Promotion is key to building your social media network. Make sure you share your Twitter handle, Facebook page or LinkedIn profile with your business contacts to help build your network. Add it to company promotions, include it in your email signature, list it on your website to let the audience you want to attract know where to find you.

Many social media platforms have created their own methods to promote valuable contributors. Twitter’s #followfriday, a designated day to recommend influential or interesting people to follow on Twitter, is a great way to get quality followers and establish your network.

Don’t be fooled by the “get hundreds of followers” scams – they do not work. You actually act as a mule to recruit others to these scams.

Once you begin using Twitter, Facebook and other platforms regularly you will build a network that will help you meet your goals. As people recognize the value you are providing, they will want to listen to you.

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Here are 5 additional simple ways, some obvious and some obscure, to help small businesses leverage social media to provide stellar customer service. The social web is a place for everyone, but with the right tips, tricks and tools, savvy small businesses can redefine the nature of customer service.

1. Always Be in the Know

Ask any community, social media, or branding expert what you should do first, and every single one of them will tell you to listen. It may sound cliché, but the reality is that you need to understand the landscape of the space you’re contributing to before you do anything else.

So, for a customer service strategy that leverages social media, the first thing you can and should do is set up a tracking and listening system that works for your business and hinges around mentions of your product, services, and those of your competitors.

Given that Twitter is just one of many places for mass social expression, you can’t rely just on Twitter search services to do your work for you, though it definitely can help. You can grab the RSS feed for your favorite search queries from Twitter Search, or install TweetDeck, a Twitter desktop client, to keep an ever present eye on Twitter’s always updating stream. Even if you’re averse to tweeting, you should set up a few columns with custom search queries and filters for everything involving your business. You’ll receive automatic notices every time there are new tweets that match your results.

Even if you do nothing more than read tweets, you’ll start to learn a wealth of information about your product. Plus, if no one’s talking about your product or service, you should be checking out broader searches related to your space. Let’s say your product is a data analytics software for the enterprise, you need to be searching for more than just your product name and pinpoint what does get mentioned. Maybe it’s a hot new online tool that does something similar, or a single person searching for data analytics software, finding the information that is getting talked about is the key.

You should also be doing everything in your power to keep up with the blogosphere. So find a reader you like, Google Reader and Netvibes both work well, and start subscribing to feeds related to your industry. You should also register an account with comment tracking site Backtype – it boils down to a Google Alerts service for comments. Even if you don’t plan on leaving a single comment (which is a missed opportunity), Backtype is essential for keeping up with conversations happening in the blogosphere in the same vein as Twitter Search. Take the keywords you’re tracking on Twitter and use them in Backtype for automated alerts. The service will send you an email with highlighted mentions of search terms as they happen, or on a daily or weekly basis.

You should also check out Yacktrack for comment search, Social Mention to query the entire social web, and Filtrbox for relevant and credible mentions of your company. The bottom line with listening is to make the tools do the social media tracking for you, so you can have the information come to you as it happens.

2. Talk Back

This is the simplest method of customer service that’s often underutilized. Now that you’re using tools to stay in the know, you should invest time in using that information to put out customer service fires and address business related matters.

This isn’t a blanket invitation to tweet your marketing material or trash a competitor in blog comments to make your business look better. The vocal contributions you make on behalf of your business should always be informative and helpful; otherwise they appear spammy and will ultimately make your company look bad.

Simple, honest, and straightforward responses on social platforms like Twitter, FriendFeed, and blogs is always the right way to go, especially if you’re responding to something negative about your company or your product. Make it clear that you’re open to helping, make your contact information available, and always be genuine.

3. Get Creative

Once you have the basics covered, you can start experimenting with outside the box customer service ideas. Since the point is to connect with customers, your social media customer service strategy should be a natural extension of your business, so feel free to get innovative but just do so in ways that make sense for your business.

