Previously we’ve talked about the importance of updating your status on LinkedIn. I recommend you update your status at least once a week and more often than that if you’re trying to promote a special event or elicit a specific response.

Most of my clients can live with that, but they start to push back when I suggest they update their status on Facebook equally as often, not to mention Twitter or any other tools they might be using.

For many people, this sounds like too much time to spend on “frivolous, unproven” activities. My point today is not to debate the worthwhileness of social media but to instead share with you a few tips:

For Facebook Users

• Login to Facebook and search for “Twitter” in the search box located in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
• When you get the results, sort the Applications using the interior navigation bar
• You’ll find an application simply called Twitter which, when you download it, will allow you to update your Facebook status from Twitter, and vice versa
• If you tweet frequently, this can be overkill in which case you might want to consider the Selective Twitter Status application instead. This allows you to choose which tweets also update your Facebook page by ending your tweets with #fb

For Twitter Users

• There are many desktop and mobile tools available to help you get the most out of Twitter, and arguably the leading favorites are Tweetdeck and HootSuite.
• Tweetdeck allows you to easily organize your Twitter streams, include short URLs, follow / unfollow tweets and even tag favorites.
• For status updates, the new release allows you to tick a tiny box to indicate whether you want your tweet to update your Facebook status too. It couldn’t be simpler.
• HootSuite allows you to update LinkedIn, Facebook, multiple Twitter accounts. You can schedule updates and track clicks on short URLs plus much more.

For LinkedIn Users

• There’s a powerful application with an awkward name called Ping.fm that allows you to update your LinkedIn status along with 30 others from your phone, instant messenger, and email or via third party applications. Another service called HelloTxt offers similar functionality.

Drawing the Line

Power social media users will enjoy the efficiency of these tools but when it comes to LinkedIn, I’m old-school about my status updates – I do them manually. Why? Because the relationship I have with my LinkedIn connections is quite different from the ones I have with my Twitter following or Facebook friends.

To be fair there is a great deal of overlap between my LinkedIn connections and Facebook friends, and lately some of my Twitter followers have connected with me in those places too.

The real difference is in how I choose to use my status updates in those mediums. On LinkedIn, I wear my business / marketing / connector hat. On Facebook, I’m the friend that shares personal foibles, news tidbits and random thoughts or trivia. Twitter is a mashup of both those personas with a dash of self-promoter for good measure.

Your Call

There’s no right or wrong way to make status updates — the choice is entirely yours. However you choose to make them, and in whatever persona, the point is to engage. So update your status and let the conversation begin!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.