7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Networkers

There are so many social networks out there and so many of them sound promising and useful. One could easily get lost trying new sites out and never really get any work done. Here’s what I do to keep my social networking uncluttered and focused.

1. Aggregate! This is so important. There’s no real way anyone can be exceptionally good at networking on the internet while taking advantage of all the networking tools that will benefit them at the same time without any sort of aggregating tool. FriendFeed and Ping.fm are two really great aggregation tools. The function in two different ways. Ping.fm allows you to post something once, and sends it out to all of you selected services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. While Friendfeed collects your feeds from all of your services and puts them in one place so people can just follow you there, and see everything rather than adding you as friend on every network you’re on.

2. Automate: Twitterfeed is excellent for this. You can use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet your blog posts or post them to Facebook. You can also utilize SocialOomph to automatically respond to new Twitter followers and automatically follow new followers or unfollow people who unfollow you. You can also take advantage of Yahoo! Pipes to retweet any tweets that you think your followers might find valuable.

3. Tasks – You know when you’re lying in bed at 2am and you can’t sleep because you have a list of things going off in your head that you need to do and you’re worried you’ll forget? Write them down! Get them out of your head. Once you have recorded your to-dos, you’ll find they no longer have the power to worry you, stress you out or keep you awake. How I do it: I use Zenbe Lists. It is, very simply, a to do list. The best part though, is that is syncs between my Zenbe iPhone app and the Zenbe web-based app. So, if I think of something I need to do at 2am, I grab my phone and add it to my list and it’s there on the web when I wake up the next day. It leaves my head and I can sleep knowing I won’t forget. You don’t need to have an iPhone though, to have an effective to-do list. Just keep a piece of paper or a notebook beside your bed and write everything down. You’ll be surprised how well you sleep.

4. Engage – When people within your social networks talk to you, engage them. Start a conversation. So many @ replies on Twitter go unrecognized, and so many comments on Facebook are ignored. You don’t want your fan base, customers or clients to feel ignored in any way. In fact, instigate the conversation yourself. Ask them questions, listen to the answers and share the best ones with other people. It will keep people coming back.

5. Be real! Talk about things other than your work sometimes. Maybe you have a favorite charity that you volunteer for, or a favorite piece of music you’re listening to. Comment on your favorite TV show. It shows you’re human, and not some faceless company.

6. Post a lot, whenever you can. There are so many mobile apps, web-based apps, and computer apps that will tweet things you’re up to or post updates to your Facebook wall. You can use Shazam to post new music you’ve discovered, or Twitpic to send a picture of the amazing restaurant you’re dining at. Use TwittyTunes in Firefox to post the music you’re listening to. Take advantage of Tweetmeme buttons to retweet the articles you’re reading that you enjoy. The more content you’re sharing, the more people will pay attention.

7. Finally, Don’t join every social network you see. The unfortunate truth is that the vast majority won’t last. Choose wisely. Select networks that are industry-specific, such as Vinix.it or Sphinn.com. And always choose the big guys. These days they are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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