Category Archives: Social Media

Social Media

Add Follow Me On Twitter Button

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How can you add a “Follow Me on Twitter” button to your website or blog? You do not have to ask. I have the how to do it answer for you.

First, why put a “Follow Me on Twitter” button to your site? What does it do for you? The answer is a these buttons give your site visitors a one click link to your Twitter profile. Once they visit your Twitter profile, they can read your recent updates and choose to follow you future tweets.

Looking for a cool way to encourage others to follow you on Twitter? Check out the options and create your button at Twitter Buttons. Best of all – they are FREE!

How does it work?

  1. Go to www.twitterbuttons.com
  2. Type in your Twitter user ID
  3. Select the button type you prefer
  4. Select and copy the HTML code
  5. Paste the code into a blog posting or your website

    6. When they click on the badge, they go directly to your Twitter profile page.

    Below are a few of the choices available. Click on one of the icons below and follow me on Twitter.


By: Twitter Buttons


By: Twitter Buttons

Social Media

LinkedIn Customized Profile URL

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Did you know you can customize your LinkedIn profile URL? Every LinkedIn member can create a easily recognizable link directly to their profile in LinkedIn.

When you create a profile in LinkedIn, the system automatically generates a link to your profile. By default, this is a meaningless string of numbers and / or letters. I recommend Linkedin members edit this field and creating a custom URL for their profile.

Create your own LinkedIn customized profile URL

My custom profile URL is http://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilmwilliams. Clicking on this link will take you directly to my profile page in LinkedIn.

Click on my custom URL http://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilmwilliams and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Members can customizable the last part of their URL or the segment after “in”.

http://www.linkedIn/in/<CUSTOMIZE>

Each LinkedIn member profile is unique. If you have a common name, you may have to be creative in your selection. Consider these options:

  • <FirstName LastName>
  • <FirstName Middle Name LastName>
  • <FirstName Middle Initial LastName>
  • Tag line: i.e., WorldsBestLawyer

Add your newly customized LinkedIn profile URL to your email signature and include it in your resume.

Enter a comment below and let us know your customized LinkedIn profile URL.

Social Media

How to Follow a Twitter List

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Twitter lists are a way for Twitter users to group other Twitter accounts together. How might you use this feature? A shopping center could create a list to promote each other. A Chamber of Commerce might use a list to follow and cross promote other local businesses.

I created a Twitter list of McHenry county, Illinois businesses to follow and promote what is happening in our area. Since this list began, I learned about many new companies and services I was not aware of.

Another benefit of Twitter lists is you can view the recent tweets of the account holders without actually following each of these accounts.

Here is a recent blog posting about the McHenry County Business Twitter list.

You can see all recent tweets from these McHenry County businesses on a single page.

How are you using the Twitter list feature?

Here is a short video on how to follow a Twitter list.

Social Media

Finding the Email Address Of Someone You Want To Meet

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Have you ever wanted to contact someone but could not find an email address? Below are some tips from Rich Sauser, our guest blogger today.

Rich is a networking expert and is often quoted in the media. He is sought after as a presenter and I was glad to have Rich working with me when I started my company. Currently residing in Charlotte, you can contact Rich through many social networking sites. Thanks to Rich for sharing these tips with our readers.

Kait
Creative Commons License photo credit: Katie@!

Here’s Rich…

Have you ever wanted to connect with someone on LinkedIn, but they were out of your network and there was no easy way to connect? You can still try to get an introduction but it may take a bit creative of work outside of LinkedIn. Recently, someone asked me how to connect with someone in the County of McHenry Department of Health in Illinois. Although I have over 1,200 first degree contacts in LinkedIn, there are not a lot of people on LinkedIn from the McHenry County Health Department.

Listed below is the approach I used to find someone who could potentially introduce me to the person I wanted to contact.

