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As Michelle and I apply our knowledge and use of LinkedIn to Facebook, it is becoming increasingly clear to us that the two are very different platforms in terms of creating engagement.
The biggest challenge you’re likely to come up against with Facebook is trying to get your ‘Fans’ to engage with your Page – As we have found ourselves, it’s a case of trial and error in the early days until you get the mix right.
So, what do you need to be aware of if you’ve decided to consider Facebook as part of your marketing and business development strategy? Firstly, evidence suggests that a massive 90% of people do not return to a business page once they’ve ‘liked’ it.
That last statistic should be enough to frighten most people away from ever considering using Facebook as part of their social media mix. However, further studies show that those who are making Facebook work for them are engaging with a quality group of people, rather than simply going for quantity.
Building a community of Fans who like your content is crucial, so recognise who these people are and engage with them regularly – ask them to act as ambassadors for you and to recommend you to their ‘Friends’ who in turn will also become ‘Fans’ of your business page.
How do you know what content is likely to create the right level of engagement?
Use Facebook’s analytics tool ‘Insights’. You need at least 30 fans then Insights kicks in.
Insights provides you with a wealth of useful metrics but which are the most important? Mari Smith suggests you consider the following: 1) ‘Unsubscribes’ where fans have chosen to hide your content, possibly because you’re posting too frequently and they cannot see content from their other friends; 2) ‘Unlikes’- these are people who have left your site completely and 3) Engagement – the number of post comments and likes you are attracting.
Making your page likeable is vital, if Facebook is going to work for your business. There is no set recipe either, so monitor your Insights data frequently and amend your content as often as is necessary until you see the level of engagement with your fans increase.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip helps businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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Millions of jobs are being lost in the Western world – finding one is becoming tougher, and keeping one is tougher still. There is no such thing as longevity in the work place, loyalty (simply turning up and doing an ok job) is no longer sufficient to ensure a career to retirement.
Virtual workspace and online shopping mean that competition in business is literally everywhere - and not just from the person with a store on the same high street as you.
So, are you in a position to compete? Are you actively promoting your personal brand to those you want to do business with in the right places? Or are you still hoping that clients will respond to your ads? Or that those job applications you filed will elicit a response someday soon?
In the second decade of this new millennium the way we work has changed completely. Job seekers are now being hunted online, long before the position reaches a job board or a newspaper. If you don’t show up on Google – you’ve got to ask yourself – will you be found?
Globalisation means that in order to compete, you have to be on the same playing field, you have to pull on the jersey and get out there. Your brand has to be seen by more of the right people if you are to remain in business.
As for the level playing field? Well it’s here, right now – social media enables you to compete with the big boys. You only have to look at the new layout of LinkedIn’s Companies pages to understand that you can create a business profile which matches that of any large corporation (with the exception of the number of people you employ of course).
What has changed specifically? Social media allows the individual to be heard, it allows for you to be more dynamic in the types of products and services you provide and update the information to your market immediately and finally it allows you to do business anywhere with anyone.
The biggest asset you have is your personal brand and how you communicate it to those you want to engage with in business.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, Personal brand, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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Prompted by Seth Godin’s brilliant blogs, I wanted to share something that you need to be aware of – how you get what you want, in business and in life, has changed. How you let people know what you do and how good you are at it is now totally in your hands.
If you want a job, there are less gatekeepers around to vet your application delivering it to the decision maker, who’ll decide to employ you or not.
In days gone by, if you wanted to promote an article or a book you had written, you first had to engage and pay a fee to a gatekeeper – before it would ever come to print and the attention of the public.
What about if you wanted to make contact with the head of a multinational corporation – to explain how you had just developed the latest energy saving sensation that would help them improve the company’s efficiency and save them thousands of pounds? Again, without question, there would be a gatekeeper to fend you off. It’s unlikely your proposal would ever reach the CEO’s desk – let alone his/her attention.
Social media has completely changed how people communicate who they are and what they do and their ability to bring this to the attention of others directly, without delay.
