I invite my potential interviewee as a friend, putting the offer of the interview in the body of the invitation. What I do is list the invitee as someone I’ve done business with in the past, then explain what I’m up to in the body of the email. If I have a loose link to the recipient, a mutual contact or I’ve read something they have written, I mention that in the message. It’s tricky, because these invites are word-limited.

As added benefit, I’m building my network and a stable of great contacts. I recently used this approach with Denise Wakeman, who I interviewed for an restaurant industry magazine marketing article. Denise kindly provided great information on blogs and other social media marketing opportunities. My readers loved the insights.

I haven’t found LinkedIn to be a great source for new business, but then again, I haven’t really looked for new business opps via the networking hub. I’ve purposely tried to keep those relationships “pure” and haven’t pushed my services on anyone.

Thanks for your insights and starting another interesting conversation Ed. Appreciate it.

I recently closed and (hopefully) deleted my FB account. I found it was starting to add ‘excessive noise’ mostly from people whose lives I wasn’t that interested in – always the way! My actual, real friends stay in touch via email and (shock, horror) good ol’ phone calls. Remember them?! I had opened a Twitter account a while ago and couldn’t see the point of it – it just seemed like a lot of people updating the world every five minutes on the minutiae of their lives and I quickly got bored.

However I think Twitter has matured and settled down and now I am moving back to it and, like many here, I’m finding it very useful for contacts, info, updates and exchange of ideas to help me along and hopefully, in turn, I’ll help others along.

LinkedIn has always been there in the background but to be honest, I get a bit swamped with recruiters, although the groups I subscribe to have ultimately led me here so it has it’s uses

Cheers!

It occurred to me yesterday that if I view social media as a form of networking/community, LinkedIn is like networking at a conference or other professional event among peers: if I do it right, there is a high likelihood that I’ll benefit either in terms of learning or connections that are relevant to my business. Facebook is like networking at a house party: there is a chance that I may make a meaningful business connection, but it’s less targeted and people may not be in the mind space to talk shop.

Twitter is what you make it: if you follow people and engage in conversations based on your business objectives and interests, again, you’ll benefit from access to incredibly useful info and people. Not so much if you follow/tweet willy-nilly.

That’s how I see it and the approach is serving me well. Of course, I could be wrong about Facebook since I’m not on there, but I feel it’s best to focus my time in any case!

What impresses me most about social media (and Twitter in particular) is the conversations and connections it has opened up for so many. The ability to connect with someone who would normally be unreachable is incredible. And the ability to have good, punchy and honest conversations with your clients, prospects and potential prospects is amazing.

My high school, college and other personal friends have taken over my Facebook account. So I’ve decided not to use FB for business. However, I’m exploring ways to have more business conversations there.

I primarily use Twitter for keeping up on what’s happening in the online world – what people are most interested in and talking about. I find Twitter is my best method to find interesting links and articles, because my network is sharing them.

Like Henry, I haven’t invested the time into other mediums at this point, though I have worked with clients that are very successful using both Facebook and LinkedIn. Something to consider about Facebook (from their statistics page: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics): there are more than 350 million active users, half of which log in every single day, and spend, on average, 55 minutes per day on Facebook.

Given how many people spend so much time, I can see why Facebook ads and pages/groups do work!

LinkedIn is absolutely a great resource and social medium. Often, when doing online research, LinkedIn comes up as a way to find out more about an individual or business, so make sure your profile, at least, is filled in.

My opinion is that social media (in any form) requires a time investment and a dedication to interacting beyond simply self-promoting to be successful. in the end, I think you need to choose the medium that suits your communication style best.

Cheers!