social mediasocial media marketing guide for the parking professional by ted janusz kenmoe avenue...

SOCIALMEDIAMARKETING GUIDE

For The Parking Professional

By Ted Janusz

SOCIALMEDIAMARKETING GUIDE

For The Parking Professional

By Ted Janusz

Kenmoe AvenueSuite 200

Fredericksburg, Va. 22410540.371.7535

www.parking.org

2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION i

2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking ProfessionalIsn’t 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? Let’s look at the facts.

Do you realize:■■ Nearly 247 million Americans use the Internet—that’s 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 to Understand 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 let’s 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 55–65. Why? With the rest of their family on Facebook (the average user now spends an hour a day on the site), it’s 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:

■■ Radio—38 years■■ Television—13 years■■ The Internet—4 years■■ iPod—3 years

Facebook, on the other hand, has added 100 million users—in just the last nine months!

Here, according to the Facebook Global Moni-tor, is a listing of the percent of a country’s citizens (not just the percent of those citizens who are online) who currently maintain a profile on Facebook:

■■ Iceland—53%■■ Norway—46%■■ Canada—42%■■ Hong Kong—40.5%■■ United Kingdom—40%■■ United States—35.5%■■ Chile—35%■■ Israel—32.5%■■ Bahamas—30.5%

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.

2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION ii

How Can You Learn About Social Media . . . 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 Marketing SuccessThis 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 prospects and developing relationships.

You won’t 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 Take Me? After All I Have a Parking Facility 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, let’s learn the basics of how to ef-fectively use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

2011 Social Media Marketing Guide for the Parking Professional INTRODUCTION iii

The Author of this Guide Ted 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 the University 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 Guide My 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 Facebook2.Getting Started on LinkedIn3.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?

We’ll 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 business connections and opportunities.

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 (that’s 1/12 of the world’s population) in seven years. Time magazine named Mark Zuck-erberg, Facebook’s 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-file, add other users as friends and exchange messages on the site. Facebook users now post a 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 Facebook”On 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-site’s membership was initially limited to Har-vard students (within the first month, more than half of the undergraduate population was 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, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.

Profiles and PagesUsers can create profiles 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 user’s name and profile picture (if ap-plicable) to be accessible by everyone.

The website is free to users, and generates revenue from advertising.

How Much is the Company Worth?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 user’s friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. A notification is then sent to the friend to indicate that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.


So what? Why should I care?Facebook provides unique, and free, ways to reach its 600 million users.

People have a “profile” 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.

Profile 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 on FacebookSeton Hall University and Rutgers University have parking-specific Facebook pages with updates on parking and other transportation services.

To create a page for your parking facility on Facebook (which is free), first register for a Facebook profile.


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 it’s typed correctly!)

• Password (I used a Password of 6 alphanumeric characters here.)

• Sex

• Birthday

·


■■ 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 let’s find your friends on Facebook!


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 ProfileThis step will help you find friends from your high school, college or university, and your em-ployer who are already on Facebook.


As you fill 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:


At this point, you are probably saying to yourself, “So that’s what they look like now!”

To Add people you know, simply click the Add as friend link under the person’s name.

When you do, that person will be notified that you would like to add them as a Facebook friend. They can either confirm 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 finished, click the blue Save & Continue button.


Choose Your Profile 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 profile photo:■■ Click the Upload a Photo link■■ A new text box will appear:


■■ Click the Browse button■■ From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the file in which that fantastic digital photograph of you is stored!


■■ Click the Open button ■■ Your picture will be uploaded to your Facebook profile.


Alternatively, if you have a Webcam, you can click the Take a Photo link to get your profile pic-ture and follow the instructions.

Click the blue Save & Continue button.


Welcome to FacebookTo help your friends find you when they are looking to add friends on Facebook, provide addi-tional information about yourself.

Click the Edit Profile bton.

You will see the first of several data entry screens that you can complete to tell your friends, and your potential friends, about yourself:


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 Facebook’s 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:


As you can see, at this point Everyone (which can include anyone surfing the Facebook site) can see (if you have made entries in the following fields in your profile):

■■ Your status, photos and posts■■ Bio and favorite quotations■■ Family and relationships

Only Friends of Friends can see this information, plus:■■ Photos and videos you’re 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 profile by clicking the Edit Profile button at the upper right of the screen.

As you do, at any time you may click the View My Profile button at the upper right of your screen to see your work-in-progress.


Feel free to click on any of the Edit links, the Edit Profile button, or the icons on the screen to provide additional information that you would like to share about yourself.


Create a Facebook PageNow that you are personally represented on the most popular networking site, let’s create a presence on Facebook for your business.

Go to www.facebook.com/pages

Click the Create Page button in the upper right corner.


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:


Let’s start to build your Facebook page!

Step 1—Add an image. Click the Upload an Image link■■ A new text box will appear.■■ Click the Browse button■■ From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the file in which a digital photograph of you, your building or your logo is stored


■■ Click the Open button ■■ Your image will be uploaded to your Facebook page.


You’ll 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 2—Invite 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


Step 3—Tell your fans. You can let contacts in your e-mail address book know that you have a Facebook page and a new way to interact with your business:

■■ Click the Import Contacts button■■ Enter your e-mail address and password■■ Click the Find Contacts button


Building Interesting ContentAdd to your new Facebook page, so that your fans (“people who like this”) will want to come back for 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

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 for business.

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.

It’s All About ConnectionsThe main purpose of LinkedIn is to allow its more 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 a number 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-degree connections (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 find peo-ple and business opportunities recom-mended by someone in one’s contact network.

How Popular is LinkedIn?A new member signs up 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.

That’s the power of LinkedIn!

Compared to the other two major social net-working sites, LinkedIn’s users are:

■■ Older (median age: 41)■■ Wealthier (six-figure 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 be free.

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


Type your■■ First Name■■ Last Name■■ E-mail Address■■ Password you would like to use for LinkedIn—at least 6 characters long

Click the green Join LinkedIn button


As the next screen indicates, Let’s get your professional profile 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 profile, 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 your Job Title■■ Click the blue Create my profile button.


Your LinkedIn ProfileWhat is a LinkedIn Profile? Think of your profile as your personal home page to the business world. Your profile is like a real-time, up-to-date resume that gives a complete picture of your background, qualifications and skills.

At any time, you can go to www.linkedin.com and click the Profile link in the top-left corner to access your LinkedIn profile to view or edit your profile.

Creating Your LinkedIn ProfileClick on Profile and then Edit Profile from the resulting drop-down menu, and you will see a screen that looks similar to the following:


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


On this screen, you can fill 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 people’s 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 Profile screen with the note The information has been successfully updated at the top of the screen, as shown below:


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

Next, we will add your Profile 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:


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


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 click on My Pictures or other subsequent folders until you find where you store the images from your digital camera.)

Once you have located the photo you would like to use as your Profile photograph, click once on the image and then click the Open button, as shown below.


LinkedIn will return you to the Upload a Photo screen with the file name that describes the photograph you just inserted.


Click the blue Upload Photo button, and . . . Voila! . . . LinkedIn will update your Profile and tell you on the subsequent screen that Your picture has been saved.


You can select who can view your new profile photo:■■ Your Connections—these are the people who are connected to you through the LinkedIn site.

■■ Your Network—these are the people you are linked to through your connections. ■■ Everyone—anyone 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.


You now have a photo associated with your LinkedIn profile. 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.


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 article’s URL:


Click the blue Attach button, then decide whether to make this announcement visible to any-one who may search your profile 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 tweet to 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 Current position. I have entered my position here as a “Regis-tered Agent at American Federated Insurance” by clicking the Edit link to the right of my entry. Doing so will bring up a new screen. You can now change or add the following information in the boxes on the screen:


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

To the right of Time 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 profile 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 Past positions by clicking the Add a past position link.


You will see an entry screen that is very similar to the Current position entry screen we just completed:


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 qualifications, click the Add a school link.

Enter information for the fields on the following screen, and then click the blue Save Changes button:


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 expect us 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 marketing puffery.

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!


To request a Recommendation in LinkedIn, begin by clicking Profile, 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 profile 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:


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


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 have known 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:


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:


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 benefits of LinkedIn is that, once you have established a connection with someone, you will always have a live link to that person. It doesn’t 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 first-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.

Let’s get started to establish your network of connections!


Establishing ConnectionsIn the upper right corner of your Profile screen, click the Add Connections link

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


On the left side of the screen you can See Who You Already Know on LinkedIn by 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. Don’t do it! (I don’t 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 don’t 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 bulk—to your entire contact list if you want. However, even though it’s easy to do, it’s 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 wouldn’t want that!).”


Recipients of your LinkedIn invitation will see an I Don’t 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 profile 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

Let’s 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 won’t be able to “view all,” since the results you will see will be limited to 50 of your colleagues.)


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 of Add 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 it’s access to them or their network. If you’ve sent a canned Invitation, what they can’t answer is the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’ A canned Invitation gives no motivation for or potential benefit of being connected to you. A custom note explaining that you’d love to swap resources or introduce them to others is usually enough to encourage an acceptance.”


Adding ClassmatesIn addition to colleagues at present or past companies, you could probably receive benefit by linking yourself to present or past classmates. And they could benefit 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 profile: I was surprised to find the names of 77 of my classmates, as shown in the screen below. (That number is about half the number of students we had in the entire graduate school that year!)


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 profile picture of these people are shown, click the Connect link for any who you would like to add to your network.


Returning to Your ProfileNow that we have added to your network, let’s return to build your Profile, so that current and potential connections would know how they could help you and you could help them. Click on the Profile link.


WebsitesNext, let’s 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.


Twitter Do you have a Twitter account? Do you tweet?

If you don’t currently, don’t worry. We’ll 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 account link.


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


Public ProfileThe next option in your Profile 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 Profile, click on Public Profile

You will notice that automatically anyone who views your Profile will see basic information:■■ Name■■ Industry■■ Location■■ Your number of recommendations

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


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 reflect achievements and experiences on your profile.

Click the Add sections link, as shown below:


LinkedIn gives you the option to add:■■ Certifications■■ Languages■■ Patents■■ Skills

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


These sections can include:■■ Certifications—such as CAPP■■ Languages—and whether you have native or bilingual proficiency, professional working proficiency, or elementary proficiency

■■ Applications—such a link to your blog

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

To demonstrate more of your industry knowledge to clients and prospective clients, click the Add a position link.


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.


PublicationsHave you written an article, research paper or book?

Click the Add a Publication link and enter descriptive information about your work.


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 profiles 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 significantly. But if you did not add this information to your profile, the potential client may never know.

Here is how to capture that additional information in LinkedIn:


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


Click the blue Save Changes button and you’re done!

RecommendationsLinkedIn says that users with recommendations are three times as likely to get inquiries through LinkedIn searches.

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


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


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!)


2.To decide who you’ll ask, click the LinkedIn icon, which you will find 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-filled Subject line and e-mail body of the text shown, or you can enter your own.


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


Enter the person’s First Name, Last Name and e-mail address, or even easier, click the select from your connections list link.

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


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


Next, click the button to indicate that this person is either a:■■ Colleague—someone you worked with at the same company■■ Service Provider—someone from another company that you or someone else at your company hired

■■ Business Partner—someone you worked with more closely than as a colleague or client■■ Student—you 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.


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 person’s 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.


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

The connection for whom you have written the recommendation will be notified through Linke-dIn. You can use the standard notification 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 Edit link to the right of Additional 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 final information you can add to your profile (by clicking the Add link to the right of each descriptor) includes:


■■ Honors and Awards■■ Personal Information—should you desire to share it■■ Contact Settings—indicate to LinkedIn users what types of contact you’re interested in■■ Applications—tools provided by LinkedIn’s featured partners

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

LinkedIn GroupsWhy join a group?A LinkedIn group gives you a special association to fellow group members. As a result, you can see their full Profiles and they can appear in your search results, if even they aren’t 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.


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 doesn’t 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 affiliated with the group:

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

On the next screen, you will get notified that your request to join the group is being sent to the group owner for manual approval.


Searching a GroupAfter you have joined a group, you may be interested in finding 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 find specific 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.


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

One of the biggest benefits 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 first-, 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 profile below:


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.)

Isn’t it amazing all of the things you can do within your LinkedIn account?

DiscussionsHere’s 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


LinkedIn AnswersWith LinkedIn Answers, you can post a question about a certain business-related topic. Other LinkedIn 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 field.”

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

LinkedIn states: “Experts receive expertise credentials for every best answer they provide—this becomes part of their LinkedIn profile, informing other users that they are a proven expert on that topic. . . LinkedIn will promote their expertise to other users, providing an opportunity for consultants, contractors and other service provider to build social capital and market their ser-vices to professionals whose questions they answer.”


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.

Here’s 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 find 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:


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:


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 Expert button.

Clicking the Select Expert button 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.


LinkedIn ExpertsIf 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 of Browse 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 business from 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 know2.Browse questions to find categories familiar to you3.Answer those questions4.Remember, private answers won’t 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 member’s profile, you know that person has proven their expertise by answering LinkedIn Questions.

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 majority of common folk surveyed still have little idea what Twitter is.”

Of the 2,025 U.S. adults surveyed, 69% said they didn’t know enough about Twit-ter to comment on the service.

Let’s 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 Text Message?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 TwitterLike much of social media, Twitter has a lan-guage all of its own. Let’s start to define some of these terms.

TweetsUsers may subscribe to other users’ messag-es or tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. When you choose to follow another Twitter user, that user’s tweets appear in reverse chronological order on your main Twitter page. Unlike with Facebook or LinkedIn, you do not need to first get 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 to Other Twitter UsersStart your tweet from your Twitter home page by typing the @ sign fol-lowed by the intended recipient’s 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 notifica-tion to that individual person, type the letter d followed by a Twitter username. A direct mes-sage is similar to the e-mail or text message you send now to just one person.

Hashtags A hashtag consists of words or phrases in a tweet prefixed 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.


Why the Word “Twitter”?[W]e came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of incon-sequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.

—Twitter founder Jack 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 university’s parking staff: “Good Monday morning, drivers! You’ll

find 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 world’s largest online shoe store. Your parking facility can benefit 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:


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


■■ 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.


By clicking the Create My Account button, you are agreeing to Twitter’s Terms of Service. (You can read the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy by clicking on those two particular links.)


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.


Let Twitter Know What Your Interests Are■■ Choose some topics that you are interested in following by clicking the appropriate link, such as Business


■■ 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 finished, click the blue Next Step: Friends button at the bottom of the screen.


Who Would You Like to Follow on Twitter?■■ The fun of social media, and Twitter specifically, is interacting with other people—in 140 character 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:


Choosing to Follow Your Friends or Connections■■ 62 of my LinkedIn connections are currently on Twitter. I can select to follow one or more of 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 finished determining which of your friends to follow, go to the e-mail ac-count that you entered in the first Twitter screen.

■■ In your e-mail account, you should find a confirmation e-mail there from Twitter. ■■ Open the e-mail, click on the link, and you will see a screen similar to the following:


Step 2—Get Twitter on your phone■■ If you would like to receive tweets on your mobile phone, go to Step 2 on the right side of the screen, click the Set up mobile notifications link

■■ You will get a screen that looks like this:


■■ Choose your country or region, enter your mobile phone number, and then verify your phone by clicking the Start button

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

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

Let Your Followers Know Who You Are—Create a Twitter Profile■■ At the very top of the screen, click the Profile link, and you will be taken to a screen that looks like this:


Create Your ProfileYou may be a good egg, but let’s start by replacing that Picture in your Profile!

To Upload Your Picture (so that your followers know that it is really you that they are following):■■ Click the Browse button■■ From the pop-up window, choose the folder and the file in which that fantastic digital photograph of you is stored

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

Finish your profile by adding your Location, a URL for your Web site and a Bio (maximum of 160 characters—this 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


Under 4. Write your first Tweet! click the Tell the world what’s happening in 140 characters or less link


■■ In the pop up box, type your first tweet—of 140 characters or less.■■ As you type, the number of characters you have remaining will count down and be dis-played next to the Tweet button.

■■ When you are satisfied with your message, click the Tweet button■■ 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.


Your Twitter Stream■■ Contains your tweets and the tweets of those you follow in a chronological order, with the most 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 Retweet link (with the double arrow) so that you can forward the tweet to your followers

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

@ RepliesAn @reply is a tweet that is directed specifically to one Twitter user, but is public and visible by all Twitter users.

To send an @reply to someone—from your Twitter home page, in the text box under What’s happening?, type the @ symbol and (without a space) his or her Twitter username. Then type your message and click the Tweet button.


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

But Bob isn’t following Amy.

If you send an @reply to Amy, that reply won’t show up in Bob’s 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 What’s 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 Tweet button to send the mes-sage

If You Would Like to Follow a Person Who is 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 person’s Twitter username

■■ Type your message, up to 140 characters minus the number of characters needed by “@username”

■■ Click the Tweet button■■ 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 Retweet link■■ A box will pop up that says Retweet this to your followers?

■■ Click the blue Retweet button

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 first 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

social mediasocial media marketing guide for the parking professional by ted janusz kenmoe avenue...

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