Your 2013 LinkedIn checklist to enhance your personal brand

LinkedIn may have played second fiddle to the likes of Facebook and Twitter for some time but things have changed. Besides the explosion of LinkedIn user numbers on a global basis, LinkedIn has introduced a whole bunch of new features and functions which has radically improved the user experience. If you are serious about exposing and enhancing your online brand from a business perspective, LinkedIn is the place to be, however if you are going to use LinkedIn, I advise you not to do things in half measures. Here is a list of LinkedIn “must do’s” to start your 2013 off with a bang.

1. Upload a decent photo

Statistically, there is a greater propensity for people to connect with you if your profile has a DECENT photo. LinkedIn is a business social network, so in most (if not all) cases, the accepted norm is a colour head and shoulders shot. If you want to project a professional image, then I suggest that your attire is business casual. Make sure the image has enough resolution to be enlarged without blurring.

2. Include job history

As you would do with your resume when seeking a new job, include a detailed account of your past employers and your role within the organisation. You wouldn’t go to a job interview with half a resume, so don’t do this online for all the world to see. Even if you are not a job seeker and you are using LinkedIn to promote your expertise, potential clients will want to know what you did in the past.

3. Provide a good summary

The LinkedIn summary is your “brag sheet” or 30 second elevator pitch. You want to create a good impression as quick as possible and this is the ideal place to do so. Use the summary to explain your core skills, where and how you add value with one or two examples.

4. Where were you educated?

Besides your job history, potential employers and clients want to know where you were educated and what qualifications you have. Besides schooling and tertiary education, make mention of the certificate courses, diplomas, short courses, awards achieved.

5. Add skills and ask for endorsements

A recent addition to LinkedIn is the ability to have other LinkedIn users you are connected with to endorse your skills. This is the LinkedIn’s version of word of mouth marketing. If I have heard from multiple sources that a person is good at something, there is a good chance that I will believe it. The best way to get endorsements is to endorse others and they will reciprocate. If they don’t, then ask them to.

6. Ask for recommendations

Reach out to your colleagues, clients, ex-clients, past employers and manager and ask them to add a recommendation. When applying for a job or tendering for a project you always include references. This is exactly the same. The more references the better. Just remember to reciprocate!

7. Connect!

This is what LinkedIn is all about. Reach out to all your colleagues, friends, associates, past employers, past and existing clients and connect with them. Remember to follow LinkedIn protocol when doing so otherwise this feature will be blocked. If you do not know someone personally, but would like to connect, ask someone you are connected with to introduce you.

8. Join groups

There are MANY LinkedIn groups out there so take your time joining groups. The idea behind joining groups is so you can interact with LIKE-MINDED individuals. If this is not happening, then leave the group. You also join groups to learn, so if there isn’t decent interaction and/or the subject matter is poor, then leave the group. You can use groups to build credibility and to let people know that you are knowledgeable around certain subjects. In order to do this you have to participate in discussions. Ask questions, post content, use the polling feature, but participate.

9. Monitor updates

Check updates on the LinkedIn home page. This is where you have visibility of all the updates made by your connections. If there is good content, read it, share it and comment on it. The more you do this, the more you are noticed and the more your connections will support you. Remember that your connections have extended networks. As soon as they start sharing your content and comments, the more your content is noticed.

10. Share articles where you have been published

LinkedIn provides a great feature where you can showcase articles that have been published which you may have wrote or where you have been interviewed or quoted. This just helps to build your credibility.

11. Include contact information

Make sure to include all contact information such as email address and telephone numbers. If you use Twitter and have a blog, be sure to include links to these platforms to. Just ensure that your blog and tweets are current if you are going to do this.

There are many other great features and functions available on LinkedIn which you should take the time to explore, but I will leave you with these 11 tips to enhance your personal brand for the time being. I can assure you that if you use this advice, you will see the results. Have a great 2013!

Do you have any other LinkedIn tips to add? Would you like to share any of your personal experiences? What is your opinion of LinkedIn?

I invite you to connect on LinkedIn or chat on Twitter

5 things you can do to maximise return on your social media efforts in 2013

As we leave 2012 behind us, it is time to reflect on the past year to identify what we did right (and wrong) and changes we need to make in 2013 to derive more value from our social media efforts. I have listed a number of behaviours below which I have noted on a number of platforms, which people should either do more of or stop immediately. By doing so, it will make these environments better for all.

1. Broadcast vs conversation

Twitter was developed specifically to support online social interaction. This implies bi-directional dialogue between many or multiple entities. Twitter is NOT a advertising billboard and people who use it to constantly broadcast advertising material should stop doing so immediately. In order to maintain the integrity of this environment, this type of behaviour should result in Twitter accounts being closed down or blocked. I am not saying that broadcasting should stop but there has to be a healthy balance between broadcasts, retweets and conversation.

2. Keeping things current

I have followed links from person’s LinkedIn and Twitter profiles to “dated” blogs and websites. It is difficult to build online credibility when a person visits your blog and your last article was published three months ago. I am not saying that you need to publish daily but attempt to publish regularly. This needs to be applied to all the platforms you participate on.

3. Appropriate content

If anyone wants to be blocked and deleted from my LinkedIn groups, post a job advert or promote yourself, your company, your products or your services on a discussion forum. Keep your updates relevant to the platform and the subject in question. If the LinkedIn group is titled “Executive Leadership” the discussion should revolve around “Executive Leadership”.

4. Keep the right company

As with all social interaction, like-minded people tend to hang out together. It stands to reason to apply the same principle on the digital platforms you are participating on. Make it very clear on your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ profiles, LinkedIn groups and blog your “online commitment” to your connections, followers, friends, etc. and ensure that your content supports it.

5. Reciprocate appropriately and regularly

For those of you that publish content on a regular basis and want to extend your reach to a wider audience through social media influencers and brand advocates, reciprocation is very important. As you develop online relationships, it is possible to reach out to individuals every now and then (not too often, mind you) to ask them to retweet, share or promote a blog post, tweet, LinkedIn update or LinkedIn group discussion. If they agree to do this, please ensure that you do the same for them when they ask you. If the person has a bigger online presence or influence, it is a good idea to promote their content more than they do for you. If you have your eye on a particular social media influencer or celebrity who MAY support you, you may have to court them for some time before they notice you.

To summarise

To maximise the return on you 2013 social media efforts, focus on keeping the right company, ensure your profile reflects your commitment to your audience, make sure your content is relevant, regular and appropriate, work hard to identify the right supporters and reciprocate when they assist you in promoting your content.

If you are reading this, you have survived the Mayan prophecy, so well done. Have a fruitful 2013 and thank you for your support this past year!

Do you have something to add? Do you have personal experiences to share? I would love to hear from you!

I also invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn or chat with me on Twitter

Make better friends on your social networks in 2013

Social networks are filled with all types of people and all too often you end up connecting with people who are unpleasant and who generally bring you down. Why not make a resolution in 2013 to make some changes.

In life, we are encouraged to surround ourselves with people who make a positive impact on us. Why not do the same with the people you interact with on social media? Here are a few ideas on improving the standard of the folk you converse with.

Report offenders

If you are being spammed or bothered by trolls, doing something about it. Ask friends to report the person and get them blocked or blacklisted

Review your subscriptions

Go through all the blogs you have subscribed to and find those who are producing content that is not adding any value and unsubscribe from them

Dump negative influence

Look at the people you follow on Twitter, friends on Facebook, contacts on LinkedIn, etc and sever ties with people that are negative.

Focus on positive influence

Spend time noting all the positive people in your networks and endeavour to communicate more with them and support them more often by sharing their content

Make new friends

Identify new potential friends who can make a positive impact on your life and connect with them.

2013 is a time to enhance the impact you have on your community. By surrounding yourself with more positive people and weeding out the trouble makers, you will find that more people will want to connect and interact with you. Have a great year!

Do you have anything to add to this list?

Connect with me on LinkedIn
Chat to me on Twitter

5 Steps to Generate B2B Leads from LinkedIn Company Pages

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Mark Bower of Cube Social

As a B2B company you probably already have a basic LinkedIn Company Page with a company overview and list of employees. What you’re probably not doing though is making use of the Products and Services section to market your offerings. And yet this is the most important part of a LinkedIn Company Page.

1. List Your Products and Services

The first thing you need to do is fire up your products and services page. Until recently, you could only add products, but now you can list services too it’s ideal for the professional and financial services industry.

2. Add each of your services and an image for each one too.

3. Get Recommendations

The most powerful part of LinkedIn’s company page is the recommendations. In LinkedIn, people can’t recommend or review companies – only products and services. When a prospective client visits your page, they see recommendations from people they know right next to your offerings.

Get into the habit of requesting recommendations from clients at the end of each piece of work.

4. Add a Banner

LinkedIn lets you create what are effectively three free banner adverts on your page. (Try saying that quickly!) For each one you can add a link to a landing page on your website where you can funnel the lead to take whatever action you want (e.g. Sign-up for your newsletter)

5. Add Video

You can add a YouTube video for each product or service: Showcase your offerings, show video testimonials from clients or show a video case study. Your objective should be to encourage viewers to become a lead. Think about what specific action you would like the viewer to take after watching the video and explicitly include that call to action in the video itself. The call to action could be as straight-forward as asking the viewer to follow your company on LinkedIn.
Post Status Updates

Regularly post news and status updates on your LinkedIn company page. Think about what would be interesting to your audience – post company news, blog posts, product offers and relevant third party articles. Use it to showcase your expertise, show a little of your organisation’s personality and of course, market your services.

Do have anything to add to this list?

Stop wasting time and money on bad social media marketing

This article was posted on Memeburn this morning.  Please post any comments on Memeburn. The link is Stop wasting time and money on bad social media marketing.

Stop wasting time and money on bad social media marketing

The concept of “Social Media” was inspired by a bunch of very clever people who understood that if people were provided with an environment that enabled them to connect and share information easily, that it would proliferate like wild-fire in a relatively short space of time.

Popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ are given away for free to anyone willing to go online and register on these social networks. Anyone hoping to “monetise” these platforms spends a lot of time and money promoting and marketing the benefits to the general public, and memberships are increasing at a phenomenal rate. This is all well and good, but here is the catch:

Bad information spreads quicker than good information

It is a known fact that bad information spreads quicker than good information because people in their very nature prefer sharing bad news than good. Look at the media. If you turn on the news or pick up a newspaper, you are bombarded with news headlines detailing bombings, murders, rapes and the list goes on. People love bad news.

What does this mean for a business? When a customer has a good experience, they will tell their story and it will be heard by some people. If a customer has a bad experience, it will be heard by all. There was the Mc Donald’s debacle where it created a hashtag and encouraged people to share the “good” Mickey D experience. That turned out to be a disaster because the exact opposite occurred!

You are at the mercy of the public’s fickleness

When I was in my 20s we had our favourite watering hole we would frequent on a Friday evening. Everyone would be there and the establishment in question thrived, however, it was short-lived. As soon as a better pub restaurant opened down the road, everyone was gone! People are not loyal and as soon as someone moves, everyone eventually follows.

What does this mean for your business? You invest all your marketing dollars and effort into a particular social network and a new social network is created and marketed aggressively. Before long, the demographic you are targeting are no longer there!

Do not ever believe the “numbers”

It amazes me about how people are swayed by exaggerated numbers. If the benefits of email were to be marketed right now, you would be presented by an astounding statistic in terms of how many people use email and how many emails are sent in one second. What you will not hear is how many email accounts are dormant, how any email accounts are owned by the same person and how many emails sent are spam.

What does this mean for your business? If you use any one of the multitude of social networks that are available out there, it will not take long before you realise that it is not as simple as creating “content”, sharing it and expecting wonderful results. If you are using Twitter, for example, the majority of Twitter accounts are not even owned by people. Many of the accounts that start following you are not doing so because they want to buy something from you. They are waiting for the reciprocal follow so they can start bombarding you with “spam” tweets. As with email, there are millions of dormant accounts, more one way broadcasts than conversations taking place and a heck of a lot of spam!

What is the bottom line?

Social media can work for your business but take heed of the points mentioned above. Remember that everyone is in it to make money and this includes the stakeholders of all the social networks (they didn’t develop these for the greater good of mankind). Social media specialists, purveyors of reputation management applications and the millions of people out there selling everything under the sun. Find a seasoned social media marketing specialist that has been around for a while who can take you on a positive social media marketing journey. With the right planning, preparation and execution, you may not necessarily waste your time and money of social media, if you do it properly.

6 things you can do to get your LinkedIn group discussions humming!

Does this sound all too familiar?

“I created a number of LinkedIn groups and promoted them on all my digital channels. I shared content and seeded discussions on a regular basis and promoted these using the share features on the group. When I did my mailers I also included links to the group discussions. I shared discussions on other groups I joined, but I am not seeing the results I expected”.

Here are 6 things you can do that may prompt more dialogue in your LinkedIn groups

1. Purpose of the group

Be very clear when deciding on a name for the group, describing the purpose of the group and what benefits members will derive from the group. The will help you set expectations up front.

2. Vet every request

Do not allow anyone to join your group without your permission. Do not be scared to turn people away. There are many unsavoury characters out there whose sole purpose is to promote themselves and their services. These people will not add any value at all.

3. Seeding and managing discussions

Group members will not start talking without the right prompts. Ask explicitly for your member’s opinion on specific subject matter. Attempt to respond to every comment and ask additional questions to prompt further discussion. Do NOT allow anyone to start discussions or make comments without your permission. This may be time-consuming but is the only way you will maintain a good standard.

4. Invite and promote

When promoting discussions with your LinkedIn connections, group members, other groups and other social networks, attempt whenever possible to invite specific individuals, subject matter specialists and social media influencers to participate in the discussion. If the conversation starts faltering, invite other individuals to join the discussion.

5. Keep it topical and relevant

Content is the most important factor in any discussion. You HAVE to ensure that the subject matter is topical and relevant.

6. Less is more!

Do not attempt to manage too many groups and conversations simultaneously otherwise you will fail. Manage a small number of groups and ensure the conversations are high quality.

Summary

Let members understand what they will get out of your group and set expectations. Vet all new members and comments made by members. Respond to all comments where possible and invite subject matter specialists to the conversations. Keep the discussions topical and relevant. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

Is there anything you would like to add to this? I would love to hear from you!

10 different ways you can communicate with your target market on LinkedIn

Unlike any of the other social networks being used by B2B marketers to build brand awareness, establish new relationships and generate new business leads, LinkedIn provides a plethora of communication options which I have listed below.

Sending a connection request

To generate new connections, LinkedIn provides a facility to send a connection request. Bear in mind that the assumption is you were previously acquainted with the person to whom you are sending the connection request, hence the options presented when you send the request (ie colleague, classmate, we’ve done business together, friend, groups, other). Bear in mind that if the person advises LinkedIn that they do not know you, this is recorded. When you reach a specific threshold, you will no longer be allowed to send connection requests.

Requesting an introduction

You have the capability of sending a connection request through an existing connection. It is relatively easy to do this. When viewing the person’s profile (to whom you wish to connect), click on the “Get introduced through a connection” option and follow the prompts.

Sending messages to an existing connection

This is a pretty straight forward process. When viewing the connection’s profile, click on the “Send a message” option and hey presto!

Sending bulk messages

You are able to compose a message and send it to many recipients. What is great about this feature is that you can specify locations and industries. This works well if you have content you want to share with connections within, for example, the Banking industry.

Sending Inmails

InMails are private messages that let you send business and career opportunities directly to any LinkedIn user. InMail allows you to contact or be directly contacted by 2nd or 3rd degree contacts as well as LinkedIn users who are not in your network.

Invitation to join LinkedIn groups

If you manage a LinkedIn group, there are a number of options available to invite persons to join your LinkedIn group. You can type existing connection name and email addresses or share the invitation with LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Send an announcement from LinkedIn groups

For existing LinkedIn group members, you are allowed to send one group announcement a week. This will be emailed to all group members

New discussion on LinkedIn profile or groups

A new discussion posted on your profile will be shared with all your contacts. You can then share this discussion with the LinkedIn groups you manage, other LinkedIn groups you belong to, Twitter and specified LinkedIn connections and email addresses.

Comments on LinkedIn groups

For all LinkedIn groups, you are able to comment on all discussion. This can be a general comment which is viewed by all or a private comment to a specific individual.

Extracting contact details of existing LinkedIn connections

For all existing LinkedIn connections, LinkedIn provides you with the facility to extract your LinkedIn contact details to an Excel spread sheet. You must obviously exercise discretion in terms of ewhat you do with this information.

Summary

LinkedIn provides you with many options to communicate effectively with your target connections and existing connections and to publicise existing content to other social networks you belong to.

Is there other communication options provided by LinkedIn that I have overlooked? Have you had positive or negative experiences with these features and functions? I would love to hear from you!

5 functions provided by LinkedIn ads that are absolutely awesome!

Marketing 2.0 is all about “word of mouth” and placing the power in the hands of the consumer. This is all good and well when you or your business already has an established brand and reputation and people are talking and referring. If you are really good at what you do, a lot of business may come to you without you having to look for it.

Individuals and small to medium companies that are not in this fortunate position may have to work a little bit harder to be “seen”. I love using the analogy of the donkey in the movie Shrek, jumping up and down in the background, shouting out frantically, “PICK ME, PICK ME”. A LinkedIn ad is a great way to become more visible to your target market without breaking the bank.

Based on my experience with LinkedIn ads, I have discovered a number of superb features that I have listed below:

1.  The LinkedIn ad is really easy to use

You can literally have a LinkedIn ad up and running in a couple of hours. The only lag time is waiting for LinkedIn to approve the ad. LinkedIn takes you through a simple step-by-step process, providing guidance and instruction along the way. All you need is a suitable image, description and call to action and a link to where you want to take people, and you are set.

2.  Variation and rotation of ads

Sometmes you want to test the effectiveness of an ad. LinkedIn provides a facility to create multiple ads and allows you to rotate them. This way, you can gauge the effectiveness of specific ads and focus on the one that works for you (ie generates conversions).

3.  You can target your ads very precisely

This feature I LOVE. So you are a small to medium size business serving companies situated in Johannesburg, South Africa. The ad you have created is targeted at financial managers and/or directors in mining companies. You are only interested in females over the age of 40. LinkedIn enables you to target this specific demographic! This is the tip of the iceberg because there are even more options available.

4.  Billing model and daily limit

LinkedIn presents you with a flexible billing model which is very easy to manage. For those that want to test the effectiveness of LinkedIn ads, you can do so without committing to huge expense. For starters, you can bid on your ad, which is great. You can start low, monitor progress, and increase your bid, until you start seeing favourable results. You can also specify a daily limit, so if you want to run the ad for one day and cap your spend at $10, then so be it! You can have options to pay per click (CPC) or Pay per 1000 impressions (CPM)

5.  Great reporting and analytics on ad performance

If you want to gauge the effectiveness of an ad campaign, you need decent analytics. (It is also good to show to management if it is doing really well!) LinkedIn provides information such as Number of Impressions (ie how many times was the ad displayed), Amount Spent, Number of Clicks on your ad, Click Through Rate (CTR) and Average Cost Per Click CPC). You can specify the date range by which you want to report the criteria listed above. There are industry averages that are freely available that you can measure yourself against in order to see how well you are doing.

Have you used LinkedIn ads? What can you add or report on? I would love to hear from you!

 

7 ways to differentiate yourself from others with a complete LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn provides you with the means to showcase your areas of expertise, enabling you to connect with others with similar skills more easily or with companies that are searching for people with your type of skill set.

Here is some advice on how to complete your profile in order to stand out from others.

It is a known fact that adding a photo to your profile makes it seven times  more appealing and more searchable. Including your two most recent employers makes your profile twelve times more likely to be found.  These small changes make a big difference to your profile.

Here are seven ways to make your profile much more appealing

1) Add a profile photo

2) Indicate which industry you work in or serve

3) Make sure that you have a minimum of fifty connections

4) Ensure that you write a summary about yourself

5) Add all jobs you have had together with descriptions

6) Include information relating to the school you attended

7) Add at least five skills to your profile

Whether you are just connecting with people or you want o be more visible to potential employers or clients, make sure you have a complete profile and be sure to update it on a regular basis.

Here is an example of a good profile

Did you find this useful? I welcome your feedback.

The value of the “recommendation” on LinkedIn

Developing new relationships from scratch is never an easy feat for anyone whether is it a personal or business relationship. There is always the unknown that has yet to be discovered over time. In the business world, people only make buying decisions once you are viewed as a known and trusted advisor. To become a trusted advisor takes time, however this can be expedited through personal recommendations. On LinkedIn, a recommendation can be done in a number of ways:

The Introduction

If you would like to connect with a 2nd level connection on LinkedIn, there is an option on the person’s profile aptly named “Get introduced through a connection”. When you select this option, LinkedIn lists all your 1^st level connections that are already connected with the person in question. You can then select one of the 1^st level connections and ask the person to introduce you. This is way better than an unsolicited request that is likely to be turned down.

The provision of, or the request for, a recommendation

LinkedIn provides a feature for users to provide recommendations for others. You are given the option to either send a request for a recommendation or simply create a recommendation for someone. This is a great way to bolster your individual profile. There is nothing better than to read a person’s profile which has a number of independent recommendations to provide more credibility. This carries even more weight if you happen to know the person that has provided the recommendation for the person’s profile you are viewing.

News on your company page

For those that have created a company page on LinkedIn it is a good idea to include the news feature. This enables you to add all relevant news on your company whether it be press realeases, cutomer testimonials, general company use, financial results, etc to be displayed. This is a good way to build credibility for persons viewing your company page, wanting to know more about what others think about your business.

This will hopefully provide you with some insight of the value associated with introductions, recommendations, customer testimonials and company news that may be facilitated by LinkedIn.

Is there anything I have left out? Is there anything you would like to add or comment on? I would love to hear from you!