Maybe. I have acquaintances who are using publicists with some success to generate interviews and interest in them as speakers and business people. A publicist’s sole purpose is to get you noticed. This involves connecting you with people and opportunities, including interviews on TV, radio, online and in print. In the past. all publicists had degrees in communications and/or public relations and they usually worked with a large firm (most of which were in LA and NYC, associated with large advertising firms). These days, with the advent of online networking, the line between publicist and social media consultant is blurred, making freelance publicists more flexible and affordable.

A publicist must be two things to serve you well: very connected to people and opportunities and fearless and relentless in their drive to promote you. Publicists stay busy making phone calls, attending events, developing press kits and sending out press releases. You could do most of this work yourself but you probably don’t have time! For the more famous, publicists put out reputation fires (though even the less famous can have their reputations challenged).

If you think you are considering hiring a publicist, first check your LinkedIn

Saving Private Ryan psp

• Papillon movie

network for connections that either are, or know, a PR expert. You can also ask your connections if they use or recommend anyone. You can also check We Follow

• download Change of Habit The Dark Lurking full movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes dvdrip
  • Personal Effects video

Fantasia/2000 film Dark Rising movie download Snow Dogs hd

for publicists who are on Twitter

Swamp Thing divx Pet Sematary II ipod

. Be sure to look for a publicist who understands your line of work. Many of them specialize. Finally, don’t be afraid to drop an email to someone you admire and ask if they are using a PR manager and if they would recommend them.

In the meantime, you can get many of the same skills from a strong sales writer and social media manager. If you need recommendations, let us know! We might be able to help you out.

The War Bride download

Lano & Woodley: Goodbye hd

The Sandlot full movie

It’s been drummed into you over and over. You know you need to be active on social networking sites, tweeting on Twitter, interacting in groups on Facebook, and answering expert questions on LinkedIn. But you are a busy solo practitioner or entrepreneur and this is all so time consuming. We have several online applications to suggest that will help you manage this increasingly important task! We want to thank Guy Kawasaki and his recent post

Missing Brendan hd

Melinda and Melinda ipod for pointing out a few new ones.

Ping.fm

: This is a must-use site. Ping.fm allows you to register all of your sites, including some of the social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, and then update your status or blog from Ping. It then sends those out to the ones you’ve registered. So you can update your Twitter feed and your status on LI and FB quickly, all at once.

TweetDeck: TweetDeck is an app you download to your computer and it acts like a dashboard for Twitter primarily. You can manage multiple online screen names (some have one for business and one for personal use), watch feeds, shorten URL’s instead of moving to another site to do this. It’s a handy tool and very slick. However, if you don’t want to download anything and you want most of the same features, we suggest…

HootSuite: HootSuite is a Web-based applicaton that also lets you manage multiple personalities, is less cluttered than TweetDeck and still allows you to watch your incoming tweets. It doesn’t have as many features as TweetDeck but the learning curve is faster and it is extremely user-friendly. If you work in a corporate environment with restricted Internet access for social sites, it may allow you to get around this and tweet from work.

FriendFeed: FF is a one-stop social networking stop! It collects information from a variety of other sites, including Flickr, so you can easily see what the people you follow are doing across multiple platforms and vice versa. It shows your social activity in a variety of places and gives you a broader idea of what your contacts are up to.

Seesmic: We are less familiar with Seesmic at TVLAI, but it is also a downloaded application that more easily allows you to manage Twitter and Facebook, combining the two sites and their activities into one window. You can post to both simultaneously and watch the activities of your friends and those you follow in one spot without going to two different sites. LinkedIn would be a nice add but LI doesn’t offer as much “real time” activity as the other two so at this point perhaps it makes sense not to add it.

If we were going to recommend just two of these apps, it would be HootSuite and Ping.fm. However, if you are a heavy FB user, Seesmic seems like a good add. If you are a Sessmic user, share your experiences below and let us know what you like or don’t about the application.

What’s your “digital footprint” saying about you? (I know. A new techie term pops up every minute.) Thank heavens for Wikipedia

• The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause movie download

Eight Crazy Nights psp Transporter 2 , although in this case the term “digital footprint” is being used in more of a slang way to indicate your online activity that is visible to others. Think: flickr, reunion.com

, MySpace Alone in the Dark film

, Facebook

, LinkedIn

• download Poseidon dvd

, Twitter, etc. Employers and potential clients are far more likely to google candidates than ever before. The US courts have said this is ok and not an invasion of privacy. In fact, there is little protection for anyone because the Internet is a public domain.

On Fast Company.com they asked for comments on the question “Is Googling a potential employee before an interview fair game or just a blatant invasion of privacy?” and John Agno replied “Google is an end run around discrimination laws, inasmuch as employers can find out all manner of information–some of it for a nominal fee–that is legally off limits in interviews: your age, your martial status, the value of your house (along with an aerial photograph of it), the average net worth of your neighbors, fraternity pranks, stuff you wrote in college, liens, bankruptcies, political affiliations, and the names and ages of your children.” In the long-term, this right will likely be challenged, but for now you have to safeguard yourself and your reputation.

The same can be said of the potential clients of freelancers or solopreneurs. Unfortunately, though you may be an exemplary employee or service provider, there may be shock and horror on your part when you realize potential clients are seeing photos of you scantily clad on the dance floor in Maui or singing, badly, on YouTube

Bald psp . This isn’t going to enhance any one’s trust-despite the fact they were taken during your only vacation of the year.

If you do want to share your personal life and thoughts, use a pseudonym or separate identity for your MySpace, Twitter and blog pages. It isn’t as easy on LinkedIn and Facebook where they want your real identity and have safeguards in place to prevent you from creating a second persona. Save those two sites for your business identity.

There are some Web services like ReputationDefender

• The French Connection

and Defend My Name

• buy Mater and the Ghostlight

Loggerheads trailer

that can help you do some censoring of the information that’s out there about you. It’s probably just as effective to google yourself from time to time, be aware of the issues and take preventative measures to maintain your digital footprint as an asset and not a liability.

Law is a social career-it’s all about serving people’s legal, and in many ways emotional, needs. But attorneys have been slow to join in on the social media methods of networking with both potential clients and other legal professionals. The Law is a serious business with a proud history and this may be part of the reason that they’ve been slow to adopt as a group. This has changed thanks to the spawning of several top notch resources.

Martindale-Hubbell is the gold standard for online legal information, peer reviews, law directories and research. With the unveiling of Martindale-Hubbell Connected

download The Tattooist movie

• The Horsemen movie download

, their online global community for lawyers, they gave their seal of approval to social media. Not the first networking group for attorneys, it is probably the most respected, simply because of the MH brand. Any member of MH can join the community for free and soon it will be open to other legal professionals and law students as well.  Also, be sure to check out the MH groups on Twitter I suggested last week. Also do a WeFollow The Sentinel rip Winnie the Pooh Un-Valentines Day film The King of Marvin Gardens divx

search for lawyer or attorney for more people to network with.

LinkedIn has a vast array of legal groups. There are groups for legal IT professionals, for legal marketing

buy A Streetcar Named Desire

professionals, for every major university’s law school

• Aliens in the Attic psp

, for the ABA (in many different groups), women and minority attorneys and so forth. LinkedIn is not only a respected place to connect, it is also a trustworthy site to get questions answered from other members.

Then there is Facebook and its variety of networking groups and fan pages. Knowledge Management for Legal Professionals

The Code Conspiracy divx

Mail Dog ipod download Fair Game movie , ABA Sin City psp (although there are more for the American Honkytonk Bar Assoc than the real thing-which is why I have mixed feelings about FB), and just general FB members who are attorneys

. The LegalTech conferences

Foreign Correspondent full movie

• download Sniper 3 dvd

Summer School film

have a fan page that will keep you up-to-date on upcoming events.

Blogging is social media as well and we’ll update you on some of the best ones out there now in another post.

Alright…you’ve got work to do! Get out there and start interacting online! Tell people what you do, who you want to meet, what you need to know and always be generous in what you offer as well. Give us some feedback below on what other great networks we might have missed.

• Ghost Machine

If you have to pick one online site to network for your business, I recommend LinkedIn as your first step. Far more professional than Facebook, many more users than Plaxo or Naymz, LinkedIn has added new features to make the site much more interactive and necessary to your business. In addition to the questions and answers feature many of us are already using, the events section offers a lot of local activities where you can either add to your business learning or meet other users face to face. It can be a little tricky to find (why isn’t it up there with People Jobs Answers and Companies?), but generally has events you won’t find anywhere else. A recent check of New Jersey brought up 62 varied offerings including “Emotional Intelligence & Leadership in Organizations”, “Fundamentals of Sales Management”, and “Flexing Your Communication Skills”.  

Second String film download Rocky IV The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian divx

• download An American Carol

I’m also enjoying the Reading List by Amazon application. Not only can I see what other people are reading (and vice versa), but I can do a search by book to discuss it with other LinkedIn members. If they are pretty interesting, you can add them to your “people to watch” so you get updates on what they are reading next.  24 7: Twenty Four Seven download  

Waist Deep film

New features we haven’t tried yet at TVLAI Eight Crazy Nights ipod Moose Hunters dvd From Noon Till Three psp

The Sleeper hd

include Company Buzz (allows you to see what people are saying about your company on Twitter download The Mummy dvd ), SlideShare Presentations (allows you to add presentations to your profile) and My Travel (allows you to see if you will be traveling to the same city on the same date as any of your contacts). All of this, plus the LinkedIn app for iPhone and easy of use, make LinkedIn my favorite for business networking Cube Zero move The Beguiled download

The Brother from Another Planet trailer

online. Have you used any of these new applications? Share them with us and let us know what you think!

download Montana Sky movie

Like all of the established social networking sites, LinkedIn is continually adding features. If you aren’t staying caught up reading about social media like we are at TVLAI, you might miss out on some opportunities to interact and engage more fully using some of these new features. Let’s check out LinkedIn and make sure you are using it to its full potential!

LinkedIn has added some great applications. Unlike Facebook, the application offerings are slim but they are also all very useful. If you have a Wordpress blog, you can use the WP application to have your posts show up on your LinkedIn profile. The Google Presentation app download Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo dvd Juice divx

allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations and video to your LI page. The SlideShare application provides a similar function.

Box.net is one of the most robust online file storage sites. If you want to allow your contacts to review your resume or review a spreadsheet, this application facilitates that sharing on LinkedIn. You can add a poll The Exterminator trailer

• download Ralphie May: Austin-Tatious
  Clue psp
  Hotel for Dogs movie download

to your profile so you can get feedback from your contacts on a variety of business issues. And, if you are reading a fabulous business book and you want to discuss it with someone or find “like minds”, you can add the Amazon.com application

download Bye-Bye Bin Laden movie

• Mr. Deeds

Peter Pan trailer Jesus Christ Superstar full movie to show books you are reading, to follow other people’s lists and to provide reviews.

Be sure you are checking the Events

listings for opportunities to do offline networking with colleagues or that you are adding your event to increase participation. Keep an eye open for questions you can answer for someone. Finally, if you are seeking a way to make more contacts on LinkedIn but do not necessarily want to open network, join appropriate groups. This allows you to invite any member to connect directly.

Keep checking back on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and your other favorite social networking sites for added features!

When using social media there are two key outcomes you want: making business or personal connections and driving traffic to your blog/site. When new visitors find your site, you increase the chances that someone will need your services or share it with someone else who does. You know you need a blog, you need to Twitter, you need to be on LinkedIn and Facebook

Husbands and Lovers download

• The Jungle Book 2 divx
  
  Postmortem rip

to get this done but what else should you be doing? There are some less common ways that can expose you to a whole new group of contacts.

Commenting on other blogs. This is the least surprising of the “other” ways but many people are still not doing it. How do you find blogs to comment on? One of the most useful things is to follow some of your industry leaders on Twitter Night Train video and when they recommend someone’s blog post, get over there as fast as you can and offer an opinion. You can be sure other people in your industry/area of interest will be clicking that link to see what it’s about and will see you there. Be sure you write something of value or it is useless.

Piggybacking on that is to write a fairly controversial blog post on your site right after you have commented on that blog: something that will generate discussion and cause people to follow you.

I assume you are on LinkedIn

The Last Castle dvd

but be sure you are active in discussions there. Also be sure to check event listings for in-person networking opportunities in your area.

Try some new sites to offer input on. Write reviews for business books on Amazon.com or join discussions there. This can also create curiosity about you so be sure you have a strong profile developed. The same goes for flickr.com. Believe it or not, there are lots of business groups: home office

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers dvdrip

groups, organization groups, “getting things done” Enter the Dragon trailer Unendliche Geschichte, Die movie download The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift rip groups, business card

• Groundhog Day release
  • Dead Like Me release

• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery film
  
  Pirates rip

• Cocoon dvdrip

groups and more. Make sure you are following people there as well.

Finally, be sure to comment on magazines’ companion sites like Fast Company, Wired, Entrepreneur and Inc. You can set up accounts and profiles on several of these, create blogs, and get involved in discussions.

The secret here is free exposure. Setting aside 2-3 hours per week for social media alone can reap huge benefits. Think of it as a “free” part of your marketing budget. Be consistent. Be relevant and write good content when you join in discussions and you will find your followers increasing, allowing you access to an unlimited potential client pool!

download Boa vs. Python dvd Vacancy 2 ipod A History of Violence dvd

I’ve spent a busy week, hitting a lot of live networking events and realize that I’m energized and excited. As much attention as online networking gets, the “old school, offline” way of networking is still advantageous in many ways. But you have to manage these relationships in a different way than your online contacts.

