Are You Making LinkedIn Mistakes?

Do you have a targeted strategy in how you handle your LinkedIn profile?  

Keeping up on everything is hard.  I recently took a look at my own LinkedIn profile, and while it had only been a couple of months, it already needed some updating.  I can only imagine how many small
business owners tend to pass up this social media platform because of their busy schedules.  But what I've realized is this really can be an error in judgement since LinkedIn can be a great way to build your online presence, network with others and discover potential prospects and opportunities.  Just in a matter of days of updating my own profile, I began receiving new visits to my page, new endorsements and new invitations.  Who knew what else I was missing?

LinkedIn really is a great way to network, and like me, even if you do have a LinkedIn presence, do you keep it up to date?  Here's some homework:  Take a look at your current profile right now.  How current is the photo?  When was the last time you updated your skills?  I am regularly surprised to see how many profile pictures are low-quality photos that were just pulled up from their desktop and just uploaded.  For me, I use the same photo of myself everywhere.  LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, About.Me, all have the same photo. Which, I had professionally taken.  Not only is it my favorite picture of myself, but it was not that expense to have done.  (Unfortunately my hair has now completely changed so I need a new one, but that's another story...guess I need an update :)

Your photo is your first impression with Social Media, and your profile on LinkedIn is no exception.  This is a great opportunity to make sure your photo is expertly edited and uploaded to your profile.  You can easily outsource or delegate this job to an online manager and you certainly do not need to take the time yourself.   Any good online manager or virtual assistant should be able to do this for you within an hour or so.  Even I am learning to delegate more, and once you get the hang of it, it really is great.  I am so much more productive with my time.

Back to photos, as I mentioned before, one benefit of a great photo is you can then use it everywhere.  Consistently using the same one across all your social media will help you become more recognizable and builds your brand.  Then as you attend networking events, chat or comment in online groups, etc people will begin to feel familiar with you and develop a trusted connection.  Imagine when a potentially prosperous contact reaches out to you, all because of your LinkedIn profile.

Have you been deprived of exposure lately just because you have less than a complete profile?  What will you do?

When you are really ready to maximize LinkedIn, update your profile to reflect all your current experience.  Again this is something you can easily delegate and any good virtual assistant or online manager can help.  Give them a copy of your resume and let them take a stab at it.  It doesn't have to be perfect, and sometimes someone else's perspective can be really beneficial.  Then you can take a look at it yourself and make personal edit adding information relevant to your industry.

Don’t hesitate to promote your individual accomplishments and remember that your current updates posted will be shared and read within the networks you belong.  I link a lot of my social media posting together, so when I post in Twitter it ties to my Facebook and/or LinkedIn.  I do try to keep LinkedIn more business related and relevant.

In essence, Linked in could easily be one of several sites that you delegate the upkeep to a virtual assistant or online manager. They can easily keep it updated for you  and send to you for review before they post on your behalf.  Monitoring your social media, including LinkedIn, your blog, website, Facebook Business page, Twitter, etc. and keeping them current, fresh and relevant, you will build your online presence and attract new leads and prospects to your business.  And who wouldn't want that?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on LinkedIn.  It would be great to connect!

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

Utilizing Social Media to market your business is becoming a popular type of marketing for many small businesses and many are benefiting greatly by developing and following a social media marketing strategy.  By using Social media you can really give your marketing efforts a big boost and it can help you achieve the success you want not only quicker but more efficiently.

So what exactly is the skinny on Social media, and why should you use it as a marketing tool for your small business?  

Social media  networks are communities online, think of it as a “place” online where people gather to communicate  and learn about things that they have in common. It gives them the capability to interact with each other. This can be through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn forums and any number of online means of communication. Because of the way these networks develop, it often presents some great networking opportunities.  I love this infographic from Social Metrics on "10 Creative Secrets for Social Media Marketing" showing that over 93% of businesses currently leverage social media to gain more customers!



If you are wondering how and why you should use social networking sites to promote your small business, you are not alone. A fairly large numbers of small business owners aren't even sure what or which social media sites to use or how they work.  One benefit to small businesses is the ability to utilize Social media sites to share photo’s and video’s or run an online contest, all which will aid in gaining publicity and if you are on a budget, using social media networking sites is a cost-effective way in obtaining the publicity you are seeking for your products and services from your business website.


It can also be extremely valuable and worth the time and effort to join online forums like those on LinkedIn.  Within these online forums, you can answer and ask questions, learn from others, and use what you learn to develop relevant blog articles.  You can also post comments, promote events, and offer tips or advice.  Surveys and polls are also very popular in gaining the attention of not only your current customers but also potential customers.


The best part of using Social media is that it is a very cost effective means of communicating and interacting with your target market. Most networks are free and it only takes a little bit of time to keep interacting with the members of the network once you have gotten established. From there the growth is somewhat natural. As communities grow, so does the amount of exposure you get. The more exposure you get the more success you will have.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share your thoughts.

Until Next Time
Diahana

Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business

Recently a client asked me to put together a few strategic marketing ideas for their restaurant business that was aligned to their growth goals.  So this week I thought it might be interesting to share with you some of the ideas we discussed.  Now in this particular situation the client owns a restaurant and I've decided to include that detail since I think it provides a good example, but it could easily be adapted to your own small business goals.

Whenever I start a new project, I always begin with the goal.  In this case, the goal was to create a plan for a attracting new customers (25-40 year old set) who are more cutting edge and using social media.  A lot of this stuff can easily be automated in a cloud-based virtual solution so don't get overwhelmed.  It also should be pointed out that the customer already has a website, Facebook Page and Twitter account, all key components in my mind for an effective and well rounded strategy.  Here are a the ideas we discussed:


Create a Newsletter or Blog

In this case they had a pretty big email list, but no newsletter.  Even if you don't have a list yet, it's easy to build one and a great way to stay in touch with your customers and keep them coming back.  Ideally a newsletter or blog should be done once a week. The 25-40 year old set likes communication to be more personal these days (that’s why they are all “hanging out” on Facebook) so include a recipe “secret”, quote from a happy customer, birthday information, and what's happening in and around town.  All the content you create for your website and newsletter can then be repurposed and used on Facebook and Twitter.

Maximize the use of Facebook

Post any videos you have to your Facebook fan page and ask for comments.  Ask customers that come in to “like” your page.  When people "Like" your Facebook page, they are alerted to your updates via their news feeds.  You can also explore expanding your fan base using Facebook ads.  I would also recommend creating a “hidden” secret in the commercial or video for them to watch for (e.g. "what color is our signature drink”) when they come in the restaurant with the answer their name goes in for a drawing, winners can be posted via twitter, Facebook, on the blog or newsletter, etc.

Create automated updates across all your accounts.  Connect to your Facebook page from your newsletter, you newsletter to your website, from Facebook to twitter.  You get the idea.  All should be tightly integrated so as you update one with the daily specials, birthdays, etc. it can automatically post to all the others.

Maximize the use of Twitter:

Tweet your nightly/weekly specials (if you aren’t already).  Tweet interesting things happening in in and around town, such as  new movies, concerts, interesting happenings.  Become the center of information for the community.  Check and make sure your Twitter handle is on your website, Facebook page, newsletter, displayed in the restaurant menu, put it on the televisions in the bar, etc.

There are some good rules of thumb to use for Twitter that build value, a relationship and a good following.  Here are a few that you can incorporate in addition to sharing your own information about daily specials, birthdays, your blog or newsletter and other relevant information.  Remember many can be streamlined using technology and other resources, you do not have to do all this yourself and it could easily be outsourced to a virtual assistant team.

• Reply to someone else’s tweet
• Re-Tweet good information
• Post inspiration or quote
• Post an “a-ha” resource
• Share a link to another great resource, blog post or website

Develop Email Campaigns

Developing email campaigns is easy and can also be automated, you probably already have the content developed for advertising elsewhere, it just needs to be adapted for email.  Any advertising you are doing in local magazines, tv, radio can be repurposed and sent via email along with a newsletter, blog, recipe of the week, birthday days, specials…you get the idea.

That's it!  I hope you got some good ideas for putting together your own strategic marketing plan, as always we are here to help.  Feel free to share your comments, and I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Until next time,
Diahana