To get creative, take inspiration from the best and make the ideas your own. A number of big brands like Southwest, Jet Blue, Zappos, Starbucks, and Ford have turned to Twitter for offering impressive customer service and providing Twitter-only deals. Watch what they’re doing if you need ideas, but what you’ll notice about each big business doing it right is that they aren’t afraid to take risks.

One small business trying something incredibly cool is Pelotonics. Their product is an online project management solution that competes with more well known products like Basecamp. They’re using Ustream.tv to broadcast PeloTV, accessible from the website, which is their simple way of always making themselves available to their customers. With just a web cam, a desktop sharing camera tool (like CamTwist), and Ustream, Pelotonics is giving every single customer and prospect the opportunity to engage with them live during business hours. In this particular example it’s less about views/recognition and more about value, so even though the channel only gets a few concurrent viewers at a time, Troy Malone, Pelotonics founder, is there for real-time product demos and customer support issues.

If you aren’t ready to make yourself available via live web cam, you can try less intrusive options like setting up a product support or FAQ room in FriendFeed, or use Seesmic to record and share daily product tips. Did you know that the Chargers streamed press conferences live via Mogulus this past season? You could try something similar and stream live information-rich conversations using your phone via Qik, Kyte, or Flixwagon. Plus, pretty soon 12seconds.tv will have support for real-time rooms, which means you could encourage and promote live short-form video conversations with customers, clients, and fans.

With the state of social media these days, your options for original customer service are pretty much endless.

4. Do Your Research

When your customers are your clients and you have a sales or lead driven business, stellar customer service goes hand-in-hand with how much you know about each client and their individual needs. Thankfully, you can harness the social web for timely information that can keep you educated about your clients, their companies, and all related news items.

For this purpose, take a look at Gist, a free web-based tool in private beta for power networkers. Essentially the site combines your email communications, your Outlook calendar, and your Facebook and LinkedIn connections to give you a view of your contacts like no other. Each contact and each company has its own profile-like view within Gist that includes contact info, news mentions, email exchanges, and other related data so sales and marketing types can effortlessly research leads and existing clients to better cement important relationships.

5. Share Everything

Now that you’re in the know, you’re chiming in on related conversations, you’re thinking outside the box, and doing your homework, it’s the right time to start talking about what you’re doing on your blog (try WordPress), on Twitter, at conferences and events, and anywhere else that makes sense.

The point of sharing everything is to make your customers, clients, partners, friends, and even competitors aware that you’re always accessible, that you’re learning from your mistakes, that you want to involve and encourage community participation, and that you’re doing all this with the same enthusiasm and passion that motivated you to start your business in the first place.

So what should you share? Share the big wins like new product releases, new partners, new hires, and the like. Share the bumps in the road, like why your site was down for a few hours, or why you can’t implement a commonly requested feature. Share answers to frequently asked questions. Even share the products and services that make your life easier.

While doing all of this sharing, make sure that you’re asking for a response as well. You won’t get comments or responses unless you ask for them, or you’re doing something terribly wrong. So ask for help, ask for feedback, and ask for advice on how to improve your products and your customer service efforts. And when you get answers, highlight the people and companies that are helping you. Give them credit, thank them, make them feel acknowledged, and they’re likely to share the experience with their friends both online and off.

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While posting a job to LinkedIn is similar to any other job website – adding details about the position, skills, and requirements – where the site separates itself is with company profiles, allowing you to provide potential candidates with a lot more information about your company and the people that work there.  Here’s how they work and how to set one up:

1. To get started, go to the “Companies” menu on LinkedIn.  From there, select “Add Company”

2. Enter basic information about your company, like its description, number of employees, and industry it operates in.

3. Follow LinkedIn’s wizard for creating your company profile – you’ll be able to add a logo, locations, and a feed for your company blog.

Once you’ve completed LinkedIn’s steps for getting setup, your company profile will be available. Now is where it gets interesting though.  In addition to showing off the basic information you provided, LinkedIn will pull in data about your company from around the site.

So, for example, all of your job listings will automatically show up on your profile, along with links to the profiles of all current employees, former employees, new hires, and recent promotions.  LinkedIn also does analysis of your company and the connections that your employees have on the network.  For example, it will automatically calculate your company’s median age, top schools, and other companies that they are well-connected to.

As you can imagine, all of this aggregate data about your company gives potential candidates (as well as anyone else interested in your company) a lot of information to dive into and help determine if it might be a good fit for them.  And for you, once it’s setup, it all happens automatically as you and your employees use LinkedIn, though you can always make edits to your company’s basic profile information.

LinkedIn recently also added a premium product – Custom Company Profiles – that lets you add more features, like videos about your company and positions, interactive polls, and several customization options for recruiting.  These are worth considering for larger companies (they come at a price), but for small businesses, a basic LinkedIn company profile should be enough to add lots of efficiency to the recruiting process – both for candidates and for you.

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But with the more mainstream platforms like Twitter() and Facebook() being used for business purposes, some professionals are neglecting their LinkedIn profiles. While LinkedIn is certainly not as dynamic as other social media sites, it still provides a lot of value — if you use it correctly. So whether you’re new to LinkedIn or a veteran, here are some of the things you should consider incorporating into your LinkedIn strategy.

1. Include a Photo Avatar

Eric B. Meyer, an associate in the labor and employment group of Dilworth Paxson LLP, reminds us that when using a professional networking site such as LinkedIn, “don’t give a potential employer an easy excuse to remove you from consideration. Use a professional headshot and scrap the picture of you doing a keg-stand.”

He adds that “an employer may not discriminate when selecting one job applicant over another. For example, an employer may not base a hiring decision on such things as race, religion, gender, and national origin. Although actually proving an employer made a discriminatory hiring decision may be difficult.” Businesses who engage in hiring discrimination are the exception, not the rule. Just remember, by using an avatar, you will be providing information about yourself a prospective employer may not have otherwise obtained on its own.

2. Build Your Network of Connections

So you might say to yourself, if small numbers in the connection department signal you’re a novice, do large numbers mean you’ll connect with just about anyone? Koutsis says not necessarily. “I do not believe there’s a maximum number of connections that makes someone look like they will just connect with anyone. LinkedIn only shows 500 then adds the + sign after the 500 so you never really do know how many more than 500 connections someone has until you connect with them.”

3. Use Status Updates to Your Advantage

Lori Burke, director of human resources at Neighborhood America, explains that updates are not only an interesting read, but very valuable. “I’ve found new networking groups I may not have thought about [via status updates]. Additionally, it allows me to learn what others are involved with or in, who they may be connected to, etc. In total, it widens the scope of knowledge for me.”

4. Seek Meaningful Recommendations

It’s important to get good solid recommendations and Meyer offers some thoughts on how to do that. First, “think about who knows you best. It could be a co-worker or manager. It could also be a client or customer for whom you just did an incredible job on a huge project. If you seek a recommendation from a client or customer, be polite and remember to thank the person who gives you the recommendation.”

Then, “If you are going to seek a recommendation from a co-worker or manager, keep a few things in mind. Many employers have written policies against giving out anything other than neutral job references to current and former employees. These policies generally focus on giving recommendations, as opposed to seeking them. Still, as a courtesy to the person in your company from whom you seek a recommendation, just be sensitive to your company’s neutral reference policy.”

5. Optimize Your Profile

Burke doesn’t mind if the full content of the resume is on the profile as it can be helpful when searching for candidates. However, it is a bonus “when I find networkers who have added more content than you might find in a resume, such as a link to their portfolio.”

When filling out your profile, you should think about your goals for the type of networking you hope to get done. Also, since LinkedIn has the ability to search any word in the content, both Burke and Koutsis suggest listing all relevant keywords at the bottom of your profile if you want to be found easier.

6. Use Groups to Expand Your Reach

However, Meyer reminds us it’s possible to be viewed in a negative light based upon group membership. “For some time now, many employers are going beyond simply running a criminal background check in order to vet job applicants. Employers may be Googling candidates, checking out their public postings on Facebook, reviewing tweets on Twitter, and scrutinizing LinkedIn profiles. In a down economy — as in any economy, really — employers want to fill job openings with the best possible candidates.”

Today’s rule of thumb should be that anything you post in an online profile may as well be listed on your resume or bio. If you belong to a LinkedIn group that is inconsistent with the business image you wish to portray, then that could be a challenge for you. Meyer shared with me the example of belonging to a group called “The Deer Hunters” while applying for a position with an animal rights group (let’s just say, good luck with that).

7. Consider Whether to Link Your Profiles

On the other hand, Lance Haun, vice president of outreach at MeritBuilder, explains that LinkedIn is “a snapshot of your life at the time you updated your profile so including Twitter, Facebook, or a blog helps to add living context to your profile.” With the lines between work and life being blurred, posting something business related at 1:00 PM and a picture of a cat at 1:00 AM helps “bring the picture of a person together completely.”

In the end, Koutsis asks, “if people see no reason after viewing your profile to connect with you, then why did you reach out to them in the first place?” The most important thing we can do is create a complete and compelling profile. Because the bottom line is the value proposition you propose when you try to connect with someone on LinkedIn.

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Should Businesses Care About LinkedIn?

Of course they should. LinkedIn has over 20 million members. LinkedIn can be used by businesses and departments of any shape and size, and requires little social media know-how. Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock recommends LinkedIn to small businesses that are looking to start using social media but just don’t have a lot of time to do so. Here’s an HR perspective from Jim Stroud of The Recruiter’s Lounge:
“LinkedIn is a tool recruiters cannot ignore. Recruiters who do not want to be bogged down with resumes turn to LinkedIn to find quality candidates and their peers. On the flip side, some recruiters use it to build up a massive list of contacts that they can use for email campaigns. This of course, is not the intention of LinkedIn, but its a fact of life. LinkedIn is becoming the next “Monster” with more and more recruiters turning to it.

How Do You Get the Most Out of LinkedIn?

The old adage that “it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know” still holds value. LinkedIn takes this thought one step further, making it “who you will know soon to be of utmost importance.” Using LinkedIn, I’ve trained small businesses to spread their wings and get connected with companies that they might otherwise have thought were beyond reach, and to the persons they were looking for in those companies.

So, how do you meet people? Well, you can’t throw sheep or sick your zombies after them. There’s also no chat. And guess what? That’s totally fine. Many who use instant messaging aggregate different chat networks into a single app such as Digsby (), Trillian (), or Pidgin (). So who needs another chat app?

Here are seven features LinkedIn does have that you should take advantage of:

Quick Lookup – Look up who you are having that next business meeting with. You’ll be able to break the ice right away.

Q&A – Post questions to others in your industry. The Yahoo Answers look and feel of this feature has definitely made LinkedIn more active and interesting. A public question can be responded to by anyone that works in really any discipline. Such was the case where Derek Edmond spotted a discussion occurring about the trustworthiness of SEO.

Recommendations – Have clients or co-workers post recommendations, which future employers and clients can view to gauge your skill and level of trustworthiness. Conversely, if you’re an employer, these imply trustworthiness for a potential freelancer or new hire.

Background checks – Look up potential new hires or freelancers. This should be right up there in an HR manager’s toolbelt.

See what your competition is up to – Keep track of what others in your industry are up to. Network updates gives you a feed of recent activity, so you can see who your connections have friended, groups they have joined, and the people they have recommended. You’ll even be able to see when people are switching jobs.

Introductions – Use people you already know to help make introductions. It’s a great way to get in the door with a company you need to contact.

Open Networking – Go out and become a LION! You are an open networker.

What’s Next?

LinkedIn has made a lot of recent updates and additions, including:

Group mania – LinkedIn has been making great strides in the groups area, having added search within groups, discussions within groups, groups you might like, and sharing groups. When you think about how much engagement and adoption groups have brought to Facebook (), you’ll really begin to appreciate these changes.

Profile page – since most LinkedIn users spend a great deal of their time on profile pages, the subtle UI (user interface) changes done to the profile page are a great update.

iPhone app – LinkedIn has a pretty spiffy iPhone app that’s worth trying out.

While I really appreciate these additions, I think it would be great for LinkedIn to tell beginner users more about why to use the service. Similar to Twitter using the CommonCraft show’s Twitter in Plain English, LinkedIn could use its LinkedIn CommonCraft video to make beginner users see LinkedIn’s true value of building connections to help accomplish your business goals.

What are your thoughts?

How do you get the most out of LinkedIn? Tell us about success you’ve had on the service in the comments.

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Below I attempted to make sense of it all in the easiest lineage I could—the alphabet. For those just getting started, I suggest taking a peak and making sure you are hitting the majority of these in some capacity—and for those online networking leaders I suggest taking a peak and making sure your ego didn’t accidentally blind you from the basics. (hey, its been known to happen ) This list includes sites, people, engines, applications, and tips on how to best research, establish and network yourself online.

A-    All the engines. Ask.com, Alltheweb.com, About.com, AltaVista.com-make sure you research your presence in as many places as you can before beginning to network.
B-    Brand. What words do you want to be associated with your name? Decide on your personal brand before pushing it.
C-    Classmates.com. Although it may not be dancing in the spotlight with newer social networks, it’s a great way of rekindling old friendships that can become new colleagues & confidents.
D-    Digg.com. For networking? Yes. Used best for establishing content-driven relationships with like-minded industry types. Starting dialogs & discussions.
E-    Endorsements. Erase any doubts by requesting endorsements from past colleagues, mentors, and friends on LinkedIn.com, personal sites, etc.
F-    Facebook.com. Get on it. Use it. Keep it professional. Flourish.
G-    Goals. Make sure you have established goals for your efforts. Know the people you want to interact with & the industry trends you want to be associated with.
H-    “How to Change the World” blog. Read it. Guy Kawasaki’s blog—“A practical blog for impractical people” covers everything anyone may need to stay motivated and get ahead. Just trust me.
I-     Identity Management Sites. Check out Naymz.com & Ziggs.com. Great sites to help evolve and manage your brand.
J-     Joking & Jesting. Keep it to a minimum initially. Be sure to establish a presence before taking to informal interactions with other industry professionals.
K-    Keywords. Set up the relevant ones to come to you via Google alerts, RSS feeds, e-mail newsletters, etc. Know your valuable Keywords.
L-    LinkedIn.com. Get on it. Use it. Keep it Professional. Link up.
M-    Market Yourself. Treat your name as a client. Build up your skills, and strengthen your weakness. Make sure you are meeting your audience’s expectations.
N-    Netiquette. Be sure to follow the appropriate guidelines when interacting online. Wade in—don’t jump, never spam, be patient, etc.
O-    Online Reputation Management. Follow @andybeal or read MarketingPilgrim for more on this. Know what is being said about you (and your company) and react accordingly.
P-    Persistency. Get a top-notch coffee maker, subscribe to motivational quotes, and understand—Online Networking is NOT a part-time job.
Q-    Questions. Ask them. Don’t shy from embracing your newbie status with online platforms and communities. Ask questions and reap the benefits of the knowledge available to you.
R-    Read everything. No really–read blogs, reviews, summaries, critiques. Be sure you have the full picture of the network you want to infiltrate.
S-    Support Others. There are a lot of words to go under “S” but this one can’t be ignored. Be sure to return the favor when receiving industry support.
T-    Twitter. Get on it. Use it. Don’t always keep it professional. Tweet yourself a brand.
U-    Use Multiple Tools. Never count on just one platform. Diversify yourself across multiple boards, platforms, networks, etc.
V-    Vlogs. Video Blogs. Anytime you can incorporate your face with your words/knowledge, it’s a win-win.
W-    Webinars. Attend as many as you can, host them on your favorite topics, and reap the rewards of this viral interaction.
X-    XING.com. Get on it. Use it. Keep it professional. Go global.
Y-    You. It all starts with you. What are you waiting for?
Z-     ZOMG. See below.

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