This morning I noticed a few emails from people that were asking me if I was taking on new clients in the subject. Imagine you got an email that said “Are you taking new clients?” from someone you knew? Wouldnt you open the email to see what they wanted? Well was was excited when I got the first email but then I got a second email and a third and a fourth.. soon I got like 20 emails from people that were my linkedin friends that they wanted to send me referrals via this website called ReferralKey.com. I signed up for an account and I did not connect my social media profiles because I wanted to see how it works. It really looks kind of spammy in a non web 2.0 way but they have a good concept. I read this blog post after doing a quick google search. I am not the only one that thinks its a bit spammy. I did send some emails so some of the people at our office to see what they think. After doing some research I found another website called has offers where I can reward people who refer business to Ajax Union. That site is so much better looking. That gets me thinking that good design really makes a difference! It can be the difference between people thinking you are a spammy site to people trusting you and linking to you in their blog post.
A lesson to all new social networking sites.. Don’t send out emails like that or you will get a bad name unless you dont care and just want users at any cost. So in that case you launch with a outdated design and hope for the best. If you did open an account at referral key and you dont care about spamming you can check out my profile https://www.referralkey.com/joeapfelbaum but remember I would not abuse my contacts with emails like that.
Your Personal Brand – Business Social Media
There is a saying that I often repeat it goes “Out of sight out of mind” People will not remember you if you dont remind them that you exist. The best way to stay on your networks radar today is by participating in social media. Some people don’t like to mix personal and business and they stand behind an corporate wall. That used to work fine before the days of social media but that wont fly anymore. You need to brand yourself to see the full potential of your success. Even the biggest companies have a real name and face that represent its leadership. Here are 5 things you should do today to start building your personal brand.
1. Buy a domain name with your name in it and start a blog. That right just like this one was created for me “Joe Apfelbaum” If you name doesnt exist you can buy your name with the word blog after or the great. Make sure to update your blog at least once a month.
2. Get yourself a facebook account and reserve your username on facebook.com/username
3. Setup a twitter account and reserve your name Update your twitter account at least once a day.
4. Setup a linkedin account and setup your profile with all the keywords that are relivant to your industry.
5. Setup a youtube channel and update it as often as you update your blog.
If you do all these things you will start the process of building your personal brand online and succeed with business social media.