Tag Archives: LinkedIn

Feb 21 2013
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J2 Marketing

The 1, 2, 3′s of Twitter

In his book Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business, online marketing expert Ted Prodromou offers an easy-to-understand guide to using Twitter that will help small-business owners generate leads and connect with customers. This edited excerpt is the first of a two-part series, the author explains the most common Twitter terms so users can get up to speed right away. 

Like most technology, Twitter has its own language. Let’s look at the most common Twitter terms.

@
The @ sign is used to call out usernames in Tweets. You can say something like: “Hey @tedprodromou!” The @ works differently in Twitter than it does in an email address. When a username is preceded by the @ sign, it becomes a link to a Twitter profile. When you click on that link, you’ll be able to view the person’s profile to learn more about them.

@Message
If you want to send a public message to somebody, you start your Tweet with the @ followed by their Twitter name. For example, if you want to send a message to me, you start your Tweet with @tedprodromou followed by the message you want to send me in the Tweet.

DM
All Twitter messages are public by default. That means everyone can see all of your Tweets. If you want to send a message directly to someone who’s following you on Twitter, you can send them a direct message (DM). This is like sending your friend a text on their phone, where only they receive it. Only you and your friend know what’s contained in that message.

Related: 5 Marketing Lessons From the Super Bowl’s Most Popular Commercials

Discover
The Discover tab on your Twitter page is where you find Stories, Who to Follow, Activity, Find Friends, and Browse Categories.

Favorite
To Favorite a Tweet means to mark it as one of your favorites. You Favorite a Tweet by clicking on the star next to the message. Do it when you want to show your appreciation to someone for creating a catchy or thought-provoking Tweet.

Follow
To follow someone on Twitter is to subscribe to their Tweets or updates by clicking on the Follow button in their profile. The more people you follow, the more Tweets you will see in your Tweet stream, giving you more opportunity to engage others in conversation.

Follower
A follower is another Twitter user who has followed you. The more followers you have, the more popular you are on Twitter.

Handle
A user’s “Twitter handle” is the username they have selected and the accompanying URL. Your Twitter handle is also referred to as your Twitter name. My Twitter handle is officially http://twitter.com/tedprodromou.

Hashtag
The # symbol is called a hash mark, and when used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet, it is called a hashtag. Its use began organically as Twitter users sought a way to categorize messages. Today, most Tweets contain a # and a keyword so people can easily follow a Twitter conversation involving sometimes thousands of people.

Interactions
Your Twitter Interactions is the timeline in your @ Connect tab that displays all the ways other users have interacted with your account, like adding you to a list, sending you a reply, Favoriting one of your Tweets, or ReTweeting one of your Tweets. Viewing your @ Connect tab is a quick way to see who’s engaging with you.

Listed
When someone adds you to a Twitter list, you are considered “listed.” The number of times you’re listed appears in the statistics section of your profile.

Related: How Oreo, Other Brands Dominated Twitter During the Super Bowl Power Outage

Lists
Lists are curated groups of other Twitter users. Twitter Lists are like distribution lists in email where you group people together so you can easily communicate with everyone at once. You can group people you are following by topics so you can quickly see the latest trends or conversations. Twitter Lists are sort of like Groups on Facebook or LinkedIn where you can join in targeted conversations based on specific topics.

Mention
Mentioning another user in your Tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username is called a “mention.” Another way to Mention someone is to add their username in a Tweet. If someone Tweeted, “Hey @tedprodromou I loved your blog post about Twitter,” it would be considered a Mention.

Name
A name can be different from your username and is used to locate you on Twitter. Your name must be 20 characters or less. For example, my name on Twitter is Ted Prodromou, but my username is tedprodromou.

Profile
The Twitter page that displays information about a Twitter user, as well as all the Tweets they’ve posted from their account, is the profile page. Your profile also includes your bio, which is a 160-character description of you.

Promoted Tweets
These are Tweets that are paid promotions or ads at the top of search results on Twitter. Promoted Tweets are targeted by keywords so they only appear at appropriate times.

Protected/Private Accounts
All Twitter accounts are public by default. You can choose to protect your account so your Tweets will only be seen by approved followers and will not appear in Twitter Search. This is a great way for remote business teams to share information and keep in touch with each other when working together on projects.

Related: Getting Started on Twitter and Facebook As a Business Owner (Video)

Reply
A Reply is a Tweet that is posted in reply to another user’s message. A Reply is usually posted by clicking the “reply” button next to their Tweet in your timeline. A Reply always begins with @username. If the @username is not the first word in the Tweet, it is considered a Mention.

RT or ReTweet
When you like someone’s Tweet, you can forward it to your Twitter followers by ReTweeting it. I like to add comments to my ReTweets to let people know why I’m Tweeting it. This can get tricky if the original Tweet is very long because of the 140-character limit. Sometimes you just have to ReTweet it without a comment. ReTweeting is like forwarding a funny joke someone emailed to you, or sharing a Facebook post you like.

Search or Twitter Search
The box in the top right corner of your Twitter homepage is the Twitter Search box. Twitter Search lets you search all public Tweets for keywords, usernames, hashtags, or subjects. Searches can also be performed at http://search.twitter.com. Twitter Search works just like any other search engine, but the results are limited to Twitter content.

Short Code
A short code is the five-digit phone number used to send and receive Tweets via text message.

Stories
Stories on Twitter are found in the Discover tab. Think of Stories as expanded Trends. Stories are the Trends plus the links to the video, images, blogs, and web content mentioned in the Tweet.

Timeline
Your Timeline is a real time list of Tweets from users you’re following on Twitter.

Timestamp
Every Tweet is time stamped, which can be found in gray text directly below any Tweet. The timestamp is also a link to that Tweet’s own URL.

Top Tweets
Top Tweets are determined by a Twitter algorithm to be the most popular or resonant on Twitter at any given time. They are usually Tweets by people with the most followers or by people who Tweet often.

Trends
With over 150 million Twitter users Tweeting over 500 million Tweets a day, some topics become more popular than others. When a major earthquake hits Japan or a terrorist bomb explodes in the Middle East, thousands if not millions of people start Tweeting about the event. Usually they will add a hashtag to their Tweets so people can easily follow that topic. The Trends list on Twitter is a real-time summary of the most popular topics being Tweeted about at that moment.

Related: The 5 Biggest Twitter Marketing Fails of 2012

Tweet
A Tweet refers to a single Twitter post or text message. Your Twitter homepage consists of your timeline, which is a history of all your Tweets and the Tweets of all the people you’re following.

Tweeter
An account holder on Twitter who posts and reads Tweets is a Tweeter; also known as a Twitterer.

Tweetup
An in-person networking event that’s promoted almost exclusively via Twitter is called a Tweetup. Tweetups have become very popular because you can quickly bring together a group of like-minded people who are following each other on Twitter. When you publicize the Tweetup on Twitter, the general public sees the invitation so you can attract new people to your networking groups with little effort.

Unfollow
When you want to stop following another Twitter user, you unfollow them. Their Tweets no longer show up in your home timeline.

URL Shortener
URL shorteners are used to turn long URLs into shorter URLs. Shortening your URLs is important because you only have 140 characters available for your Tweets. Some URL shorteners include www.bit.ly, www/TinyURL.com, andwww.Ow.ly.

Username
Your username is also known as your Twitter handle. Your username must be unique and contain fewer than 15 characters. It is also used to identify you on Twitter for replies and mentions.

Verification
A process whereby a user’s Twitter account is stamped to show that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets is a verification. It is sometimes used for accounts that have experienced identity confusion or to verify a celebrity’s real identity for their Twitter account.

Who to Follow
You’ll find Who to Follow in the Discover tab. You’ll see a few recommendations of accounts the Twitter algorithm thinks you’ll find interesting. The recommendations are based on the types of accounts you’re already following and who those people follow.

Widget
A widget is a bit of code that can be placed anywhere on the web. Widgets are very common in content management websites like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. A widget placed on your website or blog can automatically display your Twitter updates in real time.

Related: 10 Things Entrepreneurs Should Be Tweeting About

Read more stories about: Social Media Marketing, Twitter marketing

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Jan 30 2013
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Business Tips, Social Media Tips

Managing Customer Service via Social Media

When Brie Weiler Reynolds noticed that her customers were discussing their service concerns on social media networks, she realized her company had better start responding to them there as well.

“We started getting comments and questions from people on LinkedIn and Facebook,” says Reynolds, director of content and social media for FlexJobs, a Boulder, Colo.-based online job-search firm. “They were using social media for things you’d traditionally contact customer service for, so we figured if that’s how they want it, that’s how we’ll give it to them.” Today FlexJobs uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube to publicly inform, serve and connect with customers on a daily basis.

 

The transparency of communication on social platforms lets companies showcase their devotion to helping customers, fostering brand loyalty and authenticity among a widespread audience. Still, research suggests there’s room for improvement. In a recent study by PR and marketingfirm Cone Communications, 46 percent of respondents said they’d like to be able to solve problems and receive product or service information via new media, but only 14 percent said they’re “very satisfied” with their experiences with companies or brands online.

“Social customer service presents a great opportunity for active listening and reacting to your customers,” says Andy Smith, co-author of The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change. ”When you listen to and create discussions about the problems they’re having, you can progress toward becoming the person or having the product that addresses that problem.”

Patton Gleason, president of Richmond, Va.-based NaturalRunningStore.com, says social media helps him build relationships with existing customers; they in turn promote his online store to new audiences when they share the information they’ve received on their own networks.

Gleason doesn’t just respond to customer questions with a quick tweet. Several times each week, he creates and posts personalized videos to help customers solve specific problems. For example, he assisted in diagnosing and addressing the source of a runner’s calf pain by requesting and examining an uploaded photo of the bottoms of the runner’s shoes, then responding with video suggestions.

“If they have questions about shinsplints or the difference between two shoes, I can actually show people what’s happening or [give] a comparison of those shoes,” he says. “Not only can they see the products, they can also see the person behind them, which is a powerful way to connect.”

Shared content–positive and negative–fosters brand authenticity, according to Reynolds. She embraces negative posts as an opportunity for FlexJobs’ 17,000-plus social media followers to see that the company cares about resolving problems. “It helps people [who are] on the fence about signing up see that we respond quickly to people and don’t shy away from problems,” she says. “They see firsthand that if they were to join and have a problem, we’d treat them the same way.”

Reynolds adds that social customer service has the unique ability to turn negatives into positives in a very public way. “If someone posts a negative comment on [our Facebook] Timeline–they don’t like the site or understand why they should pay for membership–oftentimes our fans swoop in and support us by explaining why they use the site and why those posters should give it another shot,” she says. “What could be better than our customers solving our customer-service dilemmas with us?”

 

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Jan 16 2013
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Marketing Tips

LinkedIn and SEO

LinkedIn MarketingIn today’s corporate world, you aren’t somebody until you can be found on professional networking site LinkedIn. But as more individuals and businesses add their profiles, it’s becoming more challenging to turn up in searches.

What most LinkedIn users aren’t aware of is that the results displayed for these searches aren’t random. LinkedIn uses an internal set of algorithms to prioritize certain profiles over others, giving the businesses and individuals who have optimized their accounts correctly a leg up in using the service to find jobs, clients and more.

If you’re using LinkedIn for any of these purposes, getting a strong ranking in its internal search results should be a top priority. Here’s how to do it:

Related: What You Can Learn From Disney, CNBC and Adobe About Creating a Great LinkedIn Page

Fill out your profile completely: One of the most important ways to improve your position in LinkedIn’s search results is to fill out your profile completely. Not only does this give LinkedIn additional opportunities to identify search-related keywords in your profile, but the company is also more likely to rank completed profiles over partially finished ones.

If you aren’t sure if you’ve filled out your profile completely, LinkedIn provides a helpful tracker in each profile that shows both the percentage of fields completed and any specific areas that still need information.

Include relevant search keywords in profile areas: As you’re completing your profile, include the keywords for which you’d like your name to appear in LinkedIn’s internal search results.

Keywords you target in your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t be the same long-tail search engine optimization phrases you target on your website. Instead, the keywords in your profile should be those that a potential client or employer would probably enter into the LinkedIn search bar.

Related: The 10 Most Overused Buzzwords on LinkedIn

For example, on your website, you might target the long-tail keyword phrase, “best Raleigh NC accounting practice.” But the odds are small that a potential client or employer will enter this exact phrase into the LinkedIn search feature. Instead, they’re likely to search for phrases like “accountant” or “accountant NC.” So in optimizing your LinkedIn profile, try to think like your target clients or employers and focus on the keywords you believe they would search for.

Expand the size of your network: In addition to considering the different keywords it finds in your profile, LinkedIn also looks at the size of your network. In particular, LinkedIn prefers to display results that have at least some connection with the search user — even if these connections are only second or third level, rather than first level direct relationships.

As a result, you will probably improve your LinkedIn profile’s visibility in the search results by expanding your network. First, make it a point to connect with your past coworkers, managers, clients and other contacts. Once you’ve completed this step, you can try to further improve your LinkedIn search presence by reaching out to new contacts, especially people who share your professional interests and qualifications.

Participate in LinkedIn Groups: Participation in LinkedIn Groups can be as powerful a ranking signal as the size of your personal and professional network. So if you aren’t having much luck connecting with new contacts, you can join groups to boost your overall level of profile activity.

To find groups to join, you can search LinkedIn using your industry’s keywords, as well as see which groups the members of your network participate in. Once you become part of a group, do your best to contribute in a positive and professional way. Simply joining a group isn’t as beneficial to your search ranking as actively engaging with it.

 

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Feb 11 2012
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Business Tips, J2 Marketing, Marketing Tips

Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price

Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price

As a consultant helping businesses figure out pricing strategies, too often I see companies want to tinker with prices before understanding the overall strategies that should guide such decisions. Basically, they put the cart before the horse.

Prices should always be based on how much customers actually value the products or services. But how can you know what that is when you don’t even know what your business should be?

In the case of a mom-and-pop business owner — someone who runs a convenience store or a tire shop or a restaurant — the goal is to simply put food on the family’s table. Such business owners obsess over how to get the most out of their pricing, but I also find they’re prone to overlook the bigger picture.

You need to know your company strategy first. Your pricing strategy then follows your business strategy. Here are four strategic decisions small-business owners should make before they start tinkering with prices:

  • What is your market position relative to the competition? Are you going to be high service or low cost — or even something in the middle? Are you going to be the wine bar or the hot-dog stand down the street? Both types of businesses could potentially be gold mines. The question is whether there is a market for what’s being offered. Once you figure that out, you want to have a consistent set of pricing that drives the strategy and attracts the desired customer base. If you go into a BMW dealer, and they normally sell cars that are $30,000 to $100,000 a piece, and they have a $10,000 car, you’re thinking, “Something’s wrong.” There is a consistent set of pricing people have come to expect.
  • Does repeat business matter? Are you trying to maximize each transaction, or are you trying to build a loyal set of customers who will come back again and again? If you’re a taxi-cab driver, you’re probably never going to see a client again. You charge what you can get away with. (That’s why taxis are so heavily regulated.) But if loyalty is important, you charge a little bit less so customers walk away thinking, “I got a great deal. I’m going to come back.” There are also other pricing strategies — loyalty cards, or “buy 10, get one free” cards — where you’re generating loyalty and repeat business.
  • Do you want to offer free or discounted stuff? Some business owners decide to use “freemiums” or loss leaders to set up customers for eventual sales. With a freemium, a business owner says, “I am giving something away for free, perfectly functional, because I believe a certain percentage of people will want to buy the next level up.” If you’re using LinkedIn, you’re probably using it for free, but there are few people like me who pay for a membership because we get a few more features. A “loss leader” is a product sold at cost or low margin that’s used for similar purposes. Grocery stores, for example, advertise milk as a low-price item, because people often pick their grocery store based on the price of milk, and then they place the milk in the back corner. Be careful, though, getting yourself stuck selling goods or services at a loss; avoid shipping money out the door.
  • When you have a set of products, there are people who are very price sensitive, and there are people who don’t care about price. The people who are price insensitive, you want to get as much money out of them as you can. And the people who are price sensitive, you still want to win their business. Think of it as first class and coach on an airplane. With the most successful products, there are usually different versions that target different subsets of customers. Even if you’re a low-cost place, you still want that range. Notice that McDonald’s has a good-better-best range of products.

No matter what, don’t rush to lower prices — because it will be extremely difficult to raise them down the road. Think out your business strategy first.

 

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Feb 03 2012
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J2 Marketing, Web

Tech Speak and Why You Need To Know It

No matter what kind of small business you’re starting or running, you will be expected to understand the jargon and culture of online information technology. That will be true whether you’re building your websiteyourself or hiring pricey contractors to lead yourbusiness to Internet glory.

Full Web fluency is almost never necessary for success. As a busy entrepreneur, you have a million things to do. But a working knowledge of the terms and concepts businesses use online can be critical.

Here is a basic guide to online terminology worth learning for business owners of all industries:

1. Basic programming languages: There are dozens of programming languages used online, but HTML, HTML 5 and XML are the most common. They are written in short commands that tell a Web browser what to display onscreen. Also important are CSS and CSS3 – short for cascading style sheets — which determine the layout of multiple Web pages at once. Javascriptis another, more complex programming language that is used to add interactivity to HTML websites.

W3Schools.com can be a useful resource that contains definitions, tutorials and do-it-yourself programming exercises.

Related: How to Recruit a Great Programmer as a Partner

2. Static Web content: This refers to Web business content that remains more or less the same – such as the main pages on your site, contact information and “About Us” links. Think of these pages as your digital storefront. They have to be perfect, so they’ll take the most up-front investment of time and resources to create. It’s important to know that these pages are the foundation the rest of your online strategy will be built on.

Website builders Yola and Wix.com allow you to make your own static content, but can require assistance from programmers if you want a custom site.

3. Dynamic Web content: This refers to Web material produced in real time, such as blogs, tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn updates. The point of dynamic content is to be fresh, well-thought out and compelling enough to drive customer awareness. Understanding the difference between static and dynamic Web content, and when each is required, can help you keep your business relevant online.

Sophisticated content automation tools that pull in content from around the Web or automatically update social networking accounts can help make your content dynamic and compelling to customers. This includes traffic-boosting tools such as TweetAdder, which can help users quickly identity and interact with potential followers, and more involved content curation services such as Curata, which can aggregate specific content from around the Web for your blog.

4. Software as a service (SaaS): Unlike business applications such as Microsoft Office which are installed directly on your computers, software-as-a-service apps are installed on a computer or server outside your office and are accessed over the Web. Examples include task management tool Basecamp and office applications suites like Google Apps. These products back up information automatically, allow access to data from most any computer connected to the Web, and offer remarkable collaborative features.

These applications offer businesses flexibility as employees can use them from anywhere. And because an external third party hosts SaaS applications, they also have the potential to ease the burden on your own I.T. staff.

Other related terms for this family of products include “Web services,” “cloud-based app” and “Web app.” When deciding on a SaaS product, you might consider using Get App, an app search tool specially dedicated to businesses looking for software to use in their shops, orGoogle Marketplace.

Related: One Way to Navigate the Business App Marketplace

5. Organic search: This is the world of products, content and marketing efforts determined by proprietary algorithms that appear on the left side of results from the major search engines. The trial-and-error processes of “search engine optimization” and “search engine marketing” often require considerable effort and luck.

If your business is looking for Web traffic, it’s important to understand the basic ways in which Google and others will direct users to your site.

6. Paid search: These are the sponsored advertisements that appear at the top and along the right side of search pages from search services like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Paid search requires using an ad service such as Google AdWords or Yahoo Advertising Solutions. Businesses bid on relevant search terms they hope will attract customers. Also called pay-per-click advertising, businesses pay only when an ad is actually clicked. Knowing how paid search works is critical to any serious online marketing effort.

You might need help to manage the bidding process for a serious paid-search campaign. Consider paid search management tools such as Word Watch or ClickSweeper, which can automate parts of the bid process.

Related: How to Run Business Software Between Macs and PCs

7. ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’: These terms are the referrals social media services such as Facebook and Twitter can provide to a brand. Businesses often enter into the time-consuming process of creating their own social media content to drive both likes and follows. Companies can also purchase marketing on these platforms and reach potential customers directly.

8. Payment gateways: These are the online version of credit-card terminals. They encrypt and connect sales orders on your website to your merchant bank. Examples of major payment gateways include Authorize.net and VeriSign.

9. Point-of-sale: The generic term for technology attached to a checkout location, either online or near an actual cash register. New mobile point-of-sale solutions such as Square and Intuit’sGoPayment use smartphone-attached card readers, so payments can be processed just about anywhere.

While this list is by no means exhaustive, mastering these basics can give you a solid foundation upon which to expand your online tech chops.

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Feb 02 2012
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J2 Marketing

Facebook’s IPO

Facebook could file papers for a mega initial public offering as early as this week. Keeping in mind that it’s roughly $100 billion valuation occurred in the span of seven years, the question is: What were the moves that Facebook made as a startup that resulted in such success?

Here are ten ways that I think helped Facebook become juggernaut:

  1. Nailing the Design. MySpace allowed users to determine the look of their personal profile, while Facebook determined that its user experience would be the same for everyone. And they nailed it. Its crisp, clean and easy to navigate approach has so far attracted more than 800 million active users.
  2. AcquHiring. When Facebook acquires another company, they scoop up more than just technology and patents. They acquire people with unique skill sets and a passion for connectedness. This hiring strategy often called AcquHiring, enabled Facebook to generate more value from the companies they’ve acquired.
  3. Monetizing user data. Today, Facebook.com totes up an amazing 28 percent of all display ads viewed by U.S. consumers online. Why? Early on, it utilized its database of personal information and urged advertisers to target those users with an affinity for their particular products.
  4. Taking on accredited investors. Facebook has issued more than two billion shares to accredited investors. People like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founderReid Hoffman got in very early, contributing to Facebook’s angel and Series A funds. Then Facebook raised $2.34 billion dollars in eight rounds of funding, which is positioning the company to raise an additional $10 billion in an IPO.
  5. Relaxing membership requirements. At first, Facebook membership was restricted to Harvard students. By 2006, membership was opened to anyone with a pulse and an email address, giving it the broadest demographic appeal possible. From teenagers to grandparents, everyone uses Facebook.
  6. Requiring real names. From the get-go, Facebook members were required to use their real name — a deviation from the former avatar or nickname approach of identification from others such as Friendster, message boards and forums that allowed users to remain anonymous. Real names matter in the real world.
  7. Launching the Open Graph. Facebook’s Open Graph, the technology that allows anyone online to automatically identify what they like anytime a Facebook “Like” button appears, is beginning to re-index the web around people.
  8. Encouraging third-party applications. Facebook has registered more than a milliondevelopers who are creating apps for the platform. Investment firms are also launching multimillion-dollar funds dedicated to helping companies develop new applications just for Facebook.
  9. Establishing user trust. I know what you’re thinking, but the fact remains that Facebook’s privacy controls have evolved to the point where the user is in control of how much of their information is shared with advertisers and other users. To its credit, Facebook has addressed concerns about privacy when they surface, admitted mistakes and held third-party developers to extremely high standards.
  10. Branding Pages. Allowing businesses, brands and organizations to create Pages on the site ushered in a new era in marketing. A fifth “P” — Participation — joined Product, Price, Place and Promotion in the traditional marketing mix, turning the top down marketing funnel into a viral loop.
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Jan 17 2012
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Business Tips

Do Chamber Meetings Still Beat LinkedIn for Networking?

Which types of networking are most successful? A recent survey of 12,000 business people around the world confirmed some of my hunches but produced some surprising results, as well.

As part of research for a book, my co-authors and I asked people what types of organizations they belong to and whether networking played a role in their success. We cross-tabulated the results to determine how effective different types of networking are.

As we had expected, people who get the most results from networking efforts seem to participate in face-to-face casual-contact networks like chambers of commerce, referral networks, and to a lesser extent, professional associations.

Related: Networking Strategies for the Holidays

We were surprised, however, that only 27 percent of the respondents said online networking has played a role in their success. Networking through women’s business organizations and through service clubs fared even worse, with only 17.7 percent and 17.2 percent of respondents, respectively, giving them credit for playing a part in their success.

Even though they didn’t do well in this survey, I’m quite an advocate of online networks, women’s business organizations and service clubs. I did some thinking about why these groups received such low-success ratings.

I’m inclined to believe women’s organizations and service clubs didn’t do well because they have other important purposes that take precedence over networking. Women’s business groups often provide a place where members both support and educate each other, while service clubs focus primarily on providing service to the community. People, therefore, may not experience as much tangible success in networking efforts in these groups.

Related: An Expert Networker’s Five Tips for Getting the Most from LinkedIn

The survey results for online networks made me think of a comment I hear quite often from business owners who want to market their products and services on social and business networking sites: “I’ve got a profile page and a thousand connections…now what?” Many entrepreneurs spend a lot of time and effort building their online social capital through LinkedIn “connections,” Facebook “friends” and “likes,” and Twitter “followers,” but lack an actual plan for turning the growing number of contacts into customers.

Another issue for online networking: the exponential increase in marketing and social messages and the competition for people’s attention. In the course of a typical day, we might be chatting on Google Talk, looking at friends’ photos on Facebook, watching a celebrity’s Twitter feed, learning about a connection’s promotion on LinkedIn, reading a blog for business or pleasure, and doing an Internet search. We are inundated and easily distracted by these entreaties: Read this! Buy this! Try this! Connect with me! Like my business!

I certainly don’t think entrepreneurs should stop finding ways to improve their success in the online networking arena. But the results are the results, and — still a surprise to me — they’re not very good.

Related: 10 Questions for a Networking Referral Power Team

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