Once you realise that through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any social media platform – you have the ability to communicate directly with your target audience, without an intermediary to halt your progress – then I’m certain you’ll grasp this opportunity with both hands.
Make hay while the sun is shining very brightly.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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2011 is the year when, I believe, businesses in the UK will follow the lead set by the States and begin to become much smarter about the way they use social media.
What do I mean? Well for many of us in Blighty, we’re just beginning to get to grips with social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and in the main, they are being used to broadcast one way information posts. Some of these posts add value to people’s lives by sharing useful links or content or by making us laugh but many frustrate the heck out of us and often seem like pointless, off the cuff remarks made by people with more time on their hands than sense.
Now, I don’t about you but I don’t really have the time to digest the vast amount of information that is fired at my PC and Blackberry every minute of every day. However, I do have time to respond to someone who has chosen to engage with me on a much more personal level, such as a direct Twitter or LinkedIn message for example.
Creating new business opportunities through social media is all about engagement, engagement, engagement.
So, my tip for you this week is if you Tweet, check regularly to see who’s replying or re-tweeting your comments, if you’ve posted a comment in a LinkedIn Group or on a status update, reply and thank those individuals who have added to your discussion or commented on you post and if people have ‘liked’ your Facebook posts then drop them a line, engage with these people and start to build relationships.
We’re all going to have to face it, sooner or later, that the days of direct marketing are fast becoming numbered and people are looking to do business with those they know, like and trust. Start to develop that KLT factor by making sure you find the time to respond and communicate with those you would like to build business relationship with.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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As a LinkedIn trainer - I used to find the ‘account & settings’ dashboard terribly non-user friendly. I used to jokingly refer to covering this short part of my workshops as the “boring, tedious but necessary bit- grab a cuppa and I’ll tell you where the important sections are, but just explore in your own time.”
Delighted to find that recently LinkedIn have listened to what must have been lots of global feedback (including from me!) about the settings dashboard. It’s now sporting a brand new look, and is very intuitive and thankfully user friendly. Let me show you around (from LinkedIn’s blog):-
What’s new?
1) Top section highlighting important information about you and your LinkedIn account
2) Bottom section organizing settings into four tabs to reduce vertical scrolling and updated content to help you understand what each setting is about
3) Popular FAQs related to Settings, a link to the help center for more information and feedback tool to provide us with your comments and suggestions
The above changes not only highlight your key LinkedIn account information at a glance, but also direct you to the right information you’re looking for (whether it be profile, applications, or email preferences page). For those of you who still have lingering questions, we have incorporated a brand new FAQ section that should help.
Fewer clicks. Faster Navigation.
We’ve also added a new modal layer design for many of these settings, which surfaces your options as you click through them instead of taking you to a whole new page. Fewer clicks lets you change your settings faster.
Surfacing important information
And, finally from a design perspective, we’ve made the Accounts section flexible should your account have additional elements, while elevating key components you’re likely to be looking for.
Hope this helps – go check it out. I have recently breathed a big sigh of relief over this. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need anything explaining!
Michelle
Happy to connect on LinkedIn to grow my network– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett
‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..
Or follow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/linked2success
Linked2Success website – http://www.linked2success.co.uk
Posted in LinkedIn, Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, Michelle Beckett, Social Media |
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So, how popular are you today? How many Twitter followers do you have, are you one of the most connected people on LinkedIn, have you got hundreds of fans on your Facebook site, are you, in fact Mr or Ms Popular?…..
Anyone new to social media could be forgiven for believing that it’s ALL about numbers and although visibility and reach are achieved through building a large LinkedIn network or significant Twitter following, there is an old saying that ‘it doesn’t matter how big it is, it’s what you do with it that counts’. OK, so I think I just made up that last bit but hopefully you get my point.
As you develop your social media strategy, whichever of the platforms you are using, you have to remember why you’re on there in the first place, to engage with people you would like to be doing business with.
People will only engage with you however, if what you have to say or offer is engaging. Now I know I might be stating the blindingly obvious but evidence in the social media world suggests that too many businesses and individuals see social media as a popularity contest, which is ego driven, simply so that I can tell you how many connections or followers I have.
Those businesses that will succeed in turning social media into new sales or stronger client relationships will undoubtedly be those who have taken the trouble to go for quality, combined with quantity, the ones who have taken time to consider the content of the message they are communicating to a select number of their network connections, whilst recognising the value of being well connected for the purposes of reach and visibility.
Chris Huer, founder of the Social Media Club, sums this last point up nicely in a recent interview with Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner, where he explains where people using social media are getting it wrong.
Ultimately, I suppose it depends what your end goal is. If it is purely to become the ‘most popular’ person in the world then go for it, you can simply download any of the social media tools that will suddenly give you another 10,000 Twitter followers. However if your goal is to develop more quality business then maybe you need to consider, carefully, your strategic approach to using social media.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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Ok, so maybe my headline is a little extreme but I wanted to wake you up. I wanted to alert anyone reading this blog post that if they have a team and that team has access to social media sites, during work’s time and uses them for business development purposes, with your blessing, then how much control do you have over what they are using these sites for and how they are managing the many hundreds if not thousands of business contacts they are engaging with?
Have I got your attention now?
Right now if any of your employees use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social media sites available and in doing so represent your company in any way, shape or form, then you need to recognise that unless you introduce an ‘agreed’ social media policy for your organisation then you will leave yourself wide open to potential online brand disaster.
Consider these possibilities:
- An employee leaves your business and in doing so takes with them 1000 + qualified business leads. Would that upset you and impact on your business? That’s what happens when an employee takes all their LinkedIn contacts with them.
- It is brought to your attention that an employee has recommended the services of a local business that you have had less than satisfactory dealings with previously and he’s the last person on this earth you’d recommend to anyone. Problem? Have any of your employees recommended such a person via LinkedIn or are retweeting articles on their behalf?
- An employee sends an email to all the clients on your firm’s database letting them know you have just won a contract with a company who is a major competitor of most of them. Ouch! Doesn’t take long for a LinkedIn status update or a Tweet to find its way to them.
I could go on but I think you get the idea.
Preventing employees from using social media sites is probably not the answer as it’s becoming increasingly evident that such sites are going to have to become a key part of most organisations’ internal and external marketing strategies in the coming months and years.
Also, as of yet, there is no clear legal statute concerning most aspects of social media use within a business context, other than the general understanding that the social media account belongs to the individual who created the account and as such, so too do the contacts contained therein.
The good news is that as a business owner, you can easily make social media your friend, rather than something to be feared by first, recognising that it is here to stay and then engaging your employees in the process of creating an internal social media policy that works for all concerned and protects the interests of the business.
If you would like more information about how we can help you put together an effective social media policy contact me now on e: steve@linked2success.co.uk or m: 07879 628708
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Social media policy, Social media strategy, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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Recently I read an article by the renowned blogger Seth Godin, which considers that there is an unwritten but highly powerful law, which states that if you do a favour for someone else then you will, in time, receive something back in return.
This article got me to thinking about how this can applied to the giving and receiving of recommendations on LinkedIn.
You see doing a favour for someone is the first part of a two part transaction, there is no set time frame for when the return favour will be transacted but in time it surely will.
As Seth states in his blog, ‘If I recommend you for a job, it doesn’t take much effort on my part but you might get 3 years of gainful employment out of it. And, of course, you’re happy to complete that transaction as soon as you can because no one wants to walk around owing favours.’
During our seminars, we often state that social media is about giving something of value to others and by providing genuine recommendations for those, who goods and services you have invested in, this then puts you in a great position to ask for a favour in return one day. Just think, what if one of those individuals is connected to someone you really want to do business with and they refer you to them, with a glowing reference and they end up becoming one of your most profitable clients ever?
Why not find a couple of minutes today to provide a recommendation for someone and if the transaction doesn’t get completed on this occasion then at least you made them feel good.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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Let me ask you a question, when you decide to post a question on LinkedIn or send a Tweet or you suddenly feel creative enough to write a blog, what determines the subject material of your post?
One of the toughest things to do, if you’re busy and your brain can’t think of an interesting topic to share with your many followers, friends or connections, is being able to find a topic, at short notice, to share that will be relevant to your audience.
Are you listening? If you suffer from writer’s block, could it be that you’re simply not listening?
Some of the most successful users of social media are those businesses that respond to cries for help from their networks. They search for tweets on Twitter that relate to their industry or specific area of expertise and they join in discussion forums, where the type of issues or concerns being discussed can be solved by their company.
Using social media sites as a way to listen to the challenges being faced by those people you can help is a simple but powerful way for you to create social media content, which is relevant and also allows you to position yourself as an expert. How does this work?
Take Tyson Snow, an attorney at Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar, LLC, who does not consider himself to be the foremost authority for legal issues on LinkedIn, but according to his peers in two law-related groups on LinkedIn, he is the #1 expert.
Snow didn’t achieve this status by being quoted in the major legal trades, arguing groundbreaking cases before important courts or writing a highly-regarded book about the law. The 31-year-old lawyer established his credibility by thoughtfully, consistently and strategically answering questions posed by users of LinkedIn.
The expertise market is a highly lucrative one and if you can show how you can solve the problems of others then you too will also be perceived as an expert in your field, often without even having to leave your office.
There’s a great interview with Jennifer Love of tax advisers H&R Block on the Social Media Examiner site http://bit.ly/dPFLae , the interview really expands on the theme of this blog post and shows how a strategic, joined up approach to using social media can be an extremely valuable investment for professional firms.
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged Accountancy, analysis, Business Growth, Customer experience, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Tax, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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The burning question I hear from many people attending our LinkedIn seminars is ‘does it work?’ In fact I received precisely that question yesterday.
This latest query got me to thinking about the expectations of those who are new to social media and how we meet those expectations when coaching businesses in how to use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc.
Industry analyst and partner with Altimeter Group, Jeremiah Owyang, who focuses on customer strategy, asked 140 corporate social media strategists about their 2011 social media planning and what they considered to be the most important areas of ROI (Return on investment).
Surprisingly, product revenue was the lowest on their list at just 21.8%, with engagement (retweets, likes, comments, fans, followers) rating the highest at 65.5% .
So, what do these results tell us?
Well, industry experts have been saying for a long time that bottom line results should not be the primary focus for social media tools and this is really about brand awareness and marketing which will of course indirectly drive business to your company.
If you consider that with most advertising, in the traditional sense, unless it is extremely targeted, it is difficult to measure any kind of ROI and many businesses continue to pay hundreds and thousands of pounds to place ads in glossy supplements, local and national press, radio and TV, with little idea who has seen the ad.
With social media you get a measurable response by seeing who likes, follows or comments on your LinkedIn posts, tweets, blogs or Facebook messages and most of these measurements can be traced back to their original source. This is your opportunity to engage with these individuals directly.
There’s no question that social media marketing is a highly cost effective way of reaching your audience but, a warning – any business choosing to engage with social media must be prepared to be there for the long haul and not as I heard someone say this week ‘I gave it go for a couple of weeks but it didn’t work for me’.
The business must also resource the project, whether that be by using existing team members, hiring in specific skill sets or outsourcing that requirement.
The way we market our goods and services is changing are you changing with it?
(To see the full article on Jermiah’s findings, follow this link http://bit.ly/evjqtz )
Have a great rest of your week
Best wishes
Steve
Steve Phillip is an expert in helping businesses to create sales strategies to grow their client base, through social media
steve@linked2success.co.uk http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip http://twitter.com/linked2success
Posted in LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, Public relations (PR), Social media, Uncategorized |
Tagged analysis, Business Growth, Facebook, Film, Linked2Success, LinkedIn, LinkedIn advice, Linkedin consultant, Linkedin help, LinkedIn profile tips, LinkedIn specialties, LinkedIn trainer, LinkedIn Training, networking, PR, Public Relations, sales, Social Media, Twitter, Video, You Tube |
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