This was my status update from one of the many automated social networking services that are all over the net right now. PING

“I am testing my sms to blog, facebook, myspace & twitter. by ping.fm! awesome service for posting info across platforms.”

You can set up many of your social networking accounts including Facebook, Facebook Pages, Twitter, your blog on WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, myspace, twitter, plaxo, FriendFeed, Flickr, Vox, Brightkite, delicious, yahoo 360, all the instant messengers, HootSuite (A Twitter tracking program) along with a host of others.

You can update from the ping.fm site itself or from your cellphone, Iphone It’s a very inclusive service that seems to work quite well.  Social Networking can be time consuming without one of these very clever Web 2.0 applications.

#1 Join FACEBOOK and TWITTER… They really aren’t scary or hard.

Twitter …. Well, I just LOVE Twitter.  I only have about 5 face to face friends on twitter but I have gotten SO much from my short time there.  (Look for another article talking about that soon).  Here’s what you do.

• Sign up using a name that is catchy and makes sense for your business. A name like @ George239 isn’t very interesting, and @Hotchick4u is likely to get you booted out of Twitter.    Sign up for Twitter
• Fill out your profile completely! People won’t follow if they don’t know who you are and what you might tweet about.
• change your twitter background from the original. (After you get going think about doing a custom background) I can help with that if you like.. email me at milehiweb@yahoo.com
• Go to Twitter Grader enter your @ name. Your score will be low, but that’s not the point for now, with that tool you can search for people using a keyword like “real estate” or “marketing” “Politics” and it will give you the top tweeters in that area.
• Follow them.. Follow who they interact with, look for other people in your other area’s of interest.
• There are two schools of thought about if you should keep all your Twitter following/followers with one account, or split into personal and business.  That is your call.
• If someone’s tweets are spammy… you have the power, just stop following them.
• If you want people to follow you, build value and relationships with people, don’t just squack.. Look what I did, look what I wrote, look what I sell.
• Read TwiTips – a blog by Darren Rowse – A Twitter Must Read
• Follow @problogger Darren was one of the first people I followed and one of the first that responded to me (a nobody) directly.  That impressed me!
• There are lots of applications that are free.  Some of my favorites are

1. Friend or Follow This tells you who is following you that you follow, who is following you that you don’t follow and who you follow that isn’t following you.
2. Tweet Later You can use this to auto DM (Direct Message) people that follow you.  If you use this, make it a friendly message not a BUY THIS FROM MY NOW! type.  People will often unfollow you if you do. & auto follow people that follow you. This also allows you to send yourself an email targeting keywords you are interested in or a person you are interested in.
3. Twitter Local - Shows you the people that live in your area that are Tweeters and an example of their last few tweets.
4. OutTwit - This is an application that brings twitter right into your Microsoft Outlook.  It can be configured in many different ways and their tech support is awesome
   
5. Tweet Deck - A down loadable application that lets you see your Twitterland in all sorts of organized ways.
6. TwitWall – A more complete profile of who you are, what you tweet about, perhaps a picture or two. I wish they had a place to actually link this on your twitter like a “for more info” link.  Anyway, it’s kinda fun. See mine here.
7. Advanced Twitter Search – Thanks to@denverish for sending me this gem. It lets you search the tweets by location, word, phrase, positive people, ?’s being asked.  Very cool!

• I would also recommend going to the local #tweetups.  the #mark is used in Twitter to help you organize events, groups.  you search for #yourtopic and all of the tweets and twits about it come up. so watch for things like #DenverTweetup.  This will give you an opportunity to meet some of the @ people you follow face to face.

• Read Don’t be a Twitter Snob here! & read this article on choosing your Online Profile picture wisely

• 

  @yourwebchick

• Can you think of any other reasons to join these two social networks?
• Or great applications I missed?
• Please comment below!

Facebook isn’t MySpace… I have a page there just for the links but I NEVER “socialize” there… It’s best use is for the artsey folks, musicians etc.  But Facebook is a whole other story, it began as a more “sophisticated” Myspace for College kids, but now those kids are 30 something plus and networking socially and for business too.  Once you join  Facebook,

• use the search tools to find friends and colleagues,
• create a Facebook page for your business
• look for colleagues and  experts in your industry to “friend” and keep them up to date on what your business is doing by
• fill out the “what you are doing” part and send links to articles or interest or your latest blog postings…. or
• Add your blog to your Facebook account so it automatically posts new links.
• Become “a fan” of companies you like… Everyone will see this and you even get your name and face mentioned in the ad’s that pop up.
• Friend Mari Smith.. She is the GURU of Facebook for Business.  See more about her on my Mari Smith the Facebook Guru post here!

Embedded Video

This is a great interview with Tim Ferris – Author of “The 4 Hour Work Week”.