Your customers are using social media. That’s no surprise. So is it appropriate for you to join in on the fun and get your business on board? I know what some of you are thinking. “Sure, I know everyone’s using social media, but my company sells products that cost a ton of money and sales can take years to close. I can’t generate a sale, or even a lead, for any of my products using Facebook or Twitter.” If you just said some version of that to yourself, let me reframe the way you might want to think about social media for your business.

All too often, Facebook and Twitter dominate marketing meetings and boardroom conversations about social media, both in B2B and B2C. But social media is far more expansive than just these two behemoth sites. There is almost certainly another platform that will suit your company’s specific needs if neither of “the big two” fit. To shift your social media paradigm, consider the following types of social media outlets and how they might benefit a company with a long or complex sales cycle:

• Photo-sharing sites. Is your product visual or design-related? Help inspire your customers early in the sales cycle with a photo stream on Flickr or Instagram, a Tumblr blog or maybe even a board on Pinterest.
• Video-sharing sites. Does your product have killer demonstrations? Would side-by-side product comparisons help close the deal? If so, video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo could be your golden ticket to capture interest early.
• Message boards. There are message boards for nearly every industry under the sun. If you don’t believe me, check out coffin-talk.net. All you need to do is find out where your target customer goes to ask questions about his/her job and help answer them. This is frequently overlooked, but can be unbelievably successful in finding customers who are ready to buy. The key is to understand the message board’s particular tone before jumping in with a sales pitch.
• Industry blogs. You are probably already reading a few of these to stay on top of industry trends. Why not reach out to them to see if you can write a guest post as a representative of your company? This is a great way to get exposure to new audiences and another effective tactic for early in the buying cycle. If you’re skeptical, consider that you’re reading an example of this right now. Of course, if there are no great industry blogs, perhaps you could create your own. Nothing says “thought leadership” like creating the best content in your industry.
• Professional-networking sites. There’s nothing wrong with cold calling or e-mail campaigns, but a sales team who isn’t engaged on a professional networking site (let’s be honest, we’re talking about LinkedIn) is missing out on a potentially huge opportunity. There is a right way to use LinkedIn, so be sure your sales team knows what they’re doing before they let loose on their own. If done correctly, LinkedIn can be used to generate leads and nurture them all the way through the sale.
• Social-networking sites. I can’t just ignore this. After all, sites like Facebook and Twitter are quite useful for a lot of companies with long sales cycles, but you need to be smart about how you decide to use your account. Using Facebook and Twitter for customer service or simply as a platform to answer customers’ questions is often a great way to get started, though there are countless other ways to use social networks effectively to hit customers at all points during the sales cycle. Before moving on, I need to mention Google+ too. Recent changes to Google search have made it all but necessary for companies to create a G+ page. As always, research is key, so make sure you go in with a plan if you decide to create a page.
• Location-based games. If you have trade shows in your marketing mix, location-based games are a great way to engage an audience and capture early leads. Perhaps you could offer deals or contests for people who check in at your booth.
• Group buying/couponing sites. Group couponing sites have struggled to find their way into B2B, particularly for a complex, expensive sale, so if you have a great idea on how to apply it, I’d love to hear about it!
• Podcasting. Allured by the idea of owning their own radio show to brand their company, many businesses jumped into podcasting without realizing how difficult it is to create and manage a radio show and quickly gave up. But there are more ways to get involved with podcasting than creating your own show. For example, sponsoring a podcast or volunteering to be a guest interviewee on a popular industry podcast are two “early cycle” ways to take advantage of podcasting without the commitment.
• Slide-sharing sites. Do you sell to a target who needs to get approvals from an endless line of executives before he/she can sign on the dotted line? Why not create a sharable slide show (or several) that help your customers sell your product up the chain of command. That way, they have the tools they need to make your case when your salespeople can’t be in the room. Done correctly, slide shows can help you generate leads, then help you again to close the business at the end of the cycle.

In the end, social media may or may not be right for your organization for a lot of reasons, but if you think creatively it can often prove to be a valuable part of your overall B2B marketing mix.

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This interview is with Dave Gowel, who has been recognized as a “LinkedIn Jedi” by Inc.com and The Boston Globe. He is the CEO of RockTech and the author of “The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals, and Change the Way You Do Business Using LinkedIn” (Wiley, December 2011). Gowel co-founded RockTech with Mark Rockefeller to build software that helps corporations increase productivity through quicker adoption of underutilized technology. The interview has been edited for clarity.

A lot of people see LinkedIn as a recruiting or job hunting network. What are some of the other ways professionals can put LinkedIn to work, once they’ve landed that dream job?

I think one of the key ways to think about it is really a relationship filter, that when you put in all the relationships that you already have, it allows you to see the ones that you could have more easily, or get information about potential ones. That’s the real element of LinkedIn that I think is not really utilized as well by primarily senior executives still looking to figure it out, as well as either sales or marketing-minded folks who are outwardly looking: Trying to have that differentiable element that gets them to the person they want to get to.

How I can I turn second- and third-degree connections into valuable first-degree ties?

Well it all starts with your first-degree connections and the quality of them. So we recommend that people create a litmus test and think actively about who they’re connecting to — because then those second- and third-degree connections actually mean something. If you, say, connect to 5,000 people or you just connect to anyone for no reason, then what that does is it might increase your ability to have e-mail address for those people you connect to, but then it doesn’t accurately reflect who those second- and third-degree connections are. So the way to convert them is to start with a really high quality first-degree connection pool that fits your litmus test. The one I generally use is: I’m confident that if I reach out to them, they would either respond to me via e-mail or phone and then they can help progress my business goal.

Where [LinkedIn] really gets useful is thinking about what your business goal is, in terms of who you’re looking to meet, and then you create your advance searches and save them, which basically automates the. So then the search engine automatically looks through those second- or third-degree connections without you even being in LinkedIn and sends you an e-mail with the people you want to get to.

What makes a great LinkedIn status update? How is it different from a great update on Facebook or Twitter or some other social network?

I think every social network has a target audience and people know the dynamics are different for different networks. Twitter is not necessarily mutual acceptance; Facebook is much more social, perhaps more fun. In my mind, in LinkedIn people generally have one key professional focus … and therefore I think it makes sense to think about, before you send a status update, a couple of things. One: Who are you connected to and who do you want to actually see your status update? And also, what you’d want them to do? … And then, the frequency which would be overwhelming to those people — because a lot of time people get excited with that ability to send lots of status updates. But it’s really [important] that you don’t overwhelm them, because LinkedIn does have the ability to hide status updates.

How much does an employee’s profile reflect on their employer’s brand? Are there ways companies can use their employees LinkedIn presence to improve the way a brand is perceived?

That depends on the kind of business. So a consulting firm may have more person-to-person interaction with clients and employees whereas other businesses may have less interaction. But, in general, what we’re seeing is that the customer of any … product or service has more access to see who’s actually responsible for building or delivering that. So without a doubt, if somebody wants to do business with a company, they’re going to look at the company page, which has a lot of information about that company, but what’s even more valuable are the people that are in there. …

In terms of how a company can use the individuals’ profile pages, I think it’s important that companies recognize that the individual owns their LinkedIn profile. If any company tries to infringe on that, then that starts messing with the dynamic of who people will connect to and how they’ll use it or how they won’t use it. … Don’t send out a boilerplate thing that’s impersonal — because this is still a socially inclined network — but provide some guidance. ‘To be consistent with the message that we want to project as a company, to align us all, we’d appreciate these keywords, these messages.’ Maybe give recommendations for your peers or request recommendations from your clients.

What’s the biggest mistake you see people making on LinkedIn?

Depends on the person. Generally, I think it’s over-excitement about the potential. And either trying to say too much and including way too much information in a profile that’s overwhelming, or doing too many status updates or group postings too often. Or not thinking about who their target market is and what they’re trying to accomplish.

I think it’s important to think of LinkedIn as a business tool that is going to accomplish a goal for you. Now, that goal can change throughout the lifetime of your career. So for instance, if you’re job searching now and you get that job and you become a salesperson, well then you want to … use LinkedIn in a way that’s going to help you do lots of sales. And now, leading a bunch of sales people, you have to think as a leader hiring other people.

Is there a big difference, in terms of best practices, in terms of how job seekers use LinkedIn and sales professionals use it?

I would say the basics are generally the same. It’s always important, whenever you’re in a networking situation, you don’t want to be seen as ‘that guy’ who’s just looking to do something for themselves. … Generally, the way I break it down is: Actively look to give before you receive — which I think applies to both. If you can provide some value or some information to a client when you’re selling, that’s equally as valuable as when you’re trying to meet somebody and get an introduction to something that can get you a job, the mutual contact is someone you might want to try to make an introduction for, do something of value for. …

The difference is that when you’re job seeking it’s a lot harder to know who has the relationships that are about to open up a position. There’s a lot of knowledge about those job that are out there now — but the really valuable ones that you can get to are the ones that haven’t been posted, that when someone who you know happens to be like ‘I just talking to my friend and he said that they’re going to be opening up a position. I think you’d be a good fit for’ — obviously the earlier you can get in, the better chance you’ll have of getting an early interview and maybe even getting the job before they post it.

What’s your take on Facebook apps such as BeKnown that are trying to offer a LinkedIn experience within Facebook?

I think it’s still a very much evolving ecosystem. There’s a lot of data out there, there’s a lot of relationships and there’s a lot of motivation for people to use their relationships to help other people find jobs, either because of their job or because they’re friends. So it’s a very interesting market for me, because I think it still has a lot to be proven in terms of how people are going to be most comfortable sharing knowledge, making introductions and referrals, etc. I think it’s important to watch them all if you are a job seeker.

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This e-mail question-and-answer session is with Joshua Waldman. He is the founder of CareerEnlightenment.com and the author of the new book “Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies.” Sign up for his newsletter and get access to his exclusive training videos for free.

How does one get started building a personal brand? How is personal branding different from corporate branding?

The main difference between you and a tube of Crest toothpaste is that you have feelings. Therefore, a personal brand needs to start with the individual rather than the problem that is solved. There are two main benefits of starting your personal branding with introspection.

First, when you start to evaluate your values, passions and aspirations, it becomes a whole lot simpler to make career decisions later on. For instance, if you value sustainability, you will probably decline an offer from an oil company, no matter how big the offer. If this value wasn’t clear for you, imagine the hours and days of indecision.

Second, when you understand your values and what makes you the best at what you do, then your branding messages become congruent, consistent and believable. Here is a great article about the importance of online consistency.

How are online resumes different from paper ones? What’s the key to a great online resume?

In fact, there are many important differences between a paper and an online resume. It would be a mistake to simply copy and paste one to the other.

A key benefit to having an online resume is that it contains keywords. And keywords are the fuel for getting found online. Using certain keywords in headers, URLs and links can get you ranking on Google’s Page 1. Don’t know where to find your keywords? Read this article, “5 Sources of Finding Keywords for Your Social Media Profile.”

Another important element of an online resume is formatting. Most people don’t read their screens; they scan them. So lengthy paragraphs that might look sophisticated on paper deter most online readers. Some formatting tips when putting together your online resume:

1. Make good use of white space. Too much screen clutter is hard to scan.
2. Divide your resume up with clear headers and bullets. Headers and bullets allow for easy scanning.
3. Because this is an online resume, you can use hyperlinks, images and video in creative ways. This keeps the page visually interesting.

A lot of advice for LinkedIn focuses on using keywords. How do people determine which keywords on which to focus to position themselves for the job they want?

Using keywords to rank on LinkedIn is fine. However, this actually isn’t the real strength of this network. Frankly, LinkedIn’s search algorithms are weak and often favor people who employ keyword packing. If you truly want to get found, build a strong network. This is my caveat to people employing a keyword strategy.

Finding keywords is easy. One source is job boards, because they are written by hiring managers looking for what you do. Other sources include the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook and Google’s keyword tool. I talk more extensively on keyword research in my article “5 Sources of Finding Keywords for Your Social Media Profile.”

What kinds of people should one be asking for LinkedIn recommendations? What does a good LinkedIn recommendation look like?

The best sources for recommendations are superiors and customers. It’s too easy to get recommendations from peers, and, frankly, most human resources people write these off.

Keep in mind that a LinkedIn recommendation is not the same as a traditional recommendation letter. Letters are longer and have a defined form, intro, three supporting paragraphs and conclusion. On LinkedIn, recommendations are short and don’t follow a set form. There are some guidelines, however, that I would suggest following.

1. Write recommendation in a normal speaking voice, not formal, stuffy business speak.
2. Make sure there is a concrete example or story that is shared. If you say, “Bill does great under pressure,” you better prove it.
3. Keep the copy to three main points. So it will be make a point, tell a story; make a point, tell a story; etc.

A good rule of thumb is to have about 10% of your network in your recommendations.

Is it a good idea to reach out to a manager via social media ahead of applying for a job? Before the interview? Afterward? What’s the etiquette for those communications?

I teach my clients, and in the book, a four-step method for reaching out to hiring managers online.

1. Find the company to which you are applying on LinkedIn, then find people in the company you can invite to an info interview and who might be a hiring manager. Only take notes at this point.
2. Identify the main problems at the organization. Read industry blogs, news sites or LinkedIn groups to get a temperature of its initiatives.
3. Reach out to the info-interview sources and see whether you can identify the hiring manager and what the person cares about.
4. Engage with the hiring manager by leading with how you can add value. Because you’ve already connected with an info-interview source on LinkedIn, you can probably get an introduction to the hiring manager, which is preferable, then a direct message.

Using this method is a great way to get exposure before or during your application. Here are some LinkedIn e-mail templates I give away for free on my blog.

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LinkedIn is a business networking site that has become an invaluable resource for business people around the world — including lawyers. The site facilitates easy networking and linking to associates and business acquaintances, enhancing an existing business network and expanding it even further. LinkedIn also recently released its own application platform that makes an already-useful network even more important to business people and lawyers alike.

Making a name for yourself. The old saying in business “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is more valid than ever before. LinkedIn is an excellent way to expand any attorney’s network of associates or clients. LinkedIn is also somewhat less time-intensive than other social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, so LinkedIn is perfect for any professional wanting to make contacts but not spend a lot of time regularly updating statuses or comments.

When you have a LinkedIn profile, you make it easier for other professionals within your industry to find you. It’s also a good way for potential new clients to locate you. That alone should be an incentive to have a well-written profile stocked with meaty keywords. Take the time to fill out your profile as completely as possible so that potential employers and clients can see the full breadth of your skills. It’s a good idea to link your profile to writing samples from your blog, a law journal or another website.

LinkedIn also offers you a great way to ask questions of others within your industry. There are plenty of other attorneys on LinkedIn willing to engage in public discussions — this can be a great networking tool. In return, you also have the ability to respond to questions that may have been asked by potential clients. This increases your professional visibility.

Finally, LinkedIn is the ideal site to have previous employers or previous clients leave recommendations or positive comments about your services and skills. This can be an invaluable way for prospective new clients to check out your skills and level of customer satisfaction prior to hiring you.

You may also prompt others to leave recommendations for you if you’re willing to leave one on someone else’s profile first. Remember to keep your comments professional and positive at all times. Your comment may be important to a potential employer or prospective client viewing that person’s profile — but what you write reflects on you too.

Keep up with the competition. LinkedIn can offer attorneys a way to keep up with what others within your industry are up to — including your closest competitors. By keeping up to date with who your own network contacts are befriending, you have the opportunity to see when other lawyers are leaving firms — or even starting their own firms. You can also look at the questions being asked by their prospective clients. This gives you the opportunity to consider how you would answer those same questions before you approach a new client.

Getting new introductions. One of the biggest hurdles to networking is finding the right people who can expand your circle of influence. LinkedIn makes it easy to spot and befriend these superconnectors. Fellow lawyers, prospective clients and others within your industry sphere will be happy to be introduced to someone within the same industry.

Keeping up with new features. In recent weeks, LinkedIn has made several updates that include some additions that could be useful for attorneys. You can now segregate your contacts by group within LinkedIn. This makes it easy to follow any discussions within particular groups, or search for specific people or topics within other groups. This is an extremely useful feature for lawyers wanting to segregate professional groups from client contacts for easier reference.

Mobile applications for the network means there’s no need to worry about getting back to the office to keep up with LinkedIn contacts. Now there’s a very handy iPhone app for LinkedIn available for those who need to stay in touch even when out of the office.

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Donna Farrugia is executive director of The Creative Group, a specialized staffing firm that places a comprehensive range of design and marketing professionals with organizations. She has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, business development and management. I interviewed Farrugia on the trend of using social-networking websites for business and how executives can create and maintain an effective online presence. An edited version of her answers follows.

What are the best ways to use social networking for business?

In addition to networking, these sites allow professionals to engage with others and highlight their skills and expertise. But it’s important to always be careful about what you post and with whom you’re sharing the information. Sharing links to news articles relevant to your industry or commenting on others’ posts, for example, are great ways to demonstrate your knowledge of and passion for a certain topic. Providing updates on recent career accomplishments, such as a project you completed, also gives existing and prospective business contacts an idea of where you are in your career.

If you’re looking for work, you can help potential employers or clients find you online by optimizing your profile with words that describe your skills, specialties and positions of interest. For example, if you’re a copywriter specializing in health care, you must include terms such as “copywriter,” “health care” and “ad copy” into your profile for search engines to find these keywords.

What sites are best for professional social networking? Do you recommend that people have separate profiles for personal and professional connections?

There are plenty of professional and social networks out there, and the key is to find one or a few that you feel comfortable using, then focus your efforts on developing a strong presence on those sites. Facebook and LinkedIn are big networking sites, but there are also sites tailored to specific industries. These networks, while smaller, might offer unique benefits, such as the ability to more easily connect with professionals from your field and find news and events that affect your career and business directly.

Many people balk at the idea of managing multiple e-mail accounts, and the same goes for social media profiles. Tools such as Facebook Groups and Google+ Circles also are making it easier for people to separate professional from personal contacts in one account. It doesn’t matter how many accounts you create but rather how you manage and monitor information you’re sharing with people in your networks.

What should people be wary of when it comes to social networking in their career? How do people maintain a professional yet interesting online presence?

No matter how careful you are about using privacy settings to control who in your network sees what information, you never know who might ultimately view your posts. Information can easily and quickly get passed around. So, avoid posting anything too controversial, and never speak negatively of a current or former employer or client. Also, avoid publishing anything that could damage your reputation, even to an audience of friends. You don’t want comments made in the heat of the moment coming back to haunt you.

Giving others a sense of your personality is key to building and maintaining quality and long-lasting relationships. Talking about your hobbies, for example, can give others a good sense of your passions, even if they’re not entirely relevant to your career.

What are the best ways for professionals to utilize multimedia features of social media, such as pictures?

For creative professionals, especially, utilizing multimedia tools is a great way to enhance their online profiles. For example, you can create albums on Facebook or Flickr of your recent design work, or use TwitPic and other photo-sharing tools to visually show potential employers or clients what you’ve been working on. It’s an effective way to showcase your skills and how you’ve applied them in a business setting.

Video is another popular source for information and, if used appropriately, can be an effective way to report on career-related news. For example, if you’re an information technology professional who likes to test products, you might consider creating short videos of your latest discoveries and reviews; it’s another way to demonstrate your passion for an area that pertains to your career.

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