If you know me, the LAST thing I ever want to be called is a “Social Media Expert” or “Social Media Marketing Coach.” Yech. That ain’t what I do and it ain’t who I am. Ain’t. Ain’t. Ain’t.

There, that feels better… now what I AM is a social media enthusiast. I love it and I think it’s a great tool.

Is it perfect for everyone? No.

Is it useful for some? Yes.

Is it vital for a few? Certainly.

So… to help you ramp up the effectiveness of your social media efforts, you need to know what to say and how to say it.

And most outreach “templates” that these social media tools offer you are pretty weak. Things like the standard LinkedIn connection invite, the Facebook friend connection, and others. No worries, you’re about to get hooked up.

LinkedIn:

Quick Marketing 101 review – Do people care about YOU or do they care about themselves? Yes – that’s right! 5 points. They don’t give a rat’s tushie about you and they care 100% about themselves.

Now look at the standard LinkedIn connection invite:

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I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

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Here’s your new template – notice the switch in focus and benefit. Plus I added a new line with even more value. Finally, I prevented someone from clicking the “I don’t know them” button which LinkedIn penalizes you for:

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I’d like to put my professional network on LinkedIn at your disposal. After we connect, if there’s someone to whom you’d like a personal introduction, just let me know.

If you prefer not to connect at this time, please archive this message now. Thanks in advance.

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Facebook:

You can’t really go wrong here but I still have a useful connection “script” for you.

Let’s say you notice that through your Facebook “Suggestions” (currently on the right side of your home page immediately below the section labelled “Requests”), there are people listed with labels like “37 mutual friends,” “51 mutual friends” and so on.

You can connect with these folks, but chances are excellent that they might not know you from Adam – or Eve. Thus, you need a fun, approachable, and appealing script to drop in when you want to click on them to connect. After you click “Add as Friend” you’ll want to click the link in the dialog box that says “Add a personal message” and type:

Vanessa – Wow! We have 37 mutual friends. We GOTTA connect simply so we can talk about all these people.

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Twitter:

First rule, don’t use automatic Direct Messaging (DM). People hate ’em. I hate ’em. Most savvy Twitter users hate ’em too.

They’re used by spammers, affiliate marketers, and MLM salespeople. Just awful.

Not sure how to set that up? Good. You don’t need to know. Didn’t I just specifically ask you NOT to do it? No matter how “cool, valuable, friendly” you think they are – DON’T do it.

This next bit isn’t a script, it’s more of a practice. It’s called ENGAGEMENT. Rather than simply pumping out clever tweets and retweeting others, build relationships. My formula for social media success (as a social media enthusiast, remember!) is the 3 R’s formula:

Resources – Yes, certainly share your blog posts, your micro-ideas, and retweets of cool links and thoughts from others. Your first week on Twitter, this is fine if it’s all you do. The second week, though, you better get busy with…

Relationships – Build relationships with other users you follow, admire, or resonate with. Use public @ messages to connect with them, comment on their latest contributions, or thank them for an idea. Be detailed – so don’t just tweet “@johndoe Hey – Cool!” Instead tweet this: “@johndoe David, awesome ideas on your blog about those social media scripts. Thanks!!!”

Reciprocity – Once you get the Twitter thing going, you’ve built some good relationships and you’re seen as a valuable resource and contributor, it’s only natural that people will start to promote you with some reciprocal love. They’ll respond to your ideas, they’ll Retweet you, they’ll promote you in their #followfriday recommendations, and they’ll scratch your back as you scratch theirs.

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