Twitter Spam & How to Avoid It

There has been a recent wave of Spam on Twitter.

The main way the spammers use Twitter is by hacking into accounts and sending Direct Messages (DMs) to people with links to dodgy websites. The website will ask you to enter your Twitter username and password.

PLEASE NOTE: Twitter will NEVER ask you to download something or sign-in to a non-Twitter website.

You receive the DM and because it's from someone you know you can be tricked into clicking the link and because the website seems like a Twitter log in page you think nothing of it and enter your details.
The recent one doing the rounds was like the one in the example below.

I've hidden the id of the sender to protect them. The tweet reads: "I saw a bad blog about you. Have you seen this?" Followed by the link.

I use Hootsuite to manage many of my social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which is what I recommend to every one. You don't need to download any software - you just go to www.hootsuite.com.

In the image above you'll see there is a + symbol to the right of the URL in the tweet. If you click on this it expands into a box like the one in the image so you can check the URL and see where it's actually going. In this example you can see the WARNING sign and so you would never click the link.

So DO NOT click any links in DMs unless you were expecting a message with a link from the person and if you use Hootsuite you can check the URL first by clicking the + symbol first.

What to do if you are hacked
On speaking to some of the people I know locally who have had their Twitter accounts hacked I realised that many of them didn't know what to do about the hacking and how to secure their Twitter account.

I also realised that many didn't fully understand why these spammers or hackers do this. So I'm just going to explain and hopefully this will help a lot of people.

If your Twitter account is compromised go to the Twitter support site here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/31796

The hackers and spammers do this to get your password. Once they get your password they can then log in and send more DM spam to other unsuspecting people on Twitter and capture more passwords.

They want your password because way too many people use the same password for other website such as PayPal. If the hackers can get into your PayPal account they can spend your money!

So be warned. If your Twitter account has been compromised make sure you change your password on all the websites where you use the same password. And STOP using the same password for everything.

If you want a brilliant new system for creating and remembering passwords go to the Oxford Internet Institute website here: https://passwordcard.oii.ox.ac.uk/ This is a fantastic system!

The Circle of Life - How Family Support Helps Breed Success

I was watching the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend and saw a few shots on television which got me thinking.

Jenson Button's dad was there. Sebastian Vettel's dad was there. Mark Webber's dad was there. Felippe Massa's dad was there.

They were all there supporting their son's in the race. There was something special about it, it felt good to see the dad's all intently focused on the TV screens in the pit garages as they cheered their sons on. I'll never forget the passion John Button showed at Brazil when his son Jenson won the World Champioship.

This photo was taken in Japan as Jenson's dad and Sebastian Vettel's dad watched their sons on the podium.

My Dad's Support
It reminded me of my school days when I played football for my school and a local league club team. My dad came to every home game we played. It was magic to have him stood there on the sidelines cheering me on. I was a goalkeeper and his cheers when I made a great save filled me full of pride and  his encouraging words as I picked the ball out of the back of my net after the opposition had scored were a huge help to me.

There is no doubt when dad was at a game I stepped up my efforts and played much better in those matches. He was great with the other players too and I often got comments from some of the others such as "I wish I had a dad who was cool like your's." And "My dad never comes to our games, you're so lucky."

Affect our Parents Have
And it got me thinking about our businesses and the affect our parents have had on our success. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not giving you an excuse to blame your parents on any lack of current success!

My dad was always there for me and never stole any of my dreams; quite the opposite; he encouraged me to reach for the moon. In fact, when I went to him back in 1988 with the idea to join me in an MLM business, NSA, selling water filters, he came to a meeting and joined there and then. We built a great little business when his doctor and accountant joined the network. It was so cool to be working with my dad on a part time business.

I lost my dad to cancer in 2000 and I really miss his support, advice and guidance. But I'm lucky; I've got a great step-father who is also always there for me and his constant support and advice has been priceless. Thanks Al!!

Amazing Support of my Step-Father
My day to day business activities are varied and now I'm a non-executive director of Nominet my work load has increased dramatically and it's been invaluable to have my step-father to talk to and get advice and opinions.

To have had great advice and support during those moments when a key decision in my life has been needed, have made a huge difference in my life. We've all been there when we reach those crossroads and we have to decide what the right next step is. When we get head hunted or when we've been made redundant - what next? What do we do? These are my options but which one is the right one? To have our parents there for those key moments is priceless.

My Wonderful Mum
My Mum is always there for me. We speak every other day on the phone and she is the best listener in the world. I ring her and tell her everything and she just listens and then offers her support and opinion. She's amazing. I love you Mum! xx

Cancer Research UK
When dad died I decided to raise money for Imperial Cancer Research, now Cancer Research UK, in his memory. To date I've raised just over £20,000 for CRUK and I'm so, so proud. I took up triathlon in 2001 and have done 8 triathlons all for charity to raise money in dad's memory. My website www.formydad.co.uk has more information if you're interested.

I'll never forget doing the Crystal Palace triathlon and my mum and step-father came along to cheer me on. Having swum and biked I then had to run 6.5 miles and the final part was a couple of laps inside the awesome Crystal Palace athletic track. As I entered the stadium I was struggling; my legs hurt and my breathing was really laboured. Then I saw my step-father going nuts, shouting and cheering me on and I nearly broke down in tears there and then. It was amazing and although I was on my last legs his encouragement got me round those last laps of the track. A really special day.

My father-in-law has made a huge difference to my life too. As a successful businessman his advice has been so valuable and he too supports and encourages me. He came along to my very first triathlon in Stratford-upon-Avon and he printed two huge banners with my name on with an image of a runner!

This photo of it is in a bar when my wife, father-in-law and friends enjoyed lunch whilst I was racing round the countryside on my bike!

So our parents are so important in our early lives and I am blessed to have a gorgeous mum and wonderful step-father and to have had the best dad in the world. They made me the guy I am today, their encouragement and support was life changing and I thank you Mum and Al and Dad from the bottom of my heart. Our parent-in-laws can also make a huge difference too. I love you all so much xxx

However, other guys I know weren't so lucky and aren't so lucky even now. Many of the guys I've met didn't have a decent relationship with their dads and it's proved critical. I know two such men from my city days who's dad's were never there for them. Too busy working or away on business and one dad who was just so old fashioned that they had never hugged or embraced. How sad is that?

Now I know I'm more tactile than most but the bond with a father and son is special and those hugs are so important. And their help and support is vital in our up bringing.

The circle of life

Its made me realise that we need to be there for our children and we need our parents to be there for us too. It's like the circle of life. I need the support, encouragement and advice of my parents and my daughter needs the same.

I'll never miss another of my daughter's swimming galas or any future sporting occasion. Recently I've taken her karting in Bristol and she really enjoys it. Who knows - one day maybe I'll be flying round the world to support her as she races in F1!! Now wouldn't that be cool?!

I work from home a lot of the time and I am so thankful for that. This gives me the flexibility to be able to go along to her school to support her, like my dad used to support me. Recently she was playing her guitar in a school concert. I moved heaven and earth to be there and her face lit up when she saw me and my wife walk in. That meant everything to me and more importantly, it meant everything to our daughter.

Be there for your children
So think about your business and your life and if you have children then think about the positive affect you can have on their lives. Life is so fragile - here today, gone tomorrow. Don't let work rule your life. If your son or daughter has sports day or a football match or hockey game, then drop everything and make sure you're there on the sidelines cheering them on.

When you come home from a busy day at the office and your son or daughter comes running up to tell you all about their day at school, make sure you take the time to listen to them. And I mean really listen to them. Give them your undivided attention and show them how much you truly care.

And as they go out into the world to make their fortune remember how important your love, encouragement, support and advice is in helping their success.

Start making a difference today. When your children come home tonight, tell them how proud you and how much you love them. Hug them. And make sure you're at their next big school occasion.

Call them today

If your children are older and working, stop what you're doing and call them and tell them how proud you are. It will make their day. Make the time to meet up with them and spend time with them. It's so easy in today's busy world not to make time for family, but it's the bed rock of the circle of life.

And don't forget your parents - even if they haven't always been there for you - just pick up the phone and call them too. Call them and tell them you love them and thank them for all their support and tell them how proud you are to have them as your mum and dad. And then book a date to go and see them and make it one to remember.

If you haven't got children and you've lost your parents - then call me and I'll tell you how proud I am of you!  My mobile is 07976 614043 of you can email at dickie at dickiearmour.me.uk

Don't let life take over and smother you - take time out to tell your loved ones you truly care and that you are so proud of them. Take time to be there at those major events in their life to support them. Support your children emotionally and thank your parents for everything they've done for you.

You can't imagine the difference it will make to them.

I'm So Sorry I Don't Always Notice Your Retweets!

I just wanted to post a quick blog post to say thank you to you if you have been retweeting some of my tweets on Twitter. I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs.

I've realised over the last few months that many of you have been sending out RTs of my content and yet they don't appear in my @ mentions feed in Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any other 3rd party Twitter app.

It will be the same for you too. If you're on Twitter and you're sending out tweets with interesting content you can bet that people will have retweeted your tweets and you won't have noticed either.

This is because there are 2 kinds of retweets on Twitter.

1. The straight forward retweet where you just click the RT button
2. The retweet with a comment

If you just do a straight forward RT they will not appear in the mentions feed of the person you retweeted.

So for all of you who have been RTing my content but I haven't thanked - then I'm truly sorry. Please forgive me - truly; I didn't notice. It's not that I'm NOT listening. Far from it. It's just one of the many quirks of the Twitter platform.

So if you want to make sure the person you are RTing notices the fact that you've retweeted his or her content, make sure you don't use the Twitter website. Instead use a 3rd party app such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.

When I'm RTing I usually like to add a comment at the end of the RT so people actually know I've taken the time to either read the article which they tweeted about or make a relevant comment. I think it's a nice thing to do.

If you just use the Twitter website then when you click the retweet link you have no option to add a message. The tweet is just retweeted without any comment from you.

The other reason I like to use the newer method of RTing via Hootsuite is because sometimes people's original tweets are too long, so I have to precis the tweet before I can RT.

So always make sure you don't go over about 104 characters with your tweets. You can read more about the reasons why in a previous post - Twitter Retweet Advice

So again, I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs, but thank you so much for sharing my tweets and I look forward to staying connected with you online and off line too.

I'm Going to Miss Y'All, Trey

Trey Pennington

I won't forget Sunday 4th September, EVER. 
6:15pm UK time. I lost a friend and mentor - Trey Pennington.

We are all new to social media but social media isn't new. As Nick Tadd put it at What's Next - Cardiff in May - social media has been around since the cavemen days. We've always used different media to be social. But today's tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + etc have changed social media into an instant, on-demand, always on world.

I like the Social Media Train journey analogy which I first heard at Like Minds in October 2009. I wrote a couple of blog posts about it back in Dec 2009 and Jan 2010.
Social Media - Why You Need to be On Board

The Social Media Train Journey - What to do Once You're On Board

My "birth date" on Twitter is 23rd Jan 2009 so I'm fairly new, like most of us. And thanks to Like Minds I met Trey in October 2009, quite early on. Only 2 years ago, but such is the power of Twitter and Facebook and the telephone and email - during those 2 years Trey and I became good friends. He was my mentor in many ways on social media. I always had huge respect for him. He was just the nicest guy you could ever wish to meet. He was someone who made you feel special, he gave first without ever questioning what he would or could get in return.

Thanks to Trey's busy UK speaking schedule we were able to meet up and hang out quite a few times. One of my fondest memories of Trey was he always had his video camera with mini-boom mike at the ready!

Spot his video camera on the shelf behind him in this photo of us in Bristol, UK in June 2010.

And I loved the fact he was so keen to interview as many people as possible. He was great at that; at giving exposure to others first.

At that first Like Minds conference in Exeter I remember meeting Trey and Olivier and we hit it off right away.

Dickie, Trey and Vanessa - Like Minds 2010

Please do read Olivier's amazing blog "Heartbroken" to give you an idea of how close they both were. One of the founders of Like Minds, Scott Gould aslo wrote a lovely blog - Trey Pennington - Like Minds Loses a Piece of it's Heart. Two very moving blog posts!

I remember Trey came out with a phrase "Dollars and cents - pounds and pence" and liked it so much he asked someone to tweet it. My tweet appeared on the TwitterFall behind Trey; he turned round to look and laughed.

I also played a very small role in chauffeuring Trey to a couple of events. The first was to a social media monitoring conference in London.

Trey's comment in reply to me.

The other was in May this year when I picked him up from London Gatwick and drove him to Cardiff for the What's Next event. Unbeknown to me, Trey was filming in the airport as he came through Passport Control and wrote a blog post featuring it. What’s the ROI of social media? How about exploring the VALUE of social media?
In just a short time we met up face to face on 9 seperate occasions and with all the tweets and Facebook posts and blog comments we had between us, were able to build a strong bond. I looked up to Trey and used him as a mentor. He set some brilliant examples of how to use social media. He always talked about the three fold need of humans:

• Everyone wants to be heard
• Everyone wants to be understood
• Everyone wants to know his or her life matters

Trey was the perfect example of making sure he helped as many people achieve this and I can't thank him enough for everything he did for me.
I was so devasated to have been out on Sauturday night when Trey posted a couple of posts on my Facebook wall. I didn't know it then, but less than 24 hours later Trey would be gone and I missed my final chance to speak to him and I am gutted. :-(

Trey was a real modern day "George Bailey" who's life affected so many others in such an amazing way and positive way. If Trey had never been born, the world would have been a very different place. The Social Media landscape would have been completely different. Trey contributed so much to so many and sadly, because of that, perhaps never took enough time to spend on himself. To make sure he was heard, understood and recognised.

And I so, so wish Trey's "Clarence" had come down to save him in time. To have been able to show him that his life, really was a wonderful life.

I Don't Have the Time to Use Social Media!

It still amazes me how many businesses aren't using social media. Last week I was on an online forum where a lady was saying social media is just a waste of time. I gave a talk recently and I asked 4 questions:

1.      How many of you are on LinkedIn? Everyone raised their hands.

2.      How many of you are on Twitter? Half the hands dropped

3.      How many of you have a Facebook business page? Only 5 people kept their hands up.

4.      How many of you have a YouTube channel? Only 2 people kept up their hands and one of them was me!

                                                                       

Most of the audience had smartphones; iPhones and Androids etc and yet they weren't really using social media and one of the biggest reason people give me is they don't have the time. And the answer to question 1 is a bit misleading. The fact that everyone put their hands up doesn't tell the full story. We might all be on LinkedIn but in most cases all we have is a profile. To find out how you should be using LinkedIn see my blog post - How to use LinkedIn Effectively for Your Business

It takes too long - where do you find the time?

I get this question quite a lot. I try to answer it honestly. To begin with it can take a few hours out of your day whilst you learn how to use each platform but once you are familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc then you can dip in and out throughout the day when you have a spare 5 or 10 minutes.  And don't even begin to pretend you're too busy and never have 5 minutes spare!

Think about your average day
It's the same for all of us - we only have 24 hours each day! And in fact, many of our daily routines are the same. Travelling to work, waiting for the kettle to boil, going to the loo, waiting for a train or bus, and waiting for a meeting.
There are always 5 or 10 minute gaps in our day which we can use to dip into social media.

•   How do you get to work? Train, tube or bus?

Then you've got time whilst you're travelling. I know London Underground only has reception on limited parts of the network but if you're travelling by train you normally get 2 or 3 minutes on the platform when waiting for your next train. I see people on the bus everyday who just sit staring out the window. This is a perfect time to dip into Twitter and Facebook to see what conversations are going on.

•   Making a cup of tea or coffee

The kettle takes about 3 minutes to boil. Perfect time for a quick look at Twitter.

•   Going to the loo!

The perfect sit down time to catch up with your social media activities!

•   Whilst printing multiple documents

On my printer it can take 4 to 5 minutes to print out hand out sheets. This is a perfect time for me to dip into Google Reader and find a few good blog posts which I can schedule to send on Twitter.

•   Whilst on hold to a call centre

This can take hours sometimes & people say they don't have time! I was on hold this morning to ADT, our alarm company to book a routine inspection. I was on hold for 6 minutes. I had the handset on loudspeaker and used that time to catch up on LinkedIn, accept connections and join in a conversation in one of my groups.

•   Waiting for the start of a conference or training session

We've all been in the situation where we're at a conference, sat waiting for it to begin. This is a great time to get out your smartphone, iPad or laptop and quickly check Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.
When I'm at a conference or training day I like to take photos of the presenters/speakers and post them to Twitter. 

•   During a conference

Nowadays it's become acceptable that members of the audience will be tweeting during the conference. This can be seen by some as being rude. People on mobile devices tweeting are not concentrating on the speaker! Whilst I get that; I prefer to flip it on it's head and think of all the free publicty the speakers and the conferences are getting nowadays, with many people tweeting about it. (Assuming that it's good publicity! It works both ways of course!)

•   Waiting for an appointment

The great thing with smartphones is we always have them with us and they are so quick and easy to use. Sitting in a reception area waiting to go into an appointment is a good time to check in.

•   Sat in your car between meetings

I often arrive early for some of my meetings. I love using this time on social media. I just sit in my car and catch up.

•   On the commute home

Great time to wish people on Twitter a nice evening and see how their days have gone. It doesn't take long to jump into Facebook and add some comments and Likes to your contacts' pages.

•   Watching TV in the evening

This is the time when I go through Google Reader and choose the articles and blog posts which I'm going to post on Twitter and Facebook and Google +.

I use Hootsuite and I schedule a lot of my content and I like to do this in front of the TV. My wife often likes to watch stuff I'm not into so I can still sit with her, but instead of wasting time while a TV show I'm not interested in washes over me; I sit and schedule some of my daily content for the coming week.

You CAN Find the Time

You have to change your thinking on social media - it's just another tool in your marketing tool box so you must spend some time on your strategy and creating your content. But people I speak to don't think spending time on social media is real work! It absolutely is real work and the sooner you reset your thinking on this and realise it is work and time spent on social media is a good investment of your time, the better.

Only then will you start to take it seriously and begin to find the time in your day when you can dip into social media.

Please share how you find the time.
How do you use social media? What are the times in your day when you dip into Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn?

7 Brilliant Business & Personal Development Audio Books

I love reading and my current focus has been on business books across quite a wide range from business, Internet marketing, personal success, positive thinking and social media. But a few months ago a good friend of mine, Stuart Edmonstone, introduced me to Darren Hardy. Darren is a best selling author and the founder of Entrepreneur Magazine. His audio series, "The Compound Effect" is excellent and in one section of it Darren refers to how we can better spend our spare time. For example whilst driving he suggest instead of listening to the radio or a music CD we would be wiser spending that time in our car listening to business and personal development audio books.
I have followed Darren's advice and thought I'd share my top 7 Business and Personal Development Audio books with you.

Business

1. Awaken the Entrepreneur Within by Michael E. Gerber
2. The Most Successful Small Business in the World by Michael E. Gerber
   
3. Flight Plan: The Real Secret of Success by Brian Tracey
   
4. Motivation: The Key to Accomplishment by Zig Ziglar
   
   
5. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
   




6. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
   




7. The Mental Game of Life by Topher Morrison
   

These are not listed in any particular order but my favourite is without doubt Think & Grow Rich. I downloaded my copy from iTunes and I have to say it's a great source for brilliant audio books.
I hope you'll try some or all of these audios and please share your favourite business and personal development audio books.

How to Use LinkedIn Effectively for your Business

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks especially for business. There are over 101 million people on it, with the UK being the 3rd largest country of users with just over 6 million.
For full stats from January 2011 see http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011

But I've found from talking to loads of local business people that most people tend to just have a profile and in many cases they haven't got a 100% filled in profile.

I was lucky enough to attend a brilliant Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 - in Cardiff a few weeks ago. There were some incredible speakers and for me the 3 highlights were Trey Pennington, Mark Perl and Nick Tadd.

Mark Perl did a brilliant session on LinkedIn. Mark's energy and enthusiasm is infectious and he showed us how to use LinkedIn for business. And I thought it might be useful to share my 4 top take homes with you.

1. Your Connections' Connections

Mark pointed out the importance of our connections. He explained that they all know people who we could do business with. It seemed so obvious after he pointed this out to us!
We spend time each week cold calling and trying to get in front of key decision makers and yet we've got a huge pool of potential customers right in front our noses on LinkedIn.
Mark shared with us how we should spend some time looking at our connections' connections to see who they know. Assuming we know who our ideal customer is then we can look for them within that pool of connections.
Mark explained how he'd been trying to get hold of this guy - John Smith- and after a search on LinkedIn he saw that one of his connections - Steve - was connected to John Smith. So Mark called Steve and explained he'd love an intro to John Smith. Mark explained what he did and how he was going to help John and Steve was so impressed he said he'd be happy to get in touch with John and tell him all about Mark.
A few days later imagine Mark's surprise when he got a call out of the blue from John Smith, the guy he'd been trying to connect with! Steve had called John and because they knew each other; liked each other and trusted each other, John took Steve's word that Mark was a good guy and John was happy to get in touch.
So instead of Mark having to cold call John, the opposite happened! John called Mark and was a very warm lead thanks to the power of the referral from Steve.
Isn't that much better then wasting time cold-calling and trying to get past gate keepers?!!

So take a 15 or 20 minutes, at least once a week, to go through your connections and see if they know the people you're looking to connect with and if they do, ask them for an introduction. You'll be amazed at what can happen.

2. Join Groups & Get Involved

One of the other areas we often over look is Groups.
There are thousands of Groups on LinkedIn and so there will definitely be a few which are relevant to you and your business.
For example, I'm a member of a Group called Business Link in the South West as that's where I'm based and its a great group for connecting with other business people in my area.
You can also create your own group. If you want to create a Group based on your area of expertise you can. You can then invite your other connections to join your new Group.
Once you've found some groups which are relevant to your business, get involved by posting a question if you need help or dive in and answer a question that has been asked by one of the other members of the group.
When you do this your photo appears next to your posting along with a link to your LinkedIn profile page. So it's a great way for people to find out more about you.
If you are answering questions and being as helpful as possible the chances are other people will notice you and want to find out more about you.
The only downside to some groups is you see people trying to answer questions just to position themselves and offer their services or products. As with all social media platforms; it's NOT about broadcasting or touting for business. If you try and do this, you will be found out very quickly.
Try to remember the Know - Like - Trust mantra. People tend to do business with people they know and like and trust so there is no point at all in trying to sell.
Be a genuinely nice person and be as helpful as you can with your advice and you will build a good reputation. Then, and only then, will the business flow.

3. Give Testimonials

This was another gem from Mark Perl. I tried this last week and it felt great and I got some wonderful messages back from people.
The other good thing about giving testimonials to others is that some of the people will return the favour. Now please note - you don't just give testimonials because you want them to give you a testimonial in return!! You have to genuinely want to give someone a testimonial because you think and believe they truly deserve it.
Have a look through your connections and see who you've done business with who you think deserves a testimonial from you; or find a work colleague and give them a testimonial. Try to find two or three people each week and give them a testimonial. This isn't a hard and fast rule; you might only do 2 or 3 a month. Just go with what feels right for you.
It is a great feeling when you do give someone a testimonial. I knew they would be happy and I imagined their reaction as they got the email from LinkedIn telling them about my testimonial. I love it when I receive a nice testimonial from others; it sets you up for the rest of your day.
So get cracking and start giving testimonials to those people you think deserve it.  

4. Complete your Profile
There are a couple of reasons for doing this.

• Other people looking at your profile want to know as much about you as possible. The more information you can give the better. If you are using LinkedIn to find other job opportunities then obviously you must give a full career history as possible.
• Whenever you update your profile, your connections will see this in their timeline. LinkedIn also sends out a weekly email update which tells you which of your connections have updated their profile; changed photo etc. It also tells you who your connections are now connected to.
• Your profile will appear very high on the search engines results. If you search my name "Dickie Armour" on Google you'll see my LinkedIn profile appears 5th on the search result.

So make sure you complete your profile and update it often. Every time it's updated your connections will be notified and this brings you back into their minds again.

These are just my 4 top take homes from Mark Perl's brilliant talk at the Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 in Cardiff. If you really want to learn how to use LinkedIn properly I highly recommend you get in touch with Mark Perl. He'll give you all the help and guidance you need.


So get going - make sure you spend time looking into your connections' connections and asking for referrals to those key decidion makers you want to speak to. Join the Groups you're interested in and get involved in the conversations going on there. Please give testimonials; you'll feel great and you'll feel even better when people start giving you testimonials and get your profile completed to 100% and keep it updated.

If you know me and we're not already connected on LinkedIn my profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/dickiearmour Please do connect and if I know you I will of course accept.

Please do add your comments below and share how you're using LinkedIn.