By: Hillel Fuld

One of the most common questions people have asked me about Twitter (besides of course “why do I care what you’re doing?”) is how on earth I follow so many people.  The question is a valid one since at a following list of over 4,000 people and counting, it is not humanly possible to read every tweet, every thought, or every link that people share. The basic premise of following people on Twitter is that you are at least somewhat interested in what they have to say, so the question of how I follow them all is a good one.

The answer is somewhat complex. To simplify things, I will say that the real answer is that I do not. Yes, all these people appear in my Twitter following count, but in reality, I follow only a small percentage of them. So the next question is “If you don’t really follow them, why do you follow them”? You confused yet? What that means is, if I am not really following those people or reading their tweets, why bother following them at all? The answer is etiquette. Twitter etiquette is a very interesting thing, and one that I am not going to get into here, but suffices to say that if I only followed the small number of people that I either know personally or was genuinely eager to hear what they had to say, I would not see the benefits of the diverse and amazing Twitter network I have today. Like I said, I am not going to go into detail about that here since I can write an entire blog post about that topic.

So, how do I follow 4,000 people, but really only follow 200? The answer until last week was groups. I access my Twitter on a 3rd party application called Tweetdeck. I use Tweetdeck on my home PC, my work Mac, and sometimes on my iPod Touch. One of the reasons I chose Tweetdeck over the many Twitter clients on the market, was that Tweetdeck was the first client to offer the group functionality. What I did was simple. I took all the people I knew interested me, plus all the people I communicate with regularly, and combined them into a Tweetdeck group called “Primary”. I created an additional column in Tweetdeck for my Primary group and set the program’s notifications to notify me of new tweets in that column along with my replies and DM columns. The All Friends column, in which the rest of the 4,000 people appear, became my secondary focus.

Let me clarify that if I said I never paid attention to the All Friends column, I would be lying. I read it regularly, but then we come back to our original question of how it is possible to follow 4,000 people. So, I skim that column and pay more attention to my Primary group. OK, so that was my solution until recently. A few weeks back, Twitter released a new feature called Lists, which was meant to draw people away from 3rd party applications and back to their roots of using Twitter.com. The idea was identical to the Tweetdeck groups. You would be able to create lists of users and follow those lists.

I was one of the first to get this feature, and quickly began making my lists, based on my Tweetdeck groups. However, I immediately learned that life without Tweetdeck was not so simple. To make a list, I had to add each person individually, by finding someone that interested me, opening their profile, and adding them to the list. The process took a few minutes per person, and multiplied by 200, that was time I did not have. The time was only the beginning of where Twitter lists fell short.

Other issues I had with the new list feature, was that in a totally counterintuitive way, to follow the members of a list, you need to add them one by one. Additionally, the new retweet feature that Twitter recently announced was not supported within lists. So, what good is it if I can follow the most interesting people in my network but not share their tweets with my followers? These are just a few of the list issues I had. The main one, however, was that these lists were only available on the Web, and let’s be honest, how often does the average Twitter user actually use the primitive interface offered by the Twitter.com website? The lists were not available on Tweetdeck, they were not supported by UberTwitter, which is my all time favorite mobile Twitter client (BlackBerry), and they were not supported by Echofon, my preferred iPhone Twitter app.

All that changed yesterday. I am now testing a pre released version of UberTwitter and it not only includes lists, it implements the list feature to perfection. More about the new Ubertwitter when it is released. However, as much as I loved the new Uber, that was not the big news of the night. Tweetdeck released a major update (more like a totally new application, but we will call it an update) yesterday, turning Tweetdeck into a program that pretty much covers all my social media needs. I literally do not need to ever open up Twitter.com, Facebook, or even Linkedin anymore, anything and everything (almost) I would do on those sites is now available within Tweetdeck, and most of the features are actually easier to use within Tweetdeck as opposed the site itself.

I am not going to give a full review of the new Tweetdeck now, but I will just give you a short list of the new features. They include full Linkedin integration, Go To Profile, the new retweet function in addition to the old way of retweeting, geo tagging tweets, and full list integration, which makes the whole concept of Twitter lists completely manageable.

