Author Archive for Contributing Author: Christine Buffaloe, Social Media Expert

Mar
6

LinkedIn Recommendations: You Must Give Before You Receive

by Contributing Author: Christine Buffaloe, Social Media Expert

The value of LinkedIn recommendations and testimonials cannot be underestimated or taken for granted. LinkedIn Recommendations are similar to testimonials of your good name, good product(s), or expertise. Recommendations enhance your credibility as an expert similar to how quality content, quality presentation of that content and frequency of content enhances your page rank and authority status for your website. Recommendations also raise your credibility.

Recommendations in LinkedIn are social proof. They tell a LinkedIn candidate that the person is qualified or recognized as a valued colleague that has or will add value to your business. As you interact with connections, you become more familiar with their areas of expertise and perhaps are able to use this knowledge in your business execution. Once you can recommend a connection, you proceed with some expectation that they will reciprocate. However, do not expect that all people that you recommend will in turn write a recommendation for you. As you proceed in building your connections, keep in mind that your connections are the source for your recommendation and focus on those contacts that have the potential for directly (or indirectly) enhance your business or expertise. After all, one of your goals in LinkedIn is becoming a recognized expert in your field. A good place to find contacts that will give you outstanding recommendations are your satisfied customers. Go through your customer base and connect with everyone who has purchased your products; multiple sales recipients are better.

The best way to ask for recommendations is not to ask, i.e., the best recommendations most often come from a good recommendation that you have written for someone. Recommendations are the next step of engagement after you connect with someone on LinkedIn. It is a quid pro quo of sorts, but don’t write a recommendation for someone just to get a reciprocal recommendation. Be sure that you can personally vouch for them. As such, be very clear about what you’re recommending. Don’t forget your keywords when you are writing recommendations!! Search engines love keywords!

As you evaluate your LinkedIn strategy, make sure you include a profile of your ideal connection and how you can get a recommendation from them. Make sure that your have clear goals and objectives. A good review for being successful using LinkedIn can be found in Wayne Breitbarth’s best seller, The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success or by viewing Joan Stewart’s [owner of The Publicity Hound] Webinar, Your LinkedIn Power Formula

We’d love to hear from you by sharing and leaving a comment to these questions:

Do you use LinkedIn and how?
Do you or have you ever given out LinkedIn recommendations?
Have you ever given LinkedIn recommendations?

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Christine Buffaloe - Social Media Expert and Online Business Manager. Christine received her training on-the-job when working as an Executive Assistant for 5 years. Tiring of the commute every day, she took that knowledge and experience and dedicated it to Serenity Virtual Assistant Services. Christine has been a featured guest on webinars and in Entreprenuer.com. If you need help or assist please email us at info@kickstartwebsites.com or for more of her tips please visit Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Categories : LinkedIn, SEO, Social Media, WordPress Training

Feb
14

How to Use Twitter Lists to Generate Business

by Contributing Author: Christine Buffaloe, Social Media Expert

If you’re active on Twitter, you’ve probably seen at least one reference on your own profile page to Twitter lists.

They’re a powerful way to categorize Twitter users according to their area of expertise, or the topics of their tweets and then, once the list is created, let anyone see it. They save valuable time because when you create a list, every tweet from every person on that list feeds into that particular list. You don’t have to drink from a firehose on Twitter to be able to find the tweets from people who have a particular expertise.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that that’s the only way to use Twitter lists. They’re powerful tools that can help you do valuable research, track down experts in a particular niche, find people in your target market, spy on your competitors, find journalists who cover your industry, and so much more.

They’re also an excellent way to determine how other people perceive your expertise and your brand.

Here’s what I mean:

Go to your Twitter Home or Profile page and look under your photo on the upper right side. You’ll see the number of people you’re following, the number of people who are following you, and the number of lists you’re on. Click on “Listed.”

Instantly, you can look down the list and see which Twitter users have put you on one of their lists, and you can see the names of their lists. For example, I’m on a number of Twitter lists. When I click on “Listed,” a window opens and I can see that many of the lists include the words “virtual assistant”, “VAs” and “social media.”

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Categories : Social Media, Twitter

Feb
7

Has your Facebook account been hacked?

by Contributing Author: Christine Buffaloe, Social Media Expert

Facebook Hacked?

Beware – It Can Happen Anytime!

This is a serious problem and there are ways to avoid this, but, we are never safe from “cyber criminals.”

The “cyber criminals” can infiltrate your Facebook profile, and then change the email address on the account and the password. Once they have access to the account, they can then send out emails to everyone asking for money or whatever it is they are looking for. This is known as phishing and Facebook has named it the “419scam”. First they hack your account and then they disguise themselves as you and chat with your friends and send out the emails. Western Union has a whole list of consumer protection for fraud.

Once you realized what has happened, it’s already too late. You can send an email to Facebook via there Help function, but, you have to be able to get into your account to do so. You can ask a friend or colleague to contact them on your behalf and Facebook will then lock the account. For more information, go to Facebook Help. There are steps that Facebook will send you to follow, but once your account has been compromised you will not be able to access the account to make the changes. It is frustrating, to say the least.

What you can do to protect yourself: