How to Participate in a Social Network: Part 1
It's fun to build relationships with people using social networks like this one. If you're new to the whole relationship marketing scene, follow these tips right when you join to get off to a great start.
Create an "about me" story that you will post on any network
Before you do anything else, write a short "about me" story using a plain text editor like Notepad that expresses who you are as a person. This is not your credentials, but a sense of why people come to you. Sure, you can mention a book you've written or maybe one award, but this is meant to build trust, not barf your credentials and links at people.
Relationship marketing is about building trust. You may have heard that people who excel in sales often follow up and build the relationship over as many as 7-10 contacts or even more. This is the mindset you should have when building your online network. People can't see you in person or shake your hand. You have to grow their sense of trust in you.
You can see my "about me" story on my blog, my About The Story Lady page on my blog, and on all social networks (such as Ning networks, Facebook, etc) and anyplace else that asks for information about you. DO IT NOW! Write it in Notepad or another plain text editor, as the bigger word processing programs will put strange characters in. You need the plain text version of your story.
Ning Network Badge
Go to the main page of the network. Look for the Get More Badges link and click it. The badge page will have a "hunk of code" you can use in various places, such as your profile, your blog, etc. See a sample on the About The Story Lady page on my blog as well as on my page on this network.
How you grab the code is highlight and copy it. Open a Notepad file (because this is plain text) and paste it in there. Save the file using a name you'll remember. I have a file called "Ning badges" where I put all of them. This makes it easy to put the badges wherever I want them.
What you're looking for is called "html embed code." When you paste it somewhere on the network or in any html editor, it looks like this:
View my page on Roberts and Ross Publishing
Now it's time to set up your page.
View my page on Team Go Giver
Click on "My Page."
There is a box on the left called RSS. Next to it is "EDIT." Click EDIT, name your feed and add the feed url. Mine is http://feeds.feedburner.com/thestorylady. If your blog is on your domain in a directory called blog, your feed MIGHT be something like this: http://YourDomain.com/feed/.
If you don't know what your blog's RSS feed url is, simply go to your blog, click on the xml or RSS feed button and click on the link you'll see on the address bar when the window opens up.
Upload your profile photo
on "my page"you'll see a barren landscape just waiting for content. See where it says, "Chante My Photo or Theme"? Click "My Photo." Add a photo so people can see your face. Make it a picture of you. It does not have to be a professional photo, but make sure people can see your face. You want to do this before inviting friends. Instructructions are on the screen and extremely easy to follow.
Theme
Where you see the active link for Theme, this is how you cnange the colors and feeling of your profile. If you want, you can change the theme of your page to reflect your branding. My branding color is in shades of blue, so I have the "blue jeans" theme.
Fill in your profile box>/b>
You'll see that I have my " about me" story, book trailer videos, network badges, and my FriendFeed box in my profile box. You can do this too.
Open a new Notepad file that you'll use for your profile box. That way, you can put the same info in any social network quickly and easily.
In your new blank Notepad document, paste your own "about me" first.
Now you can put anything else about yourself that you like.
VIDEOS: If you have videos on YouTube, go to the URL of your vid and you'll see "embed this video" or similar verbiage to the right of the video. Highlight what's in the box and paste it into your profile box document. You might write a 1-sentence description above it.
AUDIOS: If you have audio embed codes from testimonials or interviews, you can put this in your profile box too. Paste it in wherever you want it.
RADIO SHOW PLAYER: If you have a show on BlogTalkRadio, get the show player html code and add it to your profile box so people can see that you have a radio show and click on any of the most recent 5 shows to listen.
OTHER HTML CODE FOR AFFILIATE PRODUCTS, FLICKR BOX, TWITTER ETC. You might like to add your TwitterBox, the html code to show an affiliate product banner (or your own product, of course) or any other code. You already have Flickr on this network, but not every Ning network admin has enabled this option.
Make your profile rich so that you demonstrate your expertise, show yourself as a real person, and give people a sense of what they can expect from you.
You don't have to understand html code. You simply have to be able to highlight, copy and paste.
Now you're ready to interact on the network and invite friends.
Drop a note into the comments to this post when you've enriched your profile so everyone can come and place a comment.
Questions? Join in the discussion.
Create an "about me" story that you will post on any network
Before you do anything else, write a short "about me" story using a plain text editor like Notepad that expresses who you are as a person. This is not your credentials, but a sense of why people come to you. Sure, you can mention a book you've written or maybe one award, but this is meant to build trust, not barf your credentials and links at people.
Relationship marketing is about building trust. You may have heard that people who excel in sales often follow up and build the relationship over as many as 7-10 contacts or even more. This is the mindset you should have when building your online network. People can't see you in person or shake your hand. You have to grow their sense of trust in you.
You can see my "about me" story on my blog, my About The Story Lady page on my blog, and on all social networks (such as Ning networks, Facebook, etc) and anyplace else that asks for information about you. DO IT NOW! Write it in Notepad or another plain text editor, as the bigger word processing programs will put strange characters in. You need the plain text version of your story.
Ning Network Badge
Go to the main page of the network. Look for the Get More Badges link and click it. The badge page will have a "hunk of code" you can use in various places, such as your profile, your blog, etc. See a sample on the About The Story Lady page on my blog as well as on my page on this network.
How you grab the code is highlight and copy it. Open a Notepad file (because this is plain text) and paste it in there. Save the file using a name you'll remember. I have a file called "Ning badges" where I put all of them. This makes it easy to put the badges wherever I want them.
What you're looking for is called "html embed code." When you paste it somewhere on the network or in any html editor, it looks like this:
View my page on Roberts and Ross Publishing
Now it's time to set up your page.
View my page on Team Go Giver
Click on "My Page."
There is a box on the left called RSS. Next to it is "EDIT." Click EDIT, name your feed and add the feed url. Mine is http://feeds.feedburner.com/thestorylady. If your blog is on your domain in a directory called blog, your feed MIGHT be something like this: http://YourDomain.com/feed/.
If you don't know what your blog's RSS feed url is, simply go to your blog, click on the xml or RSS feed button and click on the link you'll see on the address bar when the window opens up.
Upload your profile photo
on "my page"you'll see a barren landscape just waiting for content. See where it says, "Chante My Photo or Theme"? Click "My Photo." Add a photo so people can see your face. Make it a picture of you. It does not have to be a professional photo, but make sure people can see your face. You want to do this before inviting friends. Instructructions are on the screen and extremely easy to follow.
Theme
Where you see the active link for Theme, this is how you cnange the colors and feeling of your profile. If you want, you can change the theme of your page to reflect your branding. My branding color is in shades of blue, so I have the "blue jeans" theme.
Fill in your profile box>/b>
You'll see that I have my " about me" story, book trailer videos, network badges, and my FriendFeed box in my profile box. You can do this too.
Open a new Notepad file that you'll use for your profile box. That way, you can put the same info in any social network quickly and easily.
In your new blank Notepad document, paste your own "about me" first.
Now you can put anything else about yourself that you like.
VIDEOS: If you have videos on YouTube, go to the URL of your vid and you'll see "embed this video" or similar verbiage to the right of the video. Highlight what's in the box and paste it into your profile box document. You might write a 1-sentence description above it.
AUDIOS: If you have audio embed codes from testimonials or interviews, you can put this in your profile box too. Paste it in wherever you want it.
RADIO SHOW PLAYER: If you have a show on BlogTalkRadio, get the show player html code and add it to your profile box so people can see that you have a radio show and click on any of the most recent 5 shows to listen.
OTHER HTML CODE FOR AFFILIATE PRODUCTS, FLICKR BOX, TWITTER ETC. You might like to add your TwitterBox, the html code to show an affiliate product banner (or your own product, of course) or any other code. You already have Flickr on this network, but not every Ning network admin has enabled this option.
Make your profile rich so that you demonstrate your expertise, show yourself as a real person, and give people a sense of what they can expect from you.
You don't have to understand html code. You simply have to be able to highlight, copy and paste.
Now you're ready to interact on the network and invite friends.
Drop a note into the comments to this post when you've enriched your profile so everyone can come and place a comment.
Questions? Join in the discussion.
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Comment by ken on January 14, 2009 at 5:53am
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