Everyone is all astir over Linkedin finally connecting its status updates to twitter, but in my opinion, this recent update is not as wonderful as it first seems. In fact, in the few days since it’s been started, I’ve already seen the quality of status updates on Linkedin degrade because people aren’t using #in for sending tweets, but instead are sending all of their tweets over to Linkedin. I’ve learned more about cats, sports teams, and other equally irrelevant information (for Linkedin) in the past few days because people haven’t exercised the proper awareness of how to use the new Linkedin Twitter connection effectively.

A good example of the right way to use the twitter-linkedin connection and the wrong way to use it can be seen in the screenshot below. The top post is the wrong way to use the linkedin-Twitter connection. The person has responded to someone on twitter, but that post has also been sent to Linkedin. In fact, every time this person posts a tweet, it will show up in Linkedin. The result is that we’ll see a message, which isn’t relevant on Linkedin, because even if it’s a professional message, it’s a reply to someone else on Twitter, as opposed to Linkedin. And of course we could also get more mundane and non-appropriate posts, such as the post about a sports team. It’s not remotely relevant to Linkedin, because it’s not a professional update. It’s actually rather unprofessional and is a good example of how to use a social network inappropriately.

The post from the person in the middle is appropriate to Linkedin, at least in terms of describing something professional. He’s also chosen the option where the post from Twitter will only appear if he uses #in. That hashtag indicates that the message should get posted on both Twitter and Linkedin. Without that hashtag, his post will only go to Twitter (and other services he’s connected to Twitter).

What’s happened with the Twitter and Linkedin connection is that most people have simply connected Twitter to Linkedin without using the #in tag. The result is that a lot of non-professional tweets and responses to people in twitter are showing up on Linkedin, but the material isn’t really relevant to Linkedin as a social networking site. This diminishes the usefulness of Linkedin, in terms of status updates, because many of the status updates aren’t relevant to the purpose for using Linkedin.

To set-up your Linkedin and twitter connection, click on the blue Twitter icon. A new window will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. You’ll need to enter your twitter handle and password, in order to authorize the connection.

After you’ve authorized the connection, the window will display the settings for the Twitter-Linkedin connection. Make the Twitter account visible to everyone, unless you don’t want people to see it on your profile. On your profile page, people will see a link to your twitter account, which will allow them to connect with you on Twitter if they choose.

Under share your Tweets in your LinkedIn status DO NOT select all tweets. If you do people, will see all your tweets, including ones which aren’t relevant to Linkedin. Instead select “Only tweets that contain #in.” This way the only time your Linkedin status will update to your twitter account is if you’ve actually included the hashtag in your message. Yes, this means you will need to include the hastag, but this will also help you determine if the update you’re about to post is really relevant to your audience on Linkedin.

If you need to change your twitter settings at any time, simply click the blue twitter icon again and select Twitter Settings. You’ll then be able to change any settings you’ve made to your Twitter-Linkedin connection.

Remember that as tempting as it might be to send all your tweets to Linkedin, it defeats the purpose of the status update feature in Linkedin, if any of those tweets aren’t relevant to your professional activities. Also, when it’s a response to someone on Twitter, it won’t really make sense because the context of the conversation is missing. Restrict your tweets to Linkedin by using the hashtag #in and you’ll not only be using the connection properly for professional activities, but you’ll be showing a sophisticated awareness of how to use social media properly. Remember Linkedin is not Twitter and should not be treated as such!

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use the new Twitter Linkedin connection properly is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Twitter lists is twitter’s version of groups

It’s similar to a group you might create on Tweetdeck or Seesmic, but there are several advantages to creating a list on twitter. The list feature allows you to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people to follow. When you look at the list you can get an overview of what those people are up to. So far that sounds like what Tweetdeck and Seesmic offer with their group feature, BUT the lists feature also allows you to add someone to your list that you aren’t following. So, for example, if you know someone who tweets a bit too often for your taste, but you’d still like to keep an eye on them, you can add them to a twitter list and then check up on them, without having to actually follow them.

Still, you might wonder at the wisdom of creating a list on twitter, as opposed to creating a group on Tweetdeck or Seesmic. In my opinion, you can and should create both. While you’ll likely be using Tweetdeck or Seemic more to monitor and manage your conversations, creating a list on Twitter allows you to also add the group functionality on the site. Additionally, because you can add people to the list that you don’t follow, you can keep up with what they are doing, by checking your list on twitter. Finally, because lists are public (unless you choose to make them private), other people can actually see your list, and you can also see who has added you to a list. This is a functionality that isn’t offered by other platforms, and it can be useful for determining what kinds of lists you appear on.

I would suggest creating the following types of lists:

• Industry: Create a list following people in your industry and related industries. This could also be a list where you keep  track of your competition and anything new they are doing. I’d suggest making this list private, if you don’t want to tip people off that you are keeping track of them.
• Co-worker/Employee: A company or employee may want to create an employee or co-worker list to keep track of what employees or co-workers are saying. This can have its advantages and disadvantages in terms of how people may respond to that. On the one hand, it’s useful for monitoring what is being said by representatives of the company, and on the other hand it can come across as big brotherish. If you do create this list, you may want to keep it private.
• Networking/Referral/mentors: If you do a lot of networking, you may want to create list for people who you network with on a regular basis. It can help you see what they are up to and also help you think of them. I’d also include mentors in this list because these are people you want to network with and learn from.
• Local: It can be useful to create a list of local people, to keep up with what they are doing, or what’s happening in your city or hometown.
• Media: Keep track of editors of magazines, radio shows, or TV people you want to stay in touch with or work with. This list allows you to focus exclusively on those people.

These are just a few examples of lists you can create. You can create up to twenty lists, with a maximum of 500 followers per list, though this number will likely change as times goes on. I do recommend creating lists and logging into twitter to check them, especially to see what the people you aren’t following are saying.

You can also see what lists you are on by selecting the listed link. You can even choose to follow someone else’s list, by clicking on the name of list, and then on the list page selecting the Follow this list button.

There are also several third party sites that provide information on lists. Listorious is maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists that you can search or browse through. TweetMeme Lists is another tools, which focused on the most popular lists, the ones that have been tweeted about the most. Using either of these sites can help you find more lists, if you want to follow the lists other people create. Personally, I’ve opted to just create my own lists and keep track of them. I might look at another person’s list occasionally for people I’d like to add to my lists, but I’d prefer to only keep track of my own.

How to create a twitter list

Creating a new list is easy to do. Login to twitter and click on the new List link. After you’ve done that a new window will appear asking you to name the list and indicate if it is a public or private list. Choose a name for it that is descriptive for you. I chose the name of example, but you can obviously pick a more descriptive name than that.

After you’ve created the list you’ll be taken to a page where you can start to find people to add them to your list. You’ll also have the option of going to your follow page to add someone there.

Once you’re on the follow page, select the lists icon and then select the checkbox next to the list(s) you want to add a person to. Remember you don’t need to follow the person to have him/her on the list.

If you ever want to edit or delete a list, select view lists and then select the link to the list you want to edit or delete. Delete gets rid of the list, while edit allows you to edit the name and the privacy settings of the list. You can also get off of someone else’s list, by blocking them, which will then remove you from their list.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use Twitter Lists to monitor topics of interest is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

One of the features I like on Twitter is the search engine

Recently they’ve even improved it, so that you can do a search on twitter for a specific topic while logged in. You can search for industry specific topics, keywords, and phrases to see what people are tweeting about, in relationship to what you offer.

For example, if you’re a business owner who creates wedding invitations, a search phrase to use would be wedding invites or wedding invitations. You would enter the information into the twitter search box, and press search.

Twitter will then display real time results for the phrase you searched for. Thos results will show you what people are saying about that specific subject, and can sometimes be useful as a way of determining what someone needs. Below are search results I got when I typed the phrase wedding invites and searched for it.

As you can see there’s some definite conversation around wedding invites, but not all of them will be ones that a business would send a reply to. However, LisaWeddingGirl, Fastpitch, and maxturner are a few people that someone who does wedding invites could make a response to. To make a response you simply hover your mouse to the right of the message by the person and click on the arrow (see picture below). Then an @ symbol and the name of the person will be displayed and you can write your response.

When making a reply, I don’t recommend replying with a link. Reply, instead, with a helpful suggestion, and if you get a response, follow-up with another one, and then follow up with a link. Remember, you need to build rapport, and a relationship with this person, before trying to direct that person to your website. Also, there’s no guarantee that the person will go to your website, but in general, if someone feels you are being helpful, they’ll at least check it out.

The search engine on twitter is pretty powerful and useful. I recommend logging onto the twitter site directly a couple times a week, at least and doing a search on what people are commenting on that relates to your industry. If you’re feeling really adventurous and want to take you social media marketing up a notch, do a search on twitter a couple of times a day on words or phrases that are associated with your industry and start making some responses to people.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use Search on Twitter is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician