Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Report: Social Media + Email = More Power

A new report from eMarketer shows how combining the strengths of email and social media can lead to better results.

You'll recall around these parts the discussion of "Silent E." Now this report teases that out a little more. It's about how two complementary marketing practices can be used more wisely to engage customers in less of a disjointed way. This makes complete sense, as consumers need consistency in their interactions with brands and programs need to jump from one platform to the next almost seamlessly, while offering different benefits or levels of engagement on each.

Here are a few statistics on how social media and email will be integrated by marketers and why they think it's important.

Business Executives Worldwide Who Plan to Integrate Social Media into Their E-Mail Marketing Campaigns in 2010 (% of respondents)

You can find the full report, Maximizing the Email/Social Media Connection, on eMarketer's site.

As Reese's used to say, "two great tastes that taste great together."

Personally, I think it's about time. ow about you? Any plans within your organization to integrate social media & email?

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: CRM, email, social networks, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:30 AM

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Monday, March 08, 2010

The Rich Are No Different Than You & Me

Well, except for that money thing. They want the pretty much want what we all want from social networks: to connect with people they know and trust, spend some time unwinding, and share content.

Reasons that US Affluent Consumers Use Social Networking Sites, January 2010 (% of respondents)

The key difference is this: affluents don't want to friend a brand on Facebook - they prefer to check out fan pages. [Then again, I feel the same way. Hmm. Maybe I qualify to be rich? I can haz affluence, plze?]

What they do prefer is a user experience on the company's website that addresses their needs. Easy navigation, helpful information, perhaps even the availability of a live chat to answer any questions that might not be apparent solely through the navigation. Ultimately, I think they value their time and don't want to waste it with updates that aren't central to what they need. They want content that is relevant to them at the right point in time.

For marketers, this means a solid user experience coupled with a true customer relationship management tool. We should be at the point where we can customize content based on the visitor. Or is that a little too invasive? What do you think?

From Unity Marketing's "How Affluent Luxury Consumers Use the Internet and Social Media"

Image courtesy of eMarketer.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:27 AM

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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Email - the Silent E

A rather unlikely suspect has been making the rounds lately. And while you may have come to know this blog for covering the cutting edge communications and marketing tools, it may seem odd that this suspect is rather old school.

That's right. Good old email is making a comeback. But it shouldn't be a total surprise - it's not like I didn't warn you.

Every indicator I've seen lately indicate that people still use email as a primary method of sharing interesting news, keeping in touch, and notification - not to mention that it's usually the price of entry for belonging to a social network. In short, for the masses, email still rules.

But aside from these observations, you probably would like some more empirical evidence (in addition to the ShareThis study referenced in the above link). Here are some of the recent developments that make me think that "Silent E" isn't going to be quite so silent any more.

Feel the love

Two weeks ago, eMarketer reported that Social Networkers Still Love Email. In fact as you can see, they love it more than non-social network users. It's partially because, according to the study by Merkle, they use the same email address to receive notifications from their social networks and opt-in email marketing campaigns. As Merkle stated in their press release: "we are seeing consistent social use of the email channel, as well as evidence to support the idea that social networking and email use are actually more related than previously thought."

That's good news: social network users' attention is on their inboxes at almost twice the rate of non-connected emailers.

Email Mash-up
But might there be too much of a good thing? Mashable recently let us know that Facebook is giving users the option get get app notifications in email. Facebook clearly wants to move away from an app-to-user arrangement to a direct-mail-to-user arrangement. On the one hand, users will have greater control over what they receive via email; but there's the potential of inbox overload. The good news is that the heavier users are probably well skilled in how to use a feature like Gmail filters.

Exactly what the doctor Co-ordered
The final bit of evidence in this trio of evidence toward email was the news today: CoTweet Acquired by ExactTarget. CoTweet, which describes itself as "how business does Twitter," (full disclosure: Ford Motor Company, my employer, uses CoTweet), has been making great strides in its service that allows companies to scale social media activities. And ExactTarget is a premier leader in email marketing, and their acquisition of CoTweet underscores how email and the social media space are converging. If ExactTarget is able to take its CRM capabilities and combine them with CoTweet's close relationship with the Twitter management, we could potentially see some wide-ranging implications for Twitter and email marketing alike.

