social media marketing guide for the parking professional

7/28/2019 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional

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SOCIALMEDIAMARKETING GUIDE

For The Parking Professional

By Ted Janusz


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION i

2011 Social Media Marketing Guidefor the Parking ProfessionalIsnt Social Media

Just a Passing Fad?Do you sometimes think, If I just cover my

head with a pillow, all of this talk about social

media might soon go away.?

Yes, it does seem like a new social media site

is popping up every day, and it is easy to get

overwhelmed with it all. Is it just a passing

fad? Lets look at the facts.

Do you realize:

Nearly 247 million Americans use theInternetthats 73% of the population

43% of online consumers belong to one

or more social networks

74% of social network users send mes-

sages to their friends as part of their

daily routines

87% of parents of teenagers are online

96% of Generation Y participates in so-

cial media?

Why Do We Need toUnderstand Social Media?If we intend to sell parking services to younger

clients, we need to understand how they com-

municate. For instance, when my daughter

was home from college, I never once saw her

send an e-mail. Instead she was busy with

text messages and Facebook. But lets bust the

myth that only Gen X and Gen Y use Social

Media.

For instance, the fastest growing segment of

users of Facebook is now neither high school

nor college students, but rather females age

5565. Why? With the rest of their family on

Facebook (the average user now spends an

hour a day on the site), its the best way for

them to keep up with the stories and the pho-

tos of their children and grandchildren!

According to Social Media Revolution, here is

the number of years it took each of the follow-ing to reach 50 million users:

Radio38 years

Television13 years

The Internet4 years

iPod3 years

Facebook, on the other hand, has added 100

million usersin just the last nine months!

Here, according to the Facebook Global Moni-

tor, is a listing of the percent of a countrys

citizens (not just the percent of those citizenswho are online) who currently maintain a

prole on Facebook:

Iceland53%

Norway46%

Canada42%

Hong Kong40.5%

United Kingdom40%

United States35.5%

Chile35%

Israel32.5% Bahamas30.5%

With over one third of Americans now on

Facebook, it is important that we have an un-

derstanding of this social media phenomenon

that is rapidly spreading across the globe, and

to learn how we can use this new form of

communication to grow our parking business.


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION ii

How Can You Learn About SocialMedia . . . Painlessly?You may not want to turn to someone who

has multiple pierced body parts, and tattoos

on those body parts that are not pierced, to

gain that understanding! Instead, join a fel-

low professional in this Social Media Market-

ing Guide for the Parking Professional as I walk

you though the steps of getting set up on so-

cial media in an easy, fun and interesting way!

Shiny New Toys?Once you have mastered the use of these new

social media tools, the key to success will be

determine to an overall social media strategy:

How can you use these tools along with your

existing marketing strategy to grow your park-ing business?

A Paradigm Shift for MarketingSuccessThis will require a new and different mind

set, since social media is not about advertis-

ing but rather about growing communities.

Rather than the one-way communication of

traditional media, social media is about having

a conversation with your clients and prospectsand developing relationships.

You wont get new business in social media

by telling people how wonderful you truly are,

but by becoming a trusted member of the com-

munity. Rather than spraying ad copy, you will

now give your fans, connections and followers

valuable content that will have personal value

to them and they will want to share with oth-ers using these new tools.

Finally, as social media expert Gary Vayner-

chuk reminds us, Social media is a marathon,

not a sprint.

As we discussed earlier, going forward, effec-

tive use of social media will need to be an es-

sential part of your marketing plan.

How Long Will Social Media TakeMe? After All I Have a ParkingFacility to Operate!Once you get your accounts set up on the top

three social media sites, you can use an aggre-

gator like Sendible (www.sendible.com) to co-

ordinate all of your social media efforts. As a

result, you can keep up-to-date with your on-

line customers in as little as a half hour a day.

But, for now, lets learn the basics of how to ef-

fectively use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION iii

The Author of this GuideTed Janusz is professional

speaker, author and mar-

keting consultant who

contributed the cover ar-

ticle to the February 2011

issue of The Parking Pro-

fessional. He will be a fea-

tured speaker at the 2011

IPI Conference & Expo in

May in Pittsburgh.

Janusz has been invited to appear on Geraldo

at Large on the Fox News Network to share

his business insights. Now he shares them

with you!

Janusz earned his MBA in Marketing from theUniversity of Pittsburgh and has delivered full-

day seminars on Social Media Marketing in

Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other

cities across the United States. He was also se-

lected by eBay to deliver eBay University at

sites across the country. Janusz has presented

a total of nearly 500 full-day seminars across

Canada, Puerto Rico and 48 of the 50 United

States (exceptions: Montana and Wyoming).

Ted is also the author of two CD-ROMs: Cre-ating a Social Media Strategy in Five Simple

Steps and Implementing a Social Media

Strategy. His Website is: www.januspresenta-

tions.com

How to Use this GuideMy motto in conducting all of my computer

training is always: No frustration! My goal in

this guide is to take you by the hand and walk

you, step-by-step, through the process so that

you, too, can join the social media revolution

quickly and easily.

This guide is organized into three sections:

1.Getting Started on Facebook

2.Getting Started on LinkedIn

3.Getting Started on Twitter

Each section will address four topics about

each social media tool:

1.What is it?

2.So what? Why should I care?

3.How do I get started?4.How have other parking professionals

used these tools for success?

Well include plenty of screen shots along the

way, so that you can see that you are on the

right track. Within minutes, you will be able

to impress you children (and your grandchil-

dren!) with your new-found knowledge. As a

result, you will be able to communicate with

them in an exciting new way, as well as to

open yourself up to a myriad of new businessconnections and opportunities.


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional facebook 1

Getting Started on FacebookWhat is it?Facebook is a Website that has

garnered more than 600 million

active users (thats 1/12 of theworlds population) in seven years.

Time magazine named Mark Zuck-

erberg, Facebooks founder, as its

Person of the Year for 2010. The

creation of Facebook is the subject

of a popular 2010 movie, The So-

cial Network.

Users of Facebook may create a personal pro-

le, add other users as friends and exchange

messages on the site. Facebook users now posta billion pieces of content, such as photos and

messages, each day. Additionally, users may

join common interest user groups, organized

by workplace, school, or college, or other char-

acteristics.

The name Facebook stems from the name

for the book given to students at the start of

the academic year by many university admin-

istrations to help students to get to know each

other better.

The FacebookOn February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg

launched The facebook, originally located

at thefacebook.com. The site was founded by

Zuckerberg with his college roommates and

fellow computer science students. The Web-

sites membership was initially limited to Har-

vard students (within the rst month, more

than half of the undergraduate populationwas registered on the service), but was soon

expanded to other colleges in the Boston. It

gradually added support for students at vari-

ous other universities before opening to high

school students, and, nally, to anyone aged

13 and over.

Proles and PagesUsers can create proles with

photos, lists of personal in-

terests, contact information,and other personal informa-

tion. Users can communicate

with friends and other users

through private or public mes-

sages and a chat feature. They

can also create and join inter-

est groups and like pages (formerly called

fan pages, until April 19, 2010). Facebook re-

quires a users name and prole picture (if ap-

plicable) to be accessible by everyone.The website is free to users, and generates

revenue from advertising.

How Much is the CompanyWorth?The company earned $2 billion in revenue in

2010 and has a valuation of $43.1 billion, ac-

cording to SharesPost Inc., an exchange for

privately held stocks. That valuation is up

more than 60 percent from September 2010.

Facebook PhotosOne of the most popular applications on Face-

book is the Photos application, where users

can upload albums and photos. Facebook is

the most popular photo-sharing Website, with

over 100 million photos uploaded to the site

each day. Another feature of the Photos ap-

plication is the ability to tag, or label users

in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a

users friend, then the user can tag the friend

in the photo. A notication is then sent to the

friend to indicate that they have been tagged,

and provides them a link to see the photo.


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So what? Why should I care?Facebook provides unique, and free, ways to

reach its 600 million users.

People have a prole on Facebook, whereas a

business has a page.

You and I can have friends on Facebook,while a business has fans. Over 1.6 million

businesses now have Facebook pages.

Prole Page (more than 1.6

million businesses)

Represents a

person

Represents a

business

Has friends Has fans (or, as of

April 2010, people

who like this)

Parking Facility Pages onFacebookSeton Hall University and Rutgers University

have parking-specic Facebook pages with

updates on parking and other transportation

services.

To create a page for your parking facility on

Facebook (which is free), rst register for a

Facebook prole.


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How do I get started?Follow these simple and easy steps:

Go to www.facebook.com

Fill in the text boxes with your

First Name Last Name (Hint: to make yourself unique, be sure to include your maiden name, nick-name or other name that your friends who will be searching for you may have known

you by.)

E-mail Address (twice, to make sure its typed correctly!) Password (I used a Password of 6 alphanumeric characters here.) Sex Birthday


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Click the green Sign Up button

Type the CAPTCHA code in the Text in the box: text box.

Click the green Sign Up button

(The term CAPTCHA, for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Hu-

mans Apart, was coined in 2000 by professors of Carnegie Mellon University.)

Find Your FriendsOf course, the main purpose of Facebook is for social networking. So lets nd your friends on

Facebook!


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You can import contact information from an e-mail service you currently use like Hotmail, Ya-

hoo! Mail or AOL. Follow these two steps:

Select your e-mail account type on the left side of the screen. Click the Find Friends link.

Select the people you want to invite to be your friends.

Create Your ProleThis step will help you nd friends from your high school, college or university, and your em-

ployer who are already on Facebook.


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As you ll in the text boxes, Facebook will provide suggestions. To accept the suggestion, simply

click on it.

Be sure to include your graduation years for high school or college or university.

Then click the blue Save & Continue button.

Based upon your entries, Facebook will then make suggestions for friends to connect with:


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At this point, you are probably saying to yourself, So thats what they look like now!

To Add people you know, simply click the Add as friend link under the persons name.When you do, that person will be notied that you would like to add them as a Facebook friend.

They can either conrm or deny that request. You will be able to do the same as others look to

add you as their friend.

One of the best features of Facebook is that you communicate only with your friends. This

closed network helps to eliminate spam, which composes up to 90% of regular e-mail messages.

When nished, click the blue Save & Continue button.


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Choose Your Prole Picture

You friends will want to know that it is really you that they are looking to become Facebook

friends with, not somebody else with the same name.

To Choose your prole photo:

Click the Upload a Photo link

A new text box will appear:


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Click the Browse button

From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the le in which that fantastic digital

photograph of you is stored!


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Click the Open button

Your picture will be uploaded to your Facebook prole.


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Alternatively, if you have a Webcam, you can click the Take a Photo link to get your prole pic-

ture and follow the instructions.

Click the blue Save & Continue button.


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Welcome to FacebookTo help your friends nd you when they are looking to add friends on Facebook, provide addi-

tional information about yourself.

Click the Edit Prole bton.

You will see the rst of several data entry screens that you can complete to tell your friends, and

your potential friends, about yourself:


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At this point, one of your concerns might naturally be, But who can see this information? My

boss? A future boss? My ex-boyfriend?

To get a thorough understanding of Facebooks default (automatic) privacy settings and more

importantly how you can change them, click the privacy settings link (just below Contact Infor-

mation) on the left of the screen:


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As you can see, at this point Everyone (which can include anyone surng the Facebook site) can

see (if you have made entries in the following elds in your prole):

Your status, photos and posts

Bio and favorite quotations

Family and relationships

Only Friends of Friends can see this information, plus:

Photos and videos youre tagged in

Religious and political views

Birthday

Your Friends can see all of the above information, plus they have:

Permission to comment on your posts

Information on places you check in to Your contact information

Should you desire, by clicking on the link, you can Customize (these privacy) settings

Continue to build your prole by clicking the Edit Prole button at the upper right of the screen.

As you do, at any time you may click the View My Prole button at the upper right of your

screen to see your work-in-progress.


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Feel free to click on any of the Editlinks, the Edit Prole button, or the icons on the screen to

provide additional information that you would like to share about yourself.


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Create a Facebook PageNow that you are personally represented on the most popular networking site, lets create a

presence on Facebook for your business.

Go to www.facebook.com/pages

Click the Create Page button in the upper right corner.


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Click the Local Business or Place box.

On the next screen, shown below:

Using the drop-down arrow next to the box that currently says, Choose a category, choose

whichever option best applies

Type the name of your Business or Place, your Street Address, City/State, Zip Code, and

Phone

Read the terms of use by clicking the Facebook Pages Terms link

If you agree to the terms, click the check box

Click the Get Started button

Your new Facebook page appears, similar to the one below:


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Lets start to build your Facebook page!

Step 1Add an image. Click the Upload an Image link A new text box will appear.


From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the le in which a digital photograph of

you, your building or your logo is stored


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Your image will be uploaded to your Facebook page.


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Youll want to be sure that the world (or at least 600 million users) knows that you have a Face-

book page, so they can begin to interact with your parking business in a whole new way.

Step 2Invite your friends. So that your Facebook friends will see that your Facebook page is

a recommended page:

Click the Suggest to Friends button

When the pop-up appears (as shown below), click the All button to the right and then click

the Send Recommendations button


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Building Interesting Content

Add to your new Facebook page, so that your fans (people who like this) will want to come backfor more.

You can get started by:

Writing something on your Wall tab

Clicking the Edit Information link on your Info tab

Clicking the Create a Photo Album button on your Photos tab

Clicking the Start a New Topic button on your Discussions tab


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional LINkeDIN 23

Getting Started on LinkedInWhat is it?Unlike the other two other

major social networking sites,Facebook and Twitter, we are

discussing in this guide, LinkedIn is the net-

working site forbusiness.

No fun and games here. No poking your

friends or posting photographs like on Face-

book, or telling your followers what you are

eating for dinner like on Twitter, LinkedIn is

serious . . . about commerce.

Its All About ConnectionsThe main purpose of LinkedIn is to allow itsmore than 90 million users, who include execu-

tives from all Fortune 500 businesses as well as

businesses in 200 countries from around the

world, to maintain a list of contact details about

people they know and trust in business. The

people on the list are called connections. Users

can invite anyone (whether a LinkedIn user or

not) to become a connection.

This list of connections can then be used in anumber of ways:

A contact network can be built consist-

ing of

direct connections the connections of each of their con-nections (called second-degree con-

nections) and

the connections of second-degreeconnections (called third-degree

connections). This network can be used to gain an in-

troduction to someone a person wishes

to know through a mutual, trusted con-

tact.

LinkedIn can then be used to nd peo-

ple and business opportunities recom-

mended by someone in ones contact

network.

How Popular isLinkedIn?

A new member signsup on LinkedIn approxi-

mately every second. About half of the mem-

bers are in the United States and 11 million

are from Europe. With 3 million users, India

has the fastest-growing network of users as of

2009.

So what? Why should I care?I currently have 235 connections. LinkedIn

tells me that I have more than 55,600 con-

tacts who are friends of friends (2nd degree

contacts), each one connected to one of my

connections. In addition, I have over 4,139,300

users (3rd degree contacts) who I could reach

through a friend and one of their friends.

Thats the power of LinkedIn!

Compared to the other two major social net-

working sites, LinkedIns users are:

Older (median age: 41)

Wealthier (six-gure household income) Predominantly male (2/3 male, 1/3 fe-

male)

College educated (4/5 have a college de-

gree)

Best of all, your use of LinkedIn can befree.

How do I get started?Go to www.linkedin.com


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Type your

First Name

Last Name

E-mail Address

Password you would like to use for LinkedInat least 6 characters long

Click the greenJoin LinkedIn button


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As the next screen indicates, Lets get your professional prole started

From I am currently:, click the arrow in the drop-down menu to indicate that you are

either employed, a business owner, looking for work, working independently, or a student

Choose your Country from the drop-down menu

Type your ZIP Code. LinkedIn will not display your ZIP code, but will use it to assign a Re-

gion to your prole, so others will know the general area where you reside

Type your Company. As you type, LinkedIn may help you by recognizing your company

name.

Type yourJob Title

Click the blue Create my prole button.


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Your LinkedIn Prole

What is a LinkedIn Prole? Think of your prole as your personal home page to the businessworld. Your prole is like a real-time, up-to-date resume that gives a complete picture of your

background, qualications and skills.

At any time, you can go to www.linkedin.com and click the Prole link in the top-left corner to

access your LinkedIn prole to view or edit your prole.

Creating Your LinkedIn Prole

Click on Prole and then Edit Prole from the resulting drop-down menu, and you will see a

screen that looks similar to the following:


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Clicking Editjust to the right of your name will get the following screen:


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On this screen, you can ll in the blanks to add a Former or Maiden Name. Some potential con-

nections may know by and look for you using a previous name.

You can also change your Professional Headline. Think of this as your job title. Enter a head-

line that will grab peoples attention.

After you have entered or changed your Basic Information, click the blue Save Changes button.

LinkedIn will then take you back to your main Prole screen with the note The information has

been successfully updated at the top of the screen, as shown below:


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Photo

LinkedIn was the last of the major social networking sites that allowed you to add a photo. Evennow, you can only add one.

Next, we will add your Prole Photo. Why add a photo?

Chances are, with over 90 million registered users, there are multiple people in the LinkedIn

database with a name the same as or similar to yours. By viewing your photo, a potential con-

nection can be assured that you are indeed the nice person who worked with him or her at XYZ

Corporation back in 2006.

To add a photo, click on the Add Photo link under the image that currently appears as a silhou-

ette. A screen similar to the one below will appear:


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Click the Browse button, and a File Upload pop-up screen will appear:


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Determine the folder in which you may be storing that professional photograph of you that

makes you look just marvelous. (My guess is that it is in your My Pictures folder, so double clickon My Pictures or other subsequent folders until you nd where you store the images from your

digital camera.)

Once you have located the photo you would like to use as your Prole photograph, click once on

the image and then click the Open button, as shown below.


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LinkedIn will return you to the Upload a Photo screen with the le name that describes the

photograph you just inserted.


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Click the blue Upload Photo button, and . . . Voila! . . . LinkedIn will update your Prole and tell

you on the subsequent screen that Your picture has been saved.


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You can select who can view your new prole photo:

Your Connectionsthese are the people who are connected to you through the LinkedIn

site.

Your Networkthese are the people you are linked to through your connections.

Everyoneanyone who logs on to the LinkedIn site and searches for your name.

Once you decide who can see your photo, click the blue Save Settings button.


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You now have a photo associated with your LinkedIn prole. You are really making progress

now!

Post an updateShould you like to let your connections in on what is happening in your professional life, you

can Post an update. In the box that currently says Share an update, type your good news.


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Once you have posted an update about, for instance, winning an honor, you can enter in the

box below a link to the article on the Web that announced the award by typing the articles URL:


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Click the blue Attach button, then decide whether to make this announcement visible to any-

one who may search your prole or just to your connections.

By clicking in the box to the left of the blue t Twitter logo, you can also send a Twitter message

known as a tweetto all of your followers on Twitter after you click the blue Share button. (See

the next section of this guide on Getting Started on Twitter.)

On LinkedIn, the people I am connected to are called connections, on Twitter those people are

called followers.

Current PositionAs a next step, you can edit your Currentposition. I have entered my position here as a Regis-

tered Agent at American Federated Insurance by clicking the Editlink to the right of my entry.

Doing so will bring up a new screen. You can now change or add the following information inthe boxes on the screen:


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Under More information about this company, in the blue box, you can type the URL for your

current company Website.

To the right ofTime Period, you can click the check box to indicate that you currently work at

this company, and then indicate the month and year that you started in the position. (If you

click the I currently work here check box, the second entry for month and year will automati-

cally change to to present.)

For the Position Description, provide details of the position, so users viewing your prole can get

a quick idea of what your position involves.

If you click the See examples link under the Description box, you can view examples of Posi-

tion Descriptions from other industries.

To save your entries, click the blue Update button.

Past PositionsNow that we have completed entering information about your current position, enter informa-

tion about your Pastpositions by clicking the Add a past position link.


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You will see an entry screen that is very similar to the Currentposition entry screen we just

completed:


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After you enter information in the appropriate boxes on the screen, click the blue Save Changes

button.

You may wish to enter additional Past Positions to show the breadth of your experience. For

each additional Past Position you would like to enter, simply click the Add a past position link.

EducationTo indicate your educational qualications, click the Add a school link.

Enter information for the elds on the following screen, and then click the blue Save Changes

button:


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You may desire to indicate to your connections and others that you have multiple educational

experiences, such an undergraduate and then a graduate degree. So you may want to make

multiple entries for Education.

Simply click the Add a school link for as many entries as you would like to make and follow the

same steps as above.

RecommendationsAccording to marketing guru Dan Kennedy, in talking with his clients, the number one market-

ing mistake his clients make is failing to collect and use testimonials.

What matters is not that we say we are great. (Prospects expectus to say wonderful things

about ourselves!) What matters to potential clients is who else says so. Especially if it is some-

one they know or whose opinion they trust, it will be worth far more than our own marketingpuffery.

In the brick-and-mortar world, it is sometimes cumbersome to get testimonials. You may need

to ask your client write their gracious comments on company letterhead using their precious

time. As a result, it may be something that, despite their assurances to you or their best inten-

tions, they may not quite get around to doing. But getting a testimonial on LinkedIn can be as

easy as requesting a client to compose an e-mail!


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To request a Recommendation in LinkedIn, begin by clicking Prole, and then the Recommen-

dations link.

Once you do, LinkedIn will present you a screen that looks like this:

Across the top of the screen, you will see three tabs, one each for:

Received Recommendations

Sent Recommendations

Request Recommendations

If you have a Current or Past position on your LinkedIn prole for which you have not yet been

recommended, you can click on the link Ask to be endorsed. You will then see the following

screen:


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After you have chosen 1) what you want to be recommended for, you can 2) decide who youll

ask.

LinkedIn makes this step easy for you. Click the blue LinkedIn logo to the right of the Your con-

nections: box, and your current list of connections will become visible, as shown below.


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You can select up to 200 connections from whom you can ask for a recommendation.

To increase your chances of success, narrow the list to only those connections that would haveknown of the quality of your work while you held that particular position.

When done, click the yellow Finished button. LinkedIn will return you to the previous screen:


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You may notice that LinkedIn sends each recipient (of up to 200 connections) you have chosen

an individual e-mail. Your e-mail requests will not be sent as a group e-mail.

To complete the Recommendation request process, click the blue Send button.

The Golden RuleHow can you get Recommendations?

One of the best ways to get Recommendations is to write Recommendations for others. The next

tab will show you for which of your LinkedIn connections you have Sent Recommendations:


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The third tab, Request Recommendations, allows you to ask for Recommendations from your

connections, using the process described above.

ConnectionsA connection is someone with whom you have an association through the LinkedIn.

One of the benets of LinkedIn is that, once you have established a connection with someone,

you will always have a live link to that person. It doesnt matter if that person changes their e-

mail address (which many often do), since you will always be connected to them through Linke-

dIn.

There are three different degrees of how you are connected with people on LinkedIn:

1.First-degree connections are people that you know personally. They have a direct rela-

tionship from their account to your account.2.Second-degree network members know someone among your rst-degree network con-

nections. These are friends of your friends.

3.Third-degree network members know someone among your second-degree network con-

nections. They are friends of your friends of your friends.

Your LinkedIn connections can help you advance your career and professional goals, and you

can help them as well.

Lets get started to establish your network of connections!


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Establishing ConnectionsIn the upper right corner of your Prole screen, click the Add Connectionslink

LinkedIn gives you two options to add to your number of connections


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On the left side of the screen you can See Who You Already Know on LinkedInby allowing

LinkedIn to search contacts from your e-mail address book.

If you use Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo or AOL as your e-mail service, simply type your complete e-

mail ID and password and click the blue Continue button.

LinkedIn will then show you your e-mail contacts that are not yet connected to you on LinkedIn

and ask you if you want to connect with them.

Word of WarningA temptation for you may be to simply click the box to the right of Select All. Dont do it!

(I dont even know why LinkedIn offers this option!)

In my case, that would result in 2,877 contacts being invited to join my network in LinkedIn. As

you can imagine, I certainly dont have a personal relationship with all or even most of them.You probably have a similar situation with your e-mail contacts.

LinkedIn makes it very easy for you to send invitations in bulkto your entire contact list if you

want. However, even though its easy to do, its not necessarily a good idea, warns Joel Elad in

LinkedIn for Dummies. It can have negative social implications and can even potentially get

you suspended from LinkedIn (and you wouldnt want that!).


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Recipients of your LinkedIn invitation will see an I Dont Know This Person button. If several

people you have invited click this button, LinkedIn will consider you a spammer and will sus-

pend and possibly even remove your prole and account from the site. Ouch!

Rather than try to get the maximum number of LinkedIn connections (or, for that matter Face-

book friends or Twitter followers), a better course of action is to determine why you would want

to expand your social network.

You may want to add

Colleagues from a former or past employer

Classmates

People You May Know

Lets explore how to do that.

Adding Colleagues from a Former or Past EmployerClick the Colleagues tab, which is just to the right of the Add Connections tab:

You will be able to Find past or present colleagues by clicking on the View all buttons. (Note:You really wont be able to view all, since the results you will see will be limited to 50 of your

colleagues.)


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Check the boxes under the green arrow for the people whom you know who you would like to

invite to be connections. Their names will then appear in the box to the right, with the heading

Send invitations to connect to:.

To increase the chances that these people will reply positively, include a personal note with

your invitation to indicate why you are asking these colleagues to join your network. A quick

key to success: specify what their connection to you could do for them.

Check the box to the left ofAdd a personal note with your invitation? and then type the note

in the box below.

Finally, click the blue Send Invitations button.

Joel Elad in LinkedIn for Dummies gives us this advice: When people get an Invitation request,

they understand pretty clearly that you want something from them, whether its access to themor their network. If youve sent a canned Invitation, what they cant answer is the question,

Whats in it for me? A canned Invitation gives no motivation for or potential benet of being

connected to you. A custom note explaining that youd love to swap resources or introduce them

to others is usually enough to encourage an acceptance.


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Adding ClassmatesIn addition to colleagues at present or past companies, you could probably receive benet by

linking yourself to present or past classmates. And they could benet by associating with you!

To get started, click the Classmates link, which is just to the right of the Colleagues link:

When I clicked the name of my school in the box under Select a school from your prole: I wassurprised to nd the names of 77 of my classmates, as shown in the screen below. (That number

is about halfthe number of students we had in the entire graduate school that year!)


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I can then select which of my classmates I would like to invite to my network by clicking the

Invite icon (which resembles an envelope) under the Send Invitation column heading.

Adding People You May KnowLinkedIn suggests people for you to consider adding to your connections. These may be people

who:

are 2nd degree connections

may have one or more shared connections with you.

Click the People You May Know tab, which is to the right of the Classmates link.

Once the names and possibly the prole picture of these people are shown, click the Connect

link for any who you would like to add to your network.


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Returning to Your Prole

Now that we have added to your network, lets return to build your Prole, so that current andpotential connections would know how they could help you and you could help them. Click on

the Prole link.


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WebsitesNext, lets click on the Add a website link.

On the next screen, LinkedIn asks for Additional Information, such as:

the URL for a Personal or Company Website and Blog

Interests

Groups and Associations

Honors and Awards.

After entering this information, click the blue Save Changes button.


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Twitter

Do you have a Twitter account? Do you tweet?If you dont currently, dont worry. Well show you how to set up a Twitter account in the last

section of this guide.

If you do, and would like to link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, you can click the Add a

Twitter accountlink.


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LinkedIn will then give you the ability to customize your Twitter settings within LinkedIn:


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Public ProleThe next option in your Prole allows you to set how visitors to LinkedIn (maybe professionals

who would be looking to do business with you) can view your information.

Within your Prole, click on Public Prole

You will notice that automatically anyone who views your Prole will see basic information:

Name

Industry

Location

Your number of recommendations

But other information about you that they can view is up to you.


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Simply check the box to the right of the item to be viewed or not viewed.

Then click the blue Save Changes button.

Add sectionsYou now can Add sections to reect achievements and experiences on your prole.

Click the Add sections link, as shown below:


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LinkedIn gives you the option to add: Certications

Languages

Patents

Skills

To add this information, simply click on the particular link in the pop-up window, as shown

below:


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These sections can include: Certicationssuch as CAPP

Languagesand whether you have native or bilingual prociency, professional working

prociency, or elementary prociency

Applicationssuch a link to your blog

ExperienceThe next section of your LinkedIn Prole displays your competence through your Experience.

To demonstrate more of your industry knowledge to clients and prospective clients, click the

Add a position link.


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As you did when you created the record for your Current position earlier, type information for:

Company Name

Title

Time Period

Description

Click the blue Save Changes button.


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Publications

Have you written an article, research paper or book?Click the Add a Publication link and enter descriptive information about your work.


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EducationHave you gone back to school to earn your degree or an advanced degree?

I tell my audiences, We tend to like and trust people who are like ourselves, and dislike and

distrust people who are unlike us.

What if a potential client is looking at LinkedIn proles and notices that you attended State U.?

And that is the same State U. she attended?

The chances of you doing business with her had just shot up signicantly. But if you did not add

this information to your prole, the potential client may never know.

Here is how to capture that additional information in LinkedIn:


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Click the Add a School link and enter information into the following elds:


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Click the blue Save Changes button and youre done!

Recommendations

LinkedIn says that users with recommendations are three times as likely to get inquiries

through LinkedIn searches.

In the Recommendations section of your Prole, click the Ask for a recommendation link.


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Then determine for which positions or college experiences you would like to have a recommen-dation for your work.


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1.For the Position for which you would like to be Recommended, simply click the Ask to be

endorsed link. (Endorsed is an old LinkedIn term. It would be better if the word recom-

mended were used consistently. But you get the idea!)


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2.To decide who youll ask, click the LinkedIn icon, which you will nd to the right of the Your

connections: box.You can select up to 200 of your connections (if you have that many!). Each

will get an individual e-mail (not a group e-mail) with your request.

Believe it or not, some LinkedIn users have over 500 connections! LinkedIn stops counting and

displaying the number at that point. These particular users are called LIONs, for LinkedIn Open

Networkers. Your goal should not be to collect as many connections as possible. As we men-

tioned earlier, think why you want to use LinkedIn. Then go after as many quality connections

as you can.

3.You may send the pre-lled Subjectline and e-mail body of the text shown, or you can enter

your own.


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4.4) When done, click the blue Send button.

The Golden Rule of RecommendationsOne of the best ways to get a recommendation on LinkedIn is to give a recommendation. And

LinkedIn makes it easy for you. No special letterhead required!

Simply scroll down under the Received Recommendations tab.

Under Make a Recommendation


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Enter the persons First Name, Last Name and e-mail address, or even easier, click the select

from your connections listlink.

From the resulting pop-up window, click on the name of the connection.


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The name and e-mail address will then populate the elds on the screen.


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Next, click the button to indicate that this person is either a:

Colleaguesomeone you worked with at the same company

Service Providersomeone from another company that you or someone else at your

company hired

Business Partnersomeone you worked with more closely than as a colleague or client

Studentyou went to school with them. They were either a fellow student or you were

their teacher.

Click the blue Continue button.

On the next screen you will create the recommendation.


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Under Relationship

For Basis of recommendation, click the down arrow to the right to indicate either You managed this person directly

You reported to this person

You were senior to this person, but not their manager

The person was senior to you, but you did not report to them

The two of you worked in the same group at the company

The two of you worked in different groups at the company

For Your title at the time, you will be presented with a drop-down menu with the Positions you

had entered earlier into LinkedIn.

For the persons title at the time, you will be presented with a drop-down menu with the Posi-

tions the person had entered into LinkedIn listed as the choices.

Under Written Recommendations, you may ask yourself, What should I write?

Enter your professional accolades for this person. Keep in mind that someone reading this

recommendation is likely to be thinking, What can this person do for me? The reader will

be viewing your connection through your eyes, but with their own needs in mind. Given this

realization, any quantitative, results-oriented information (such as When we implemented the

ideas Mary had suggested, our department realized over $1 million in savings.) will be most

valuable to the connection for whom you are writing the recommendation.


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When you are satised with what you have written, click the blue Send button.

The connection for whom you have written the recommendation will be notied through Linke-

dIn. You can use the standard notication message or create one of your own prior to the recom-

mendation being sent. You can edit or remove your recommendation at any time.

Additional Information

By clicking the Editlink to the right ofAdditional Information, you can allow your connections

and other LinkedIn visitors to get to know you even better!

Enter your Associations in this area. In the next section we will discuss how joining LinkedIn

Groups can help you gain additional exposure for your career.

Some nal information you can add to your prole (by clicking the Add link to the right of each

descriptor) includes:


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Honors and Awards

Personal Informationshould you desire to share it

Contact Settingsindicate to LinkedIn users what types of contact youre interested in Applicationstools provided by LinkedIns featured partners

. . . and you have successfully completed your LinkedIn prole!

LinkedIn Groups

Why join a group?A LinkedIn group gives you a special association to fellow group members. As a result, you can

see their full Proles and they can appear in your search results, if even they arent within the

three degrees of separation of everyone in the group.

What are the different types of LinkedIn groups?By joining several groups, especially large ones, you can increase your visibility within the Linke-dIn network without having to add thousands of contacts.

One of the key groups you should consider joining is the International Parking Institute, which

currently has nearly 700 members.


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To join the International Parking Institute LinkedIn Group

From the top line of the LinkedIn home page, click on Groups

From the resulting drop-down menu, click Groups Directory

In the box under Search Groups, type the keywords International Parking Institute (as

shown below)

To the right of the International Parking Institute listing, click the Join Group button. (It

doesnt show on my screen, since I am already a proud member of the group.)

On the next screen, you can specify options on how you would like to be afliated with the

group:

After you have completed making your choices, click the blueJoin Group button.

On the next screen, you will get notied that your request to join the group is being sent to the

group owner for manual approval.


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Searching a GroupAfter you have joined a group, you may be interested in nding out who else is in the group. The

idea of joining groups is to be able to connect with like-minded individuals.

From the top line of the LinkedIn home page, click on Groups

From the resulting drop-down menu, click My Groups

Under the name of the group, such as International Parking Institute, click Go to

From the resulting drop-down menu, click Members

LinkedIn will display a screen similar to the following:

On the left side of the screen, search among the members of the group by entering their names

or keywords to nd specic members of this group.

For instance, I could look for all members of the group who have CEO in their titles by typing

CEO above the blue Search button, as I have on the following screen.


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As you can see, that search returned 46 members from this group.

One of the biggest benets of LinkedIn groups is that I can now send a message through Linke-dIn directly to anyone who is a member of the group.

They may be a rst-, second- or third-degree connection, but they do not need to be. I am associ-

ated to them simply by being a member of this group.

We Are the WorldThrough groups, you have the ability to network with members who not only reside in your

state or country, but also with those who live in other parts of the world!

For instance, a fellow group member of mine resides in the Czech Republic, as seen by his prole

below:


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He is not currently a connection of mine. But since we are connected though this group, I am

able to send him a direct message. (I can also request that he become a connection of mine.)

Isnt it amazing all of the things you can do within your LinkedIn account?

Discussions

Heres another . . .You can start a discussion with other members of your group. Why not tap into the minds of

the professionals who know your industry the best?

To start a discussion

From the top line of the LinkedIn home page, click Groups

From the resulting drop-down menu, click My Groups

Under the name of the group, such as International Parking Institute, click Actions

From the resulting drop-down menu, click Start a Discussion, as shown below


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LinkedIn Answers

With LinkedIn Answers, you can post a question about a certain business-related topic. OtherLinkedIn members can browse the questions and write their responses.

Asking people you know for business advice is the most common use of your professional

network, said Keith Rabois, vice president of business and corporate development at LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Answers allows users to gain insight and knowledge from people you trust and tap

into a powerful network of thousands of experts in almost every eld.

The service is free and currently allows users to ask ten questions a month.

LinkedIn states: Experts receive expertise credentials for everybest answer they providethis

becomes part of their LinkedIn prole, informing other users that they are a proven expert on

that topic. . . LinkedIn will promote their expertise to other users, providing an opportunity forconsultants, contractors and other service provider to build social capital and market their ser-

vices to professionals whose questions they answer.


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If you are the one to respond using LinkedIn Answers, members can see examples of your

knowledge and experience by reading the answers. They will also get an idea of how helpful or

enthusiastic you are in a professional environment.

Heres how to get started with LinkedIn Answers:

From the top line of the LinkedIn home page, click More

From the resulting drop-down menu, click Answers

From the next screen you will be able to Ask a Question or Answer Questions.

To ask a question of your network, type your question in the box below Ask a Question, then

click the blue Send button.

If you are willing to help establish yourself as a LinkedIn-designated Expert, click the Answer

Questions link to get started. You will nd the link just below and to the right of the More link.

Once you click the link, you will be able to browse the Open Questions, as shown below:


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If you are able and would like to answer a question, hover your cursor over the question as it

appears just to the right of Q:. The question will turn into a hyperlink. Click on the link and

you will get a screen like this:


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You can then click on the yellow Answer button.

Or, if you would like to honor a colleague, a client or potential client, click the Suggest Expertbutton.

Clicking the Select Expertbutton a second time will allow you to choose a connection from your

network to answer the question.

In the entry box below the button, you can optionally type a message to the person who has

asked the question to indicate why the person you are recommending is an Expert in this area.


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LinkedIn Experts

If you would like to see who have already established themselves as Experts on LinkedIn, click

on the Experts tab, which is below and to the right ofBrowse Open Questions.

When you do so, you will see something like this:

It may surprise you that these Experts, judging by the number of Answers given this week, are

using LinkedIn as a vital part of their marketing strategy! They are attempting to win businessfrom new clients by becoming a trusted member of the community. This is a key concept in the new

realm of social media marketing.

You may ask, How can I become a LinkedIn Expert?

LinkedIn says, Earning expertise is as easy as 1-2-3:

1.Find questions in the areas you know

2.Browse questions to nd categories familiar to you

3.Answer those questions

4.Remember, private answers wont help you earn expertise

5.Every time the questioner picks your answer best, you gain a point of expertise6.The more points of expertise, the higher you appear on lists of experts.

When you see a green star on a LinkedIn members prole, you know that person has proven

their expertise by answering LinkedIn Questions.


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2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional twItter 85

Getting Started on TwitterWhat is it?According to the Los Angeles Times, a

recent LinkedIn Research Network/

Harris Poll found that the majorityof common folk surveyed still have

little idea what Twitter is.

Of the 2,025 U.S. adults surveyed,

69% said they didnt know enough about Twit-

ter to comment on the service.

Lets begin to change that . . .

Twitter is a Website that allows its users to

send and read messages called tweets. Tweets

are messages of up to 140 characters.

But Why Not Just Send a TextMessage?A typical text message is usually only sent to

one or several people at a time. A tweet may

be sent to or viewed by hundreds or even

thousands of people at once.

The Language of Twitter

Like much of social media, Twitter has a lan-guage all of its own. Lets start to dene some

of these terms.

TweetsUsers may subscribe to other users messag-

es or tweetsthis is known as following and

subscribers are known as followers. When

you choose to follow another Twitter user, that

users tweets appear in reverse chronological

order on your main Twitter page. Unlike with

Facebook or LinkedIn, you do not need to rstget permission to follow another person on

Twitter.

Once you get a Twitter account, you can elect

to get instant, brief insights from dozens of in-

dustry experts, just as soon as they think of

them and tweet them!

How to Send a Message toOther Twitter UsersStart your tweet from your Twitter

home page by typing the @sign fol-lowed by the intended recipients

Twitter username. If you do not

type the letter d before the @ sign

(as explained below), this message will be able

to be viewed by other Twitter users.

Direct MessagesAll tweets are public, unless they are sent as

direct messages. To send a private notica-

tion to that individual person, type the letter dfollowed by a Twitter username. A direct mes-

sage is similar to the e-mail or text message

you send now to just one person.

HashtagsA hashtag consists of words or phrases in a

tweet prexed by a #.

Why should you use a hashtag in your mes-

sage? Other Twitter users search for tweets

on a particular topic by typing, for example#SuperBowl. If you included that particular

hashtag in your tweet, they will be able see

your tweet when they do a search using that

hashtag.

How Much Does Twitter Cost?All users can send and receive tweets via the

Twitter Website or their smartphones. The

service is free, except for any phone service

provider fees.

How Popular is Twitter?Since its creation in March 2006 and its

launch in July 2006, Twitter has gained popu-

larity worldwide. It is estimated that Twitter

now has 200 million users, generating 65 mil-

lion tweets a day and handling over 800,000

search queries per day.


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Why the Word Twitter?[W]e came across the word twitter, and it was just

perfect. The denition was a short burst of incon-

sequential information, and chirps from birds.

And thats exactly what the product was.

Twitter founderJack Dorsey

So what? Why should I care?The University of Oklahoma uses a Twitter

feed for several reasons:

Indentify the best places on campus to

park.

Provide information on lot closures due

to construction.

Answer parking questions from the

campus community in real time.

A typical post from the universitys parking

staff: Good Monday morning, drivers! Youll

nd open spaces (175) in the Asp Avenue ga-

rage and 150 in the Elm Avenue garage.

The University of California at Irvine, Geor-

gia State, and Texas A&M are just a few of the

other universities that use Twitter to provide

up-to-the minute information on parking

conditions.

Tony Hsieh has used Twitter to help build Zap-

pos into the worlds largest online shoe store.

Your parking facility can benet from his free

insights! Get a quick introduction to Twitter

from Twitter evangelist Tony Hsieh at: http://

twitter.zappos.com/start.

To see how you can use Twitter to promote

your parking facility, please visit http://busi-

ness.twitter.com:


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To follow in real time what people are saying about you and your parking facility on Twitter, type

in what your search words at: http://search.twitter.com, then press the Search button.

How do I get started? Go to www.twitter.com


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Click the yellow Sign Up Now button

Type your desired username, perhaps incorporating the name of your parking facility (up

to 15 characters), password and a unique e-mail address.


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By clicking the Create My Accountbutton, you are agreeing to Twitters Terms of Service. (You

can read the Terms of Serviceand the Privacy Policy by clicking on those two particular links.)


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Type the CAPTCHA code in the Type the Words Above text box, so that Twitter knows that a

real human is attempting to set up a Twitter account.

Click the Finish button.


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Let Twitter Know What Your Interests Are

Choose some topics that you are interested in following by clicking the appropriate link,such asBusiness


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Then, for the individual Twitter accounts you may be interested in following under that

topic (such as consumerreports), click the Follow button.

Slide the scroll bar at the right side of your screen to see more options. When nished, click the blue Next Step: Friends button at the bottom of the screen.


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Who Would You Like to Follow on Twitter?

The fun of social media, and Twitter specically, is interacting with other peoplein 140character bursts!

Which e-mail service do you use? If it is shown as an option, click one of the e-mail but-

tons, or the LinkedIn button, to discover which of your friends or connections are already

using Twitter. For instance, I clicked the LinkedIn button, and received the following re-

sults:


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Choosing to Follow Your Friends or Connections

62 of my LinkedIn connections are currently on Twitter. I can select to follow one or moreof them on Twitter by clicking the light blue Follow button across from their name.

I can view more of my LinkedIn connections by sliding the scroll bar at the right side of

the screen.

After you have nished determining which of your friends to follow, go to the e-mail ac-

count that you entered in the rst Twitter screen.

In your e-mail account, you should nd a conrmation e-mail there from Twitter.

Open the e-mail, click on the link, and you will see a screen similar to the following:


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Step 2Get Twitter on your phone

If you would like to receive tweets on your mobile phone, go to Step 2 on the right side ofthe screen, click the Set up mobile notications link

You will get a screen that looks like this:


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Choose your country or region, enter your mobile phone number, and then verify your

phone by clicking the Startbutton

This service is free from Twitter, but standard message and data rates from your phonecompany may apply

You will be able to send tweets by using the text messaging feature on your phone

Let Your Followers Know Who You AreCreate a Twitter Prole At the very top of the screen, click the Prole link, and you will be taken to a screen that

looks like this:


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Create Your Prole

You may be a good egg, but lets start by replacing that Picture in your Prole!To Upload Your Picture (so that your followers know that it is really you that they are following):


From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the le in which that fantastic digital

photograph of you is stored


Click the Save button, and your picture will be uploaded to Twitter.

Finish your prole by adding your Location, a URL for your Web site and a Bio (maximum of 160

charactersthis is Twitter, after all!) Click the Save button when you are done.

You are Now Ready to Write Your First Tweet! Click the Home link at the very top of your screen


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Under 4. Write your rst Tweet! click theTellthe world whats happening in 140 characters

or less link


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In the pop up box, type your rst tweetof 140 characters or less.

As you type, the number of characters you have remaining will count down and be dis-played next to the Tweetbutton.

When you are satised with your message, click the Tweetbutton

Your new Tweet will appear on the left side of the screen, under the Timeline tab. This is

known as your Twitter Stream, as shown below.


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Your Twitter Stream

Contains your tweets and the tweets of those you follow in a chronological order, with themost recent tweets on top.

To see new tweets, refresh your browser.

Each tweet appears in a rectangular box. If you hover your cursor over the box, the box will

change in color from white to blue and links will appear:

Click the Favorite link (with the star) to add that tweet to your Favorites list. Click the Retweetlink (with the double arrow) so that you can forward the tweet to yourfollowers

Click the Reply link (with the single arrow) to send a message back to the person whosent the tweet

@ RepliesAn @reply is a tweet that is directed specically to one Twitter user, but is public and visible by

all Twitter users.

To send an @reply to someonefrom your Twitter home page, in the text box under Whats

happening?, type the @ symbol and (without a space) his or her Twitter username. Then type

your message and click the Tweetbutton.


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How it works . . .You are following Amy and Bob.

But Bob isnt following Amy.

If you send an @reply to Amy, that reply wont

show up in Bobs feed. But if Bob is following

Amy, he would also see that reply in his Twit-ter stream.

Direct Messages (DMs) Are private notes you send through Twit-

ter

Like regular tweets and @replies, are

limited to 140 characters

Can only be seen by the recipient

Can only be sent to a Twitter user who is

following you

Only your own followers can send you a

Direct Message

To Send a Direct Message: From your home page, on the right side

of the screen, under Followers, click on

the photograph of the person to whom

you want to send a Direct Message.

On the left side of the resulting screen,

click the Message button

In the text box that pops up, type your

message (up to 140 characters)

Click the Send button

Alternatively, to Send a Direct Message: Click in the Whats happening? textbox

Type d followed by a space, then the

Twitter username of the person to whom

you want to send a Direct Message

Type a space after his username and

then type your message

Click the Tweetbutton to send the mes-sage

If You Would Like to Follow a Person Whois Following You

Click the Follow button, just to the left

of the Send button

Replying to Tweets Hover your cursor over the tweet

The background color of the tweet will

change in color from white to blue

Click on the back arrow Reply link

A text box will pop up, pre-populated with

@ and the persons Twitter username Type your message, up to 140 characters

minus the number of characters needed

by @username

Click the Tweetbutton

Remember, ff your Twitter account is

public, your @replies are also public

Should you desire to send a private

message, follow the steps to send a Di-

rect Message

Retweeting To forward a tweet you have received

on to your followers, begin by hovering

your cursor over the tweet

The background color of the tweet will

change from white to blue

Click the double arrow Retweetlink

A box will pop up that says Retweet this

to your followers?

Click the blue Retweetbutton

Searching for People on Twitter Use Twitter Search (http://search.twit-

ter.com)

Use People Search on Twitter (http://

twitter.com/search/users)

From your Twitter home page, click the

Find People link in the upper right of the

screen

Go to the Google home page and type

the rst name, last name of the person

and Twitter in the search box

Three Quick Ways to Use Twitter to Pro-mote Your Business

Tweet links to photos on the Web from

parking facility events

Tweet links to new content on your

Website

Tweet links to parking facility-related

articles on the Web


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social media marketing guide for the parking professional

Documents