Basically, using the new Tweetdeck, I converted my Primary group into a Twitter list called Favtweeps in just two clicks. The new list, as I mentioned will now be available to me on all platforms. I can actually use Twitter effectively on my BlackBerry now not having to follow 4,000 people. Until today, I would basically use Twitter on my phone to reply and DM people, but only rarely actually followed the stream since it was too overwhelming. Now that I have my lists on UberTwitter, the way I use Twitter will completely change.  Echofon has not added lists yet, but Twittelator Pro has, and I am sure the iPhone Tweetdeck app will be updated shortly.

Not only that, but between my multiple Twitter accounts (work and personal), my Linkedin, and my Facebook, chances are, I will be spending much more time in front of my Tweetdeck. By the way, I never created a MySpace account, but you can add that too if you have one.

In conclusion, let me just say that two of my favorite Twitter clients just got a whole lot better, and the new features are actually going to change the way users access their Twitter and various social networks. There are two problems I can see arising from these new developments. The first one is that Twitter.com’s number will continue to fall. They have been on the decline for months now, since most people do not use the Web interface, but rather depend on the API via external applications. With these applications offering everything the Web offers and a lot more (url shortening, picture, video, and audio upload services, as well as auto complete of names), I cannot think of any reason users will continue to use Twitter.com.

The other problem I foresee, and judging by the time I spent playing with the new Tweetdeck last night has already started, is that Twitter addicts all around the world will lose the battle to their addiction. Not talking about myself of course, but if a person was accessing their Twitter on Tweetdeck before, but once leaving the computer, would be available to spend time with their spouse or family, pretty sure people are going to be spending a lot more time on Twitter now with all these new features supported by the various clients. Suggestion? The next version of Tweetdeck should include a cap on the amount of time users can spend on Twitter daily.

Either that, or get ready to start seeing a lot of new T.A.A (Twitterholics Anonymous Association) centers forming across the globe.

So, do you share my enthusiasm about the new Twitter features? Please let me know in the comments!

While the buzz surrounding social media is growing, so is the number of people who just don’t get it. In fact, I come across tens of people daily that use Twitter and have a significant following but are totally clueless about maximizing it. They make mistake after mistake and see none of the results social media can bring. Let me emphasize that there is no one way to use social media “properly”, everyone uses it differently, that is part of the very essence of social tools. However, if these people are annoying their audience with spam-like tweets and causing people to unfollow, it is safe to say they are doing it “wrong”.

The problem is that you hear the words social media on every tv show, movie, and talk show, which causes people to join, but where can these people learn how to use this tool? While a lot of it is common sense to some, apparently, others find it challenging to get their message across and actually keep people interested.

I recently read an article written by a friend, Ayelet Noff, entitled “The Top Five Misconceptions about Social Media” and it got me thinking about my experiences. Here is a list of five common myths and misunderstandings about social media that I have encountered:

1: What You Are Doing: This is something I say to anyone and everyone who will listen. I have said it in numerous blog posts, but apparently, I cannot say it enough because many people still have not internalized it. While Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn might ask you “What Are You Doing”? or something similar, the purpose of these tools are not to tell your audience what you are doing literally right now. This is the most common misunderstanding of these tools, and it leads to the famous question I get 10 times a day: “Why does anyone care what I am eating or doing?” In my opinion, your status or tweets should be used to share. Share interesting content, insights, or just general information of any kind. You know who your friends/connections/followers are, so think about them and their interests when sharing your thoughts. Do not tweet for the sake of tweeting. Tweet with your audience in mind.

2: It’s Magic: It is exactly because of all the hype that social media generates, that most people/companies who have never used it, think it is a magical solution. I think people who promote social media are somewhat to blame for this also. It is true that amazing things can happen as a result of effective use of the various social tools, but there is no magic involved. In fact, before you can see any results from social media, you need to invest some serious time building up your audience. The truth is this actually might be one of the downsides to social media compared to the traditional media tools. After all, you can easily post an ad in the newspaper, or make a radio or tv commercial with no preparation in advance. With social media you can tweet from now till tomorrow, but if no one is listening, you’re wasting your time. With social media, the results might be magical, the process is not.

3: It’s Rocket Science: Social media, like many other things, involves a lot of common sense. I like to compare it to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I do not think you need to be an SEO expert to know that to advance yourself on search engines, you should use relevant keywords and titles. Similarly, you do not need to be a rocket scientist or a social media guru (what the heck is that?) to know that tweeting the same thing over and over and sending people messages on how to get thousands of followers in a week when you have 200, is not going to work for you. Once again, as a result of all the buzz, people are intimidated by this unknown entity called social media, which in reality is simply a new form of communication, which happens to take place online. Social media, as much as people like to pretend it is rocket science, is mostly common sense, apply the same rules you use when communicating face to face, think about your audience, and you are off to a good start.

4: It’s One Way Conversation: In continuation to the previous bullet, there are still some people out there who think social media is a monologue. If, for one second, they would understand that the behavior they portray on the various social platforms would never fly in face to face interaction, and should therefore not be a part of social media, they would actually begin seeing some results. Tweeting about your ebook or your Forex robot will not generate hits unless you are there to reply when responded to. Huge companies like Kodak, Alpha Romeo, and Skittles are listening carefully to what people are saying about their brand. In fact, these companies barely spend time promoting themselves on social media. I don’t think it is always the worst thing in the world to do a little self promotion, but make sure you are around to listen as well.

5: Anyone Can Do It: The flip side of bullet 3 is that it might not be rocket science but it has been proven time and time again that not everyone can use this tool and achieve the desired results. While it might very well be common sense, apparently, many people do not have even have that. If you do not believe me, you can search Twitter for the words Britney, Forex, or Followers (as well as some other words I wont write here) and you will see what I mean. I am not saying you need a degree of any kind to use social media well, but you do need to have a basic understanding of human psychology. I do not believe there is such a thing as a social media guru, but certain people like Gary Vaynerchuck, for example, have proven repeatedly that they know how to effectively utilize this powerful tool (watch the interview with Gary in the video below). These are the kind of people that others want to learn from, not from someone with 60 followers and an ebook, just because they call themselves a guru in their Twitter profile.

There are many more misconceptions and misuses of social media that I encounter daily. Having said that, these are some of the most basic misunderstandings of what these tools are and how we can use them to benefit ourselves as well as the online community.

-Hillel

Ever since Web 2.0 was introduced, or at least since “social” became the big buzz word, everyone talks about the three big social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (then there is the occasional MySpace fan, I never even made an account). Now, I always enjoyed myself a little Facebook, but was never a huge believer in its value as a business networking tool. I am pretty sure you know my stance on Twitter and its ability to help you achieve your goals, no matter what they might be. However, for the longest time, I did not get LinkedIn. I found its interface to be annoying and not user-friendly. I never really got any added value out of my LinkedIn network. To me, it was just another network I was on, that would send me annoying emails once a day.

A few months ago I decided to try and understand why it is so popular and what I was missing. Turns out, I was wrong about most of the things I thought about LinkedIn. The interface still needs some work, but in terms of a networking or an effective self promotion tool, it is up there with the best of em. Now, don’t take that out of context, self promotion is not what social media is about, but it is one of the perks.

So I began using LinkedIn both for this blog and for my job, which is in the foreign exchange industry (UPDATE: I now work here and use the same principles). In both areas, I was amazed by the results. I am getting very significant traffic to both sites from LinkedIn and the conversion rate of my Forex site has also shown improvement thanks to my LinkedIn activity.

I have made some great connections on LinkedIn that would never have come to be had it not been for LinkedIn. I am talking about some serious industry experts that LinkedIn made it very easy to connect with. The bottom line is, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all target different audiences and everyone uses them differently, but one thing is for sure, LinkedIn lets you “target” a much more relevant and focused audience.

Now that I am a little more comfortable with LinkedIn, I thought I would share some of my personal tips and advice on how to maximize the experience and what it brings you. Here are the first 10 things you should do after joining Linkedin.

1. Experience is Key: Similar to a resume, the experience section of your LinkedIn profile is the first thing people look at when encountering your profile. Now, there is the famous chicken and egg question of employment, i.e you cannot get hired without experience and you cannot get experience without being hired. The solution is maximizing the experience that you DO have. Everyone, by the time they are looking for employment, have done something they are proud of. In the same way you write your resume, make sure your experience, whatever it may be, appears impressive to whoever is reading it. I am not saying to lie in any way, but there is a way of presenting things, and if you are not good at marketing yourself, get someone who is, to help you out. This is a key factor, show you have experience, emphasize the tasks you have done, and how you excelled at them.
2. Post a Picture: This is a controversial one, I know. Not only that, but many people, who use LinkedIn daily, do not have a picture. In my humble opinion, this is a mistake. At the end of the day, business is business, but people want to see who they are talking to. I am not saying you will definitely not benefit from LinkedIn if you don’t have a picture, but I do believe it can only help you and not hurt you. People do not like communicating and interacting with Content Managers or Programmers, they like talking to people, and specifically ones that are smiling.
3. Get Yourself Recommended: This is one of the, if not the, most important part of your profile. LinkedIn allows you to easily ask people who know you professionally to recommend you based on their impressions. At first, I was hesitant to do this, as I felt like it was a little bit like fishing for compliments. It is not. It is a totally acceptable practice on LinkedIn and makes the greatest impression on anyone who visits your profile. Now, here is the thing, when you choose who to ask for recommendations, be very selective. Ask people who know how to write well and whose opinion matters. What I mean to say is if someone has their current job as “unemployed”, not sure they are your best choice for a recommendation. As I have said about twitter on many occasions, social media is all about reciprocity. This is no different. For starters, if you get a request to recommend someone, understand that you were asked because that person has a high opinion of you. Write a serious and thorough recommendation, and make it as genuine as possible.
4. Recommend Others: On the flip side, if someone recommends you, you should spend the time recommending them back (I know I need to do this, so if you wrote me one and are reading this, I have not forgotten). It is all about give and take in social media. If you are only a taker, within a short period of time, you will find there is nothing left to take as no one wants to give you anymore.
5. Answer Questions: This is something I unfortunately do not spend enough time doing, but it is on my list. Make sure to read the status updates of your friends, and answer any question you can. Look at relevant groups, read what people are asking, and if you have the knowledge, share it and answer questions. Not only does this help promote your name as an expert, all your answers appear on your connections’ home page. Answering questions on LinkedIn is a very effective tool to  promote yourself and enhance your network.
6. Ask Questions: Do not be afraid to ask questions. A real expert knows his limits, no one will judge you if you do not know something. Asking questions also enables people to answer them, another useful tool for connecting with smart and experienced people in your field. Questions also appear on the home page, and keep your name in the mind of your connections.
7. Connect, connect, connect: OK, now this bullet is up for debate and I know many people are going to disagree with the way I use LinkedIn. I am a strong believer in the first half of the buzz phrase “Social Media”, i.e Social. Social networks, whether Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn are all about connecting, communicating, and interacting. They are not a popularity content (ahem Twitter), a simple tool to view friends’ pictures (Facebook), or another form of communication with your co worker who sits two feet away from you. The point of LinkedIn, in my opinion, is to connect with people who work in your industry, people who can potentially help and enhance your professional network, and people you might be able to help in one way or another. If you are connected to someone on LinkedIn, it does NOT mean you have worked with them for 5 years in the same office, I do not need a social network to connect with such a person. LinkedIn is for connecting with professionals that share a common ground and interest with your and your profession. So connect, connect, connect, and when in doubt, connect.
8. Get it Out There: Similar to Twitter and possibly Facebook, depending on how you use it, you should link to your LinkedIn profile any chance you get. This is of course assuming you completed the above steps and your profile is something you want people seeing. Add it in your email signature, add it in your Facebook and Twitter bio or profile, send it to your friends, invite people to connect with you, make sure people know you are now on LinkedIn. Get it out there!
9. Join Groups by The Dozens: This is the one step that has brought me more results than any other. Whatever field you are in, chances are there is a relevant group on LinkedIn. Use the advanced search feature, and join any group you think might be somewhat relevant for you and your professional goals.If you do not want to receive daily or weekly emails, you can disable them, but the very presence in a relevant group is sure to get your name out there. I would not stop with just joining the group, I would share insights on the wall, but more about that in the next bullet. LinkedIn is a very effective networking tool that is magnified significantly with its implementation of the groups feature. After joining a group, browse its members, consider connecting with some, and communicate with as many as possible. Just remember, as opposed to possibly Twitter and definitely Facebook, when you participate in the dialogue of a LinkedIn group, the kind of people who will see that are just the people you want to, and not irrelevant friends who just read your content as a personal favor, or Twitter bots who are not reading anything. It is the most effective tool to reach a highly relevant and targeted audience.
10. Show your Expertise: This is something I have a hard time with, if I am being honest. I am so traumatized by the phrase “Social Media Expert” that I do not like calling or marketing myself as an expert (not that I am one). However, many people, who are a lot smarter than me, have told me that if you have what to offer others, it is not the time for humility. No one says to go showing off how popular you are (ahem Twitter spammers), but make sure to share your expertise with others. Share your knowledge across the LinkedIn platform, whether on your status, others’ statuses, groups, or discussions. Market yourself as an expert in whatever field you are in and make sure the next time a friend is looking for someone who “knows his stuff” in your field, they will immediately remember how you just displayed a deep understanding of the subject matter that afternoon. I do not need to tell you how that will help you and your professional goals.

As I mentioned in the intro, I only recently discovered and began to unleash the real potential LinkedIn has to offer. I am learning new things every day, but the bottom line is, if you follow the ten steps above, you will see quicker results than you will see using any other traditional marketing tool, and more targeted and immediate results than other social networks, including Twitter.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic, especially since like I said, I am learning new things every day. If you have some important tips, or disagree with any of mine, please let me know in the comments. In the meantime, connect with me on LinkedIn here, and follow me on Twitter here.

-Hillel

For some related articles on social media, see:

Five Rules Businesses Must Follow to Succeed on Twitter

Five Ways to Guarantee you Wont Get Followed Back on Twitter

Seven Valuable Lessons Twitter Has Taught Me About Life

After a long three months of job searching using every available tool, looks like I have landed myself a position as a Content Manager at a Forex startup. At the risk of giving myself a huge jinx before I even start the job, I wanted to share with you my experience over the last three months, and how I reached the indisputable conclusion that social media is the way to go.

Over this extremely trying period of looking for my next job, I used pretty much every tool available to me. That includes the traditional job websites, as well as outsourcing companies, and placement agencies. I must have sent out a 100 CVs a week, each with a really impressive cover letter as well as a CV customized for the type of position for which I am applying. I will not say that was a total failure. I did get a handful of interviews from them, but nothing came of any of them. What seems to count more than a nice cover letter or CV is people’s opinion and recommendation of you as an individual. In addition to those tools, I used Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, emails to all my contacts as well as community lists, and let’s not forget a whole lot of IMing.

So in the hope that one or more of my readers will benefit from this information, I decided to share with you some of the tools that I found to be useful. Let’s start with the one that ended up closing the deal, Facebook (with a little IM help on the side). I know people today seem to think of Facebook as a waste of time and one of those things “I just do not need”, but my experience proved otherwise. Yes, it is true, Facebook can be a huge distraction and occupy a lot of your time, but the exposure that one can get using Facebook is unprecedented. At a simple click of a button, you can let hundreds if not thousands of people know you are looking for a job, and that is what I did.

What ended up happening with me is that, the fact that I was looking became known to pretty much everyone I ever knew, and an old friend of mine, who, the truth be told, would probably have found out via IM anyway, heard I was unemployed. Now, remember, I was working in the technology and cellular industry in my last job.

This particular friend works in the Forex industry, and has built various sites, one of them being a Digg style website for Forex news , as well as others for the Forex community. Well, he made a connection through one of his sites with an individual who has recently started a company and was looking for a content manager. He then made the match.

This story could never have happened five years ago, when there was no social media and all these tools were unavailable to us. Now, it is important to emphasize that this particular opportunity worked out for the best, but for every interview I got through the job sites, I got five from networking. Wherever I was, whoever I was talking to, I put aside the embarrassment of being laid off from my last company (although, in today’s economy, it is not so bad, who doesn’t know someone that lost their job recently? Check out this list.), and pretty much let anyone and everyone know I am looking.

Just to sum up, if you or someone you know are looking for a job in almost any field, I would recommend making use of the old fashion tools as well, but spending much more time developing your profile and networks on the various social media tools.

If you want to know more details about the exact manner in which I did this networking, or alternatively, if you want more information on the traditional side of things, the sites I used etc., you can message me on Facebook here, DM on Twitter here, write me on LinkedIn here, email me here. Or, you can also call me if you have my number, I have not stopped using that means of communication, YET.

-Hillel