biggest hurdle that people have to overcome in order to successfully start building their identity.

So, I am here to make it easier for you Here is how I answer this commonly asked question! First of all, be yourself. Talk about your interests, things you like to do and not do. I also recommend talking about your family. This doesn’t mean that you have to dish out personal information but it can be as simple as your kids making a sports team in school or boy/girl scouts meetings, trips you are planning to take, etc. You can also talk about your pets.

Controversy is great in creating conversations. So please do talk about what you like and don’t like. As always, this is information you are putting onto the web so just be careful in how you say it. Be professional and I do not recommend using foul language. Good rule of thumb is, “would my grandmother be okay with me saying this.” 

Don’t be afraid to show your good along with your bad. People are scared to put up pictures where they feel they may not look their best…I say put it all out there! I used to be extremely self-conscious about putting up pictures that were doing to go out on the web. I never used to show my teeth in pictures and deleted anything that showed my teeth and had my looking crazy. Not anymore! 

Social media is about building relationships and it is difficult to build a relationship without knowing what the other personal looks like or is all about. So I urge you to put up current pictures and start letting people know more about you.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how you are creating your social media personality. Please leave any comments and/or questions below.

Let’s Get Social:)
Urvi on Facebook: http://facebook.com/urvimehta
Urvi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/urvimehta
Urvi on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/urvimehta

Social media marketing using Twitter doesn’t have to be difficult. Follow the six steps below to create, post and manage your twitter account and it will be easy. From deciding what profile name to choose, to sending out your very first tweet, you won’t believe how easy it is to get started with Twitter.

1. Get your free account- Go to twitter.com and click on the join button
2. Choose an appropriate username or brandable slogan
3. Complete and Update your Twitter profile.
4. Follow people of interest to you.
5. Connect with others – Send out your first tweet
6. Participate in the conversation

Some suggestions to make the most of your social media marketing on Twitter:

Choosing a unique username

The purpose of using twitter for social media marketing is to get your name out there, build your brand and to connect with others that have similar interests. So when choosing a username, try to use your own name or brandable slogan so that you can build an identity that others will see as an expert in your niche.

Personalize your profile

Personalize your Twitter profile by adding your name and a current photo; be sure to include your website/blog address (so others can learn more about you or your product or company). Include a brief bio about yourself that uses keywords that will associate you with. To personalize your profile even further you can change your background. TwitBacks.com is a great site that offers a ton of different templates to enhance your twitter profile page and make it more personalized.

Connect with others in your industry or niche

Don’t be shy, get it out there. Others will interact with you when you tweet about something that they have an interest in too. Find out who’s who in your industry or niche and follow them. An awesome site I like to use to find industry leaders is http://www.twellow.com.  You can search the twellow website using keywords that relate to your niche and find out what is being said about your industry and who is saying it. You can also find people on twitter that have interests that are similar, or follow users that are suggested from Twitter by clicking on the find people tab at the top of your twitter home page.

Participate

Be relevant, share, contribute and respond to the tweets of others. Ask questions and evoke responses. Not only tweet about your own contributions, retweet (RT) other tweets that are valuable to you and your niche. Promoting or attributing others when appropriate can help you to build a following faster as you will be considered trustworthy, knowledgeable about your subject and are portraying someone who is not just out to get you to buy something.

To Connect with Urvi:
Facebook: http://facebook.com/urvimehta
Twitter: http://twitter.com/urvimehta
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/urvimehta

You may be wondering how a business owner can possibly reach a target audience on Twitter. Twitter directories to the rescue. When thinking about social media and how you can use it to build your business and brand, Twitter directories play an important role to finding like-minded Twitter users. Adding yourself to Twitter directories will help you to find those you want to follow and they in turn will most likely follow you.

How do Twitter directories work?

Twitter directories work by allowing a person to search for people based on certain criteria. The criteria may be their geographical location or their interests that they have associated themselves with by using tags when they listed themselves.

What Twitter directories should I use?

Twitter directories are plentiful and they can differentiate from all inclusive to specialized practices such as Legalbirds.com, a directory devoted to lawyers, academics, and or legal professionals on Twitter. You can check them all out, but here are the three top directories that I would recommend: Twellow.com, Wefollow.com and Geofollow.com.

Twitter directories are very much like an updated version of the yellow pages. Twellow.com describes itself as the “Twitter Yellow Pages” and does resemble the yellow pages somewhat with the color theme they use. Twellow.com also allows you to sort your search criteria to really pinpoint who you are looking to connect with. Sort by username, registered users, or followers count.

Another Twitter directory that is useful in helping you to build your following is Wefollow.com. Wefollow.com is very easy to use. Listing yourself can literally take seconds. Wefollow.com also makes it easy to find others in your niche that you may want to follow. To find a person that loves bikes and biking, all you have to do is enter the tag word bikes. The auto fill will help you to find the right tag word and will also show you how many tweeters are listed under that tag. Search results are listed in the order beginning with the highest number of Twitter followers.

Geofollow.com is a location based Twitter directory where you list Twitter username by your location. You can search the directory by city, state, country, tag, name, twitter username, or keyword. This type of directory is especially helpful in locating local followers and or prospects to connect with.

Never before have we been able to connect so easily with others who have similar interests, to both promote our communities as well as our businesses. Twitter directories are far from the old fashioned yellow pages that the consumer searched through page by page looking for a business to serve their needs. And best of all their free. What are you waiting for? Get yourself listed and take advantage of the opportunity of connecting with others through Twitter directories, it just may improve your business.

Connect with me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/urvimehta

Below are videos from the “Are You LinkedIn?” presentation that I did for Social Media Michigan Meeting.

Let’s connect on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/urvimehta

Discover How To Use The Power of Blogs to Significantly Increase Your Online Presence & Get You More Qualified Leads

You’ve heard the social networking buzz, you’re familiar with Web 2.0, and you’re thinking “Maybe we should blog?” Yes, you should blog! Mark Your Calendars to join Social Media Michigan on Thursday, September 17th, 2009.

Every business is built by getting, keeping and growing customers. And that requires sustainable relationships with those customers, to get them buying from you and then coming back. Blogging helps you connect with those customers at a personal level. But blogging can also help you win the SEO battle so prospects first find you online, and then convert to customers when they like what they find.

Blogging = SEO opportunities = Customers

What You Will Learn at Thursday’s Meeting:
* What are Blogs & How to use them in your marketing
* How to get started using Blogs & leverage Blogs to generate more leads
* Tips for making your Blogs go viral and SEO friendly
* Keys to Success with Blogs

Agenda:
6:00—Networking and Light Dinner
7:00—Marketing Minutes & Hot Seat
7:45—Power of Blogs

Thursday, September 17th, 2009
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
University of Phoenix Building
18100 N. Laurel Park Dr
Suite 150W
Livonia, Michigan 48152

First Time Attendees & Members Are Free

Non-Members $20
Seating is limited so don’t delay and reserve your seat TODAY!!!

Social Media Michigan – Subsidiary of PReasy.com – A full service Online Marketing company – is the host of this event.

Social Media Michigan is an organization for entrepreneurs to discover and implement social media marketing strategies to enhance their bottom line. Social Media Michigan Meets on the 3rd Thursdays of each month. Social Media Michigan is committed to help Michigan based Business Owners to “Remove Boundaries” in their business and grow faster globally.

For more information on Social Media Michigan, please visit http://www.SocialMediaMi.com

Bill Glazer will be in town on Wednesday, September 16, to give a timely presentation, How To Make The Recession Irrelevant, and to sign copies of his new book.

During his presentation, Bill will reveal and walk us through what he calls his “7 Steps” To Survive & Thrive In The Recession…and Beyond, giving us real-world examples that we can apply to our own business right away, as follows:

1. Sell To SOMEONE Different
2. Sell DIFFERENTLY
3. Sell Something Different
4. Create MORE Value
5. Strategic STATUS
6. ASSOCIATION
7. Direct Response Marketing SYSTEMS (with a bunch of OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful Examples)

Frankly, I believe it’s impossible for any of us to not to take away ACTION IDEAS to implement right away.

==> http://www.preasy.com/billSept16

The event is on September 16, 2009, from 5:00–8:00 PM at the Laurel Manor, 39000 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia, MI 48150.

Networking and vendor tables from 4:00-5:00 PM. A bountiful spread of delicious appetizers, hot hors d’oeuvres, desserts and soft drinks will be provided prior to the presentation.

Doors open at 4:00 PM for meet & greet premier vendor booths, and socializing prior to the presentation.

The retail price of these tickets is $50.00. However as a Reader of my Blog, you can attend for FREE. That’s right! No cost to you…all you have to do is pre-register for the event!!!

Registering and confirming your seat is as easy as going to the special web confirmation page at:

==> http://www.preasy.com/billSept16

Also, if you don’t want to wait until September 16th to start your own OUTRAGEOUS marketing, check
out Bill’s video and site where you can download examples and there first three chapters of the book.

==> http://www.preasy.com/outrageous

Looking forward to seeing you on the 16th!

Urvi

P.S. During the break, door prizes will be awarded, and Mr. Glazer will have a limited supply of collector’s editions of his book, Outrageous Advertising That’s OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful, published by Morgan James, available for $19.95 (all book sale profits go to Junior Achievement)

Social Media Marketing using LinkedIn is made easy by following five simple steps. LinkedIn is the perfect site to build your professional networks, keep in touch with connections, discover opportunities, develop relationships, build authority in your industry and also find leads and opportunities for you and your business. Keep it simple and check out these easy methods to getting started with LinkedIn.

1. Create your account
2. Complete and update your profile
3. Create a summary
4. Get connected
5. Engage with Others
   

Creating an account

Go to http://www.linkedin.com and fill in your name, email and create a password and click the green join now button.

Complete your profile

Your LinkedIn profile is an important part of your social media marketing strategy. Upload a current, professional looking photo of yourself. You’ll want to complete your entire profile, and include previous work experience that you’ve had. Remember your profile is a representation of you. The little details are important to your profile; it should have substance, be grammatically correct and have no spelling errors. Include your chosen keywords liberally throughout your profile whenever you can so that others searching for those keywords can find you. Don’t forget your email addresses, new and old, to increase the opportunity for connections.

Summary tips

A summary should give a good snap shot of who you are and what you do. Use two to four sentences in your summary that incorporate your specialties or expertise. These sentences should include your keywords and add what you enjoy doing to help others to connect and get to know you.

Connecting on LinkedIn

Connecting with others on LinkedIn is controlled. In order to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you must show how you know them. Getting recommended by LinkedIn members who know you and what you are all about is a wonderful way to connect to with others.

Engage with others

Joining LinkedIn groups gives you the opportunity to maximize your networking and social media marketing efforts while connecting you with great people with similar interests. Start by joining employer alumni groups, were you will have connections with people you have something in common with. And finally, enhance your LinkedIn social media marketing experience by participating and interacting with others through posting, responding to posts and networking with other group members.

For more information about LinkedIn or to connect with Urvi Mehta:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/urvimehta

Twitter: http://twitter.com/urvimehta

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/urvimehta

Social Media Marketing for business using Facebook can build relationships and provide value to those within your Facebook network. Facebook allows you to be real, get to know other people with similar interests while building credibility and trust. In this article, we’ll discuss five simple steps to getting started on Facebook.

1. Create a profile in your real name

2. Connect with others

3. Communicate to others by wall posts

4. Update your status

5. Join and participate in FB groups

Create A Profile

When creating the perfect Facebook profile for social media marketing there are several things to keep in mind; like posting a great recent picture of you with a smile. People want to put a face with a name and posting a picture that does not include the whole current you doesn’t build credibility. Choose a tagline that grabs the readers’ attention while it explains who you are and what you do. Complete your profile by filing in personal information such as hobbies, favorite music, and maybe your goals and aspirations. Including personal information helps others want to get to know you better because you may have similar personal or business interests. Remember to be real, when you are fake, people can see right through you.

Connect With Others

Connecting with others is the reason Facebook was created in the first place. To get started, import your address book or search Facebook for people you may know or have done business with. You can also connect with new friends by viewing the friend list of your connections, you may find others that you would like to get to know better. Unlike Twitter were you can follow anyone, Facebook requires a friend to accept your friend request. When sending a friend request, send a personalized message with your request. There’s nothing like someone you do not know requesting to be your friend and not even introducing themselves. Include who you are and why you want to get to know the person, your chances of getting accepted will be much higher. Once accepted, you can view your new friends profile and they can view yours.

Communicate To Friends By A Wall Post

Start communicating with your friends by posting an interesting quote, asking a simple question or providing valuable information about your interests. You can post on a friends wall to say hello, give good wishes, or help friends find solutions to their business problems.

Update Your Status

Updating your status is similar to a wall post except it is where you post what you are up to, how your day is going and to encourage interaction between friends. This is how you develop and grow your credibility and contribute to your social media marketing. Friends will get to know and trust you. By contributing to the conversation and posting valuable information relevant to your niche or industry you will raise your trustworthiness and become a know expert.

Join And Participate In Facebook Groups

Joining and participating in Facebook Groups is a great way to expand your social media marketing and get in touch with others with similar interests. Simply type groups in the Facebook search and you will see a list that includes the groups that your friends belong to. You can also browse groups and sort them according to your interests. There are many groups to choose from and you can even start your own. Once you have joined a group, participate by adding to the conversation; this is the way you will make additional contacts. Don’t be shy, contribute to the conversation and introduce yourself.

Looking forward to connecting with you on Facebook!

To Connect with Urvi:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/urvimehta

Twitter: http://twitter.com/urvimehta

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/urvimehta

Topic: How To Use Social Media To Explode Your Income

Have You Heard of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn? Unless you are living in Cave for last 3 years; you certainly have heard of this and may be you are using it or started dabbling into it. But are you really making income from that? That’s where most of Entrepreneurs make their biggest mistakes in social media. Most Entrepreneurs are not using social media the way it is supposed to be leveraged.

You are in Luck! Social Media Michigan – Subsidiary of PReasy.com – A full service Online Marketing company is hosting seminar on How You can use Big 3 in Social Media to ATTRACT more customers/clients/buyers for your business.

Have You Heard of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn? Unless you are living in Cave for last 3 years; you certainly have heard of this and may be you are using it or started dabbling into it. But are you really making income from that? That’s where most of Entrepreneurs make their biggest mistakes in social media. Most Entrepreneurs are not using social media the way it is supposed to be leveraged.
You are in Luck! Social Media Michigan – Subsidiary of PReasy.com – A full service Online Marketing company is hosting seminar on How You can use Big 3 in Social Media to ATTRACT more customers/clients/buyers for your business.

Date: Thursday – 16th July, 2009

Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Location: University Of Phoenix Building
18100 N. Laurel Park Drive,
Suite 150W
Livonia, MI 48152

(THIS MONTH’S MEETING IS IN LIVONIA NOT TROY)

Fee: Free for First Time Attendee & Members
Non-Members :$20

For More Information and a Free Report Visit http://www.socialmediami.com

Earlier Today I did a Webinar Presentation on Facebook Pages.  Below is the link to the PowerPoint Slides as promised during the presentation.

Also, the offer presented during the Webinar is good until May 8th. There are still 2 spots left with the “Fast Action Taker’s Bonus”

To Take Advantage of the Special Bonuses and start your Social Media Marketing for your business, visit

http://www.preasy.com/socialmediaworkshop

I will also be posting answers to questions that came up during the presentation.

Stay tuned for the answers.