Online Marketing and Social Media Strategies
When you created your account on LinkedIn one of the first things you probably did was to create a profile. Creating a profile is one of the more time intensive tasks you will do on LinkedIn. It’s a process that should never end. As your experience, knowledge and career progresses you should continuously update it.
When you switch jobs or change careers it should be one of the first things that you update. Too often I come across profiles that are out dated. Is your profile up to date?
Pop Quiz: Who is more likely to be found on LinkedIn?
A. Has 60 connections B. Has 500 connections
A. Never answers questions B. Answers 3 questions each week
A. Never gives recommendations B. Provides recommendations
A. Rarely updates Status B. Updates status 3 times per week
A. Has minimal info in profile B. Detailed profile with photo
A. Has not listed interests B. List several non-work related interests
A. No Applications B. Has 4 applications on profile
A. Belongs to 5 groups B. Belongs to 50 groups
I could continue with the list but I think you get the point.
Think of your profile as an interactive billboard. The billboard has been erected but you’re waiting for traffic to drive by it. You can wait and hope that someone takes a wrong turn and sees you, or you can try to detour traffic past your billboard.
The majority of billboard owners simply wait for something to happen. Everyone has told them how great LinkedIn is and it cost nothing to put up their billboard. Periodically they link to other billboards hoping that something will happen.
When you first put up your billboard it’s on a lonely two way road out in the country. Your goal should be to move it towards a busy traffic filled interstate. That takes time and activity. If you wait for it to happen it may never do so. If you take control and determine that you will have traffic, it can be done with a little elbow grease.
Here are some ways you can drive traffic (really pull) to your billboard:
Design it Well:
Its words and pictures presented in a cohesive effort. You need to make sure that when someone sees your billboard that it effectively tells your story. Having a profile photo that supports what you do is important. Doing keyword research on your industry and product or service, and then listing these wherever possible on your profile is a huge part of the equation.
Customizing your URL’s isn’t much but it matters. The same goes for listing hobbies and interests. You never know how or why someone will find your billboard, it just matters that many people do.
Try to update what you are doing at least three times a week. I prefer business related updates, but I’ve seen some who post everyday like on Twitter. PingFM is a good resource that will allow you to update micro-blogs at several sites.
Finally applications allow you to take your profile from two dimensional to three dimensional.
Your profile should be a work in progress. Each time you update a piece of it your network is notified on their Home page that you have an updated profile. This will drive traffic.
Answers:
Asking questions allows you to tap into the knowledge resources of other users. Answering questions allows you to share knowledge. Both are part of the credibility building process. And both result at a minimum in a link to your profile.
Doing both will drive traffic to your billboard. It’s not necessarily targeted traffic, but once again you never know where the next opportunity will come from. Whenever I see an answer that captures my attention I always view the profile of the person providing the answer. Sometimes that’s all, but in some cases it’s led to new connections or opportunities.
Try to answer 5 questions a week and commit to asking one question per week. The caveat is that you have to provide value when answering a question and generate interest when asking a question.
Recommendations:
Recommendations given are a way to provide value to someone who has helped you or someone that you think highly of. Recommendations received are a way for your network to provide value to you. In both cases a link is created back to the giver and the receiver’s profile. It’s another great way to be found.
Recommendations from clients go a step further. It gets you a listing in the LinkedIn Service Providers directory. This is probably one of the least utilized features of LinkedIn and that’s a shame. Service Providers used to be one of the main LinkedIn sections but when the Companies section was launched it was moved within the new section. The only reference you will see is a text link on the Companies home page.
Often I will be asked to help someone with their insurance in another state that I’m not licensed in. I always search through the Service Providers directory to find a resource to help the person.
You should strive to have at least 10 recommendations and provide at least 15. Once you hit those numbers keep it going.
Groups:
On a webinar last week one of the moderators mentioned that they thought the real value to be found on LinkedIn was within groups and not your direct network. That’s a bold statement, but I think they may be on to something.
Within your personal network reaching out to 2nd and 3rd degree connections is cumbersome, unless you have a paying account and have access to InMail. With groups the barriers to communicating with anyone are removed.
I have about 490 direct connections and close to 4.5 million total people in my network. I can only easily contact those 1st degree connections. Within my groups there are close to 250,000 members. I can reach out and contact any at any time.
When I update my profile my 490 connections are notified of my action. But with groups, when I participate in a discussion question or post a news article I can potentially reach 250,000 people.
If I choose my groups wisely then I have the ability to market to a specific target. You can also create a group to develop a target group. I do a lot of business in North Fulton County in Georgia. About a year ago I started the North Fulton Business Group and the group has grown to close to 300 people. With my group I have the ability to communicate with business professionals in a defined area. That’s powerful.
Disclaimer: Starting a group is easy. Getting member to join isn’t. Use your connections and other groups to find your first 100 members. After that it will start to grow on its own. The larger your group grows the easier it will be to add new members.
You can be a member of up to 50 groups and you should focus on finding groups that are filled with your target customers or alliance partners.
Wrap Up
There has been an explosion in the number of people talking about social networking, but often the point is missed that what LinkedIn really provides is social marketing. By actively participating in all of the features of LinkedIn you will help drive traffic to your billboard. Visitors can choose to stop and read your billboard, and then can initiate contact, through connecting or engaging in your product or service.
In the movie Field of Dreams the unseen voice is heard to say “If you build it, they will come”. On LinkedIn that’s not enough. Listen close and you’ll hear “If you’re active, they will come.”
How do you balance privacy with the need to show enough information to have a profile that works? Do you allow your connections to see your contacts? If not, why have you chosen not to?
Have you ever wondered how your presence on LinkedIn compares to the average LinkedIn user. Last year I created the Linkulator to allow people to score their profile and presence numerically. You simply answer some questions about your profile and participation in things such as Answers and Recommendations. It then calculates a score and displays the average score of everyone who has computed a score. It also classifies your presence based on your score and offers some tips to improve.
I’ve made some tweaks, although technical issues (mainly my lack of knowledge in combining PHP, mysql, and Swishmax2 into a functioning app) prevented me from doing everything I had hoped to do. Still it’s one of the few free tools (Toys, what’s the diference) out there.
If someone else had created the tool they might have placed emphasis on different features or weighted things differently. This is just a fun tool to use, nothing more. Your rscore will be determined by how active you’ve been in some key areas. While a high score is good, your true score on LinkedIn is based on how it has enhanced your network and led to new business. Dollars are what really count.
What’s your score? …Go to the Linkulator
If you were a fan of baseball during the Sammy Sosa / Mark McGuire homerun love fest, you remember watching both sluggers knock balls out of the park night after night. McGuire’s forearms were bigger than my legs. Have you seen a picture of Mr. McGuire lately? He looks normal. Today McGuire would likely be a slap hitter, dinging base hits just over the second baseman or shortstop.
That’s the difference between looking for a job using LinkedIn to see how you are connected into opportunities and just looking for a job.
In 2001 my family moved from Chicago back to Atlanta. I had been working for an online marketing company and every Sunday there were 8 pages of marketing jobs in the classifieds of the Chicago Tribune. The Atlanta Journal had two columns, primarily get rich ideas. It probably didn’t help that the online world was imploding.
My job search consisted of tapping the few people that I knew, going to networking events where I knew no one, searching the online job boards, and attempting to tap into the Georgia State Alumni group. It was a long frustrating 6 months which resulted in me working for free or in my case a 100% commission job selling health insurance, which I had never done.
If I made that same move today, it would be a different story. First, since I knew we were moving about 4 months in advance, I could have started building my network in Atlanta. I would have started by seeking connections to people in my network that were located in Atlanta. I would have joined as many Atlanta based groups as I could find.
I would have also started searching the available jobs to see how I connected to it, and then work my way in. Much of this work could take place through LinkedIn, so it would have been easy to manage it while working my day job.
Another item of importance would have been to see if there were any LinkedIn related specifications and work to make sure my profile was up to speed. Two that I have recently seen are “prefer someone who is connected to our company” and “prefer someone with ten recommendations”.
The first one is simple. I would have started by doing a keyword search on “Atlanta” and “Lions”. Connecting to a couple of these folks would expand my network tremendously. Next I would work on connecting to people that were employed at companies in my industry, and also to those connected to people in my industry.
The second one takes a little work, but I’m certain with a little work I could have built my connections up above the ten recommendation benchmark. If you have less than ten recommendations I suggest your read Part 5 of this series and get to work.
Finally I would download the jobs toolbar. This toolbar would allow me to search through the non-LinkedIn job search boards that have partnered with LinkedIn. On these sites the toolbar will show you how you are connected into jobs, just like on the LinkedIn site.
If you find yourself looking for the next opportunity, here are some suggestions:
1. Work on your profile…do you have a photo, do you list your previous employment history, do you have a summary that sells you, do you have at least ten recommendations?
2. Build your connections…find relevant connections, connect to others in your industry, connect to some LIONs.
3. Join relevant groups…when posting a job discussion use it creatively. “I need a job” vs. “Anyone have any connections to (specific company) or (in industry)”. In the top part of the discussion ask your question. In the details section explain why you’re asking. Direct people back to your newly updated profile for more information on you. Finally be careful how often you post.
4. Ask questions to help research companies or industries
5. Search the Jobs section and see how you are connected into opportunities
6. Download the jobs toolbar…search for jobs at these sites as well: Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, SimplyHired, Dice, or Vault
7. Tap your network for introductions
8. Use the “What are you doing now” feature to let your network know that you are job searching. Update this every Tuesday and Friday.
If you’re one of those folks looking for a job I wish you luck. It’s a tough market out there and you should make sure that you are using LinkedIn as a resource to find your next opportunity.
Most of my posts tend to be long topical posts. This means that lately I’m writing a new post about every two weeks. I’ve decided to try and post more frequently so I will be adding tips and questions that I receive into mini-posts. I’ll still write the longer post, but hopefully this will increase the value.
Todays question: “I put a current position as a board member of the Johns Creek Business Association in my employment section because I saw other people who have done the same. Linkedin lists that membership above my actual business. Is there a way to reorder the two items so my business is on top?”
Answer: The quick answer is no. There is no function to re-arrange positions. It seems to be a last in, first listed approach. This is one of the things you come across in LinkedIn that will drive you crazy. It’s a simple feature that would add value.
When I created my LinkedIn profile I had one company. Now I have four that I wouldn’t mind displaying on my profile. The problem is that the first one, which currently produces the most revenue is listed last. And since it only displays up to three current companies at the top of my profile I had to make a choice. Do I list the fourth, which is a networking community portal that I’ve started and have my main company only show further down, or delete the community portal listing.
I chose to delete the community portal. It doesn’t make sense to not have my primary company listed up top.
As I thought about this, one option would be to switch the names of the companies, which would work in some cases. In mine though, I have 15 recommendations with the first company, and switching the names would then show that these recommendations were for my fourth company, the community portal.
I could make the switch and then ask each person that made a recommendation to go back in and edit them by selecting the appropriate company. But this seems like a lot of trouble and a inconvenience to those who were kind enough to write a recommendation. So, if you don’t have any recommendations make the switch. Otherwise, just deal with it.
Another option would be to delete the company you want at top and re-add it. Once again only do this if you have no recommendations.
LinkedIn, if you think about it, is simply an offline idea implemented in an online manner. It takes advantage of the ease of communicating and interacting that the internet provides.
LinkedIn hasn’t changed or replaced the old way of networking. It’s just added a new dynamic to the mix. It’s made it easier to network with more people in less time. It’s expanded the typical network geographic restrictions. And it’s opened up new opportunities to showcase your business or yourself.
In the end there is only one you or one business. There’s just a new opportunity to build your brand. In my chamber I’ve attended over 90% of the alliance meeting over the past three years. Each meeting I have 60 seconds to get my message across. In addition I try to meet face to face with as many people as possible. [Read more...]
This morning I received an email from Guy Havelick with a tale of two workers who were laid off. Here’s part of his email:
I work for a large corporation. They too often play the musical chairs game with far too few chairs. Recently two good friends, excellent contributors and employees, were caught when the music stopped. One had a great network and found another job immediately. The second was not properly networked and is still struggling to start his own business.
As a good employee, as secure as I can be working for a big company, how can I provide myself a safety net? (One that I would prefer not to be forced to use.) LinkedIn seems like the best social networking tool out there. How can I use LinkedIn to be that safety net? What’s the best way to sell my reputation when I’m not yet in a position to be bought?
The effect of a good network to help you in a job search cannot be underestimated. There is a hidden job market that you don’t find on monster or other sites. These positions are filled by word of mouth referrals. There are times when what you know is important. Times when who you know is important. And often it’s a combination of who and what you know that makes the difference.
Gus also poses some questions that I would like to address from a LinkedIn perspective.
The more people you know the more likely you are to find the help you need. Use LinkedIn to create a network of resources before you need the resource. You may not know how LinkedIn will benefit you in the future, but if you build your network, you will be ahead of the game when you figure out how it can benefit you.
There are several ways to do so on LinkedIn. I took a look at your profile and here are some suggestions:
