The Atlanta music scene was really rocking then and Hedgen’s was ground zero.

On any given Monday night, you’d find anyone that was anyone in the Atlanta music scene at Hedgen’s. Besides the guys in The Satellites, you’d see Kansas, Atlanta Rhythm Section, The Producers, Swinging Richards, producer Steve Lillywhite, Tinsley Ellis and, of course, Steve Marriott. The Satellites would invite people up to sit in. Whenever Steve came out with us, he’d end up on stage, too.

The bars in Atlanta were open every night until four AM and you could even get a drink in a to-go cup if you wanted. There was more happening at Hedgen’s on a Monday night than most clubs had on the weekend. I absolutely loved it.

One Monday night, I met a pretty blond with a big smile at the bar that told me her name was Amanda and she was a singer. Amanda and I did a little drinking, talked a little music, and we hit it off from day one.

She was fronting a local cover band and invited me to a gig and it turned out she wasn’t lying: she definitely was a singer. And a damn fine one.

As I write this surrounded by boxes after moving a few days ago, it’s funny to think about my circumstances when I met Amanda. I was living in a $100 a month rented room inside of a house that was turned into a guitar shop in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. I shared the room with about 100 guitar cases. I slept on a cot with a broken leg. I had to prop my suitcase under the fourth corner to hold it up. The suitcase held all my clothes and I had a boom box to play music. I could have fit everything I owned in the back of a taxi. And I would have needed one since I didn’t own a car.

I must have really seemed like a catch to Amanda.

I was only 22 but had already had nice cars and an apartment full of guitars, stereo equipment, and even a pinball machine and lost it all. At that point, I cared less about stuff and more about living my dream of being a tour manager for a rock band. I never thought it would happen so quickly. And once I was back on the road, I’d travel in a fancy tour bus and stay in relatively nice hotels every night. When I was on tour, I never wanted to go home.

The early 80’s was a pretty wild time and I was always on the move. I was either on tour, advancing the next tour or in the studio. With all that came the usual sex, drugs, and rock & roll. I definitely wasn’t looking to settle down. I’m not sure if Amanda was either but we enjoyed each others’ company and dated on and off for about a year.

She’d come out to Humble Pie gigs and I’d show up at her gigs. We never talked about the future and, honestly, back then, what I knew about relationships you could print on the back of a postage stamp. One thing I always enjoyed about Amanda is that she wasn’t just an observer. She was a part of the scene, too.

I sent Amanda lots of post cards from the road. I’d always find strange post cards at places like Stuckey’s and make up stories about where I was or the people and places in the photos. Once on an earlier tour stop in the midwest, I picked up a set of post cards of the St. Louis arch. The Arch during the day. The Arch at night. The Arch in the snow. You get the picture.

Rather than send them from Missouri, I waited until our Northeast tour a few months later. Here’s the Rochester Arch. It’s now the world’s tallest McDonalds. Here’s the Boston Arch where frustrated local citizens dumped chests of tea into the harbor. Here’s the Philadelphia Arch where they hung the Liberty Bell and so on. I’d send a postcard from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia or a Scottish castle and claim it was our hotel in Akron. They made us both laugh.

Eventually Amanda took off on the road for a while and so did I. When she returned to Atlanta, she seemed different. She had the bottom half of her blond hair died black (which sounds pretty tame now but this was 1983.) She dressed differently, had a different attitude and suddenly we just weren’t clicking.

A couple of years later, Amanda got married. I’d see her and her husband, Allen, fairly regularly at Charley Magruder’s in Atlanta. She was kind of back to the Amanda I’d known before and she seemed happy so I was happy for her. After I moved back to Texas, I never saw her again. But I never forgot her.

When Facebook launched, I reconnected with a lot of people from the past. I looked for but didn’t find Amanda online. Then one day in 2012, a guy named Mike Schweiger posted a photo on Facebook with both Amanda and my friend and favorite bartender Jane Biven. I’d met Jane when I first came to Atlanta but had no idea she was friends with Amanda. Jane was tagged in the pic but Amanda wasn’t so I messaged Jane.

It turns out Jane and Amanda were friends going back to high school days but she didn’t know where Amanda was, either. So, Amanda remained MIA until June of 2019, when I get a message from Amanda on Facebook that asked, “Tell me, Were you from Orange TX, and worked with Humble Pie?”

