Linkedin And Social Media Marketing

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Linkedin And Social Media Marketing

LinkedIN is a business networking site which boasts of more than 55 million professionals interacting on it. As any good business person would notice, linkedIN acts as a great networking tool for lead generation, hiring and business networking purposes.

As a social media marketing agency, we’d like to point out certain do’s and don’ts for businesses on linkedIN:

Dos

•           Make sure that your status updates are done in a wise and well thought manner. The community on linkedIN are professional business users. Many HR managers scout linkedIN for your profile and details before making hiring decisions. Do make sure that the information you share on linkedIN works for you and not against you.

•           Grow your network. Invite friends, join groups, interact in your community. Your influencing power as a business or individual depends on the number of members in your network.

•           Make sure that your profile is up to date and honestly filled out. Do ensure that you mention your skill set accurately and connect with like-minded individuals.

Don’ts

•           Don’t post personal messages on LinkedIN. Understand that linkedIN is a business networking portal and not a social networking website like Facebook or Twitter. Your status messages and interactions should be more professional and oriented towards your business rather than personal.

•           Don’t try to connect with people whom you really don’t know. Remember that you are not here for making friends but for professional relationships. If you want to expand your network, get active in groups, answer other members question and showcase your knowledge. People would surely get interested in your work and your network will grow in slow yet steady fashion.

•           Respect people’s privacy and time. Don’t be pushy with meeting requests, sales offers, and other things of that nature. You will quickly be deemed a spammer and will start losing connections.

Some terms to know on LinkedIN

•           Network: Your entire group of members connected to you on LinkedIN forms your Network

•           Connection: This is very similar to a ‘Friend on Facebook’. This is the person you are connected to on LinkedIN. All connections can see your profile and information. Likewise, you can also see your connections information.

•           Recommendations: People for whom you have worked can provide recommendations for your work on LinkedIN. Get as many good recommendations as you can.

•           Invite: This is similar to sending a friend request on Facebook, you instead “Invite” people to join your Network.

•           Group: Group is a sub-network of individuals usually working in same technology or residing in same area of both.

As a business owner, getting active on linkedIN means more leads and more reach to people you might want to hire later on. Also, getting active on linkedIN would help you showcase your knowledge in a particular area. LinkedIN has a very important feature called ‘search’. As you become more and more active on LinkedIN, your profile appears more in search results. A good business person would easily interpret this as increased leads and in turn increased business.

Such business and social networking activities take away the most important thing from you – ‘Time’. As a business owner, you may want to hire a social media marketing agency to manage your online reputation and interact on your behalf.

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Your Guide to Making LinkedIn a Social Media Marketing Tool

admin    Social Media     Guide, LinkedIn, Making, Marketing, Media, Social, Tool

Your Guide to Making LinkedIn a Social Media Marketing Tool

LinkedIn is a social networking site for professional and business-oriented relationships. It is a social media marketing tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. As online marketers, we can harness LinkedIn’s power for SEO and give our site a boost it needs from the search engines.

The first thing we will need is searchable public profile on LinkedIn. This guide will show you how to get a LinkedIn account and how to use it to get traffic to your site both from LinkedIn and Google. LinkedIn strengthens and extends your existing network of trusted contacts.

It is highly recommended that you use the “Build Your Network” feature by LinkedIn. All it does is contact people on your email address book, letting them know you have an account with LinkedIn, letting them know how to add you or how they can connect with you through the site. Enter your email username and password for each email accounts.

LinkedIn will list all your contacts and allow you to select which ones get an invitation. Later, if you need to add more friends and colleagues to your LinkedIn, you can do so by clicking Contacts from the menu on the left side of the page. Here are other ways you can do to harness the power of LinkedIn.

Ask your staff, employees, friends or colleagues at work to join LinkedIn and put links to your site on their profile. Remember to ask them to use “Other” from the pulldown and give them the keyword to use for when linking to your sites. Then there are your LinkedIn connections.

Ask them to link to your sites also using the “Other” pulldown. What this is going to do is let Google find an array of links and associate your URL with keywords used and reward your site (and LinkedIn profile) with good ranking. Your LinkedIn profile may land business directly from the contacts you’ll make on the site.

There is no doubt that LinkedIn is a powerful social media marketing tool. Bear in mind that effective networking requires reciprocity through developing and nurturing win-win relationships. By using LinkedIn, you will also have the opportunity to help out those in your own network, by answering questions, providing relevant leads, and improve the traffic to your website at the same time.

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Social Media Marketing: Five Steps to Getting Started with LinkedIn

admin    Social Media     Five, Getting, LinkedIn, Marketing, Media, Social, Started, Steps

Social Media Marketing: Five Steps to Getting Started with LinkedIn

Social Media Marketing using LinkedIn is made easy by following five simple steps.  LinkedIn is the perfect site to build your professional networks, keep in touch with connections, discover opportunities, develop relationships, build authority in your industry and also find leads and opportunities for you and your business.  Keep it simple and check out these easy methods to getting started with LinkedIn.

1. Create your account
2. Complete and update your profile
3. Create a summary
4. Get connected
5. Engage with others

Creating an account

Go to http://www.linkedin.com and fill in your name, email and create a password and click the green join now button.

Complete your profile

Your LinkedIn profile is an important part of your social media marketing strategy. Upload a current, professional looking photo of yourself. You’ll want to complete your entire profile, and include previous work experience that you’ve had. Remember your profile is a representation of you. The little details are important to your profile; it should have substance, be grammatically correct and have no spelling errors. Include your chosen keywords liberally throughout your profile whenever you can so that others searching for those keywords can find you. Don’t forget your email addresses, new and old, to increase the opportunity for connections.

Summary tips

A summary should give a good snap shot of who you are and what you do. Use two to four sentences in your summary that incorporate your specialties or expertise. These sentences should include your keywords and add what you enjoy doing to help others to connect and get to know you.

Connecting on LinkedIn

Connecting with others on LinkedIn is controlled. In order to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you must show how you know them.  Getting recommended by LinkedIn members who know you and what you are all about is a wonderful way to connect to with others.

Engage with others

Joining LinkedIn groups gives you the opportunity to maximize your networking and social media marketing efforts while connecting you with great people with similar interests. Start by joining employer alumni groups, were you will have connections with people you have something in common with. And finally, enhance your LinkedIn social media marketing experience by participating and interacting with others through posting, responding to posts and networking with other group members.

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Tips on How to Become Popular on LinkedIn

admin    Website Tips     Become, LinkedIn, Popular, Tips

Tips on How to Become Popular on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site developed by entrepreneurs to shrink the business cycle in their favor. This article gives some tips on how to make the most of this popular business networking service and help you expand your business.

The main purpose of setting up this site was mainly developed to set up entrepreneurial venture. However, over time the site is also helpful for finding jobs. The site is equally helpful for the employer and the job seeker. Many entrepreneurs do not fully appreciate the benefits of LinkedIn to shrink their business cycle in their favor.

LinkedIn is a great place for business social networking and also enables the user to market his/her business. If you are a user of the site you can avail of these benefits to expand your business circle. In order to become popular in this business social networking site you need to know certain tips of effectively managing your business circle. Some of the tips are listed below:

•    Make use of the Q&A function: This function is one the powerful revenue generating tool of the site. It is advisable to try the advanced answers search to get specific questions about your company’s expertise. This tool is the best medium to get the best answer. It is regarded as the give-to-get medium as you give freely and will be rewarded back in spades.

•    Promoting your blog: promoting your blog in this site will enhance your image and add value to it. Many of you have your blogs and have published whitepapers and corporate presentations. Promote your blog in the news section of the groups you belong to. You can also promote your whitepapers and presentations in the groups by the discussion function.

•    Join groups: Joining groups can also help you to become popular and manage your business. You can join as many as 50 groups in LinkedIn. After joining you can introduce yourself and your services. This is very similar to the Q&A method.

•    Becoming an expert: This creates an expertise for you and your company. When a question is asked in the site, a time of about seven days is given to answer. After the question closes the asker can rate the best answer given to the question. Expert status is given to the person who gave the best answer. This status follows you wherever you go in the site. An expert badge is also awarded to you for your excellence. This acts as an advantage since you represent your company. In this way your expertise gives an expert status to your company also.

•    Starting a group: This is one of the easiest tasks, which you can do in LinkedIn. You can start a group regarding your company’s core competencies. For instance if you are a software engineer then you can start a group on this and ask questions on software. With just a couple of clicks you are done.

Make the full use of the site in order to become popular as well as managing your business at the same time. LinkedIn lets you tap into the huge potential of social media networking and help you find new business partners, prospects and even customers.

5 Tips To Improve Your Success On Linkedin

admin    Twitter Marketing     improve, LinkedIn, Success, Tips

5 Tips To Improve Your Success On Linkedin

So many businesses already know the power that they can harness by joining LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a bit like Facebook, but completely business-orientated. People use it to connect and build rapport with potential clients, as well as with other business owners, where they can share past experiences and advice. In this post, I will give you 5 tips to improve you success on LinkedIn. So, have a read!

Add a personal touch – LinkedIn is full of businesses who just set up their profile and then expect new business to come rolling in. To a certain extent, you might get some new business, but in order to maximise your chance on LinkedIn, add a personal touch to your profile, and show other business owners and potential clients that you have actually put the effort in to create a friendly page.
Interact – As with any other social networking site, be it Facebook, Twitter or anything else, the main point of it is to interact with potential clients. Maybe say on your profile that you are happy to help anyone who is having any problems, and then when messages come through asking for advice, give it to them; for free. This will help to build a relationship with that person. Just don’t give too much advice, or they wouldn’t need to do business with you!
Profile Picture – Same as Facebook and Twitter; if you have a picture of yourself up, people will be a lot more inclined to interact with you. It always helps to have a face behind the brand.
Connections – Connect with as many people as you can. I don’t mean randomly adding people, I mean searching keywords that your ideal customer may have included in their profile, and add them. Once they have accepted, be the first to message them thanking them for accepting you, and let them know what you do.
Rapport – As with any sort of marketing, build rapport with your customer. You shouldn’t sell directly on LinkedIn, you should try and re-direct anyone who is interested to your website or blog. Make sure you build some rapport with these people first though, once they like you, they will pay more attention to the links you post.

I hope you found this helpful, and if you would like to share any other tips you may have with other readers, please feel free to leave a comment.

When To Use Linkedin And When To Use Twitter To Pitch The Media

admin    Twitter Marketing     LinkedIn, Media, Pitch, Twitter

When To Use Linkedin And When To Use Twitter To Pitch The Media

Every generation says “we live in strange times.” But even previous generations would have to look at 2010 and admit that we are in the midst of fundamental shifts in media, technology and communication.

It is no longer significant to point out how people are relying more on social media and less on print and broadcast media, or that advertisers are shifting dollars rapidly from traditional media outlets to search and social media. This information has trickled down to even the least savvy professionals.  

But in spite of all this, there is still this perception that somehow broadcast and print media are more legitimate, especially to marketing and communication folks. Businesses love to see when people on Facebook make wall comments and those comments drive Web site traffic and that traffic converts to business. Or when getting ReTweeted results in their store filling up with customers. Or when a blog post helps them get a call back from a prospect.

The thing is, there is nothing like seeing your name in print. Even if those 500 media pickups from your online press release drive a lot of new business, there is just a “something” about seeing your name in the business section of the local paper, even if it can’t be tracked, measured or attributed to a single sale. Now here it the challenge. Every week there are two fewer newspapers in the US. Magazines are going from weekly publication schedules to monthly, or going entirely online, or just going away. Reporters are being laid off. There are fewer places to earn print media.

And if you’re like most marketers, you hear that reporters get so many phone and e-mail pitches, they don’t bother reading most of them. But… they do use Twitter and LinkedIn to find sources and post queries. The next question is, “okay that is great, how and when do I use LinkedIn and Twitter to reach the media.” Here are the ways to be the most successful in your efforts.

Twitter is about Just-In-Time communication with the media. Yes, you can and should Tweet your news releases, but don’t expect a viral explosion over the announcement of your new Web site. Like so many other aspects of social media, the real value is in listening. Follow the reporters, editors and analysts you most want to reach.  At the very least, you’ll learn what topics that reporter cares about. If their main focus is on cloud computing, stop pitching them on why IT directors need social media policies. The real home run is when they send out those delicious urgent queries. When reporters need a source right now, they Tweet for it. Respond fast with a good pitch or source, and you’re on your way to a great pickup.

LinkedIn is about Just-In-Case communication with the media. By building a descriptive LinkedIn profile, you make it easy for the media to find you. Are you a CTO at a midsized company in California? Make sure to use those clear precise words in your LinkedIn Profile. Think like a reporter. If they need to talk to the president of a retailer in the home improvement business, what keywords are they likely to use? Okay, that helps them find you. Now let’s be proactive. Any time you meet with, talk to, hear from or have any real life connection to a reporter, find them on LinkedIn and connect with them. Today’s LinkedIn connections are yesterdays’ Rolodex.  By having that relationship built with a reporter, you have access to her via a direct channel when you need to get a story out and they have access to you when she needs a source.

Are Connections or Followers more Important: LinkedIn or Twitter?

admin    Twitter Marketing     Connections, Followers, Important, LinkedIn, More, Twitter

Are Connections or Followers more Important: LinkedIn or Twitter?

In early April 2009, we witnessed a social media milestone: Ashton Kutcher collected 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. Since then, Oprah has begun tweeting and the microblogging site has been the social network darling of the mainstream media.

What does it mean to have a network on Twitter? Could Ashton Kutcher ever collect 1,000,000 connections on LinkedIn? Probably not. But why?

As Ashton demonstrated, Twitter can be a numbers game, whereas LinkedIn is more about the value of each connection. While both social networks value “friends,” Twitter “followers” mean something completely different than LinkedIn “connections.”

This discussion of Twitter has been a hot topic in many business circles. More and more, business people are testing the tweeting waters and wondering where their time can be spent most effectively.  We are intrigued by the relative value of connections within the Twitter and LinkedIn networks. Ultimately, which is more valuable: thousands of followers or a dozen meaningful connections?

There are four main components to relationships on the web: identity (i.e. who are you and what is your place in the community), value of relationships (i.e. are they deep or surface-level), content value (what perspective can you offer the community) and measure of influence (i.e. your offline relationships can influence your online clout).

Identity
To understand the core of a social network and the connections within them, you must look at how user identity is defined. Twitter versus LinkedIn is very much the same debate as MySpace versus Facebook. Where Twitter and MySpace allows for pseudonyms, Facebook and LinkedIn require authentic identities. It is the fundamental element that drives the attitudes of those operating within each social network.

Essentially, it’s about the many hats we wear. Do you talk the same way to your boss, clients and peer group as you do your inner circle of friends? Probably not. If you’re using Twitter for personal reasons, would you share the same information as you would on LinkedIn?

A pseudonym can give you level of anonymity, whereas your true identity reflects on your personal reputation. In essence, pseudonyms give you a veil with which to conceal your true identity. It’s about accountability. Accountability decreases as you can mask your real name. Hence, the incredible army of spammers on Twitter.

Consider the social network-building strategies for Twitter VS LinkedIn. Friending everyone in hopes of gleaning several followers isn’t a problem on Twitter, whereas LinkedIn requires you have an established relationship with a prospective connection, or request an introduction. LinkedIn has built in several barriers to screen an spamming or excessive “friending” activity.

Value of Relationships
As aforementioned, Twitter is a numbers game. The more followers you collect, the larger your megaphone becomes. How can you have a meaningful network of 1,000,000 users? What percentage actually matter and make-up a meaningful core network? Zeroes of a percent for people like Ashton Kutcher.

LinkedIn has a rigid screening process that deters excessive “friending” behavior. You must know the person in some professional or personal capacity before friending them. Or, you may request an introduction. Therefore, the value of each connection means much more because the effort and screen process makes it more difficult to connect with users. If Twitter is a loudspeaker, LinkedIn would be a phone call.

Content value
It can take seconds to post a tweet. Essentially, give your two cents, paste your link and blast it to your followers. How long does it take to answer a question in LinkedIn answers? Maybe an average of five to 10 minutes. However, if I want to have a pulse on the collective attitude of a mass audience, would I go to LinkedIn answers? No. Twitter would be the best use of my time. If I wanted to have in-depth analysis within a social network, I would most certainly choose LinkedIn.

Essentially, thousands of three-second tweets would give me a pulse on the collective attitudes of a mass user-base (a horizontal approach), whereas LinkedIn would give me in-depth, meaningful insights (a vertical approach). A valuable resource for measuring consensus are hashtags. Twitter hashtags and search can be a gateway into the real-time pulse of a large audience, which can be incredibly important if you’ve just launched a product or posted on a blog.

Measure of Influence

No doubt, Ashton Kutcher has a lot of influence. Within the Twitter community, he can exert a lot of influence. Even if only half of his Twitter followers actually pay attention to his tweets, that’s…

To read more about LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers, go to Sparxoo, a digital marketing, branding and business development blog.

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Charity Auctions & Social Media – 12 Ways to Promote Your Auction Using Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

admin    Twitter Marketing     Auction, Auctions, Charity, Facebook, LinkedIn, Media, Promote, Social, Twitter, Using, Ways

Copyright (c) 2009 Red Apple Auctions LLC

Utilizing social media, such as blogs, LinkedIn, Twiiter, and Facebook can be extremely beneficial in achieving guest mind share. They allow you to deliever information quickly about your auction,and they are also free to use.

Creating “something to write” can be overwhelming for some people, so to get you (or your volunteer P.R. person) started, below is a list of specific suggestions on what to write.

1. Announce donations: When a donation arrives, announce the item, thank the donor, and provide a link back to the donor’s website. Be sure to include a photo, if possible.

2. Ask for a donation to round out a package: “We need a florist to donate a bouquet to complete our Mother’s Day package.”

3. Testimonials: Auction fundraisers should be mission-focused. Keep your supporters updated with successes. For instance, “Peggy is off the streets, thanks to our non-profit,” or “Jeremy credits St. Stephens’s art teacher in giving him the confidence to pursue art in college.”

4. Event Preparations: Share a photo of the decor committee drawing backdrops for the auction, or the Gala Chairs meeting to send out invitations. This shows that others are getting involved and making plans to attend the event.

5. Special announcements: Share news. “In just three weeks, we’ve surpassed 50 raffle ticket sales.” Or, “Only 200 seats left before sell-out!”

6. Apply gentle pressure to past donors: A post such as, “We sold a lovely 2-night stay at the Fairmont last year, and are hoping they’ll donate again,” might work. Include a link to the hotel, and then contact the hotel so they see how you are treating them kindly – even before they donate.

7. Answer questions: Make the questions up, if you need to. “A new family to our school asked what was appropriate to wear to the auction. Here’s our response, along with three photos of past guests.”

8. Create a list: You can create a list on almost anything. “Top 5 Reasons to Attend our Gala.” “Three Ways You Can Volunteer That Will Take Less Than 2 Hours per Week.”

9. Seek specific volunteers: “Any math lovers out there? We need an auction clerk, and your primary job is recording numbers at the auction. Any takers?”

10. Link to relevant websites: “In 55 days, our auction will be raising money for cancer research. Here’s a link to fascinating article written by XYZ about the need for a cure.”

11. Support your supporters: When you notice that one of your supporters (e.g. a school parent, a Board member, an auction donor) is mentioned in the paper, link to it and promote it. “Parent Joe Smith just got promoted and here’s the link. Way to go, Joe! We look forward to congratulating you in person at the gala next Saturday.”

12. Call to action: Get your audience to act (or think about acting). Something like, “Early-bird pricing on gala tickets ends tomorrow,” or “Get your gala dress at Lord & Taylor this weekend. The store has special occasion dresses on sale.”

These tips will get you started. In no time at all you will have new information!