7 Ways to Make Social Media Work Harder for You

1. First of all, you want to make sure you've created and updated profiles on all of the most popular social media sites. If you have, you want to connect to well-connected people so the power of their networks will begin to work for you. The most popular, of course, is Facebook...by far. But there's also LinkedIn, Twitter and the fast-growing Google+. Here are links to connect with me. I'd be proud to know you and I share tips and resources all the time!

Mark Anthony McCray on Facebook
Mark Anthony McCray on Twitter
Mark Anthony McCray on LinkedIn
Mark Anthony McCray on Google+

2. You will want to create a page for your business if you don't have one. It's easy. Facebook shows you how. Then invite your current contacts to connect with you. You can email all of your non-Facebook contacts and invite them to "Like" your Facebook fan or business page! Here's how:

1. Click on "Edit Page" to the upper right once you are on your business page.
2. On the left, you will see a menu of options. Click on "Resources"
3. You will see a few more options to the right. Click on "Tell Your Fans"
4. You will see options to contact your Yahoo!, Comcast, AOL and other address books there.
5. You can also contact up to 5000 people from your Outlook Address Book if you choose "Other Tools" and upload your Outlook address book. LinkedIn is one of your options, as well!

Good luck! This should help your social media marketing be more successful if you can reconnect with people who you've known and done business with outside of Facebook!

3. Once you have reached 25 connections on your Facebook page, Facebook allows you to shorten the domain to something more attractive. Use this link to shorten your web domains on Facebook: http://facebook.com/username and be selective. You can only do this once.

4. You can use a site like Fiverr.com to have some graphics made for you such as logos and product mock-ups. There are dozens of artists and other regular people who will do all kinds of neat things for you for only $5. I've used it myself several times with great results!

5. Did you know you can download a copy of everything you've ever posted on Facebook? I just did and I have a file of all my Status Updates, etc since 2008! This is a great things because I am going to be able to go back and capture some of the best stuff for use in my blogs and other writings! If you click on "Account Settings" on your Home page, you'll see an option to "Download a copy" of your Facebook data. Just follow the instructions and you'll receive an email with a backup copy of all your photos, messages, status updates and more shortly.

6. I may be the last person to discover this, but if you add Klout for Google Chrome to your browser (assuming you use Chrome, as I do) it shows you everyone's Klout score as you Tweet. Your's too! Klout at the Chrome Webstore I like it because watching my score touches my competitive side and, more importantly, keeps me accountable to stay engaged with my contacts.

7. FINALLY....Join my Facebook Experts Group....If you are a writer, speaker, coach, trainer, author or ANYTHING that fits into the "Expert" market space, you need to be a part of this group! Nothing against motivational quotes and scriptures, but that's not what this group is for. This group is all about "shop talk" and exchanging tips, resources, etc. that will HELP YOU BUILD YOUR BUSINESS.

Join us and please add someone else who you think will be a great resource and/or recipient! The philosophy of this page is simple...if you know where the water is, point it out to other thirsty folks!!!