Guilty on both counts.

So, we swapped histories. I learned that she’d divorced and re-married and had a son named Gunner who played guitar, sang, and was a 2nd degree black belt. She’d moved from music into the hospitality industry. First, working in a comedy club and later managing a restaurant in Florida. When the second marriage didn’t work out, she moved back to Georgia.

Amanda still had all those old postcards, too.

Just a few days after we started talking, I left on a road trip to North Carolina. My plan was to stop in Atlanta and have lunch or dinner with Amanda and Jane on the way back home. Unfortunately, there was a hurricane heading for Louisiana and I wanted to get back to central Texas before the storm hit. I assumed I’d just come back to Atlanta in a few months.

But then the pandemic hit and I didn’t travel at all for two years. This year, I kept wanting to get over to Atlanta. I have several friends in the area and my nephew Zack is there attending Georgia Tech. I wanted to make sure I could stay for at least a few days so I kept putting it off.

Late last Wednesday night, I opened up the Facebook app to see a post from Jane with the news that Amanda had passed. I was completely in shock. I messaged Jane and asked her to call me when she could.

I suddenly remembered a message I woke up to on Mother’s Day this year from Amanda that said, “Love you Man!!”. Totally out of the blue. I later asked what brought that on and she said that she was going through her phone and wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s day, came upon my # and wanted to send me some joy.

I wondered if perhaps she’d been sick for some time and that was her way of saying goodbye.

Jane called a few minutes later. All she knew is that Amanda passed in her sleep. She wasn’t in the best health but she wasn’t sick either. We talked about Amanda. We talked about the old days. And we talked about getting older and seeing too many friends passing unexpectedly.

It was just last week that I found out that one of the guitar players we had in that 80’s version of Humble Pie had passed. A month earlier, I had two friends pass in one week.

As I think about Amanda, I’m reminded that none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. Nothing lasts forever, including you and me. I have to remind myself to stop spending time on things that are urgent but ultimately unimportant while putting off that visit, that phone call, or that dream until tomorrow.

Rest in Peace, Amanda. I know you’ll knock their socks off when you get to that great gig in the sky.

I remember the day we met. It was June of 1977. I’d just graduated from high school. Pace Concert called to tell me Aerosmith was in town for two nights and needed emergency ‘surgery’ on one of their Marshall Amps. By `77, I’d been showing up for soundcheck at every major concert in Houston for a couple years starting when I was 15. At that point, the local promoters finally realized that touring bands liked it when I brought vintage guitars around and was there in case they needed something from the local music store.

I hopped into my new `77 Rally Sport Camaro and headed for Houston’s Summit. I’d only had it a day or two and hadn’t taken anyone for a ride in it yet. It was a graduation present from my parents and grandparents. $6700 on the sticker.

Once inside the venue, I discovered it wasn’t Aerosmith that had a sick amp, it was their opening act, Nazareth. Nazareth had been around since 1968 and first played Houston in 72 but this was my first time seeing the band live. I knew their hit “Love Hurts” but that was about it. My friend at Pace introduced me to Davey, Naz’s guitar tech and he showed me the broken Marshall amp and then introduced me to Manny. in 77, Manny was not only their lone guitar player but also the band’s producer beginning with the classic Hair of the Dog album.

I loved these guys right away. Scottish accents, mischief, killer guitar riffs. What’s not to love? Manny and I started talking about guitars and I offered to take him to a couple of music stores around town the next day. I ran the Marshall amp over to MusicVille and got their tech Travis working on it and I had it back to them in time for soundcheck. That night, the band invited me to watch the show from the side of the stage, a first for me. I was only 17.

I picked Manny up the next day and we visited a couple of stores. I didn’t sell him a guitar but we had a blast and hung out until it was time to head back for soundcheck. I hung out backstage and, once again, got to catch Nazareth from stage right.

From them on, any time Nazareth was in town, I was at the show. That early experience with hanging with Nazareth and their road crew helped shape my choice to become a road manager. To travel the world with a rock band seemed like the best gig in the world!

The boys came back in `78 as headliners and I drove down to Beaumont to see them the night before they played Houston. Once again, I was happy to see the band and crew and we made plans for me to pick up Manny, Pete Agnew the bass player, and a new 2nd guitar player Zal Cleminson.

On the way back to Houston, one of my air shocks broke. I had to limp the car home and put it in the shop. I recruited my roommate, Joe Gavito (also a brilliant guitarist) to drive me over to pick the band up. Rather than my hot Camaro, we arrived in his old red Toyota wagon. Here we are at the Whitehall hotel picking these guys, who are usually taking limos everywhere, in this old beater. They didn’t mind at all. Funny thing about Joe’s car is every time you turned right, the horn honked twice. The guys thought this was hysterical.

After visiting Rockin’ Robin Guitars and MusicVille, we stopped by the apartment to smoke a little weed. By `77, I’d met a lot of rock stars but this was the first time I had them in my living room.

Once again, Nazareth put on a brilliant show and I remembered they played ZZ Top’s “Tush” as an encore which drove the Texas crowd nuts. Nazareth was back again in `79 and I’d see them many times over the next couple of years including in `82 when by then I was touring with Humble Pie. In the early 90’s I was working for Australia’s Heaven and was excited when I heard we were booked to open for Nazareth. Sadly, I found out that Manny had left the group.

In 1986, when Guns & Roses were about to record their first album, Axl Rose wanted ‘the guy who produced Hair of the Dog’ (Nazareth’s Dan McCafferty is Axl’s favorite singer) and Manny ended up recording about 25 tracks with the band at Sound City studios including “Paradise City”, “Rocket Queen”, “Welcome to the jungle”, “Nightrain”, two versions of “Move to the City”, “November Rain”, “Shadow of your Love” (takes one and two), and “Reckless Life”. Unfortunately, Manny was scheduled to produce a new Nazareth album and had to return to Europe. GNR ended up hiring Mike Clink to replace him and most of the world never knew of Manny’s contribution until the band reissued the album in 2018 and included all the tracks Manny worked on.

I lost touch with Manny for a few years and then we reconnected in the 90’s while I was managing Glenn Hughes. Manny sent me a cassette demo of his band Drool and asked me if I could help him get a record deal. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough name recognition at the time and I couldn’t get a label to bite. We stayed in touch, though, mainly on Facebook. I hadn’t seen him in person for quite a while.

I can remember walking the streets of Ekaterinburg on my first trip to Russia in 2002 and spotting posters for an upcoming Nazareth show. I thought about how much fun it would be to show up at their show and I even considered extending my trip.

Last night I heard the news that he’d passed, just a couple weeks shy of his 81st birthday. We’ve lost so many rock stars lately. It seems like I’m tweeting out an RIP every other day. But this one really hits close to home because Manny was the first rock star that I actually became friends with. Hard to believe it’s been 45 years since we met. Rest in Peace, Manny.

Tomorrow, I will be interviewed on syndicated The RV Show USA which is available on the radio, YouTube, and via Podcast. If you’re interested in RV’s, I highly recommend you tune in. You can also view the interview on YouTube by clicking here. The link will take you directly to my interview but, if you have time you’ll want to check out the entire show and subscribe to the show on YouTube.

I was specifically looking for a used Class A mothorhome. Class A’s are the RV’s that look like a bus. With my research, I’d narrowed down my search to coaches from Monaco, Tiffin, Holiday Rambler, and Newmar and was looking at both Diesel and Gas mothorhomes.

Along the way, I spotted a 1999 Tiffin Allegro diesel model on Craigslist in Waco. The listing contained pictures that looked like they were screeenshots from an iPhone so I wrote to the seller to ask for more photos. About a week later, I got an email from the ‘seller’ Dr. Debbie Hudak, who told me she needed to sell the coach because they’d bought another RV and didn’t have room to store both. She told me that she and her son had tried selling it by listing it on Craigslist in multiple cities across the US. When that didn’t work, she put it on a consignment lot called Kuki Auto Consignor. The price was $11,000, which was a bargain. Typical retail on this coach is $23,000 to $28,000. It was a good deal but it wasn’t quite ‘too good to be true’. Also, the doctor wrote to me using an Advent Health Care company email address rather than a Gmail or Yahoo address which are more commonly used by scammers.

She explained that Kuki Auto Consignor would accept payment and hold the funds in escrow and would then deliver the RV and I would have 7 days to look it over and, if I chose, have it professionally inspected. If I was satisfied, I’d keep it and the seller would get the payment. If I didn’t, KAC would pick it up, at the seller’s expense, and return it to their lot. Kuki offers cars, RV’s and boats.

Check Google for Reviews

I’d never heard of such a service so I went to Google. On Google, I discovered posts on a variety of car and RV discussion boards going back as far as 2012. In these posts, others asked if Kuki was legit and there were several posts from supposed buyers that had satisfactory purchases. The posts and reviews looked legit and were from what appeared to be regular members of the sites rather than one-time or anonymous posts.

I then looked at Kuki’s website. The site told the story of a big company that originally started in England with lots in London, NYC, LA, and more. The listing for this particular coach showed lots of photos and details. The website also had a phone number and live chat feature. When I called the phone number, it was answered by a voice mail using a robot voice which had the usual voicemail maze but the call ended telling me they had high call volume and directing me to use the chat feature. I did get a response on the chat window. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the website because it’s since been taken down.

The problem here is a supposedly large company like this not having any Google or Yelp Reviews. That never happens. I then started taking a closer look at the retail locations shown on the website and searched them using Google Maps. For every location, the address led to the type of office buildings that lease small offices to dozens of businesses. Not the type of buildings that would accommodate a large volume of vehicles. So I knew these weren’t real consignment lots.

At this point, I’d realized for quite some time this was a scam but kept digging deeper to see what I’d find.

Use The Wayback Machine

My next stop was the Internet Archives aka The Wayback Machine. This is a great free tool anyone can use to research the history of a website and see how that site has evolved over time.

As you can see from the image above, the Internet Archives has records of KukiAuto.com dating back to 2009. To see what any stored images, click on a year and then on any dates in the calendar marked in green.

First I looked at a capture from 2010 which revealed that Kuki had once been a car sales site in Italy.

Looking at later captures revealed that KukiAuto.com’s domain had been for sales in 2018 for $388. So it looks like the scammers purchased it so if anyone did a very basic search, without going as deep as I did, it would appear that they were dealing with a company that had been around for several years.

Use Google Maps to Check Addresses

Kuki sent me a bill of sale outlining how the process would work and provided a Citibank account number to wire the money to. That document had an address in Miami. Googling the address led me to yet another office building with dozens of tenants. The address did not contain a suite number. I contacted Citibank but they wouldn’t provide me any information since I wasn’t an account holder. Next, I phoned the Better Business Bureau in Miami and they had zero records of Kuki or the parent company.

One key element the scammers used is having the seller being a doctor with, what appeared to be, a legitimate company email address. She told me she lived in Atlanta. A quick search on Google revealed two doctors named Debbie Hudak but neither was in Atlanta. It’s nearly impossible for a practicing physician in the US to not show up on review sites. Her email address used adventhealth.doctor. Typing that domain redirected me to adventhealth.com but a search of the staff showed no Dr. Debbie Hudak.

Do a WhoIs Search to Check Ownership of the Website

So my next step was to do what’s called a WhoIs search. A Whois search will show you the owner and contact info for any website as well as how long it has been registered. Domain owners have the right to keep this information private. If they do, you’ll see the ownership as Domains By Proxy, or see something like “Redacted for Privacy”. There are legitimate reasons for maintaining privacy but you will rarely see this used for a public company or professional like a doctor.

The best way to do a WhoIs search is to use Icann and the search is free. As you can see below, the WhoIs search for adventhealth.doctor had the ownership info redacted for privacy. I did a similar search for KukiAuto.com and it also showed a private registration. That domain has since been pulled entirely from Icann’s records.

What the scammers did here was fairly clever. They took a legitimate company, Advent Health Care and registered that the .doctor extension which wasn’t owned by Advent Health Care. They then setup the domain to automatically forward to AdventHealth.com so it would appear to be legitimate. But they maintained control of the email addresses and setup debbiehudak@adventhealth.doctor. Advent Health had no way of knowing this happened (I’ve since notified Advent Health of the issue) and it adds some legitimacy to the scam as most people trust doctors.

After this happened, I posted the story on a number of RV sites and RV owner groups on Facebook. Some reported they’d been approached by the same scammer within a day or two of reading my post. Others told me they’d seen this same scam, with the same Doctor and Kuki scenario. Someone else pointed out something that I’d missed and wanted to mention as something you can easily look for.

Looking back on that original search on Kuki Auto provided some clues I’d missed. The graphic below shows two of the listings that came up when I searched Kuki Auto Consignors. If you look at the main headline for each listing, it appears that the search results is showing posts on RVnet, a popular RV discussion site. However, if you look at the actual web address, you’ll see that these posts aren’t on RV.net but a site called elacuario.org.

El Acuario is actually a site in Colombia that sells aquarium supplies. What the scammers did was hack into elacuario.org and create a page that looked exactly like RV.net discussing how great Kuki Auto Consignors is. Apparently, they’ve done this on dozens if not hundreds of websites and the owners of those sites are completely unaware that these pages existed on their site.

So if you’re doing any kind of research on a dealer and see what appear to be legit reviews, always look closely at the domain names to make sure you’re actually on the legit car or RV site and not a clone operating under someone else’s domain that’s been hacked.

I reported this scam to the FBI’s Internet crimes division and posted a warning on RipoffReport.com and it looks like law enforcement either pulled all these fake domains or the scammers simply started doing business under a new domain. I suspect these scammers are operating far outside the US and are unlikely to get caught. But at least you’ll know how to avoid getting scammed yourself.

Since it’s launch in the mid-90’s, Amazon.com and other online businesses have presented a challenge to traditional retailers. As home delivery has become faster, more efficient and, cheaper, more consumers than ever are shopping online rather than heading to brick-and-mortar stores. This is often referred to as The Amazon Effect.

One of the victims of the Amazon Effect has been Office Depot. Despite annual sales of approximately 11 billion dollars in 2016 and a 2013 merger with Office Max, the company knew it would need to make some changes in order to survive.

Although I’ve been an Office Depot customer since the company’s inception in 1988, in recent years I’ve visited the stores far less frequently than I had in the past. The stores seemed outdated and unattractive. Their inventory of computers and printers seemed to be last year’s models and the way they displayed them felt dated compared to retailers like Apple and Microsoft. It was more convenient, and often cheaper, to buy technology online and more fun to visit the Apple store. Of course, Office Depot was aware of this and came up with a bold solution.

Meet BizBox by Office Depot in Austin

On January 30th, I was invited to participate in the grand-opening of Office Depot’s new BizBox brand here in Austin. I have to admit that I am quite impressed with their transformation. The downtown location has been an Office Depot store for several years but now has been completely re-designed. While the back half of the store looks similar to the Office Depot of the past, the front half is something entirely new.

It’s a huge room with dark paneling, modern design and tech displays for desktop PC’s, tablets, and mobile phones that are similar to what you’d see at the Apple Store. There are kiosks where you can discover BizBox’s new service offerings including:

• Accounting
• Email Marketing and CRM
• Payroll and HR
• Search Marketing
• Asset Management
• Social Marketing
• Legal Services
• Logo Design
• Website Creation and Hosting
• Technical Services (available soon)

BizBox now has a design department with virtual reality technology where you can get help planning and designing your work-space.

A Place to Meet, Mingle, and Work

Another huge addition is a large co-working area with wi-fi that’s free to use and provides an alternative to sometimes noisy and increasingly crowded coffee houses. The co-working area can also be transformed into a meet-up or presentation space as it was during the grand-opening.

Print Your Prototype… or your Product

In addition to the usual print, copy and shipping services, BizBox has added 3-d print services. The clip above where I was interviewed by Fast Company magazine was in the 3D printer room. The printers behind me are the largest available in Austin. They are capable of building prototypes that a biz owner might need to get funding or actual short-run plastic products without the expense of a mass production.

If you think about this in terms of battling the aforementioned Amazon Effect, offering a free co-working space and these new service offerings is a smart move.

A Better Way to Sell Services?

I run a digital marketing agency and offer some of the same services BizBox does. I’ve seen other national firms try to tackle the business and their biggest challenge is reaching prospects. Email and social media are often used but most entrepreneurs are overloaded with marketing messages in those channels. Many agencies use cold calling which requires you to get past the gatekeeper or interrupt the business owner at a time when they’re busy and have their guard up.

By offering these services in an environment where prospects are already shopping or hanging out in the co-working space they’re much more likely to be open to signing up. And because Office Depot has been around for so long, those prospects are more likely to trust them to deliver.

Will BizBox by Office Depot succeed? It’s too early to tell. But when you are competing with Amazon with their price and convenience advantages, giving people a reason to hang out in your store on a regular basis and providing services small business owners want in addition to the usual office supplies and copy services is a brilliant idea.

In this episode of Social Media Confidential, Bill Hibbler gives you a walkthrough of Twitter Analytics to help you determine: 

• if you’re reaching the correct audience
• your ROI on Twitter
• if your audience is engaging with your tweets
• how many re-tweets, likes, views and more you’re getting
• how to determine your audience reach
• how to download your stats for in-depth analysis
• how to determine your top tweets
• how to maximize your content by ‘resharing’
• your twitter demographics

You’ll be amazed by the amount of demographic data Twitter Analytics provides. You can see, for example, net worth, annual income, home value, and many other details. The interests category shows you whether or not you’re connecting with the right audience. The best part is it’s totally free.

To access Twitter Analytics, Go To: http://analytics.twitter.com
To access the Kevan Smith blog post mentioned in the episode, click here.

Are you using Twitter Analytics? What have you learned about your audience? Please post a comment below.

Can’t see the video? Click here for Instagram Tips for Business.

Instagram is a photo sharing application that now also allows users to share
videos up to 15 seconds in length. It’s kind of like Twitter with photos rather than
text. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook now boasts over 130 million active
users with about half of those residing in the US.

Instagram users are currently posting 45 million photos per day and ‘liking’ photos 1 Billion times per day.

So here are some tips to help your business succeed on Instagram:

Tip #1: Make Your Photos Interesting.

Rather than just post a product image, take pictures of people using your product. And include interesting backgrounds. Use a photo that tells a story.

Tip #2: Use Hashtags.

Instagram lets you use hashtags just like Twitter and Facebook. In your photo description, use hashtags for your brand and product names but also for appropriate topics for your audience that match your product.

Tip #3: Humanize Your Content.

People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Use your images to show that you?re real people. Use some behind-the-scenes photos and videos of your product being made. Company parties, idea meetings, and people enjoying your products.

Tip #4: Engage Your Audience.

Don’t just post photos and videos. Respond to comments on your content and engage other Instagram users that are members of your audience. If you own a restaurant, use hashtag searches to find people in your area that like to share photos of their meals.

Tip #5: Hold Contests.

Get your staff together and come up with a way to get your audience posting photos using your product or service or talking about it. If your giving away your product, ask users to post a video on why they should win or how they?ll use it. If you offer t-shirts, it might be a funny photo of them wearing your t-shirt. Get creative.

One word of advice on contests. I?m not an attorney and I don?t play one on TV.
When running a contest of any kind, always check with an attorney to see which
rules, if any, apply to holding contests in your area.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Hi, I’m Bill Hibbler and welcome to my social media tip of the week. This week, I’m going to share some tips and tricks you can use on LinkedIn. I have to admit, although I do use LinkedIn, I don’t use it as much as I should plus I really need to update my profiles to reflect the changes in my business.

So, I searched high and low for some good tips and I thought, hey, as long as I’m at it, why not share them with you?

Tip #1 – Personalize your LinkedIn URL with your name:

It just takes a few minutes in your LinkedIn settings to create a link based on your name rather than a bunch of random characters. And you can use it in things like your email signature.

There’s a school of thought that recommends using a keyword with your name. Something like “RebeccaRealtor”. That’s not a bad idea if you have have an occupation that can be described in one word like attorney, realtor, chef or jeweler.

It’s less useful for say, a human resource expert or a marketing consultant. Personally, I prefer to use my name to make it easier for people already familiar with me to find me.

That’s especially important if you have a fairly common name. In my case, when you search Google for “Linkedin Bill Hibbler”, I come up #1. By the way, if you’d like to connect with me on Linked In, just click on the LinkedIn logo at the top of the column on the right side of this page.

Tip #2 Don’t Shotgun:

In other words, don’t blast 100 people at once on LinkedIn. It’s the wrong approach entirely. Think quality over quantity. In fact, the shotgun approach can get you in trouble. LinkedIn will warn you once and then they’ll shut you down.

When you make a new connection in person, via email or via social media, let people know you’re going to connect via LinkedIn. That way, when they see your invite, they’re likely to accept.

Tip #3: Personalize the default connection request message:

Don’t be lazy and just hit the blue ‘Connect’ button on LinkedIn which sends the generic “I’d Like to Connect on LinkedIn” message. Don’t do it! …especially if it isn’t someone you know well.

Instead, take a moment to personalize the message. If you met briefly or are connected by association, this is where you let them know that. And teach this to your employees, too.

Tip #4 Use your “3 Free Backlinks”:

Google uses backlinks to drive search engine results. Every LinkedIn account has a place for 3 Free Website or Blog links, and LinkedIn leaves these links open to indexing by Google. Ask that your employees list your company website, company blog and company facebook page.

Tip #5: The magic of 3!

Before your sales reps make a call to a prospect, have them spend 3 minutes and find 3 things on LinkedIn to talk about. It’s much much more compelling than talking about Real Housewives of Kentucky or the weather.

Tip #6: Use professional photos:

They should be professional head shots and should present you in a positive light looking straight at the camera. Do not use photos with your spouse, your best friend, your kids or your pets. And don’t use the default image.

Bring in a pro photographer to take shots of your entire team. You’ll be able to use these for LinkedIn, your website, Twitter and Press Releases, too.

By the way, these tips come your way via Wyn Nathan Davis from The Sales Experts in London. If you want a LOT more http://www.thesalesexperts.com/101-linkedin-tips/” target=”_blank”>tips on Linked In, check out Mr Davis’ article here.

Can’t see the video? Go here.

Today, we’re going to talk about the introduction of hashtags on Facebook.

Okay some people are losing their minds because they think hashtags are going to somehow destroy Facebook. I think they’re great.

I’ll give you an example. I was checking out my news feed the other day and one of my friends puts up a post that just says, “Nooooooo!” Nothing else. I had no idea what he was talking about. Was he watching the end of game 6 of the NBA finals? Did his house burn down? I have NO idea. If he would have used a hashtag to put it in context, it might have made more sense.

Facebook began rolling out hashtags on June 12th to a limited number of users with a global roll-out expected in the coming weeks.

Hashtags make it easier for users to see what others think about trending topics. We’ve seen hashtags carry over from Twitter users on Facebook for some time. The difference now is the they’ll be both searchable and clickable. The adoption of hashtags will probably decrease the need to abandon Facebook for Twitter when there’s a hot trending topic.

Clicking on a hashtag will open a new page displaying conversations containing that particular hashtag.

Facebook has always been a CLOSED network, meaning you can only see your friends’ posts and, depending on privacy settings, comments friends of friends make. However, the new hashtag feature will allow you to find and connect with others using the hashtag you’re searching for.

You will still be able to adjust your privacy settings to CONTROL the audience for your posts, including those containing hashtags. The first posts you’ll see will be those from your friend network followed by public results from individuals and pages.

If you have a brand with a Facebook presence, you don’t have to worry about creating hashtag pages. Facebook will crawl the site to determine the links and create them automatically.

So how can use Facebook hashtags? Besides getting instant access to those on the scene sharing about an important news event or connecting with others watching a TV show or sporting event, you can use it in your business for things like lead generation.

You can use hashtags to find people that are talking about the products or services you offer. For example, I regularly see people mention they’re looking for a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant that knows how to use the hashtag search feature can find potential clients by both using #virtual assistant in their posts as well as monitoring those mentions on Facebook. That way, they can find new people seeking virtual assistants and people seeking virtual assistants can also find them.

If you’re posting on Facebook from Twitter or Instagram, your hashtag campaigns will work on Facebook. So no more having to create separate posts for Twitter and Facebook.

Unfortunately, hashtags aren’t yet available on the mobile platform.

So what do you think? Do you love hashtags? Hate them? Will you use them on Facebook? Type your answers in the comments section below.

Today, we’re going to talk about Paper.li, a free service you can use to setup a custom online newspaper on your topic of choice. With Paper.li, you can automatically find, publish relevant articles, photos and videos from across the web on a daily or weekly basis. And it’s really easy to set up.

You can publish your paper via email but what I find valuable is that the service will automatically post a tweet on your Twitter account whenever a new edition is published.

If you or your company have a Twitter account but don’t Tweet regularly, this is a great way to keep your account active. This way, when prospects or customers check you out on Twitter, they don’t see that your last Tweet was six weeks ago. Instead, they see relevant daily content.

I prefer to see people interact on Twitter but when you don’t have the resources to devote to tweeting regularly or when there are gaps where there just isn’t time to Tweet, paper.li provides a simple solution.

You can also embed the content from your paper in a widget on your blog or, you can make the paper the primary content of your blog and you can customize it match your brand.

Paper.li lets you choose from a variety of Twitter news feeds for sources for your paper’s content but you can also create your own source list. For my paper, Social Media Confidential, I created a list in Twitter of several people I know provide relevant content on a regular basis, including my own Twitter accounts, and selected that list as my news source.

An added benefit is that the promotional tweets will often include the Twitter handles of one or two of the contributors.. That way, the contributors will notice you’re promoting their tweets and will often tweet a thank-you and even re-tweet the post.

I find that my followers will also re-tweet the posts promoting my newspaper which helps expands my reach. Paper.li’s free version is pretty feature rich but they also offer a pro account for $9 per month that lets you put your paper on your own domain, insert your own ads, use Google analytics and get more editorial control of your content.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section below.

I’ve been wanting get back into doing television again for a while and have spent a lot of time putting together my new studio. I’ll do a post in the near future telling you more about the studio and plans for future shows. And if you have a tip you’d like to share or question you’d like me to answer, please share it in the comments section below.

The content of the video will pretty closely mirror what’s written below but I’ll usually offer both for those that prefer text over video. In this first episode, we’re going to talk about your Elevator Pitch and how you can use it to connect with more people on Twitter & LinkedIn.

In your Twitter bio, you have only got 140 characters to convince someone you’re worth following. On LinkedIn, you get a longer profile but your headline is limited to only 120 characters.

The right elevator speech can really help you shine on Twitter, LinkedIn or anywhere you’re networking online or in person.
Most people I meet are naturally excited about their product or service and tend to go on and on about the features. Instead, you should focus on the key benefits your product or service offers.

Several years ago, I learned a lesson from a master copywriter for writing sales letters that can also be used to help polish your elevator speech. It’s called the “SWAT” technique.

It begins with writing down the features of your product or service. Now, picture that the most skeptical person you know is sitting across from you as you read them aloud.  As you finish, imagine that skeptic replying “So What?

 Next, write down your response to their “So What?” question and repeat the process. Once again, imagine them responding, “So what?” Keep repeating this process until you reach the point where there is no way they can truly respond, “So What?”

Let me give you an example. A few years ago, I attended a conference with over a thousand new entrepreneurs that were seeking to raise capital for a new business. That’s where I met Tom, a gentleman that was selling a service that was a perfect match for the attendees but he wasn’t having much luck making connections and asked for some help.

We used the SWAT technique to help Tom find his key benefit. It went something like this…
Tom: “My business will help you create your Subscription Agreement, Investor Questionnaire, Disclosure Document and your state filings.”

Prospect: Yeah, so what?

Tom: “So we cover the basics in terms of risk disclosure. And help you comply with Rule 506 of Regulation D. And we file your documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Prospect: Yeah, so what?

Tom: “So we help you raise more money faster and with greater success. Without us, you could face stiff fines, the loss of your investors and even face criminal prosecution for securities fraud.”

Prospect: Yeah so… um, wait.. could I get your card?

Now at the event, I recommended when people asked Tom what he did, he respond with, “I help keep people like you from  going to jail and losing your business.” A statement like that can startle people but sometimes that’s exactly the response you want, especially if you’re selling a product or service that people need but that isn’t particularly exciting. Now, people will naturally want to know more. And it worked really well for Tom.

Another thing to keep in mind, you don’t have to tell your prospect every single thing about your business. Instead, lead with your key benefit to build curiosity and let them ask to hear more.

Let’s see how this works with a Twitter bio. If we tweak Tom’s key benefit to fit Twitter’s 140 character limit, it looks like this:

“I help startups raise more money faster & with greater success. Without us, you could face fines, lose investors and even face prosecution.”

Anyone that owns a startup that’s raising capital is going to want to follow Tom after reading that bio.

On LinkedIn, you’ll want to incorporate the key benefit in the headline of your profile. The job of a good headline isn’t to make the sale. It’s to generate enough interest for people to read further. You’re limited to 120 characters so you’ll have to make every word count but you’ll have room to go into more detail below the headline. The bottom line is you always want to lead with your key benefit.

Try the SWAT technique to write your own elevator pitch and come back and share it with me in the comments section below.