And so we don't end on a completely heavy note, I'll leave you with this topical song by Tom Lehrer.

Photo credit: Leo Reynolds

Labels: CRM, email, social networks, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:37 AM

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Have You Got an App for That?

It seems that app development is where it's at in social. According to a recent eMarketer article, mobile apps for social networks - in addition to phones - are under consideration by more marketers than ever before. As you can see in the graphic below, the leading platform for an app (unsurprisingly) was Facebook, followed by the iPhone.

Fewer than half invested in mobile or social apps last year, but most plan to create one this year. Lest you think that this is simply marketers chasing the latest shiny object, or the boss claiming G.M.O.O.T. ("get me one of those!"), there's some solid reasoning behind the choice to move more resources to mobile.

The strategy: create more opportunity for engagement with customers. On social networks, we'll see a greater opportunity for reach, targeting and sharing, but with mobile there's more creative control and the ability to have a message stick with the recipient longer.

And let's face it: we are increasingly moving to a mobile society. As smartphones - the iPhone, Android, Nexus One and others - become more affordable and widely available, we'll see an explosion in mobile access of the web. And with that, customers will require more custom interaction with the sites and brands they're passionate about - in many cases having news and product information come to them directly.

Enter the app. Or, more appropriately, the hundreds of thousands of additional apps we're about to see.

Labels: mobile, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:21 AM

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Global Social Network Figures

When any global company undertakes a social media strategy, there is an expectation that even company-wide initiatives will need to be customized for each region. Whether it's local customs, language or even the device on which the networks are accessed, it's vastly different all over the world. Facebook does not rule the world.

Not yet at least. ;-)

The growth of social networks globally is a sure thing. The question is, where are they growing and which networks are dominant in which markets? Last year, I shared some statistics. Naturally, things have changed.

Here are some interesting graphics, courtesy of Vinco's Blog, that tell the story on social networks around the world.

Here's a breakdown of top three social networks in the top 10 markets:

Is there anything you'd add? Are there social networks in your region that seem to be springing up? What's the next big thing that will spread beyond borders? Drop a comment below and let us know what you're thinking.

Labels: global, news, social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:43 AM

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

When Worlds Collide

Well, it's finally here. Twitter and LinkedIn have decided to combine forces. This is pretty significant, and I know that it'll make it easier to share job opportunities and other more networking opportunities that are more professional in nature.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but you can now update your LinkedIn status via Twitter, and your Twitter status from LinkedIn. If you'd like to see how to go about it, check out the post on the LinkedIn blog.

One of the features I like best is how you can select which updates you want posted to LinkedIn - everything or just those posts tagged with #in.

In December of 2008, I predicted that Twitter would attain legitimacy in 2009. Aside from it being used by pretty much every major media outlet, not to mention a good number of celebrities, I think we're there. The fact that a site as grounded in the business world as LinkedIn would choose to align with Twitter is a huge nod to the 140 character service.

Of course, two things need to be considered as these seemingly different worlds come together:

1. If LinkedIn is the business meeting and Twitter is the cocktail party, we need to be very careful with the alcohol intake at work, so to speak. ;-)

2. Twitter has its own language - some of which can be very confusing to outsiders. As our updates cross into new territory, we need to be mindful of how our networks understand us. This tweet from Mandi Engram says it all:

So there you have it. Twitter. LinkedIn. Two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that.

What do you think? Will you use this service?

Image credit: K e v i n (Flickr)

Labels: LinkedIn, news, social networks, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:04 PM

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Monday, October 05, 2009

Don't Waste My Time

I'm perfectly capable of wasting it myself.

According to a recent poll by Ruder Finn, 100% of the people on the Internet go online to pass the time. But what other activities do they say they primarily use it for?

Reasons that US Internet Users Go Online, Q2 2009 (% of respondents)

For those of you interested in the social space, 92% want to connect with others, 76% wish to discuss, 72% aspire to be part of a community, and 56% desire to influence others, and 52% hope to activate support. Those are pretty strong numbers.

Especially when you compare them to the percentage of people who wish to manage finances, comparison shop or join a cause (all 30% or less). Hmm. I wonder if that means we'll have a generation of people who are too busy yapping with each other to pay attention to how they spend their money?

Unless they connect and discuss personal finances with others in an influential community. :-)

Chart source: eMarketer

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:19 AM

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Friday, October 02, 2009

Recent Facebook Demographics

If you get a chance, check out the latest statistics from InsideFacebook.com. Please keep in mind that these are only number for the United States. But there are some things that stand out:

Looking at percentages, the highest growth rate is coming from the over-45 demographic:

While the absolute number of members is smaller in that group, the growth rate is fascinating to watch. I would imagine this will eventually slow, as we've seen with the younger demographic, until it normalizes. In anecdotal conversations, I'm finding that many people from this demographic are using Facebook to connect with high school and college friends (especially as we move into reunion time), stay in touch with children and grandchildren, and even begin to use it for some business networking purposes.

Another worthwhile graph from the post breaks down current U.S. users by age:

If you bundle up the groups, you'll find that the 35 and older crowd makes up 38% of Facebook's population here in the U.S. Pretty cool when you consider that Facebook started about five years ago as a college-based tool.

And finally, looking at gender, we find that - in every single segment - there are more female users than male users of Facebook:

While we know that overall women use social networks more than men, I wonder how many of us are using that knowledge to effectively feed our marketing and communications programs? Seems like there's a good opportunity there.

Do any of these data strike you differently? Can you draw any conclusions or make inferences that I've missed? Let me know.

Chart credit: InsideFacebook.com

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: facebook, news, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:56 AM

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

You Want Me to WHAT?

If you were asked to give up your social networking activity, what would you rather give up?

It's an interesting scenario. Given a choice between social media activity and something else - and don't think that time isn't coming - what do you think you would give up before you left your favorite social network?

That's the very question that was put to 711 female internet users in the U.S. and Canada by ShesConnected Multimedia. What do you think they said? Have you selected your priorities yet? I'll give you a moment before launching into the survey results.

Ready? Good. Here's what the online cohort said:

More than one-third (36%, to be exact) would sooner give up chocolate, their Pradas, or their mothers-in-law before they gave up social networking.
But only half would be willing to pay a subscription fee for those site.

It's amazing to think the limits we'll go to for social networking. Pradas are expensive, I

get that. Mothers-in-law are...well, that's personal, isn't it? But giving up chocolate? C'mon, people!

As to the fee, it seems that most women - 92%, in fact - would be comfortable with an ad-supported model on the socnets. But only 22% would be approve of their data being sold to advertisers, and just 28% are okay with a subscription-based model.

Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.com

The post popular activities in which they partake online are:

Viewing video
Reading blogs
Posting photos
Writing in blogs
Posting comments

And some interesting additional data points about the respondents:

More than two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents belong to three social networks, while 48% belong to four or more.
The adoption of social networks by older women is especially strong. Women ages 50+ comprised the largest age group in the core user survey.
More than one-third report they are in business for themselves
Respondents spend a significant amount of time online each day, with 49% reporting they spend 1 - 2 hours per day for personal use and 48% reporting they spend five or more hours per day online for work.
83% of respondents have 50 or more connections or friends.
56% have started at least one group and have joined an average of two to five groups. Nearly one in three (29%) belong to 10 or more groups.

Pay attention to these ladies. There's clearly a lot of potential here.

That is, unless you take away their chocolate.

BTW, at Ford we recently asked women what they wanted in their cars. You'd be surprised at their reactions, which you can see by clicking here.

Photo credit: Wiedmaier

Labels: social networks, study, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:18 PM

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Facebook Age Demographics

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety"

- Antony & Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2.

It's pretty easy to fall into the trap of assuming that Facebook is a young person's game; after all, it was created by a college student and was only available to individuals with .edu email addresses originally. But ever since it opened to the general public in late 2006, the age demographic has been expanding.

According to a report in March of 2009, Inside Facebook noted that there were more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today. And in a separate report, they also noted that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption among users 35-65. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55.

Fast forward to today - looking at the 70 million-plus users from the U.S. on Facebook - and you've got a remarkable statistic: over one-third of Facebook's users are over the age of 35. And about half of that group is in the 45+ age range.

Personally, I can attest to the number of people who are using it for reconnecting with old high school and college friends. I've heard from my fair share of people from times long past. [Side note: it's kind of ironic that Facebook is somewhat returning to its college roots.]

I would imagine that the older demographic is also using it somewhat for work purposes; I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of data on how each age group uses the tool - what percent for work, what percent for personal, and which use it for both. I have a strong suspicion that there'd be a spike in the third category.

Of the recent growth, some of it is attributable to more activity from parents, relatively speaking, since the kids are home from college. It will be interesting to see if that level of activity is just a summer anamoly or if it continues.

What do you think of these numbers? Any surprises here for you?

Labels: facebook, news, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:49 PM

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Social Network Shorthand

Have you ever needed a quick analogy in a business or social situation that helps you explain what a social network concept is? I know I have - many times.

One of the most common questions I get is "What's Twitter?" And I've witnessed many experienced people explaining Twitter in more than a few sentences. I know, it's ironic that it's difficult to explain it in fewer than 140 characters. One of my descriptions is: "it's like group IM, a water cooler and market research, wrapped up in one."

But beyond that, when people begin comparing social networks - or more importantly, questioning the use of each - how can you discern them in a way that people can undertand quickly and easily? This is especially important, given that Facebook is becoming more Twitter-like.

While it's possible to have a profile on many sites, I concentrate my efforts on the triumverate of social networks - Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. In order to help you understand how I interact on each, I previously published a posted called How I Think About My Social Networks.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in <140
Here's the best way I've been able to describe the difference in each platform and how I use them:

LinkedIn is the business meeting; Facebook is the hallway conversation; Twitter is the cocktail party.

For me, LinkedIn is my most professional of networks, where I have my work experience and connect with other people on a professional level. On Facebook, it's more of the interaction between meetings, where we're free to share information on a professional and personal level. And on Twitter, it's a free-for-all.

One interesting observation, though: increasingly, these sites are becoming more similar to one another. LinkedIn has applications and groups (Facebook, anyone?) and Facebook now has an interface that asks "What's on your mind?" (Twitter, anyone?). It will be interesting to see how they continue to differentiate themselves.

Do you have a better description of social networks? Are there any trends that you're noticing? Drop a note in the comment section and let's see the magic happen.

Photo credit: saschaaa

Labels: social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:31 AM

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Thursday, March 05, 2009

Advertising to Gen Y on Social Networks

The other day, I remarked that Ford is "not interested in advertising on social networks. We're interested in getting in there and interacting with people." Here's why:

The Good News

The Bad News

So once again we hear that advertising on social networks is not effective when you're trying to reach Millennials. This is according to the Participatory Marketing Network, Pace University's Lubin School of Business' Interactive and Direct Marketing Lab, and IDC (Source: MarketingCharts.com).

Not a big surprise.

The Important Stuff

Here's where it gets interesting. Wanna know what Millennials do care about on social networks? (Of course you do - that's why you're here.)

Getting news or product updates (67%)
Having access to promotions (64%)
Viewing or downloading music or videos (41%)
Submitting opinions (36%)
Connecting with other consumers (33%)

There's an opportunity here for you, marketers. If you want to make a splash on a social network where your customers are, make it worth their while. Give people updates about your products - perhaps information that they can't get elsewhere, or make it the first place you place the updates. Give them an offer that can only be gotten from the social network.

In other words, provide value and be contextually relevant to why they're there in the first place. Don't interrupt them with your ads and expect results.

Labels: Advertising, social media, social networks, strategy, study

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:03 PM

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Business of Social Media

Lately, I've been lucky enough to have Ford's social media efforts covered in places like BusinessWeek's Innovators series and on a webinar by Powered, featuring Christopher Barger (my equivalent at GM) and Sylvia Marino from Edmunds.com.

But yesterday, I had the opportunity to appear on Fox Business News with Liz Claman and David Asman to discuss Ford's approach to social media. I was also joined by Michael Howard, COO of KiwiBox.com:

They asked me about Alan Mulally's foray into Twitter, and ultimately the question moves toward monetization. They wanted to know how Ford is advertising on social networks. My response (which of course was more about our communications efforts):

"We're not interested in advertising on social networks; we're interested in getting in there and interacting with people."

And there's the very core of our social media goals at Ford - to humanize the brand by having real people interacting in communities online.

How does that sit with you? What level of interaction (if any) do you prefer to see from brands in the social networks?

Labels: fox business news, social media, social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:05 AM

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Creo Que Si

Social networks in Latin America are pretty strong. Here's a chart from a recent comScore report that looks at the penetration rate of social networking sites and their relative growth over the last year.

In case you can't make out the fine print, the overall penetration rate of social networks in Latin America is a whopping 87.2%. This is for ages 15 and up, at home and at work, not including mobile access and Internet cafes.

I would argue, that based in high mobile phone usage in these countries, the percentage of social network users would be even higher.

Oh, and the most common social networks in Latin America? MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut and Sonico, according to comScore.

Labels: facebook, myspace, news, social networks, study

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:25 AM

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Young and (Un)Impressionable

Hey, here's a shocker:

"Social network ads can seem intrusive."

It shouldn't be news to you if you're a student of social media. But it's something I said - probably even more forcefully - to a whole room of agencies and advertisers at the Social Ad Summit a couple of months ago.

Let's face it: no one is on a social network to read ads. They're there to connect with friends and share interests.

As reported on eMarketer recently (via that headline stating the obvious), a study by Exact Target and Ball State University Center for Media Design showed that young adults indicated that as you would expect, word-of-mouth was considered the most effective type of marketing to the 18-30 year-old crowd.

Reachable, but protective
Slightly surprising was that email and direct mail were bigger influencers on their purchasing habits than social networks. Why? Because these are expected marketing channels. But they indicated that SMS, private messages and social networks are considered verboten for advertising. If there isn't at least implied permission, don't even bother showing up with your marketing message.

In other words, just because this media-savvy group is using a particular tool or form of communication doesn't mean it's okay for you to intrude, Mr. & Ms. Marketer.

If you have an opportunity, I recommend heading over to the Exact Target web site and downloading the October 28, 2008 white paper Messaging Behaviors, Preferences and Personas. There are some fascinating observations there about the habits of a number of personas: wired, retirees, teens, young homemakers, college students, and established pros.

Are there unwritten rules of engagement that you operate by in your preferred communications channels? Let me know.

Photo credit: EagleMoss

Labels: social networks, study

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:03 PM

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Social What?

The news is in . And it may upset some of you.

Turns out that only slightly more than half of adults know what social networking is.

According to eMarketer's reporting on a recent Synovate study, only 58% of the multinational respondents knew what social networking is. While some of you might be thinking, "How can that be? I spend my life on Facebook/MySpace/Hi5/Bebo/Orkut."

What's interesting to me is the specific geographical breakouts - the Dutch, Japanese, and Americans all had the highest percentages of recognition - 89%, 71%, and 70%, respectively.

And specific social networking penetration in countries peaked with the Netherlands at 49%, the United Aram Emirates at 46%, and the United States at 40%. This tracks fairly closely with results that were featured in the April 2008 Universal McCann survey. The U.S. clearly leads in raw numbers.

If you're interested in how social networks rank in international circles, here's a table of the top 3 social networking sites by membership in various countries.

Also worthy of note is that the UAE, Indonesia, India and Bulgaria all rank at the top of countries where social networkers register for multiple sites. Other countries consisted of respondents who registered for one or two main sites.

For my international readers, does this fit with your reality? Are there sites that you favor (or favour) that aren't listed here? Have you noted any trends in your own work?

Labels: social networks, study

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:22 PM

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

No, I'm Not Ignoring You

I've got a slew of unanswered friend requests on Facebook. It's not because I forgot about them. It's not because I don't care. On the contrary: I'm reminded of them every time I open my Facebook account, and I do care, which is why I'm writing this post. It's just that I have no context.

I have no problem with accepting friend requests from people I haven't met or don't really know. In fact, I've written about it before, in a post titled (appropriately enough): How I Think About My Social Networks.

If you'd like to friend me, the only thing I ask you to do is to identify how you know me and why you'd like to connect.

So how about it? Feel like friending me up? Go for it. But do my a favor and just tell me why.

How about you? Do you like to know where these requests are coming from?

Photo credit: sea turtle (Flickr)

Labels: facebook, social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:42 PM

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Now That's One Savvy Entrepreneur

Actually, I should probably say "Auntrepreneur." That's one term that's a good description for Melanie Notkin, the found of SavvyAuntie, a new online community for - you guessed it - aunts.

Now before you start wondering about the relevance of a site specifically for aunts, just take a moment and think about all of the women in your life who aren't mothers. Odds are they've got nieces & nephews, either through family or friends. These are what Savvy Auntie calls ABRs or ABCs - Aunts by Relation or Aunts by Choice.

This demographic has long been ignored, or at least not catered to the way that parents have been. And that's where SavvyAuntie.com comes in.

One of the most shrewd observations about the PANK (Professional Aunt, No Kids) demographic is that these are professional women with disposable income. Marketing to parents assumes discretionary income exists, but most parents are weighed down by significant costs already, such as mortgage, saving for college, and household expenses related to raising kids.

SavvyAuntie opens up the world of parenting advice and support for non-parents, providing sections titled Expertise, Activities, Gifts and Community designed just for Aunts and their perspective. For a more comprehensive review of the site, check out Mashable's write-up.

I think it's a - dare I say it - savvy business move. The site really provides something that fills a gap, plus it has real value, aside from the cool "Web 2.0" concept. I'm also honored to be on the advisory board for SavvyAuntie, where I'll be offering advice on social media marketing.

What I like most about this entire venture is that Melanie is an active member of the social media community - she writes a blog about her experiences in founding and running SavvyAuntie, and she's a very active and generous member of Twitter, where she continuously engages with others. I know this has been a significant method of getting out the word about the site, getting to know experts who in some cases have joined the advisory board, and most importantly, getting ideas and input for making the site as robust as it could be.

But don't take my word for it; check out the site yourself. What do you think? Is this something that has some potential? Are there other features that should be included?

Labels: communities, news, SavvyAuntie, social networks

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:05 AM

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Saturday, May 03, 2008

How I Think About My Social Networks

I've been getting a lot of requests for friends on various social networks lately. You probably have been too - there seems to be an explosion of interest lately, particularly on Twitter.

I'm generally encouraged by this, as it means that the space is continuing to grow, rather than to wane like some short-lived fad. But at the same time, it can make life a little more complex or cluttered if you're not ready to deal with it.

As such, I thought this might be a good time for me to share how I think about my social networks and how I consider friend requests in each. I've linked to my profile in each, if you'd care to connect with me on them.

Facebook
Ah, Facebook. One of the most visible and recognized brands in the social networking space, where "friend" is a verb. For me, Facebook is a combination of business and social contacts.

I'll immediately accept a friendship request if I know you or follow you on another network. But that's not to say I'm exclusive in my friending. If we don't know each other, just introduce yourself and - most importantly - give me some context as to how you know me.

LinkedIn
I use LinkedIn as my professional social network. Like the old three-ring binders of business cards that I kept, LinkedIn is my real-time virtual collection of business cards.

As you can imagine, my requirements for LinkedIn are a bit more stringent. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, we should have met or at least have had some meaningful interaction. I'll also accept introductions via people I know.

Twitter
Twitter is probably the loosest of all of my networks. I generally like connecting with more people there because I enjoy the exchange of ideas, links and quick personal interaction that it allows.

While there are some people who add absolutely everyone back, I can't keep up with the pace and consider some of them spammy. Since there have been a good number of new followers, I'm having trouble adding some back. If you follow me and I haven't followed you back, don't take it personally. Just get my attention by sending me an "@" message and I'll be sure to add you back. It's as simple as that.

I hope this post was a helpful insight about how I consider friend requests in each network. I'd be interested to know how you handle your own connections on your various social networks. Please leave a comment and educate me.

Image courtesy of coldtaxi

Labels: facebook, LinkedIn, social networks, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:24 PM

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