Chapter 1: "My Page"

"My Page" is where your visible profile resides on the network. It should have as much information as possible, including a recent photo, contact information such as a web site and as much about products and services as you can possibly muster. It's pretty hard to say too much about your activities on this page, it is basically your entire reason for being in wine summed up in a few paragraphs.

Your "My Page" is to others, a "member profile". They will see it clicking on your name. It's their page. This is probably the most misunderstood feature of the networking platform. Putting a comment on someone's page has a simple idea in mind:

It's about them, not you.

Adding a comment to someone's profile page is supposed to be a greeting to them, not an ode to you. If you feel the need to introduce yourself to this person, specifically, there are better ways to go about it. However, there is certainly nothing wrong with leaving a simple one line signature with your name and website at the bottom of your welcome message.

Preventing "My Page" embarrassment

You have full control over what is on your page. I refer you to this screen capture to illustrate how you can decide what appears on your page. You can select the "let me approve what goes on my comment wall" and be in control of what actually gets seen. Every comment on your comment wall has a little button to the right of it. That button allows you to cull the comments and remove any you don't care to have.

Let's remember that your comment page is your calling card on this network. Avoid the trap that many web sites fall into: too much noise dilutes your message.

Speaking of calling card, there is a powerful feature for people who blog or who have sites with blog feeds. You can show your feed on your profile page. You can put an image of an event, book, magazine, whatever you want people to see in a text box on your page.

In looking over a lot of profile pages on this network I see that many people do have a good understanding of what goes on this page, both for profiles and comment walls. If nothing else, go take a look at your page and try to see it as others might.

• Chapter 1: "My Page"
• Chapter 2: Private Messages and "Friending"
• Chapter 3: Forum Posting
• Chapter 4: Groups
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• Chapter 5: Media