It begs repeating that when you go to live events, take plenty of business cards and prepare to shake a lot of hands. Have your elevator pitch

ready and don’t be on the look out for who can help YOU. Look for those people who need your help. I generally seek out overwhelmed and under supported entrepreneurs. But I also generally just enjoy chatting with, and getting motivated by, others who are running their own small businesses. Collect business cards and, after you chat with someone, step away for a moment to make a few notes so you remember details about who they are as people…not as potential customers.

The real work begins when you get home though. You must have a good contact management system. Whether it is Outlook or a newer Web 2.0 version like Big Contacts The Phantom of the Opera the movie

• Downtown: A Street Tale hd

Mission: Impossible II ipod

download Atlantis: The Lost Empire movie Heat dvd

, don’t sit on all that information. Spend a few hours getting everyone’s details entered. Now you are ready to follow up. For those new contacts with whom you had a strong connection, a phone call to simply say “Hi! I really enjoyed meeting you and discussing x, y, z. Did you enjoy the event?” and nothing more. DO NOT PUSH for business. You’ll come across as slimy. Just remind the person that you exist and you had a connection. They are far more likely to contact you when there is a need-or when they hear of one. 

Also consider sending out real notecards with a handwritten message. Don’t send out mass, general emails. For some new contacts, an email is most appropriate, but include a bit of info about each of them like “enjoyed discussing how the economy is affecting small business” or “I loved hearing about your dog, George!”.  

Keith Ferrazi has released a new book

• Practical Magic full movie

The Viking Queen full movie

• download The Faculty dvd

Good Will Hunting psp The Nutty Professor movie called “Who’s Got Your Back? The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success-and Won’t Let You Fail” (I know. Long title). Ferrazzi is also the author of Never Eat Alone and you can listen to a free teleseminar from him here. Another classic is “How to Work a Room” Eye for an Eye buy Free Willy film The Happening download Hookers Inc. psp by Susan Roane.

Meeting others in person allows for a more accurate impression and is likely to buy more loyalty. Go gussy up and go do some offline networking. If you need events, check out Meetup.com or LinkedIn for opportunities in your area!

The world of social media is a complicated and rapidly changing one. Of course, you need to be involved in it because developing an online presence is mandatory now when doing business. But trying to stay caught up in what is going on in the industry and where to devote your valuable time can be tricky. So we at TVLAI are here to help!

For now, unless you are in a creative industry like music or art, it is probably best to not spend business time on MySpace. Because of Facebook’s huge gains in their market, they are returning to their niche-teenagers and music. It’s a smart move because the choices for business people are plentiful now. MySpace still accounts for 68% of social networking traffic, with Facebook following at about 20%-but Facebook is much more adult friendly and business people are more inclined to interact there.

There is a lot of news surrounding LinkedIn and how the market concerns are feeding traffic there. Because LinkedIn is primarily a site for professional networking, new members have been flocking there due to job security concerns. Registrations are up 17% and recommendations up 14% over the last two weeks. Clearly LinkedIn is extremely active and anyone promoting a business or their career should be active on LinkedIn. If you are seeking new opportunities, there are over 2,000 jobs posted on LinkedIn.

Facebook underwent a recent overhaul. I have mixed feelings about Facebook. Let’s just say having a Facebook page is a necessary evil (with over 100 million users worldwide it’s hard to ignore), but I use LinkedIn more. While the Facebook interface is more user-friendly, the interaction still seems more superficial. This is a matter of preference and, if anyone asks, I recommend LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter as the “big three” of social sites.

The engaging thing about Twitter is its ease and its familiarity. Even if you are following someone extremely famous in your world, you can address them simply and directly and are likely to receive a response. With the 140 character limit, no one can ramble on and the sharing of blog posts, either their own or one they’ve stumbled upon, is a great, easy way to share information. Additionally, like Facebook, Twitter has spun off applications like TweetDeck (a Twitter management system?), Twhirl (a desktop system for Twitter), TwitPic, TwitterFox plugin for Firefox, TwitterSearch and about 96 others. Still, I just use Ping to add my blog posts and then a few comments throughout the day…but I do love the ease of following people important to me.

So, how do YOU feel about all of this? How do you see social networks changing? Are there others that you use and love?

The Hive movie

Fighting with Anger movie download

RocknRolla dvdrip

Window Cleaners rip

• The Cat in the Hat full movie download Nightmare Man movie

Definitely, Maybe dvd

• I Can Do Bad All by Myself dvd