LinkedIn offers account holders, those holding free accounts and those with a  Premium account, the ability to automatically show Twitter messages in their status updates. And, if you use WordPress or TypePad you can have each new post show on your LinkedIn home page.

A Facebook Fan page can be customized and one of those customized tabs can be an RSS Feed of your blog. Also, an application called Networked Blogs can be added to the Fan page to add your blog feed directly into the Fan page NewsFeed. The same application can be added to your personal profile page as well.

As of April 21, 2010 Facebook brings in your personal profile to other social platforms and gives you an opportunity to ‘Like’ that page or website, which posts to your personal profile NewsFeed.

Your blogging platform, free or otherwise, offers you the ability to announce your new blog post to all of your social media accounts.

Slow Down and Think Before Connecting

Now that you know this, please don’t go changing each of your accounts to reflect the status updates of the others just yet.

First you must consider the reason you have each account. Here are some basic reasons most of us have these accounts:

• LinkedIn – for professional use. To connect with professionals in your industry, learn and participate in groups related to your industry, and meet local connections.
• Facebook Fan Page – for business use. To connect with your customers and potential customers, separate yourself from your competition and create a space for people interested in your service or product to talk to you and to others.
• Facebook Personal Profile – for personal use. To connect with family and friends, share personal stories about interesting events in our lives, post photos of our kids and pets.
• Blog – for business use. To tell visitors interesting things about parts of your business, service or personnel  that they otherwise wouldn’t know.

If you are using all of these for one use, business or personal, then linking them together makes sense. But think about this; If your Twitter account is connected to your LinkedIn account, then the next time you tweet a message it will show up on your LinkedIn status – is this what you want your professional connections to see? Really? What if your last Tweet was about:

• Your reaction to a lousy movie?
• Your spouse’s broken finger episode?
• Your dog’s reaction to eating brussel sprouts?
• Your reaction to your dog’s reaction?

Seriously. Please consider the consequences of your social media sharing and make sure you understand what each platform is being used for – by other people. If you don’t, you will lose business opportunities and personal connections. There are many people on Facebook right now cleaning up their Friends list because their NewsFeeds are filled with product or business ‘advertising’. There are many people on LinkedIn removing contacts because the status updates are ridiculous or offensive (imagine reading a status update from a business contact that includes the F*** bomb).

Sometimes people get the misconception that social media is all about them. Well, it’s not. Social media is all about the other people reading and chatting with you. If you keep that in mind and apply common sense, basic etiquette (business and personal) you will find yourself connected to fascinating people interested in helping you succeed in your business and in your personal life.

The main reason they are great is because so many people are on Facebook, and when they become a “Fan” of your page, people will receive updates in their feed all about you, your blog, or your product.

While it is important to design your Facebook page right, it is also important to make your Facebook page a sub-community in and of itself by importing your RSS feed into your Facebook page, enabling video, photo and discussion posts, and, most importantly, changing your wall so that it defaults to posts by you and your fans.

The latter point is key, as Facebook defaults to hiding your fan posts, which discourages interaction, and creates a far more divided community (or, really, none at all).

It is changed by clicking on the “Options” button under the “Share” box, then “Settings”, then changing the first drop down option to “Posts by Page and Fans”.

Here are three common reasons why bloggers don’t want to embrace the community features of a Facebook fan page, and why I think they should get over it:

1. I don’t want spammers muddying up my Facebook page.

Most people use their real names on Facebook, and in many ways put their reputation on the line. Unlike YouTube or MySpace, this website is populated with real people with real reputations to uphold. It is possible to make a fake Facebook account, but this is a pretty big hassle. Really, if people hate you so much that they go through all the hassle of setting up a fake account just to “Fan” your page and write nasty comments or upload offensive photos, you should feel honoured to be so noticed!

Even if a spammer does go through this hassle, or some drunken idiot otherwise stumbles upon your page, you hold all the cards. Just delete the offending comment, photograph or video and move on with your life. You can also kick the person out as a fan (by bringing up the list of fans and clicking that little “X” on the right side).

On the very, very off chance this happens, delete it right away. Spammers rarely return, especially when they discover they had so little value from their efforts. (It’s like covering up a spray-painting job the very next day – no spray-painter worth their palette will want to go back any time soon, just to have their “work” covered up right away.)

2. I don’t want to lose traffic.

This is a ridiculous argument, and is getting more ridiculous daily.

The fact is that Facebook is the number one destination for a large and growing group of people. I’m pretty sure some teenagers think it’s the only website on the Internet. If anything, you will gain traffic from promotion on Facebook, not lose it.

In fact, you should even promote your Facebook fan page (and your Twitter account) on your website. The more your existing readers fan your Facebook page, the more likely others will find your page, and may, in turn, discover your website.

3. My blog is supposed to be the community, I don’t want to draw attention away from it.

I used to whimper a little when somebody commented on my post in Facebook instead of directly on my blog. After wiping up the tears one day, I realized that in almost every case the commenter wouldn’t have found my post at all if it hadn’t been for Facebook.

Similarly, I’ve had posts where quite a bit of dialog occurred on both Facebook and directly on my blog. I’d chime in occasionally on both, and include a short link to the blog comments for the Facebook commenters. This had a mushroom effect on the comments directly on my blog – something that would not have happened if I didn’t set up and promote the Facebook page effectively.

For many reasons, your blog should be the primary community for itself. Make sure you encourage an active comment stream on every post and page, encourage RSS subscription, and maybe even delve into other interactive features like discussion forums, but don’t underestimate the value of Facebook as a sub-community for your blog.

And don’t fear it, either. Facebook can be your friend!

Facebook has been making changes to Facebook fan pages so that these pages – meant to promote your brand, book or business – have more power.

As Publicity Hound Joan Stewart said in her ezine, “Google is now indexing status updates on Fan Pages.”

This means that the status updates you write on Facebook – or send to your Facebook fan page from your Twitter or LinkedIn accounts – can be searched based on the keywords the updates contain.

What may be more important is that the title of your Facebook fan page can be searched internally on Facebook as well as externally. And that’s where you can really use to your advantage the 75 characters allowed for the fan page title. Use keywords that you want people to use to find you.

And this is the “very carefully” caution from the first paragraph of this post:

Once you save a title in the Facebook fan page set up, you cannot change it. You need to start a new fan page if you want a different title.

Recommendation for Facebook fan page title: Work on your title in a Word doc, checking the 75 characters (counting spaces), until you have an effective title.

My business partner, Yael K. Miller, and I spent considerable time on choosing our Facebook fan page title, eventually giving up our company title and our names in order to have a better keyword title.

Our Facebook fan page title is: “Internet Marketing Tips: Twitter, Book, Website, Blog, SEO, Video, Email” and, no, we’re not keyword stuffing. We actually do work in all these fields.

And, yes, it’s a mouthful. But we make it easy for people to become a fan of our page by putting a Facebook fan page widget on every page of our website (see widget below). People can become a fan of our page without ever leaving our website.

Take the time to plan and then set up a Facebook fan page for your business. It’s worth the investment.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

If you want more information on setting up an effective Facebook fan page, see the Miller Mosaic video/workbook on this topic at www.millermosaicllc.com/facebook-fan-page. Or get the free report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com