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Payoffs of Social Network Profiles
By Reece W. Manley
The little email happily arrived in my inbox one day, amongst
the hundred or so other which get my attention every day. It’s
subject – Can you write for me? – certainly caught my attention.
Upon opening, I was greeted with the world’s sweetest words
“I need an article about x and we pay y. Will you be so kind
as to z for me?” The magical place this little $250.00 nugget
found me? My LinkedIn profile.
Say what you will about Internet Social Networking, as writers,
we have clients out there looking for us. And, they are looking
on a number of different sites. What’s a writer to do? Put up a
profile on every site in the entire social cyberspace? The short
answer is yes. Or, at least five that are swept often by persons
like Tammy Wilkes, AdTel International, who goes to the Internet
when she needs freelancers or temp hires.
“It’s amazing how many quality people I have at my fingertips at
any given second. And, to be honest, I sometimes am guilty of
pulling open my browser window before I walk over and open my
drawer of heartfelt requests for assignments,” says Ms. Wilkes.
Unfortunately, there are literally hundreds of social networks and
it would be impossible to keep up with all of them. Pick five of
your favorites and forget the rest. Of course, you want to be
sure to choose some of the big ones, and maybe a niche site, to
get your best overall coverage.
LinkedIn ( www.linkedin.com ) offers one
of the strongest sites to
have your profile up and flying your flag. There are two reasons
for this. One, it’s business oriented. Two, you can have content
rich information about yourself. Another bonus, LinkedIn allows
you to use an RSS from your blog to keep new content on your
profile page. This keeps the little indexing spiders from Google
very happy.
Publisher’s Marketplace (
www.publishersmarketplace.com ) is a bit
expensive, however, again, it is content rich and it’s easy to
use an RSS to keep the content updated. More happy spiders.
Facebook ( www.facebook.com ) is the
current monster of the web.
But, a new feature offers you a chance to put up a page for your
business. On it you can be as extensive as you like about your past
victories and vignettes.
Zoho ( www.zoho.com ) is a relatively new
comer but it's free, easy to
use and very easy to get set up. Zoho also offers a suite of other
services from mail to a word processing help.
Google ( www.google.com ) is the Grand Dame
of the Internet and you
should certainly be a courtesan. If you don’t have a Google account,
you are definitely missing opportunities. Many people use Gmail,
the email program and stop there. But, if you click the My Account
button within the Google page, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve really
signed up for by just getting an email address. One of the strong
offers is the ability to build an in depth profile on Google. And,
because Google owns most of the spiders, they are always crawling
about on the home web.
There’s five to start you with but you will want to see what is a
good fit for you. Also, take advantage on at least two or three
of the sites to use the networking functions. You should join
groups and make “friends” because it extends the links to you.
The only thing search engines like more than spiders are links.
BIO
Reece W. Manley, DD, M.Ed., MPM is an author, pastoral counselor
and consumer research expert. He has published two books, Crossing
Twice and Spirit Thinking with a third book Overcome! due out this year.
http://www.reecemanley.info
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