I missed my blog last week. I apologize, but we are happy to add 3 new sales reps to the Artistic Hub team. I spent the last week writing and implementing training. Even more exciting, they started on Tuesday, started calling on Thursday and we had 5 online sales demos today. Great for 3 days in.

This week I wanted to cover what i think are the key tools to use to create a foundation in social media and build your social capital online. These tips are foreshadowing for our social media conferences starting March 27th in Omaha. We are setting a date for April in San Diego and working on 3 more locations nationwide as well.

Wikipedia states: Social Capital is a concept developed in sociology and also used in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, public health and natural resources management that refers to connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals.

I believe it is the connections, but more importantly the quality of connections and the influence and respect you are given by those connections. Talking alot and being heard are two very different things.

So here is what I think is important to get respect and build up your profile and social capital on the web and in business.

1. A WordPress blog. A blog is your foundation. It gives you a reason to write and be heard. The more you write the more there is for others to read giving people a medium to get to know you. You can write once a week or once a day, but be consistent. ( I say WordPress because I use it and think it’s the easiest platform)
2. A LinkedIn account. If you don’t have a good LinkedIn profile you are losing business. These days most companies just Google companies and people they are thinking about working with. If they find a great LinkedIn account with references, blog posts, and a full profile they check this off the list. If they don’t, they go to your competitors or require you to provide a lot more information. If you are small company looking for brand name clients and you don’t have a great LinkedIn profile, good luck!
3. A Twitter account. I put twitter last because I think it is very useful, but it can be used two ways. The first is using it to make connections and spread the word, but sometimes this isn’t a good fit for everyone. The second way is using TweetBeep to setup topic and brand monitors. I believe every company and person should at least set a TweetBeep alert for their name and company to see what people are saying about you on Twitter. You may also find they are saying nothing which is worse, but this gives you something to work on.

So if you are trying to grow your career, company, or persona, your social capital is what is important. The key is to let people know how amazing you are.

It doesn’t take long to build up your social capital, but it does take some work.

The important thing is to start.

Have a great week and talk to you next !