As I said earlier, people like to connect with other people. People connect with those who have similar backgrounds, interests, and occupations. I’ve seen many strategies to establish and nourish connections. Here are the strategies that work for me.

1. Quote famous people. I have found web sites listing quotes by Paul McCartney and Napoleon Hill. I simply copy and paste them into my online postings. I send these quotes to my blog, which creates shortcuts at Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I do not know why posting 14 days of Paul McCartney quotes establishes connections—I just know that re-quoting works.
2. Share your challenges and successes. I wrote (from my cell phone), “I am halfway through a 56-mile bike ride to Discovery Park. I battled a strong headwind getting here and it was dandy don wonderful. Let’s turn around and make this wind push my butt back to El Dorado County.”
3. Volunteer free and helpful advice. I wrote, “I use a free tool called the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, at www.microsoft.com/mbsa. MBSA compares your computer’s settings to Microsoft recommendations and also tells you if you have all the updates you need. It is one of the most valuable tools I use.”
4. Share birthday greetings. Facebook will notify you when your friends have birthdays. Send them a quick note or post birthday greetings on their Wall. People love receiving birthday greetings.
5. Share jokes. I wrote, “For those who think all I do is work, here is a joke. An electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a software engineer are driving in a car. All of a sudden, the engine dies and the car rolls to a stop. The electrical engineer says, ‘Hmm, it must be the battery. Let me get my tools, come back, and take a look.’ The mechanical engineer says, ‘It must be the alternator. Let me get my tools, come back, and take a look.’ The software engineer says, ‘Why don’t we jump out, hop back in, and see what happens?’”

These work. They show that I have a life outside of work and they help establish connections. I aggressively pursued my first 1,000 Facebook Friends. The subsequent 1,700 found and connected with me.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

The power is in the links. You can create a message and decide how you will promote that message. Work backward, following these steps:

• Verify your links between your blog and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Create and upload a YouTube video.
• Blog about the video (copy the shortcut and paste it into your blog entry).
• Check your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages to verify your links work.

I have an example for you. I wanted to promote my “If you are not selling a commodity, you do not have competitors” sermon. Here’s what I did:

• I made a YouTube video and uploaded it. You can find it by visiting www.youtube.com and searching for “you do not have competitors.” This is an exact search—you need the quotes but not the period. Mine is currently at the top of the page.
• I created a blog entry entitled “You do not have competitors” and wrote, “If you are providing a professional service, you do not have competitors. See and then ask yourself if you are providing a commodity or a professional service.”
• I sent the blog and waited 10 seconds.
• I verified this status update at Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These entries all take people to my blog.
• My blog entry has the YouTube video inserted in my verbiage.[i]

The power is in the links, which I created back in 2009. You can promote your messages to the world just as easily as I have in this example.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

That may be important for this celebrity’s followers. People follow him because he is a national hero and very successful in his sport. What he eats and how he trains may be of great interest to his followers. Those tweets may be useless for some but important for others.

Nobody cares what I eat for breakfast.

Your followers will decide what is important. If you tweet about topics your followers find valuable, they will appreciate your reports and retweet (forward) your messages. You will also accumulate followers easily. The opposite is true. If you tweet about topics nobody finds interesting, folks may end up ignoring you. You will notice a gradual decline in your number of followers. It’s like writing a book: you have to know what folks will find interesting.

Celebrities have an extra luxury. People follow them because they are celebrities. Celebrities can write about whatever they choose and get away with that. It helps them remind their followers that they are active. This does not render tweets useless or praise them as being important. It is a luxury that celebrities enjoy.

One hundred forty characters is a short amount of text. Twitter users, especially celebrities, have found ways to pack a lot of info into 140 characters.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

Daphne has a blog page at Posterous, the same service I use for one of mine. Daphne also has a Twitter page and has established a link between the two.

Daphne creates a blog entry with this info:

Subject: Daphne Dance Company is opening next month in Cameron Park

Text: Daphne Dance Company is opening next month at 1101 North Main Street in Cameron Park. Dancers can enroll for classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

When this appears on her Twitter page, the tweet will read, “Daphne Dance Company is opening next month in Cameron Park http://post.ly/dgb6 (or whatever link is created).

Everybody who follows Daphne will see this entry on their page. That’s why it is beneficial to accumulate followers. Your followers have already agreed to let your tweets appear on their Twitter pages just like I have agreed to let Karl Palachuk’s (and others’) tweets appear on mine.

Tweets can be 140 characters max. Blog entries have no limit.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

She may create a blog entry with this info:

Subject: Helping a customer create a budget

Text: I am helping a new customer write his budget for next year. We looked at his income and expenses for the past two years and then made some honest projections on what he will be making and spending next year. I also explained how new tax laws will affect his finances.

This automatically creates a tweet. Twitter will show her tweet as:

Subject: Helping a customer create a budget

Text:http://post.ly/1txwT (or whatever link is created)

Peggy blogs and tweets daily. Here are some sample tweets that establish Peggy’s expertise:

• Helping a customer create a budget
• Reviewing a commercial lease
• Transferring a customer’s assets into a trust
• Establishing a trust for a customer
• Establishing a 401(k) plan for a rapidly growing business
• Converting customer files to electronic format
• Attending training on new federal tax laws

All have subject headings that will show up in searches and establish Peggy as an expert. All tweets have links that will take visitors to her web site. These headings help establish Peggy as an expert at creating budgets, commercial leases, trusts, 401(k) plans, and storing documents in electronic format. Folks who search based on any of these terms are more likely to find Peggy, her blogs, and her tweets (if she uses these services regularly), than they would be if she ignored the services.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

I am responding to http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/02/pinterest-copyright-issues.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article&page=all.

Subject: Replacing a DSL modem for a service contract customer

Text:http://post.ly.****

Visitors click the link, which actually takes them to an entry at my blog. The blog entry reads:

Subject: Replacing a DSL modem for a service contract customer

Text: I am replacing a DSL modem for a customer who lost Internet connectivity this morning. The modem replacement is not why I am writing. The fact that they have a service contract and their emergencies are able to pre-empt others is the reason. My service contracts grant customers a Service Level Agreement, promising a two-hour response for a network or server downage. The customer is back online. They are the top priority. You can have this top priority status too. See the link at www.cameronparkcomputer.com/support.htm.

People who find this tweet or follow me in general will learn that yes, I can change a DSL modem, and that there must be something special about being a service contract customer. They click the link. I accomplished this by sending an e-mail to my blog provider, who then automatically created the tweet and shortcut at Twitter. This blog and tweet took me less than 60 seconds to accomplish.

I have more room for detail in this blog entry than in the tweet. This explains that:

· I replaced a DSL modem

· I replaced it quickly

· The customer has a service contract

· Service contract customers get high priority response and

· You can have this top priority too…just go to my web site for more info.

I also know this blog entry was viewed 54 times in the following seven days. I also try to tweet at least seven times a week. It doesn’t always happen that way, but that is my beautiful plan. Here are some sample tweets that establish expertise:

• Updating a customer’s web site
• Replacing a DSL modem for a service contract customer
• Helping a customer’s associate get e-mail working reliably
• Showing a friend how to blog
• Helping a friend use social networking and Twitter
• Enrolling a customer in Cameron Park Secure Backup
• Creating web movies

All have subject headings that will show up in searches and establish me as an expert. These tweets have links that will take you to a landing page within my web site. These headings help establish me as an expert at web sites, DSL modems, service contracts, e-mail, blogging, social networking, Twitter, secure backup, the Cameron Park Secure Backup service, and web movies. Folks who search based on any of these terms are more likely to find me, my blogs, and my tweets now that I use these services than they would have been if I had ignored the services.[i]

Tweets are short and simple. A tweet that I repeat every so often looks like this: What is your opportunity cost? http://post.ly/1dUFu. The link takes visitors to my blog.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.

*****

Mark Anthony Germanos is the author of two books, Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better and How to Make Computer Systems Work for You. He has faith in a slow but sure Sacramento business revival. Sacramento small business owners are leading the way. His second book, Escape the Cubicle, is for those who want to escape cubicle jobs and become successfully self-employed. Escape the Cubicle answers the questions: "How can I grow my business" and "How do I become my own boss."

Mark is the President of Cameron Park Computer Services. As a business owner and computer networking consultant, he has seen habits that successful Sacramento small business owners embrace. He helps Sacramento small business owners embrace those habits to increase their profits, efficiency and happiness. An advocate of Sacramento business revival, Mark believes everybody should run their lives like a small business, perform SWOT Analyses and use social media campaigns to improve business. He used to say “social media is stupid.” That was until he attended a conference and saw how Sacramento small business owners can use social media campaigns as a valuable tool. Since then, he has earned more than $40,000 in business via social media. His Sacramento small business clients also have five-figure returns. Sacramento small business owners that launch social media campaigns give themselves a comparative advantage over those who lag behind. Mark does not do everything, but his clients do receive great results and participate in the Sacramento business revival when they follow his advice.

Mark moved from Chicago and restarted his business in California with a cell phone and a Honda Civic. An active triathlete, he has a life, a dream wife and a dog. For additional details, visit http://markanthonygermanos.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgermanos. Facebook: http://facebook.com/markanthonygermanos. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgermanos.