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9 Tips to Writing Posts That Get Read on the LinkedIn Publishing Platfo

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, Content Marketing, LInkedIn

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Best Practices, Engagement, LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS, LinkedIn Insights, Online Marketing

Shared via LinkedIn Neal Schaffer

Founder, Maximize Your Social | Maximize Social Business | Social Media Center of Excellence | Social Media Tools Summit

One week ago I gave you advice on why you should use the LinkedIn publishing platform once you get access to it, and you will get access to it in the not so distant future if you don’t have access to it today. Whether you’re a content creator, a business, or a professional, the LinkedIn publishing platform provides a compelling way for you to get found in, engage with, and derive business value from LinkedIn. So, now that you’re ready to start blogging on LinkedIn, here’s my recommendation for writing posts that will get read in the news feeds of your followers. Note that this platform was only recently launched, so my advice might change in the future, but based on what I see and understand now, these are my recommendations:

1. Blog for the LinkedIn Demographic

I wrote about this in How to Use the New LinkedIn Publishing Platform, but this will be the most challenging concept for businesses to understand. I believe that your content should be unique to LinkedIn and geared towards the LinkedIn demographic. If you just want to copy and paste your blog post, I don’t think you’re going to be as effective on LinkedIn as you could be – and I think at some point you might get hurt by Google’s and/or LinkedIn’s algorithm(s). Companies that excel at social media marketing target their content and voice towards each unique community in social media. You should as well. Look at it another way: For most professionals who don’t have a personal website, LinkedIn IS their website and the new publishing platform WILL become their blog. You will have to compete with them for readership in the not-too-distant future.

2. Watch Your Frequency

Every social network plays around with their news feed or timeline and thus have an algorithm similar to Facebook Edgerank. LinkedIn is no different. LinkedIn has to decide what posts to display on who’s network updates, and I would tend to believe that if you publish too frequently, that might be hurting your chances for maximum impressions for each post. Just look at the LinkedIn Influencers: They’re not publishing on a daily basis, are they? With that in mind, I myself only plan to start publishing on a weekly basis, and I would recommend that you keep that to your approximate maximum as well. As I said

3. Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Visual

Visuals show up prominently in the LinkedIn newsfeed as they do everywhere else. Make sure that you use a visual at the top of your blog post that resonates with the professional demographic that make up LinkedIn.

4. Headlines are Critical

Time is short, and while your content might go out into the LinkedIn network updates, that’s only half off the battle: Your headline must be short, concise, and give professionals a reason to click through. A look at the most popular headlines of Influencer posts will give you and idea of some great headlines that you can try to emulate for success.

5. Keep Your Post Short

My posts are on the long side (this one is around 1,050 words), but your posts don’t need to be. My rule of thumb would be to make your post at least 300 words, but there is no reason why you have to blog longer than 1,000 words here on LinkedIn. Once again, I believe that for professionals where time is money, many simply don’t have the time to read through a longer post. Keep it short and simple when possible.

6. Link with Love

Just as you should update your LinkedIn profile with visual elements to showcase your work and content across the web, you should also do so here when you blog on LinkedIn. I wouldn’t overdo it, and I would definitely make it look natural and organic, but linking to provide a greater resource is an absolute best practice in blogging anywhere. “Link with Love” is also about recognizing other authors of content that you can link to if they influenced you, or marketing partners if you did something with them that is relevant to your post (see 9. below).

7. Share Your Post Inside AND Outside LinkedIn

If you want to get your content read on LinkedIn, don’t just share it on LinkedIn: Share it everywhere you can! Other social networking sites and your email newsletter are a great start. And, while I don’t recommend you creating a blog post and summarizing it on the LinkedIn publishing platform, I do recommend creating a LinkedIn publisher post and then summarizing it on your blog to a link back to LinkedIn!

8. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Needless to say, every post that you publish might lead people back to your profile. If you want to be considered an authority on the subject, you’d better have an optimized LinkedIn profile! Here are my most recent collection of LinkedIn profile tipsfor you to follow.

9. Embed

Right now LinkedIn only provides you the option of embedding YouTube videos and Slideshare presentations, but if you have one that is relevant to your post, that can only help in better engaging with your audience – and building greater loyalty for your future posts. While the below YouTube video is not just about the new LinkedIn publishing platform, I was on a Google Hangout with Eric Enge from the leading digital marketing agency today where I discussed the future of social media in 2014 and why the new LinkedIn Publishing platform changes everything.

Note: The above was embedded using a custom 600 x 338 size.

Finally, while there might be some things that you can’t embed, I did want to give you a catch to listen to my latest podcast where I talk further about understanding the compelling power of the new LinkedIn publishing platform. You can also “embed” other things into your posts in the same way with a link until LinkedIn gives us the ability to embed more sources of media.

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03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, Content Marketing, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LInkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube

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Best Practices, Community Management, Engagement, Facebook, facebook page insights bug, LinkedIn Insights, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter

How long should my tweet be? Or my blogpost? Or my headline?social-media-length-infographic

I ask this question a lot. It seems that others do, too. Our first take on coming up with the ideal length of all online content proved quite useful for a lot of people.

I’d love to see if I can help make it even more useful.

Along with all the best tips on optimal lengths for tweets, blogposts, headlines, and more, I’ve added a few additional lengths to the list—the ones that came up most often in the comments of the last post, like SlideShare length, Pinterestlength, and more.

And to make it just as easy as possible to consume all this information quickly and easily, we partnered with our friends at SumAll to place the data and insights into a fun infographic. Check it all out below.

If you enjoy the snazzy look and helpful info in this infographic, SumAll published a companion infographic (in a super cool, printable pdf format) over on their blog.

For the free, print-ready infographic, visit the SumAll blog.

SumAll is one of our favorite social media tools. They do social media tracking better than anyone we’ve found—all your data, all in one place, for free.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find in the downloadable, printable version of the infographic.

SumAll-printable-animals-final

The data-backed findings for the optimal length

It seems like people love to be told what works best. They love to have a starting point.

And that’s what these ideal lengths represent: starting points. We wrote a bit on the topic of how to implement data into your social media strategy. Do you take best practices like these ideal lengths as gospel truth? Not quite.

Take these as best practices, as jumping off points, as ideas to iterate on.

Put them to the test, and see what is right for you.

The optimal length of a tweet — 71 to 100 characters

Not only does this length give you enough room to share your message, it also provides room for someone who retweets you to add a message of their own.

retweet example

If you’d like to get ultra-specific with exactly the optimal length of a tweet for your specific Twitter account, you can find this by running the numbers on your Twitter analytics. We wrote up instructions on how to find your ideal tweet length by graphing it vs. engagement.

For the Buffer account, our sweet spot is between 80 and 120 characters.

Until you test and discover the right length for you, stick to the 71-to-100 character guideline.

What makes this length optimal? Tweets at this length get more retweets. They also have higher reply rate, retweet rate, and combined reply/retweet rate (these latter of which shows engagement per followers).

Where’d this data come from? A pair of studies have found the 100-character mark to be the sweet spot for tweet length. Track Social studied 100 major brands (Oreo, Zappos, ESPN, etc.) for a 30-day period in the fall of 2012. Buddy Media studied 320 Twitter handles from major brands for two-and-a-half months at the beginning of 2012.

The optimal length of a Facebook post – 40 characters

Shorter seems to be better on Facebook.

Maximum engagement happens at 40 characters (so, too, does minimum quantity, meaning that a vast minority of Facebook posts hit this 40-character mark). And engagement slowly wanes the longer you go.

An 80-character post is better than 100-character post.

A 40-character post is better than 80.

The upside to such a small window is that sharing a Facebook links lets you fudge a little on the amount of text in your update. Links show the title and description of a post, along with the update you type.

And how much can you fit in a 40-character window?

Here’s a post that landed under 40 characters (26 to be exact).

moz facebook screenshot

What makes this length optimal? Posts at this length tend to receive higher like rate, comment rate, and combined like/comment rate (stats that include a comparison of total engagement to number of Facebook fans.)

Where’d this data come from? A pair of studies have each found that shorter is better on Facebook. A Buddy Media study of the top 100 retailers Facebook pages during a six-month period in 2011 is one of the most-cited sources. Also in 2011, BlitzLocal studied 11,000 Facebook pages over a seven-month period.

The optimal length of a Google+ headline – 60 characters maximum

Google+ updates often take on the appearance of blogposts with bold headings up top and a body of text below. These top headings are the ones you’re best off optimizing. And 60 characters is as long as you should go.

google plus example

What makes this length optimal? It’s the maximum length for a Google+ headline to span one row before breaking to a second line.

Where’d this data come from? Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger tested out the length with posts on the Copyblogger page. He found that bold headlines could reach 60 characters before additional words would be bumped to the second line.

The optimal width of a paragraph – 40 to 55 characters

Before researching this one, I seldom thought about the width of my paragraphs. Readers might not think much of it either, but usability studies and psychology suggest that they notice it nevertheless.

What makes this width optimal? At this width, the content appears simple to understand, and readers feel they can comprehend the subject matter.

Where’d this data come from? Derek Halpern of Social Triggers synthesized a pair of research studies to arrive at the 40-to-55 character recommendation. The studies he cited include a 2004 meta-analysis by Mary C. Dyson of the University of Reading and a 1992 study from a team of Netherlands researchers.

The optimal length of a domain name – 8 characters

What characteristics do some of the best domain names have in common?

  1. is short
  2. is easy to remember
  3. is easy to spell
  4. is descriptive or brandable
  5. does not contain hyphens and numbers
  6. has a .com extension

Length, in particular, can be a tough one to nail down as dot-coms get snatched up so quickly. If you can’t secure the dot-com of your dreams, there are more and more websites going the route of .co and .io.

What makes this length optimal? This is the most common domain name length for the Internet’s most popular websites.

Where’d this data come from? In 2009, Daily Blog Tips conducted an analysisof the top 250 websites in Alexa site rankings, counting words and characters that appeared in each domain name.

The optimal length of a hashtag – 6 characters

What makes this length optimal? The 6-character hashtag recommendation comes from a handful of Twitter experts and is cited by Hashtags.org, one of the leading sites on the data and usage of hashtags.

The optimal length of an email subject line – 28 to 39 characters

How does an optimal subject line look in the inbox? Here’s a sample from my Gmail.

inbox

Clearly, there are a ton of different ways to approach writing a subject line, and length is equally as important to test as the rest of the elements. If you’re looking for a place to start your tests, the optimal length of 28 to 39 characters is a good bet.

What makes this length optimal? You may see a slight uptick in open rate and click rate at this length.

Where’d this data come from? A 2012 study by Mailer Mailer looked at 1.2 billion email messages to identify subject line trends.

The optimal length of an SEO title tag – 55 characters

SEO titles are the titles of your webpages and blogposts that show up in search results.

If you want this …

seo 1

… instead of this …

seo 2

… stick with the optimal SEO title length.

What makes this length optimal? Google search results tend to truncate titles with an ellipsis (…) if they go beyond the 55-character mark.

Where’d this data come from? In March 2014, Moz analyzed 89,787 titles in search results pages.

The optimal length of a blog headline – 6 words

I absolutely love good headline advice, which is why this bit is such a fascinating learning. On the Buffer blog, we tend toward the biggest, boldest headlines we can come up with. Could it be that the smaller, six-word headlines do best?

headline 1

vs.

headline 2

What makes this length optimal? Our eyes tend to pick up on the first three words of a headline and the last three words.

Where’d this data come from? KISSmetrics author Bnonn cites usability research that confirms scanning of headlines. Also, Jakob Nielsen ran usability testing in 2009 based on the idea that readers typically consume only the first 11 characters of a headline.

The optimal length of a LinkedIn post – 25 words

The results on optimal LinkedIn length depend on whom you’re targeting. Are you trying to reach out to businesses or consumers?

One of the few studies on LinkedIn length—a 2012 report from Compendium—pulled statistics for each type of business: B2B and B2C. Here’s what they found.

linkedin-optimal-length

What makes this length optimal? The results in the Compendium study tend to focus on clickthroughs as the basis for recommending best practices. It’s safe to assume an ideal length of a LinkedIn post would be based on clicks, too.

Where’d this data come from? In 2012, Compendium released its findings on a study of 200 companies on social media, looking at business-to-business and business-to-consumer best practices.

The optimal length of a blogpost – 1,600 words

We recently ran a blog content audit, and one of the results of the audit was some insight into the ideal length of Buffer blog posts.

1,600 words makes for a good guideline to get started.

We’ve found that 2,500-word posts tend to do best for us.

word-count-social-shares-1024x668

This reinforces the need to check these lengths against your own data. And if you’re just starting out, it might be smart to start off with 1,600 words per post and adjust from there.

What makes this length optimal? At this length, you can expect readers to spend the maximum amount of time reading your content. Total time on page is highest at the 1,600-word length than any other length.

From the Medium study:

7-minute posts capture the most total reading time on average.

Where’d this data come from? In December 2013, Medium published the results of its time on page analysis for blogposts on its network.

The optimal length of a YouTube video – 3 minutes

How much time do you get to tell your story in a video? How long until someone loses interest and clicks over to the next link? These are big questions for video marketers who compile their content with timestamps in mind the same way bloggers compose with word count.

What makes this length optimal? This is the average video length of the top videos on YouTube.

Where’d this data come from? In 2012, ReelSEO counted the length of the top 50 YouTube videos and found the average duration to be 2 minutes, 54 seconds. Google researchers from the YouTube team confirmed the ideal length to be three minutes as well, according to an interview with Clinton Stark.

The optimal length of a podcast – 22 minutes

Podcasting has become more and more a part of content marketing strategies for brands big and small. There are sure to be additional studies that come out on best practices for publication and promotion. In the meantime, optimal length is a good place to start. Keep things 22 minutes or shorter.

What makes this length optimal? The 22-minute mark is when an average user disconnects from a podcast.

Where’d this data come from? The data is reported from Stitcher, an online podcast streaming service.

The optimal length of a presentation – 18 minutes

Famously, the 18-minute mark is where TED Talks max out their presenters. Anyone who shares must stay under 18 minutes. Here’s why.

What makes this length optimal? This seems to be the upper limit for how long a person can pay attention before losing focus.

Where’d this data come from? Author Carmine Gallo, who has written on the history of TED Talks, cites scientific research from Dr. Paul King of Texas Christian University as well as insight into how the brain processes new information (and expends energy while doing so).

The optimal length of a SlideShare – 61 slides

You’d think that SlideShare best practices would be cut-and-dry. My research wasn’t quite so clear.

The 61-slide recommendation comes from HubSpot’s Dan Zarella who is well-known for his in-depth and accurate research on social media. From a data-backed perspective, 61 slides seems like a safe way to go.

Per HubSpot:

We can only speculate about why this is true, but it may be owed to the fact that SlideShare is a site mostly used by professionals who are likely seeking data-focused, meaty presentations with a lot of depth. Don’t be afraid to get detailed in your SlideShare content, and load your presentations with lots of data. Unlike YouTube, where shorter content tends to be more successful, SlideShare users welcome comprehensive content.

Here’s the breakdown of number of slides per presentation and SlideShare views, courtesy of Dan.

slide_share_views

Beyond the data, there is a bit of opposite advice that many hold as a best practice: Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule.

  • 10 Slides
  • 20 Minutes
  • 30 Point Font

It’s a system that a lot of people swear by. Is it right for you? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by testing.

What makes this length optimal? Slide decks of this length get more views on average.

Where’d this data come from? In 2010, HubSpot’s Dan Zarella shared results from his social media research, pointing to this optimal length.

The optimal size of a Pinterest image – 735px by 1102px

pinterest_height

Curalate found that vertical images, featuring an aspect ratio between 2:3 and 4:5, receive 60 percent more repins than images with a more vertically-skewed aspect ratio.

Combine this with the best practices from the folks at Canva who recommend a starting point for Pinterest image templates at 735 pixels wide by 1102 pixels tall and—bang!—you’ve got your ideal size, backed by data.

What makes this size optimal? At this size, you can expect more likes, repins, and comments.

Where’d this data come from? In June, Curalate analyzed over 500,000 Pinterest images posted by brands. Their findings also included recommendations for faces, hue, texture, brightness, color, and more.

Bonus Pinterest tips:

As for the optimal length of a Pinterest description (maximum is 500 characters), Dan Zarrella found that 200-character descriptions are the most repinnable.

A great use for the description is a call-to-action. Brandon Gaille found that pins with CTAs receive an 80 percent increase in engagement over those without.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve found some good  insights from this experiment. Definitely use data like this as a starting point for your own testing and iterating. What’s right for many others in terms of best practices might not be exactly what your specific audience needs.

It sure is nice to know where to start, though.

How do these optimal lengths feel to you? How long are the social media updates that you send?

Shared via By Kevan Lee @Buffer Social

Image sources: Track Social, Compendium, PlaceIt, Hubspot, Dan Zarrella

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Best Practices for Long-Form Posts on LinkedIn

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, LInkedIn

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What are some guidelines to publishing on LinkedIn?

Here are some recommended best practices for long-form posts on LinkedIn’s publishing platform.
What should I write about?

Your long-form posts should share your professional expertise. Write about challenges you’ve faced, opportunities you’ve seized, or important trends in your industry. This could include your most memorable work experiences, lessons you’ve learned along the way, or topics you’re most passionate about. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

  • What concrete advice would you give to someone hoping to enter your field?
  • What will (or should) your industry look like in 5, 10, or 15 years and how will it get there?
  • What is the biggest problem your industry needs to solve?
  • What skill is essential in your job or at your company, and why?
  • How has your job, profession or industry changed since you started?
  • What else would you do if you started all over again and why?
  • How did you get your start in your profession?
  • Advice for career advancement.
  • Challenges for the future of your profession.

Here are some long-form posts that might inspire you:

  • How to Sell Anything: An Introductory Guide
  • Project management lessons from Gandalf
  • Things Your Real Estate Agent Might Not Tell You
  • How Nintendo Games Make Nintendo Crash
  • 5 Ways Wearable Technology Will Impact Healthcare
What should I avoid writing about?

LinkedIn is an ideal platform to develop and strengthen your professional identity by sharing your knowledge and expertise in your job. It will be tied to your professional profile. The focus on your professional life is what differentiates it from other social media networks. Please keep this in mind when writing your long-form posts. Some additional tips:

  • Postings for job openings or for job opportunities don’t belong on our publishing platform. Learn more about posting a job on LinkedIn.
  • Advertisements and promotions for events, products, or services aren’t appropriate content for long-form publishing. Advertisements can be purchased with our ads product.

Learn more about your rights and responsibilities for long-form posts on LinkedIn’s publishing platform.

What are some tips for producing great content?
  • Keep your voice authentic.
  • Write about specific areas in which you have experience and/or expertise.
  • Keep your writing focused; avoid trying to cover too many topics in the same long-form post.
  • Don’t shy away from expressing your opinion. However, keep your long-form posts appropriate for the LinkedIn audience. Don’t post anything obscene, shocking, hateful, intimidating or otherwise unprofessional.
  • Check out our editor’s long-form post on The 7 Secrets to Writing Killer Content on LinkedIn.
  • Publish whenever you have something valuable to share with LinkedIn members. In general, the more long-form posts you publish, the more credibility you will build, and the stronger your professional profile will become.
  • There are no limits on word count, but the long-form posts that are best received are more than three paragraphs in length.
  • Upload pictures, videos, presentations, and documents to add to your content. It helps bring your insights to life and is a good way to showcase concrete examples of your experience.
  • Use the share box on your homepage to share short-form thoughts, questions, and other media such as articles and images with the LinkedIn community. Learn more about sharing on LinkedIn.
  • We encourage you to have family, friends, or colleagues review and edit your long-form posts. We’re unable to provide editors to proofread your writing.

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Build Relationships for Your Business Using LinkedIn Groups

23 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in LInkedIn, Multi Channel Marketing, Uncategorized

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LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS, LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Insights

Whenever I’m holding a webinar, presenting at a seminar, or just interacting with our awesome customers, I’m asked a lot of social media questions that span all major networks.

When it comes to LinkedIn, the one question I hear time and time again is “Should I be spending my time participating in Linkedin Groups?”

My short answer is “yes” and here’s why…

LinkedIn Groups are virtual meeting rooms (or forums) where people with similar interests can post and hold conversations around topics they want to share or learn more about.

Participating in Groups allows you to show off your expertise around a subject and start to grow relationships with like-minded people.

Many of these people may be colleagues, who could offer solutions to certain challenges you’ve been facing, or could provide partnership opportunities to help you grow your business in the future.

Others could be potential customers, who are using groups to network and also find solutions of their own.

By sharing your expertise, participating in conversations, and being a reliable source of information within the Group — you’ll have the opportunity to build valuable relationships to help you do more business.

How do I find and join the right Group?

LinkedIn makes it easy to find Groups that are relevant to your business, or the audience you’re trying to reach. Within LinkedIn, you can perform a search based on keywords and filter to find the right Group.

For each Group found in your search, you have the option to view who in your network belongs to those Groups. Joining Groups that your connections are already members of can help you nurture the connections you’ve made on LinkedIn.

Take it one step further and reach out to your network to ask them what they think about the Groups they belong to. This can help to continue building the relationships you already have, while starting to understand what Groups may be right for you.

On LinkedIn there are both public and private Groups. If they’re public, all you need is to hit the “join” button when you find a Group you’re interested in and you’ll gain access instantly. Private groups on the other hand, require you to request an invitation from the manager of the group to get access.

You can join up to 50 Groups, but be aware that many groups aren’t actively managed. Make sure to spend the majority of your time on the key Groups you find that are managed well and have constant interactions.

How do I participate in a Group?

When you join a Group, take the time to familiarize yourself with the content people are sharing, and types of questions that are being asked.

Relevant content is the only way to take full advantage of a LinkedIn Group. When you share content that others are interested in, your chance of “connecting” with that person is much higher than if you just hit “connect.” Use groups to strengthen relationships, with your ultimate goal of connecting on and offline with Group members.

Here are a few tips to remember when participating in a LinkedIn Group:

  1. Show off your expertise by answering questions that others have asked, and don’t forget to ask some questions of your own! Groups are meant to be a forum for like-minded people, so make sure you’re asking and answering.
  2. Post articles and ask questions. Share articles or blog posts you’ve found and ask the Group members a question related to the article.
  3. Don’t over-promote! Your goal when posting articles or answering questions is not to promote yourself or what you’re doing, but to build relationships. When you use the words “me”, “I” or “my”, your content will more than likely get sent directly to the “promotions” tab of the Group.
  4. Make that connection. Once you’ve been interacting with someone in your Group, and you’ve built up some familiarity, send them an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Make sure to let them know why you want to connect, and remind them of your interaction in the Group.
  5. Don’t forget other networks. If you have been interacting with someone on numerous occasions in a Group, connect with them on Twitter or find their business page on Facebook. Most people are participating in a Group for the same reason you are, so they will be happy to connect with you and extend your relationship!

Are LinkedIn Groups really worth the time and energy?

Hopefully, by now, I’ve convinced you that the answer is YES! The ability to reach people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to is one of the main reasons that social media works, and LinkedIn Groups are no exception.

Get out there, begin by joining three groups and see what relationships you can build by engaging with the right audience.

Have you joined a LinkedIn Group? How has it worked for you and your business? Let us know in the comments below.

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11 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in LInkedIn

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Trolls

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people,[1] by posting inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Have you ever fed a troll? Well, I have, but I’m not going to ever do it again! I’ve let trolls almost ruin entire days, and even weekends. Not anymore!

A troll loves to get fed. They thrive on getting under people’s skin and making them angry. They ignore facts, and will not stop. You can never get the last word in with a troll. Nor can you ever win a debate and convince them that their stance is incorrect. So, why even bother? Exactly! Don’t feed the trolls and they will go elsewhere. There is nothing worse for a troll than being starved….aka ignored!

Then, if they become overly obnoxious and rude, you can always block them! Most social sites have the ability to block people from being able to interact with you or see your posts in the future. Since becoming a publisher, I have become quite familiar with how to block someone on LinkedIn. For those that may not know how to do it:

  1. Go to the profile of the person you’d like to block.
  • Note: After you block someone, you will disappear from the Who’s Viewed Your Profile section of the person you blocked.
  1. Move your cursor over the down arrow next to the button in the top section of the member’s profile and select Block or report from the list.
  2. Check the box next to Block.
  3. Click Continue.
  4. On the next screen, click Agree to confirm.

Additionally, you can report abuse to LinkedIn by emailing: abuse@linkedin.com

Many people tell me they are afraid to post due to trolls and their negative comments. So, they choose to not even post. Don’t let trolls prevent you from posting on social media. Stop feeding them. Starve them!

Don’t feed them your time.

Don’t feed them your energy.

Don’t feed them your emotional well being.

They get NOTHING!!!

Join me in taking a stand against trolls and online bullying by ignoring their behavior, and taking away the satisfaction they get from making people angry! Got any good stories about starving trolls and putting them in their place? Share them in the comment section!

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Three Social Media Rules Your Business Needs to Break

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, community manager, Facebook, LInkedIn, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Yelp, YouTube

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Best Practices, Community Management, Facebook, Google Analytics, LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS, Pinterest, SEM, Social Media, social media tools, Strategy


social media rules to break

If you stay up to date on social media trends and advice, you have likely heard that you need to post a lot of content, get as many fans/followers as you can, and post when most of your fans are online. Rules are meant to be broken, and I’ll explain why it is necessary to break each of these rules. 


1. Post a lot of content

Yes, you need to post content. A lot of it. But this stress on always posting can result in substandard content. On Facebook, you should never post more than twice a day, and even twice a day can be too much. Instead, aim for 5-7 times a week. When you post too much content, you increase your chance that you are just adding to the social media “noise”. Instead focus your effort on creating smaller amounts of high quality content. Quality over quantity.

Why to break this rule
The Facebook algorithm works in a way that it tries to guess what you want to see. One way this is accomplished is that if you normally click on a business’ Facebook page, it is more likely to show you their content. If your business is posting too much low quality content, people will stop clicking. And when you actually do post good content, less fans will see it.

Real world example
There is a restaurant I frequent that I “like” on Facebook. They post any and everything on their Facebook page (they post about 5-10 times a day), whether it is related to the restaurant or not. The result is that I NEVER see their content in my news feed because I first ignored their nonsense posts. What good is my like if they never get their message to me?

2. Get as many fans as you can

We all want more fans. But if these fans are never going to purchase your product or service, what good are they? Social media can easily become a popularity contest: “we have more fans than you.” But worthless fans are, well, worthless. Actually, they can be much worse than worthless….

Why to break this rule
Remember that Facebook algorithm? Another way it works is that when you post content, it shows it to a handful of your fans. If these fans interact with your content, Facebook then shows it to more of your fans. If you have fans that don’t actually like your product/service, they won’t interact with your posts. This means that it will be more difficult to reach your fans who actually are actually interested in your business.

Real world example
While doing consulting work with an Italian restaurant, we quickly learned that if we focused our Facebook advertising to the local area, we received two-three “likes” for every dollar we spent. When we just aimed for total likes, we doubled that number. We could have spent a relatively small amount of money and gotten hundreds of likes. The problem was that the likes all came from Italy, a demographic that was unlikely to ever visit the restaurant or interact with the content. Aim for quality fans over a large quantity of fans.

3. Always post when the most fans are online

You want to get your message out to fans, and you want that message to reach the most screens as possible. Knowing when your fans are online is essential. The Facebook newsfeed works in a way that rewards current content, and makes older content unlikely to show in a person’s newsfeed.

Why to break this commandment
You certainly need to post when most of your fans are online, but you do not need to do it religiously. Focus most of your posting at peak hours, but switch up your timing once or twice a week. This is important because certain fans have different Facebook use habits. This means that if you always post at the same time, you are likely missing fans that have different schedules.

Real world example
We found that a sports rehabilitation physician had more success with his posts after he varied up his posting schedule. He often included exercise tips, and saw his engagement increase after he started posting later in the day. By posting later in the day, he was able to reach fans that otherwise had been missing his posts. Now, these fans are more likely to see all of his posts, no matter the time of day he posts.

 

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2014 Top Social Media Channels

03 Saturday May 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Bloging, community manager, Facebook, Google Analytics, LInkedIn, Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Online Marketing, Pinterest, tumblr., Twitter, Yelp, YouTube

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Community Management, Engagement, facebook page insights bug, Marketing, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, social media tools, Trending

 

sm logos

 

 

 

 

 

 

My clients are always asking me “What is the best social media channel” and I always answer the same, “the one that works best for you. Truth is that not all social media channels are the same, just as not all businesses are the same. I recommend using the channel(s) that best suite your particular business. However to keep the the ranking monkeys happy here is the industry list of social media channels ranked by use, and popularity.

1 | Facebook
3 – eBizMBA Rank | 900,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 3 – Compete Rank | 3 – Quantcast Rank | 2 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
2 | Twitter
12 – eBizMBA Rank | 310,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 21 – Compete Rank | 8 – Quantcast Rank | 8 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
3 | LinkedIn
18 – eBizMBA Rank | 255,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 25 – Compete Rank | 19 – Quantcast Rank | 9 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
4 | Pinterest
22 – eBizMBA Rank | 250,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 27 – Compete Rank | 13 – Quantcast Rank | 26 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
5 | Google Plus+
30 – eBizMBA Rank | 120,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *32* – Compete Rank |*28* – Quantcast Rank | NA – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.

6 | Tumblr
34 – eBizMBA Rank | 110,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 55 – Compete Rank | *13*- Quantcast Rank | 34 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
7 | Instagram
77 – eBizMBA Rank | 100,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 49 – Compete Rank | 145- Quantcast Rank | 36 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
8 | VK
97 – eBizMBA Rank | 80,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *150* – Compete Rank |*120* – Quantcast Rank | 21 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
9 | Flickr
123 – eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 138 – Compete Rank | 139- Quantcast Rank | 91 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
10 | Vine
581 – eBizMBA Rank | 42,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 237 – Compete Rank | 335- Quantcast Rank | 1,172 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
11 | Meetup
596 – eBizMBA Rank | 40,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 791 – Compete Rank | 701- Quantcast Rank | 296 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
12 | Tagged
702 – eBizMBA Rank | 38,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,082 – Compete Rank |615 – Quantcast Rank | 408 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
13 | Ask.fm
779 – eBizMBA Rank | 37,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,046 – Compete Rank |113 – Quantcast Rank | 179 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
14 | MeetMe
1,457 – eBizMBA Rank | 15,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,407 – Compete Rank |635 – Quantcast Rank | 2,328 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA
15 | ClassMates
1,487 – eBizMBA Rank | 15,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 153 – Compete Rank |*285* – Quantcast Rank | 4,022 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Social Networking Sites | eBizMBA

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The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Mastering LinkedIn

13 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in LInkedIn

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Best Practices, Engagement, LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS, LinkedIn Insights, social sharing, Strategy, Trending

With more than 259 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals as well as one of the top social networks overall. Are you using it to its fullest potential?

While new social networks are sprouting up constantly, LinkedIn is a powerful platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner.

But the truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely powerful — especially when you’re aware of all the little hidden tricks that don’t get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. To help youmaster LinkedIn, below is our ultimate list of 35 awesome tricks you may have been overlooking.

We’ve divided these tips into three main categories — optimizing your LinkedIn presence,using LinkedIn for professional networking, and using LinkedIn for business and marketing. Click these links to jump to individual sections.

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Presence

1) Customize your public profile URL.

Make your profile look more professional (and easier to share) by claiming your LinkedIn vanity URL. Instead of a URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look nice and clean like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelavaughan. Customize your URL by going here and clicking Customize your public profile URL down on the right-hand side.

2) Create a profile badge for your personal website.

If you have your own personal website or blog, you can promote your personal LinkedIn presence and help grow your professional network by adding a Profile Badge that links to your public LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has a few different badge designs to select from, and you can configure your own here.

3) Make your blog/website links sexier.

Instead of using the default “Personal Website”-type anchor text links in your LinkedIn profile, you can change the anchor text to make those links more appealing to people who view your profile. So if you want to increase clicks on the website links you display on your profile, change those links’ anchor text to something more attention-grabbing than the standard options LinkedIn provides.

For example, if you want to include a link to your blog, rather than choosing LinkedIn’s standard “Blog” anchor text, customize it to include keywords that indicate what your blog is about, like “Inbound Marketing Blog.” Each profile can display up to three website links like this, and they can be customized by editing your profile, clicking the pencil icon next to your website links, and selecting Other in the drop-down menu.

linkedin-links-1

4) Search engine optimize your profile.

You can also optimize your profile to get found by people searching LinkedIn for key terms you want to get found by. Add these keywords to various sections of your profile such as your headline or in your summary.

5) Show work samples.

Did you know LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos, images, documents, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile? This enables you to showcase different projects, provide samples of your work, and better optimize your LinkedIn profile. Learn more about adding, removing, and rearranging work samples here.

6) Add, remove, and rearrange entire sections of your profile.

LinkedIn also enables users to reorder the sections of your profile in any way you prefer. When in edit mode, simply hover your mouse over the double-sided arrow next to theEdit link for each section. Your mouse will turn into a four-arrowed icon, at which point you can click, then drag and drop to another position on your profile.

rearrange-1

You can also customize your profile with sections that apply only to you. Find a full list of sections to add to and remove from your profile here.

7) Take advantage of Saved Searches.

LinkedIn allows users to save up to ten job searches and three people searches. After conducting a search, clicking the Save This Search option on the right allows you to save a search and easily run it again later. You can also choose to receive weekly or monthly reminders (+ daily for job searches) via email once new members in the network or jobs match your saved search criteria.

8) Quickly turn your LinkedIn profile into a resume.

Job seeking is one of the most common — and beneficial — uses of LinkedIn. Were you aware that LinkedIn enables you to turn your profile into a resume-friendly format in seconds with its Resume Builder tool? Just choose a resume template, edit it, and export it as a PDF that you can print, email, and share.

9) Find a job through LinkedIn’s job board.

Now that you’ve generated that awesome new resume from LinkedIn’s Resume Builder tool, you can use it — and LinkedIn’s Job board — to help you land an awesome new position. LinkedIn allows you to search for jobs by industry and location. It even suggests jobs you might be interested in based on the information in your LinkedIn profile. Save some job searches like we suggested in number 7 to get alerted when new jobs pop up, too!

10) Get endorsed.

Back in 2012, LinkedIn launched a feature called Endorsements, which enables users to endorse their connections for skills they’ve listed in the Skill & Expertise section of their profile — or recommend one they haven’t yet listed. These endorsements then show up on your profile within that same Skills & Expertise section, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Okay, so you can’t guarantee your connections will endorse you for those skills, but because it’s so easy for your LinkedIn contacts to do (all they have to do is click on the + sign next to a particular skill on your profile), you’ll find that many of them will do it anyway. Just make sure your profile is complete and you’ve listed the skills you want your contacts to endorse you for. It will definitely give your profile a bit of a credibility boost. You can also remove endorsements if you find people are endorsing you for skills that aren’t very applicable. 

endorsements

Using LinkedIn for Professional Networking

11) Use OpenLink to send messages to people you’re not connected to.

Aside from the exception of group members (more on that later), LinkedIn only allows you to send messages to people with whom you share a first-degree connection. But did you know some people let you send them messages anyway, even if you’re not connected? The ability to be part of the OpenLink network is only available to premium account holders, but it allows them to be available for messaging by any other LinkedIn member if they choose to be. OpenLink members will appear with an icon that looks like a small ring of dots next to their name in search results and on their profile.

12) Check in on Network Updates.

Found on your LinkedIn homepage, Network Updates are essentially LinkedIn’s version of the Facebook News Feed. Check this feed periodically for a quick snapshot of what your connections are up to and sharing. You can also sort by various criteria as well as customize your feed to show only the types of updates you want to see.

linkedin-network-updates-1

13) Be identifiable.

Allow others to see who you are if you view their profile. To allow this, go into your settings and click Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile. Make sure you check off Your name and headline (Recommended). This allows you to take advantage of the next feature we’re about to mention …

linkedin-identity

14) Check out who’s viewed your profile.

How? With the “Who Viewed Your Profile” feature, of course! This tool, which is accessible in the main navigation via the Profile dropdown, enables you to drill down into which other LinkedIn users have visited your profile page (so yeah, exactly what it sounds like). In fact, LinkedIn gave this coveted creeper feature a facelift in February 2014, so the information it provides is better than ever.

Has someone been checking out your profile that you might want to connect with? This might be the “in” you’ve been waiting for to connect. (Remember, if you don’t make yourself identifiable via our tip in number 13, you won’t have access to this feature. It’s a two-way street!)

15) Export connections.

Want to transfer your LinkedIn connections to another contact management system? LinkedIn enables you to easily export your connections. Under Network in LinkedIn’s top navigation, just click on Contacts, click the settings gear icon on the top right, and clickExport LinkedIn Connections under Advanced Settings on the right. You’ll have the option of either exporting as a .CSV or .VCF file.

export-connections

16) Easily find new connections — or connect with old ones!

Speaking of connections, the Network tab in the top navigation offers a variety of tools to grow and connect with contacts in your professional network. Click Add Connections in the drop-down menu to import contacts from your email accounts, and use the Contacts tool to connect with suggested new contacts, stay in touch with current connections, keep track of your communications, and get notifications when contacts in your network change jobs, have birthdays, or when you haven’t chatted with them in a while — on desktop or in the Contacts mobile app!

17) Leverage the perks of LinkedIn Groups.

Did you know that if you’re a member of the same group as another user, you can bypass the need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them? In addition, group members are also able to view the profiles of other members of the same group without being connected. Join more groups to enable more messaging and profile viewership capabilities.

18) Take advantage of Advanced Search options.

LinkedIn’s Advanced Search feature provides a much richer search experience. For example, say you want to find out if you’re connected to anyone who works at a specific company. Type the company name in the company field in Advanced Search, then filter the results by “Relationship” to see if you have any first- or second-degree connections to any employees.

19) Share your LinkedIn status updates on Twitter.

Ever since the LinkedIn/Twitter breakup of 2012, you can no longer automatically sync your tweets to publish on LinkedIn (or even selectively by using the hashtags #in or #li in specific tweets). But don’t fret — the opposite is still possible! So if you’re ever posting an update to LinkedIn that you’d like your Twitter followers to see as well, you can easily syndicate that update to Twitter by selecting the Public + Twitter option in the Share With dropdown before clicking Share in the LinkedIn update composer.

post-to-twitter-1

20) Leverage @mentions in your status updates.

In 2013, LinkedIn rolled out the ability to tag or @mention other users and companies in status updates — much like the way it works on Facebook and Twitter. Want another LinkedIn user or company to see your status update? Include the @ symbol immediately followed by the user’s/company’s name in your status update. As a result, that user/company will get alerted that you mentioned them, and their name will also link to their profile/page in the status update itself.

Using LinkedIn for Business/Marketing 

21) Optimize your Company Page.

The design of Company Pages has changed a lot over the years. Make sure yours is set up correctly and optimized for the newest layout. We’ve published an entire free ebook about optimizing your page for the latest design, so check it out. Also, keep in mind that as of April 14, 2014, LinkedIn is no longer supporting the Products & Services tab of Company Pages. Unfortunately, this means your product recommendations will also be going away. Learn how to save copies of existing recommendations here (which must be done before May 30, 2014). This also means you’ll want to set up and take advantage of LinkedIn’s new Showcase Pages instead, which leads us to our next tip …

company-page

22) Create targeted Showcase Pages.

Showcase Pages are niche pages that branch off your main LinkedIn Company Page. They allow you to promote specific products or cater to your individual marketing personas, providing a more personalized experience for your Company Page visitors. LinkedIn users can also follow specific Showcase Pages without having to follow a company’s main page or its other Showcase Pages, allowing your business to tailor the page closely to the audience specific to the page. To create a Showcase Page, click the Edit dropdown at the top right of your Company Page and choose Create a Showcase Page. For more information about creating Showcase Pages, check out our beginner’s guide.

showcase-page

23) Post Company Status Updates (and target them!).

Make the most of your LinkedIn Company Page by publishing company status updates for all your page followers to see. This will give LinkedIn users even more reason to follow your Company Page, growing your LinkedIn reach. To learn how to enable LinkedIn Company Status Updates, read this post.

Been using Company Status Updates for a while? Why not step it up a notch and leverage the power of segmentation with LinkedIn’s targeting options, which enable you to target your status updates to the Network Update feeds of specific users. Page admins can target their updates by criteria like company size, industry, job function, seniority, geography, or by including/excluding company employees. In fact, according to an internal LinkedIn study,companies have shown a 66%+ increase in audience engagement as the result of targeted updates.

targeted-updates

24) Use Pulse to keep track of industry news.

Pulse is an awesome section of LinkedIn that provides you with the most popular articles shared on the social network. Follow specific Influencer contributors, publishers, or topic-related channels to stay on top of news and stories in your industry. You can also sign up for daily or weekly email summary notifications of Pulse news, or instant notifications when Influencers you’re following post something new.

25) Use LinkedIn’s Trending Content tool, too! 

Get a sense of which types of content are most popular on LinkedIn in your industry withLinkedIn’s Trending Content tool, unveiled in March 2014. The interactive tool highlights the most popular content being shared on LinkedIn for various audiences and topic segments. Monitor this to understand what content your company should be creating and sharing on LinkedIn to generate the most engagement.

26) Use LinkedIn to generate leads.

In an internal study of HubSpot’s customer base, we found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate (2.74%) of the top social networks, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).So yes — LinkedIn can help you generate leads. To get the most out of LinkedIn for lead generation, promote and share links to your landing pages in your company status updates, where appropriate in LinkedIn Groups, on your Showcase Pages, and in calls-to-action placed in posts you publish via LinkedIn’s publishing platform (see number 32 coming up).

27) Experiment with LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Updates.

If you’re looking to complement your organic marketing efforts with some paid advertising,LinkedIn Ads aren’t a bad choice to consider. We wrote about why B2B marketers might want to cozy up to LinkedIn ads, and one of the biggest benefits is … you guessed it … the targeting options! LinkedIn’s PPC ads let you target specific job titles, job functions, industries, or company size, to name a few options — you know, the people who are more likely to need what you sell. If you want to get started with LinkedIn’s advertising platform, here’s a simple guide to setting up your first LinkedIn ad campaign. To learn specifically how to use LinkedIn’s newest form of advertising — Sponsored Updates — this is the post for you.

28) Use Group Statistics for better targeting and marketing.

Another little LinkedIn gem that not a lot of users or marketers are aware of is the fact that you can access statistics for any LinkedIn Group — even groups you’re not a direct member of! To access the Group Statistics for a specific LinkedIn Group, click on the group, then click the i icon in the group’s top navigation. Then click Group Statistics in the About section.

group-statistics-1

Not only do LinkedIn Group Statistics tell you how many members are in a group or how active those members are; they also provide other key insights about the group’s members such as locations, seniority, function, and industry. Use this data to analyze the makeup of a group before you decide to join, identify which LinkedIn Groups you should target in your LinkedIn Ads, help guide you in the best ways to segment your Showcase Pages, or gather insights about your buyer personas to help you do better marketing outside of LinkedIn.

29) Create your own industry LinkedIn Group (or subgroups).

Or you could just create a LinkedIn Group (as well as subgroups if you’re so inclined) of your very own, like HubSpot did with our popular Inbound Marketers Group. Create a group based on an industry-related topic, and become a LinkedIn Group administrator. You can then use this group to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, grow a community of advocates, generate new marketing content ideas, and even acquire new leads! 

30) Email your LinkedIn Group.

Acquire new leads from that group, you say? That’s right! One of the perks of managing a LinkedIn Group is the fact that you can literally email the members of your group — up to once per week. These emails take the form of LinkedIn Announcements, which are messages sent directly to the email inboxes of group members (if they’ve enabled messaging in their settings). This is a prime opportunity for generating leads from LinkedIn, particularly if you’ve built up a robust group of users. In fact, at HubSpot, our best performing LinkedIn lead gen days are usually the days on which we’ve sent a LinkedIn Announcement. Here’s how to get the most out of your LinkedIn Group emails.

31) Poll your (or another) LinkedIn Group.

In addition to emailing, you can also poll your group members. Just go to the group in which you want to publish a poll (it’s up to group managers to decide whether everyone can publish polls regardless of group membership), and in the Discussion section of a group, click the poll icon (it looks like three horizontal lines) within the discussion composer.

poll

Then enter your question/answer choices and schedule for how long you’d like your poll to run. (Hint: If you’re trying to increase membership for your own LinkedIn Group, make use of the Group + Twitter sharing option that allows you to share your poll on Twitter to generate more traffic and activity to your poll/group.) Use polls to generate blog and content fodder, collect feedback, conduct research, attract new group members, or get ideas for new marketing offers.

create-poll

32) Experiment with LinkedIn’s publishing platform.

You don’t have to be an influencer to publish a new article to LinkedIn Pulse. Publishing is now available to all users, ever since a February 2014 feature announcement. Experiment with how this feature can support your marketing goals by creating content for the platform and promoting it via your Company Page. Learn more about it here.

33) Recruit new talent.

Looking to fill a position or two on your marketing team — or anywhere else within your company, for that matter? Then be sure to build out the Careers section of your Company Page, which you can use to promote your available job openings. For more robust Careers section customization options, you can also purchase a Silver or Gold Careers package, which allows you to add a large, clickable cover image that can be transformed into a call-to-action. This image can direct users to a specific job, a list of jobs and opportunities located on your website, or examples of your company’s culture. The Silver or Gold packages also enables dynamic, customizable modules (that display different version of the page based on viewers’ LinkedIn profile), analytics on who is viewing the page, direct links to recruiters, video content, etc.

The look and feel of your Careers page depends on what information and images you choose to include, such as a list of jobs, people at your company, a summary section for your careers, what employees are saying about working at your company, and recent updates. Furthermore, if you’re actively recruiting candidates with specific skills and expertise, don’t forget about LinkedIn’s Advanced Search feature (see number 18)!

34) Add the Company Follow and LinkedIn share buttons to your website/content.

Promote your company’s LinkedIn presence and help grow the reach of your Company Page
by adding the Company Follow button to your website. Furthermore, consider adding theLinkedIn Share button to your various content assets like blog posts, emails, and landing pages to extend the reach of your content to LinkedIn users. To build these buttons and more, check out our cheat sheet for creating social media buttons.

35) Analyze your LinkedIn marketing performance with Page Insights and LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Score.

So … how are your LinkedIn marketing efforts faring? Use LinkedIn’s Page Insights to evaluate the performance of your Company Page. Page Insights offers data into the effectiveness of your page’s status updates, engagement, and reach, as well as information about your page’s followers — demographics, where they came from, how your following has grown over time, how your data compares to other companies, etc. Access your Page Insights by clicking the Edit dropdown at the top right of your Company Page and selecting View Page Insights. For even more analytics about how your LinkedIn marketing efforts are helping you generate traffic, leads, and customers, you’ll need a closed-loop marketing analytics tool like HubSpot.

Furthermore, LinkedIn offers a “Content Marketing Score,” which measures member engagement with your Sponsored Updates, Company Pages, LinkedIn Groups, employee updates, and Influencer posts (if applicable)” and ranks you against your competitors in those same categories. You can request your Content Marketing Score from LinkedIn here.

by Pamela Vaughan

Courtesy of Hubspot Inbound

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11 signs your small business social media strategy isn’t working

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Facebook, Google+, LInkedIn, Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Best Practices, Engagement, Marketing, Social Media, social media tools, Strategy

Today, small business owners are busier than ever trying to run their companies while handling marketing and sales, too. An important part of marketing today is social media. For many small business owners, the world of social media is still foreign territory, and finding the perfect strategy that actually works can often be difficult.

So how do you know if what you’re doing is really hitting the mark? Here are 11 signs that your small business strategy isn’t working. If you’re doing any of the things on this list, chances are your strategy is falling flat and you’re missing prime opportunities to use social media to engage, inform and promote.

1. You delete negative posts.

Negative posts about your brand can be shocking, scary and hurtful. One of the key mistakes small business owners make is taking negative comments personally. Most often when you see a negative post about your brand, the person posting isn’t talking about you. They’re talking about your product or service. Instead of hitting the delete button when you see something negative, think of it as an opportunity to engage. But make sure that you directly address the negativity head-on. Don’t try to sugarcoat your response.

For example, if you own a delivery service and a customer makes a negative comment about your company because their package was late, don’t panic. Instead, let the person know that you will direct message (DM) them with a response and take care of the issue. Once the issue is resolved, go back to the original post and let your followers know you’ve handled it.

In 2011, a Harris survey looked at customers who posted negative reviewed during the Christmas season. The survey found that 68 percent of customers that left negative reviews got a response from the business they were reviewing. As a result, 18 percent of them became regular customers and made additional purchases. Of the customers who received a response from their negative post, 33 percent of them actually posted something positive after and a whopping 34 percent deleted the original negative post.

So don’t ignore negative posts. Deal with them directly, and you might just turn a negative into a positive!

2. You don’t have a solid company social media policy in place.

Most small businesses don’t have a formal social media policy in place. If you’re in that boat, you really should take the time to develop one. Think of it as a road map to helping your promote your brand better on social media. If you define procedures and protocols upfront for how often you’ll post, who will maintain the accounts and how you will handle negative posts, it makes it a lot easier to run your accounts and spring into action quickly when something goes wrong.

3. You’re on autopilot.

Most social media platforms have an automated message feature, but it doesn’t mean you have to use it. When many social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were first introduced to the public, the automated message feature seemed like a convenient way to thank people who followed you. Today, automated messages are widely considered annoying and impersonal. Instead of sending the same message to every new follower, take the time to send personalized thanks when you can.

Remember, you don’t have to thank every follower, but it’s a good idea to thank those that stand out. For example, if you own a restaurant and the food columnist for your local newspaper starts following you, you may want to reach out directly to establish an ongoing dialogue rather than letting an automated message do it for you.

4. You’re not tracking what others say about your brand.

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that consumers only post about them on their brand page. In reality, consumers post about brands everywhere — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and review sites, to name a few. While it’s a great idea to monitor your own social media accounts to see what people are saying about you, it’s an even better idea move to using a social mention tracking tool to find out what people are posting about your brand around the Internet.

Social Mention is a great free tool for doing this. Visit http://SocialMention.com to check it out.

5. Your updates are sporadic.

If you’re not updating your social media pages on a regular basis, you’re missing out. You don’t have to post multiple times a day, but you should at least make a few posts a week to keep your followers, who are essentially your customers, engaged and excited about your brand.

6. You don’t know the difference between a reply and a mention on Twitter.

Did you know that if someone posts something on Twitter and you start your response with @, you’re limiting the number of people who are going to see the reply? For example, if @customerx posted something about @xyzbusiness and that company starts their reply with @customerx, it will only be seen by the customer and the business. That’s a reply. To make sure it’s seen by all of your followers, add a period in front of it like this — .@customerx — to make it a mention.

7. You overuse hashtags in your posts.

Not every word in your post needs to have a hashtag. In fact, hashtagging every word is going to make your post harder to read. Instead, use hashtags sparingly. Try not to use more than three per post.

8. You don’t proofread your posts.

Grammatical errors make your posts hard to read and reflect poorly on your brand. Proofread everything you write before you post it.

9. You only share things related to your brand.

This is a cardinal sin of social media. Remember that your purpose is to engage and get to know your customers. Your brand isn’t the only one they follow, and it’s certainly not the only thing that is of interest to them. Be sure to spend some time browsing your customers’ page, find out what things they like and leave positive comments. This is an excellent way to foster lasting relationships with your customers online. It also shows your customers that you are interested in them, too.

10. You make it hard to retweet your content.

It’s a fact that Twitter gives you 140 characters to post, but it doesn’t mean you have to use all of them. In fact, you should leave about 20 or so characters that can be used by others who retweet your content for the “RT @customerx” that will automatically be part of the retweet. This makes it easier for people to share your content quickly with no hassles.

11. You don’t retweet your followers’ content.

While you definitely want to make it easy for others to retweet your content, you also have to spend some time doing a little retweeting yourself. Find content from your followers that you find interesting and take a minute or two to retweet it. Remember social media is a two-way street and engagement is the key to success.

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LinkedIn is Retiring the Products and Services tab from Company Pages:

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in LInkedIn

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What does this mean to you and your clients?

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What’s changing and what you should expect

We’re constantly evaluating how features are being used and exploring new ways to enhance the content experience on LinkedIn. We do this to ensure that we’re creating a platform where companies can deliver timely, engaging content to our members. Sometimes, this means we need to remove a feature to focus on areas of the product that most benefit both companies and our members.

That’s why, on April 14th, we’ll be removing the Products & Services tab from all Company Pages. In the meantime, you can edit your Products & Services content, but you won’t be able to add new items.

If you have recommendations you would like to keep, you can ask Customer Service to give you a hand.

Where you can share content about your products and services now

You have two alternatives for sharing products and services content that many companies are already using and benefitting from: your company’s updates and Showcase Pages.

Company updates

Here are three reasons to use your company updates for your products and/or services content:

  1. Updates appear on your Company Page and in your followers’ feeds on every device – plus, when followers interact with your updates, your content is shared with their connections, helping your message spread further, faster.
  2. Company updates let you share compelling visual content, including videos that play directly in the feed, and direct members to customized landing pages rather than a one-size-fits-all destination.
  3. The real-time nature of updates makes them perfect for sharing news about your offerings, so your content feels relevant and timely.

Learn more about using company updates >

Showcase Pages

Here are three reasons to use a Showcase Page for your product and/or service content:

  1. Showcase Pages were built for exactly this purpose – to let you highlight a particular brand or product line.
  2. They make it easy to build a dedicated community on LinkedIn and start an ongoing conversation about that product or brand.
  3. Showcase Page followers know to expect news about your product or service – in fact, they’re looking forward to it! And since Showcase Page updates work just like company updates, they offer all of the benefits detailed above.

Plus, members can easily find your Showcase Page through search and your Company Page.

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