  1. Look up the company the person works at on LinkedIn and see if there is anyone else you can connect with or contact. In this case there were a few but not too many:
  2. In this case there was nothing really there, but I was able to get the website of the company:
  3. What you are now looking for is the format of the email address of people who work there (e.g. FirstName.LastName@CompanyName.com)
  4. First thing I do is go to the “Contact Us” page – sometimes when you attempt to contact them it will pull up in your email and you will get the format.
  5. By going to Public Health and clicking the “contact us” I get the following address: Health@co.mchenry.il.us – while better than nothing it is still a generic email account.
  6. So now having nothing else to go on, you need to do a Google Search to get the name format. In this case I did a search on “@co.mchenry.il.us”. A few hits down, you will see your first listing of a name followed by the “@co.mchenry.il.us“
  7. Based on the email addresses shown, I have a couple of options for the email format: first letter of first name and then last name or first letter first name, first letter of middle initial and then last name.
  8. So now I can either do a search on Google for the person I am trying to contact with both versions of their email address or I can send an email to both versions and see which one works.
Social Media

Ford Fiesta Movement Blog Campaign

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Instead of using old marketing techniques, Ford is introducing the new Fiesta to the U.S. with the Fiesta Movement Campaign. During this promotion they are giving the cars to 100 bloggers throughout the country. During the next six months, Ford hopes the bloggers will promote the car to their followers through social networking.

My brother, in the market for a car heard about the campaign. There were a couple cars in the Chicago area but he could not find a way to contact the drivers. He called me for assistance.

I went online and found one of the bloggers Derek PrettyBoy Dow @Oprettyboy1 on Twitter. A few tweets between us and we had an appointment scheduled for my brother to view and sit in the car. Less than twenty four hours elapsed between my brother’s first call to me and his email to all thanking everyone for their help.

Thanks for your help Derek. Search for hashtag #fiestamovement to learn more.

Social Media

What an IZEA We Reward

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Do you have an izea to share with the world? I have to tell you about a creative idea from IZEA!

First, are you using location based smart phone applications like Yelp or Four Square? Do your customers use these tools when they visit your location? Customers use these their smart phones to check in at locations and let others know where they are using these tools. Hey, free advertising for these lucky business owners! Customers are endorsing your business and telling their friends too.

IZEA launched last month combining location based customer reviews and rewards. Consumers discover local businesses, earn cash through mobile application WeReward, a mobile incentive platform that pays cash to consumers for actions they take in the real world. For example, a customer could earn points for taking a photo of themselves at a restaurant or visiting a store.

WeReward from Izea

For more information, check out IZEA. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you how I found out about IZEA. Disclosure: this is an affiliate link.

Social Media

Chicago Blackhawks Tweet

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According to a Daily Herald report this week, Chicago’s Blackhawks pro hockey team are tweeting to their fan base. Over 30,000 followers to the @NHLblackhawks use the site to keep up with the latest news. The Blackhawks team is owned by the Wirtz family which turned to Twitter and Facebook as a way of connecting with their younger fans. Their current Facebook fans number over 200,000 and continue to grow.

Rocky Wirtz heads up the organization, infusing new techniques his father William shied away from. The Blackhawks social networking presence connects them with new fans and increases interest in the club.

The Hawks could learn a few things from other Chicago Sports teams. Ozzie Guillen, White Sox manager uses Twitter to communicate. Recent posts include updates on his trip to Six Flags and a remembrance of a good friend who passed away. He tweets to followers in both English and Spanish.

Social Media

Social Networking Classes for Business

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Student feedback for the recent social networking classes in McHenry has been fabulous. We have a whole new set of LinkedIn users, Facebook friends, Twitter Tweeters and bloggers out there.


This four class series ran three times in McHenry at the Shah Illinois Small Business Development (ISBDC) Center.

After the class, students were invited to join our LinkedIn group to share learnings and best practices with each other. If you attended one of my social networking classes and would like to join this group, send me an email and let me know the class you attended.

If you missed on the session in McHenry, you still have time to register for classes in Elgin. Check our events page for the upcoming events.

Social Media

Tweeting in McHenry County

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Do you have a business in one of these McHenry County cities or villages?

  • Algonquin
  • Alden
  • Barrington Hills
  • Big Foot
  • Cary
  • Chemung
  • Crystal Lake
  • Fox Lake
  • Fox River Grove
  • Greenwood
  • Harvard
  • Hebron
  • Huntley
  • Island Lake
  • Johnsburg
  • Lake in the Hills
  • Lakemoor
  • Lakewood
  • Marengo
  • McHenry
  • Oakwood Hills
  • Port Barrington
  • Prairie Grove
  • Richmond
  • Ringwood
  • Spring Grove
  • Trout Valley
  • Wonder Lake
  • Woodstock
  • Unincorporated McHenry county

Enter a comment below with your business name and Twitter handle so I can add your business to our list of McHenry County businesses. Let us know what products or services your business provides.

The McHenry County Business Twitter list takes you to the latest updates from McHenry’s finest companies. For easy access, click “follow” to get to the list from your Twitter page.

Check out the business we are doing in McHenry.