Saying it in cyberspace: a guide to successful blogging and twittering

Got opinions to share? Insights? Information? The Web 2.0 revolution makes it easy to get the word out, build a professional profile, and make connections.

If you don’t want space restrictions to cramp your style, free platforms like WordPress or Blogger let you post your thoughts in a cyber-diary format. Looking for a shorter, more interactive way to communicate? Use Twitter to send out brief ‘tweets’ of information, akin to those surreptitious notes you used to pass to friends during history class.

Ready to start? Keep these tips in mind.

Upfront advice

• Decide what niche you want to fill. Don’t twitter or blog just for the sake of seeing your name online. Instead, become a source your readers or followers value, whether it’s for the latest industry news, a quick hit of humour, or your take on emerging trends.

• Get the go-ahead from your employer if you plan to talk shop online. Find out if there’s a corporate policy for employees who twitter or blog. No policy? Use common sense. Don’t disclose confidential information, be cautious in dishing out criticism, and carefully consider the impact your words will have on your company, its clients, and its shareholders.

• Be professional. Blogging and twittering may be relatively casual forms of communication, but typos, bad grammar, and text-messaging abbreviations won’t impress readers. Similarly, cast a critical eye at your profile. What kind of image does your photo or avatar project? What about your bio?

• Provide full disclosure. Are you representing a particular company or organisation? Being paid to hype a particular product? Make that clear in your profile.

• Use good judgement. Remember that what you publish may end up being read by your boss, your company’s competitors, your local reporter or your mother.

Blogging basics

• Set reasonable goals for how frequently you post, and then follow through. If your readers have come to expect daily posts, they’ll feel miffed if a week goes by without something fresh.

• Pay attention to presentation. A dense wall of text looks intimidating, so use shorter paragraphs to create white space. Is your posting more than 300 words? Subheadings can help to break things up.

• Respect copyright. Just because a photo is online doesn’t mean you can use it without permission. Copyright also applies to words. While it’s okay to quote someone briefly (with attribution), never reproduce more than a few lines of an article without the author’s consent.

• Include relevant links. Give credit where credit is due — and enable your readers to get more details — by linking to any bloggers, websites and articles you mention.

• Turn your blog into a dialogue with readers by enabling comments. If you want to screen them before they’re published, check the ‘moderation’ box in your blog settings, and post your policy as well. Won’t publish anything containing obscenities, for example? Let readers know.

• Follow good journalism practices. Check your facts, name your sources, and avoid anything that might be considered libel, hate literature, or a personal attack.

Twitter tips

• Decide how public you want to be. The default setting will make your tweets visible to anyone. Alternatively, you can restrict them to the people who ‘follow’ you — those who sign up to receive your tweets — by clicking the ‘protect my updates’ option under your account settings.

• Similarly, master the distinction between ‘@’ messages, which are targeted to a specific person but visible to others, and direct messages, which are private communications with a particular follower.

• Keep your tweets short. Twitter sets a limit of just 140 characters per message. That doesn’t leave lots of room for context, so re-read your tweet before you hit ‘update’ to make sure it can’t be misinterpreted.

• Don’t swamp your followers with constant tweets. You’ll quickly turn people off if you deluge them with hourly updates.

• Consider including hash tags/pound signs to make your tweet easily searchable.  Twittering about recent industry developments, for example? Include the hash/pound sign (#) followed by ‘pharma.’

• Be selective in who you follow. Time is a precious commodity, so don’t feel obliged to follow everyone who follows you. If you decide to stop following someone, no apology is necessary — unless it’s family or a close friend, of course.

The art of online networking

Think about all the people you know. And then about all the people they know. Now imagine being able to connect with all of them at the touch of a button. That’s the premise of social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. For savvy networkers, they can be a virtual goldmine.

Ready to start digging? A few pointers will set you on the right path — and help you avoid the biggest pitfalls.

Enduring truths

There’s more to making connections in person than shaking hands and handing out business cards. Not surprisingly, the same rules apply on-line.

Focus on developing relationships, not building the biggest possible contact list. Think about what you can give as well as what you can gain: offer advice, make referrals, and share useful resources.

And just like in real life, appearances count, so choose your photo or avatar with care. Likewise, watch what you say: nothing in cyberspace is truly private.

Social media savoir faire

While social media sites can be powerful networking tools, they also give rise to some sticky social dilemmas. Do you really want to add that annoying woman from last week’s conference to your circle of Facebook friends?

Others judge you by the company you keep, so it pays to be a little selective with your connections. Develop a few personal guidelines about what kind of contacts you want to cultivate.

If you do decline an invitation from someone you know, consider sending a polite note explaining your policies. (Complete strangers who contact you with a boilerplate ‘friend me’ request can simply be ignored.)

Extending an invitation to someone? Take a moment to personalize the boilerplate invitation that LinkedIn or Facebook supplies. Remind the recipient of how you’re acquainted or what you have in common. Explain what you hope to get out of the connection and what you hope to offer.

Facebook specifics

The biggest danger of Facebook — aside from consuming far too much time of your time — lies in blurring the line between your professional and personal lives, so invest some time in mastering the privacy settings.

Consider using the Friend Lists function to set up categories of contacts, such as Family, Close Friends, Coworkers, and Business Contacts. Once you have these in place, you can designate which groups can post to your wall, for example, and which can see the photos from last weekend’s wild party.

Be careful about disclosing personal information. Your profile will automatically display the year of your birth, for instance, unless you change the default settings.

Protect the privacy of others as well. A Facebook wall is public space, so while it’s the perfect venue to congratulate a co-worker on her promotion, save more personal comments for e-mail or a private Facebook message.

Want to promote your company, organization, book, or conference? Check out Facebook’s Pages feature.

LinkedIn specifics

LinkedIn is often described as Facebook for business, free of any distracting games, virtual gifts, or ‘What Sex in the City character are you?’ quizzes.

Start by creating a networking-friendly profile. For the Summary Section, think elevator pitch or cocktail party introduction: something that displays a bit of personality as well as summing up your professional strengths and interests. Filling in the Experience and Education sections will help people make connections with you.

Don’t post your email address on your profile, however. Because LinkedIn works by tapping the networks of people you know, encouraging strangers to contact you is a no-no.

Successfully worked on a project with a colleague? Ask him or her to write a brief recommendation that you can include with your profile. (When you receive it, don’t forget to send a note of thanks!)  And be open to writing endorsements for others — but only if you can genuinely recommend them.

Closing thoughts

Social media success boils down to two key principles: showing consideration for others, and following Roman rules when you spend time in Rome.

Respect other people’s time, privacy, and contacts. Social capital is valuable, so don’t turn off friends and colleagues with ‘me, me, me’ marketing. And whenever you join an online community, whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, or a dozen other lesser-known sites, tread carefully until you understand the accepted conventions.

Editor’s note:

The following LinkedIn groups may be of interest: