Here is an interesting article I wanted to point out as it features two talented individuals that I have recently made acquaintance with via social networking – Michele Woodward and Liz Lynch.  Michele is a successful life coach and writer who has an extensive background in various business endeavors.  Liz Lynch is the author of an interesting book on networking called “Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online” that I have started reading.

The article is really an interview of Liz by Michele on Michele’s blog.  Here is an excerpt:

“What’s really great about networking now is all of the online options that are available that you can do on your own time and without having to leave the house. An at-home mom can start to build her online network on LinkedIn and Facebook, and connect with folks she already knows. That way she gets on the radar screens of her old colleagues and can reach out to them much more easily once she’s ready to start exploring her options. She can also start a business blog where once a week she can comment on news and trends in her industry. This is important because once she gets into job mode again, hiring managers are going to Google her. When her blog comes up and they read her insights and wisdom, it might just tip the scales in her favor.”

Blogs and social media are playing more heavily into the hiring process of many businesses, both large and small.  Liz points out how these tools can help build credibility in the job hunting arena as well as with potential customers you are looking to woo.

Read the interview here.

I was reading an article by Jeremiah Owyang and read the following line that I thought was pure brillance:

Grow your network before you need them.

Now, Jeremiah was referring to building up a network of business contacts to protect yourself if faced with sudden unemployment in today’s economy, but I thought of it in a different light.  My thinking is to grow your network in the face of less sales prospects.  The last thing you want to face as a business owner is waking up one day and realizing business is too slow to keep the doors open.  That moment is not when you suddenly want to rush out and try and quickly figure out this whole online social media thing and how to make it work for you.  You wouldn’t wait to run out of gas before figuring out where the nearest gas station is, so start filling up your network tank now and revisit the pump often.

Two weeks ago I shared my website stats for all to see and demonstrated how different things I’m doing online impacted my traffic.  Here is an updated look at my blog stats:

Weekly traffic on this blog

I’ve looked at a lot of website stats over the last 10-plus years, and although this is still a new blog at the low end of the traffic spectrum, I have to say “wow” to the quick progress it is making.

If you recall my post from two weeks ago, I discussed how my traffic has been influenced by different factors.  Early gains in traffic came from committing to a regular posting schedule and syndicating the blog via feedburner.com and technorati.com.  Then I created a linkedin.com account to further promote myself and started sharing my blog URL with clients and new leads which continued the positive climb in the stats.  Then big fall-out/bail-out in the stock market dropped my traffic for a week as more attention was taken up by this, but then I increased efforts in promotion by adding regular twitter.com posts promoting my blog and joining and utilizing biznik.com, in particular getting an article posted on biznik.com that generated a lot of interest.

Finally, just this last week, I posted an interview that was well recieved and I had my blog “stumbled” on stumbledupon.com which really spiked my traffic.

I’m not sharing these stats to brag, but to show as proof that social networking and online self promotion works.  Everything I’m doing can be emulated and none of it has cost me anything, except a commitment in time.