Social media is not just about advertising who you are and what you do. Neither is it about telling people, complete with photographic evidence, what you ate for lunch (as some Twitter users seems to try to convince otherwise).

It's about engaging with your contacts (whether they be friends, customers, prospective customers, vendors, suppliers etc.) in another manner. In the same way that Email revolutionised communication back in the 80s and 90s, so Social Media and Social Networking is giving us yet another way of reaching our audience, whether using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or any other of the myriad of Social paltforms.

But how often do you try to make what you do on those stand out from the crowd? Or are you just adding to the "noise" with postings like "I've just got on the bus - I hope it gets me to work on time"?

This time of year gives you the chance to practice for one of the biggest seasons of the year in the social networking calendar.

Think about it, you've got your Office Christmas parties coming up, you're no doubt going to be sharing some or all of the Yuletide season visiting friends or family, or possibly playing host to them. But it's not just your personal circle you need to be celebrating with. What about your Social circles, those individuals and companies that you've spent the rest of the year trying to get to follow you, or to accept your LinkedIn contact requests? Maybe some of them still need that extra push to convince them that you're worth connecting with, or perhaps you just want to spread a little of the seasonal excitement around?

As I said, you have the perfect opportunity to practice in advance of 'the main event', as it's Hallowe'en. I have all the more reason to be looking forward to this seasonal spook-fest, with it coinciding with my birthday, but enough of that.

The important thing is that your network constantly need reminding that you are out there. Sitting in the shadows waiting for people to come looking for you is not the way that you should be using your Social activities. There are plenty of blogs out there detailing what you can do, what you should not do and how to do it, so I'm not going to waste time by repeating and paraphrasing them.

However, have you thought about how putting a smile on someone's face, or making them laugh, can influence your network and raise your profile?

There are tools out there to help you do just that, as my video below demonstrates.



This video is courtesy of www.jibjab.com

It doesn't take long to create something like this and share it around your network and the responses you get are usually very positive and is just one of many ways of making your Social presence more than just another person sitting in the corner.

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