What does your bank ask for when you call them with a question?  You guessed it.  Your mother’s maiden name.  So if you are in your 20’s or 30’s and your mother just got on Facebook and included her maiden name, you could have a problem!  You mom could potentially be helping thieves steal your identity!   An identity thief can easily see who your relatives are on facebook with the new “relatives” tag.   Something needs to be done with this system fast!

Comment below on your thoughts and possible solutions to this problem.

Here are some great tips that I’ve learned over the years.  Not all of them are original, actually I’m pretty sure that someone has probably written about them at some point.  The reality behind these tips is the fact that I want to help local business owners survive and thrive with this ever changing market.

Most business owners go into social media to get more business.  That’s a great strategy, but it’s a long term one.  If you simply go on Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about your business or opportunity, no one will listen.  One of the best speakers on the topic that I have seen live is Perry Belcher.  He talks about Social Media like it’s a party.  Think about this. If you’re going to a networking event, you would never want to be the person that goes straight up to someone and throws your card in their face and tells them to buy from you now!  What would you do if someone did that to you?  I’m pretty sure you would either ignore them, tell them to leave, or stop being acquaintances with them.  OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.

You see people go on Facebook and Twitter because it’s a way to connect with other people…not businesses.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #1 – Creating a personal Facebook Profile for your business

People don’t become “friends” with businesses!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been requested by a local club, restaurant, heck even lawn mowing company to become their friend.  I am not friends with your company.  Deal with it.  I may be friends with the owner, but not the company.  That’s a big fat invitation that says, be my friend so I can market to you.  Not cool

Instead, set up a Fan page for your business in Facebook.  It only takes a couple of minutes to set up and there is no limit to the number of fans that you can have.  With a personal profile, your limit is 5,000.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #2 – Fake or bad profile picture

More important than even your bio, your profile picture in Social Media is how others judge if they want to follow you or be your friend.  I wish it wasn’t this way, but in social media, people completely judge a book by its cover.  I’ve seen many people put up pictures of celebrities, pictures of their business logo, or just a terrible picture of themselves.  This can cause you to lose many connections that you could have had.

Put in a good picture of your smiling or at least doing something really cool.  You want people to feel welcomed when they look at your profile picture.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #3 – Requesting to be everyone’s friend or follow as many people as possible

If you’re using social media in hopes that you will increase your business from usage, you need to have a good plan about who you want in your social circle.  This is the perfect opportunity to speak to your target market.  I’ve seen some people in Twitter go on and follow 2,001 people in their first couple days.  This is the maximum allowance from Twitter.  This looks really bad on the user, because people know that you went out and just followed as many people as possible in hopes that some would follow you back.  You should go out, however, and follow people with similar interests, especially those who live in your geographical area.  You can go to http://www.twellow.com to search in your local area.

It’s also a good idea to follow people who have a significant amount of followers to see how they interact with their followers.  Obviously, they are doing something right to have that many followers.  The more captivated followers you have, the great your influence in the social media world.

Let me know with your comments some of the biggest social media mistakes that you have seen in your experiences.

A Look at Communication in the Past

We are bombarded with communication, but the question was “are people really connecting?” There is definitely something to be said about human interaction. During our conversation last week I brought up a point about communication 200 years ago. At that time, the only real way to communicate was in person. Yes, they had the Pony Express, so you could send snail mail. That could take a month for someone to receive your message though. Back in that day, personal relationships were greatly cherished. Think about the soldiers going off to war in the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War. They would tell their wives that they were going away for an undetermined amount of time and there was no assurance they would come back at all. No such things as cell phones to call to check in and certainly no such thing as skype with video to see each other and have a live conversation. Yet, in this time people fell madly in love and the divorce rate was inconsequential compared to today’s roughly 50% divorce rate for first marriages.
What does all of this mean? Our theory is that people now always need the constant reassurance that everything is ok. In this world of negativity, people anticipate what they see on TV will come true. Trust and faith have declined greatly and communication has gotten more hollow.

The Experiment

For one week, we didn’t stop communicating with technology altogether…we’re not that crazy.  Actually, we challenged ourselves for an entire week to make communication more personal.  Obviously running an Internet Marketing Company I couldn’t stop communicating as a whole, but rather we called people back who texted, emailed, chatted, facebooked, etc.  We wanted to see what effects actually speaking to someone had on our relationships.

The Results

From the experiment, I was able to connect with people on a much different level.  I talked to people on the phone who I’ve never spoken with in the past.  In one instance in particular, I set up a business meeting with a prospect who I would have never spoken to otherwise.  In other cases, I developed closer relationships with those who I already consider friends.

Lessons Learned

This was not an easy experiment.  In  many cases, it is so much easier to simply text someone a quick question or answer.  It’s also a ton of fun to post and interact on Social Media.   I’ve decided to break down the lessons to person and business lessons.

Personal:

I will not stop texting and using Social Media.  No way.  There are just too many benefits that come with them, including ease of interaction and time saving.  Instead, I will look at as many chances to interact in real conversations as possible.  This past week I called people to wish them happy birthday instead of the typical Facebook “Happy Birthday!” wall post.   People sincerely appreciate you taking the time to call.  That will always be the case.

Business:

Some great marketing lessons came from the Social Media Experiment as well.  The internet and techn0logy give us great abilities to communicate with people in the masses, but once the communication lines are open it’s good to give personal touch.

One of they ways to do this is to come up with a follow up system for your prospects.  It doesn’t matter how you meet someone, but it does matter how you follow up with them.  Email marketing is a great leverage tool to use, but at some point, if you’re asking people to spend thousands of dollars on your products or services, you need to develop that relationship.  The relationship can be built in person, over the phone or even through videos (if you’re really good).  Simple emails and copy writing are not enough for people to know you, like you and trust you.

Take all of your messages and focus on building relationships.

Even with all of the communication technology in the world, there will never be a substitute for building relationships.

Let me know by posting your comments below how you think technology affects our current communication.

Camus claims that life itself is absurd.  He argues there is no real meaning to life, but that does not necessarily mean suicide.  To argue his point he tells the myth of Sisyphus.

According to the Greek myth, Sisyphus was punished for all eternity to roll a rock up a mountain only to have it roll back down to the bottom when he nears the top. In Albert Camus’ mind Sisyphus is the ideal absurd hero and argues his punishment is representative of the human condition: Sisyphus must for all eternity without even the slightest of hopes in achieving success. So long as he accepts that there is nothing more to life than this absurd struggle, then he can find happiness in it, says Camus.

So what does all of this mean in todays’ world?  Now, more than ever, people are searching for deep meaning in their lives…trying to find that deep happiness.  The current economic crisis can bring people to their knees, if they believe money causes happiness.

While I do not agree with Camus in the fact that life has no inherent meaning, I do believe that each one of us serves a purpose on this planet.  Some people find this purpose/passion at a very young age, while others do not find meaning until their final days of life.  One is not necessarily better than the other, because the true judgment of living a meaningful life is finding happiness in the journey.  If times are challenging for you, be grateful for the parts of your life that are great, even if you don’t realize them now.  Do you have your health?  a good family?  a loving spouse?  Being grateful for what you have, will make pushing that rock up the mountain much more enjoyable.

“The struggle itself…is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” -Camus

Thank you for the lesson Sisyphus.

Last night on “The Biggest Loser” something was said that made total sense.  The show is not really about the weight loss.  It’s about people accomplishing goals and achieving their dreams.  The Global Effect of Biggest Loser is much larger than the pounds shed.  In this time of uncertainty, The Biggest Loser proves that with the right attitude and the right mentors, anything is possible.

Sometimes I feel like this message is pounded into people’s heads so often that it actually loses its effectiveness.  Take a moment and really think about it today.  What is 1 specific goal that you want to achieve.  Don’t worry about how to achieve it, that comes after you figure out ‘what’ it is.  I was listening to Rev. Michael Beckwith the other day in my car and he said something that really caught my attention.  He said something along the lines of, “The Law of Buoyancy states that human beings cannot float if they do not let go.”  If you constantly struggle in your life, you will never be set free.  So now’s the time to let go of any limiting beliefs (excuses or reasons) that you cannot accomplish any goal you set your mind to.  If you say it’s so, it’s so.

Well, the more and more that I’ve asked around, people say that they are looking for positive news.  There are certainly plenty of highlights in our world today that aren’t exactly positive, but I truly believe that there is a tremendous amount of positive happening as well.

Positivitis.com is the world’s chance to share good things that are happening.  It’s not meant for newspaper stories, it’s meant for every day type of people to be able to write in when they witnessed something positive occur.  It happens to all of us every single day, but we need to spend more time focusing on the positive.  I know that everyone’s lives will be much more fulfulling when you start focusing on the positive.  Let’s start infecting the world with positivity!

Upon looking at his Twitter profile @perrybelcher.com I noticed that he had a link to his facebook which was simply perrybelcher.com/facebook.  I’ve always known how to forward a domain name such as braddohacksfacebook.com (doesn’t exist btw), but I didn’t realize that you could automatically forward a folder in your hosting…

So, I obviously had to know how to do it, I did all of the research and I’ll show you exactly how to do it here in this video.

The resourced I mention in the video are HostGator, NVU and FileZilla.   As I mentioned, NVU and FileZilla are completely FREE!  Hostgator is under $10 per month for unlimited domains.  Here is the code to help you out!

<script>top.location.href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Brad_Dohack/36102521"</script>

That’s it!  That’s the entire string of code that will help you get a facebook account like mine braddohack.com/facebook or you can also do it for your Twitter.  Follow me for more tips braddohack.com/twitter.

Health, Wealth & Happiness,

Brad Dohack

Health, Wealth & Happiness,
Brad Dohack

This will result in the following looking signature:

Health, Wealth & Happiness,
Brad Dohack

There are obviously waaaaaaaay more sophisticated html tools out there, but this will get you started. This add on also gives you the ability to insert pictures into your signature block as well. The pictures do have to be hosted somewhere online though. Sorry, you can’t put a picture directly from your computer onto the signature block without hosting it first. Hope this helps!