Category Archives: FaceBook

“How to Stand Out on Social Media” by Christine Hueber

Let's face it, as business owners we're not marketing on social media in a pure, utopian world. You're competing with hundreds of updates that flood your audiences' feeds every minute.

How do you find your competitive edge?

This is the subtlety that separates the successful social media profiles from the ones that fail.

And it all revolves around one question:

Why should people read YOUR updates?

To stay competitive, your social media updates must do something for your readers. They must make them FEEL a certain way, so they view them when they can (or even add you to their Twitter or FaceBook close friend list so they get your updates first), and more
importantly, decide to stay connected with you. And that's when you'll stand out from the thousands of other updates that are vying for your audiences' attention. So, how do you do this?

Provide VALUE

You must deliver VALUE to your audience. This value to your audience could be tangible, like getting a special discount, being the first to know about a new product, or learning something new. Those tangible offers are straightforward. You put a coupon code in your update, an image of your product, promote your latest book or consulting package, etc.

People love those and they can definitely be a good reason they'll prefer to stay connected with you on social media.

But it also could be something less tangible. Many of the most successful profiles maintain an emotional connection with their audience. Their audience looks forward to their updates because they either make them laugh, make them think in new ways, or inspire them to take action in their lives.

When I started on social media, I talked about my running, my outside work life, etc. in my updates, because I noticed that my audience responded positively when I shared personal parts of my life. I didn't overdo it, but I would just share spontaneous updates, like my vacations or what I was doing. You might see on some sites that people think it's inappropriate to share more personal information as a way to build a relationship with your audience.

But when I look at them, I find they don't have the audience or results I have from being on social media. I will tell you from experience that it’s relationship that builds businesses.

And it's something that earns you a lifelong community of friends, new customers, referrals, and fans.

So, if you're posting new content into your social media profiles, without giving much thought to your audience, you're actually doing more harm than good. You want to have your sales strategy in place, but don't ignore the personal relationship. That's where your social media updates can really shine.

Some people like knowing about new products and promotions. Some people might think your updates are amusing, inspiring, or motivating. Others might just like you, and they like feeling connected to you. The benefits really do range from very rational, to very abstract and emotional. So make sure you deliver both in your social media updates.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when focusing in on how your updates will benefit your ideal reader:
• Do you want them to feel confident in you and your services or products?
• Trusting in your expertise, like they know you personally?
• Motivated? Inspired?
• Eager to receive more of your useful information?
• So impressed with your updates that they retweet, like and share them with their network?

Be CONSISTENT

When I mentor a business owner who is on social media, but not getting the results, it's often the case that they do not post or "publish" their updates on a consistent basis. They post something when they have time, which could mean hourly sometimes, once a day other times, or only once a week if they're really busy.

And it's costing them…

In the professional publishing world, deadlines drive the business. Advertisers count on their ads being launched to the world for the full term of their contracts, and publishers are accountable for making sure their staff produces each issue on time. Your social media profiles are virtual advertising space for your business and any affiliate programs you're part of, and it's crucial that you get your updates out there consistently. So by making consistency a priority when it comes to publishing your updates, you WILL have the advantage over millions of business owners.

The benefits of consistency are two-fold.

For starters, there's the 7-to-10 marketing rule. It's a golden rule that says your prospect has to see or hear your message 7-to-10 times before they'll even take action. People need to get to know you and trust you before they decide to take the next step with you. So, if you're only posting your updates once a week, for example, it's likely that you will wait almost an entire quarter before you start getting traction from it. But, think of how much this window shrinks when you start posting twice a week. It shaves off WEEKS of waiting for new prospects, new customers, and new sales to come in for your business.

So, do not take your posting schedule lightly.

Consistency also builds trust on a very unconscious level for your audience. If your updates pop up from left field at random times throughout the year, people will likely doubt that you're delivering anything of value to them.

Think about it. Would you rather get your news and information from a completely unreliable, "flaky" news source that only reported on things when they could, or would you trust the source that is there for you every hour, day, week, year after year? This again is a subtle, but powerful force that will make your social media profiles successful. It's going back to how your updates make someone FEEL. They feel like you're taking them seriously, yourself seriously, and you're there for them whenever they need you.

Here's the truth: most people won't see your every post. I hesitate to write this because some of you might take it as license to NOT give your social media updates the proper attention on a consistent basis. But, it's true. Some of your audience will see one update, and maybe the next, and some won't them until the week after that when they go to your profile or page. And of course some will devour EVERY update. If you ask me, that's why it's so important to keep your social media updates consistent…making sure that every post is full of that winning combination of strategic and valuable information.

At any point in time, your social media updates could resonate with someone and result in a new referral, a sale, or press.

Get INTERACTIVE

Every day, there are more and more fun ways to add interactive content that your audience LOVES to your social media updates. You can deliver video messages, audio messages, poll your readers, and more. For some people, speaking on a topic comes much more naturally than writing an article on it, so shooting a video or recording an audio message is an easy alternative that would probably save time.

Think about adding audio or video to your social media updates for just about anything, such as:
• Personal greetings (maybe from your fun trip!)
• Brief interviews with experts
• Special announcements or promotions
• Product recommendations
• Testimonials from clients/customers
• Question and answer

If you prefer to shoot video, use your phone camera or a digital video camera for making short recordings.

A contest is another great way to get people excited and engaged in your social media updates. For one, everyone loves a freebie. And when that free prize is one of your books, e-books, reports, consultations, gift certificates, etc., it's a great way to
spread brand awareness.

For example, you could ask a trivia question related to your business's area of expertise and give free prizes to the first 5 or 10 respondents who post the correct answer to your profile. Then in an update, announce the winning posters' names and tell a bit about them. People love seeing their names posted (just make sure you ask for permission to publish their information).

And here's an extra benefit—you can bet the featured "winning" posters will probably share your updates with their network—they won, and there's their name in print! Not only did you make a reader happy, but they may have just referred several new followers—prospective new clients/customers—to you as well.

These are just a few examples of the ways you can kick your social media updates into high gear and make sure they're holding their own among the competition.

It's also a good idea to keep an eye on your competition. Take a good look at what your favorite social media personalities are up to, as well as updates by people in your industry: what works, what makes you continue to keep them on your Twitter or FaceBook close friends list, and what doesn't work? Add a few social media profiles by leading online marketers to your social media lists (they're usually the ones on top of all the latest trends and shiny, bright new objects).

Remember, your social media presence isn't a one-time only launch. You have time to come up with a formula that works for you. Just commit to providing value, be consistent, get interactive, and adjust as you go.

I'll be honest, it took me some time to really pin down a formula that worked for my social media updates. But once I got it RIGHT, my business was OVERFLOWING. And when I've taught my formula to new and seasoned entrepreneurs, many have enjoyed equally amazing results in a fraction of the time…

QUESTION: What are you doing on social media? How are you standing out? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete text with it:

“Marketing mentor Christine Hueber teaches business owners and entrepreneurs around the world how to create and manage profitable marketing that gets them more clients easily. Get her FREE Report “Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Marketing Secrets for Entrepreneurs" at www.ChristineHueber.com”

“5 Ways to Get More Clients From Your Website” by Christine Hueber

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How to get more clients? It's a frequently asked question among entrepreneurs and business owners. While there are many ways to get more clients, I want to focus on how to get more clients from your website.

Chances are that your website either looks really great, but it drives absolutely no sales … or your website looks like something from the 1990’s and you're ashamed of it and it also drives no sales.

I want to talk to you about how you can generate more clients and leads from your website.

Trust me, if you do at least one or two of these things, you’ll be generating a lot more business from your website.

#1 Put a Phone Number and Email on Every Page

Yes, I know it’s a simple step but you wouldn’t believe how many businesses don’t have their number and email on their website where it’s easy to find.

I recommend that you add your phone number and email to every page as well as your “contact” link.

Also, don’t try to be creative and name your “contact” link “drop us a line” or something like that. Keep it simple.

Finally, I highly recommend that your phone number be in text instead of an image so that smart phones can automatically dial number.

#2 Add Your Website to All Your Social Media Profiles

Make it easy for your future clients to find you.

For example, I have my website on my LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter profiles.

#3 Add Your Website to Your Email Signature

You might think everyone knows your website, but adding it to your email signature makes it that much easier for them to visit and take the next step with you.

The goal is to drive even more traffic to your website so they can learn more about the results they'll get from working with you.

You could even drive visitors to a special page that I’ll talk more about later.

#4 Free Download that Requires an Email

First, create something that's compelling that people would be interested in that they can get instantly. The delivery method really isn’t as important as the information that you offer. For example, I use my free special report “Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Success Secrets.”

The title sparks enough interest that my website visitors enter their email and name to get my free report to see what my secrets are. And once they read my special report they start telling other people about it because of the valuable information I share about how they can make their LinkedIn profile more successful today. So think about something you can offer that's irresistible to your visitors and then deliver the content via a download.

And instead of a special report you could also create one of the following:

- eBook

- Video

- Template

- Mp3 File

- Interview

Secondly, you want to create a gift information product that will attract your ideal clients. This means don’t create something that you think is fascinating but is totally irrelevant for your client base.

Finally, offer the information product as a gift in exchange for a name and email.

As I mentioned above, on my website in the upper right of most every page I offer a free special report that shares the top 10 LinkedIn profile success secrets.

I also require you to enter your email before you can download it.

Think about what information you could put together that your potential clients would give you their email for.

#5 Have A Sells Page

A sells page or landing page or dedicated opt-in page is a single page on your website that invites the visitor to take a single action of some sort … nothing else.

A good sells page or landing page does a few things:

- It clearly states the benefits of the product or service

- It rebuts objections

- Gives social proof such as testimonials or case studies.

These work very well in the online world and usually convert 1 out of every 10 visitors into leads who you can then nurture to become clients.

As a business owner, you can use your sells page to capture leads, set up free diagnostic calls or consultations or even sell your web visitors a product. For an example, click here to see what I use.

#6 Combine some of these tactics (bonus)

You can use all these tactics separately but I would highly recommend that you combine some of them, especially #4 and #5.

For example, from your social media accounts you can drive your audience to your sells page that offers your gift and requires them to enter their email … that then begins their relationship with you.

This is just one example, but you can take these ideas and run with them.

Conclusion

Your website should do more than just be something you have and don’t get any benefit from. Your website should be one of the hardest working elements of your marketing strategy and you’ll be gettng a lot more from your website if you use one of the above mentioned tactics.

These are just some of the tactics I’ve used.

How are you getting more clients and leads from your website?

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“5 Social Media Formulas to Engage Your Clients and Customers” by Christine Hueber

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Every day, social media is abuzz with updates from everyone from Lady Gaga to Oprah to Donald Trump. It’s an equal playing field where people are free to share and discuss any topic under the sun. And, with billions of users around the world on FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc., social media is a great way for entrepreneurs to get known and connect with potential clients and customers.

But, many business owners fall into the trap of using social media as a soapbox, rather than a tool for conversation. Below are five social media formulas to try that will engage your clients and customers.

Social Media Formula #1: Ask a question

This is one of my favorite ways to engage my audience online. People love to share their opinions, recommendations or stories, so asking questions is a great way to spark a conversation.

Let's say you're an executive coach. You could ask your audience for suggestions on what new services, products or programs they would like to see you offer. Or ask them to share how they’ve used your strategies to get results they wanted (which gives you something good to share further with your audience!). Or share a story on what working with you has meant to them.

If you’re traveling to a new or different city, ask locals what restaurants or cafes they recommend. Checking out the types of places your clients like to frequent could not only open the door to new connections, but you can also get a better understanding of what attracts your clients.

Social Media Formula #2: Show some personality

Your job online is to show that you are not just a business, you are also a person who owns a business. So posting updates that show some personality are always a hit.

During the recent holiday, I posted about how I was celebrating and included pictures of the amazing mahogany smoked ham we had and where I went skiing those days… People respond to small “slice of life” tidbits that are fun and relatable, but be sure to mix it up with more business-focused updates, too.

Here’s another idea: If you’re traveling, reach out to your contacts in the area to let them you'll be there and would love to meet. For example, I've messaged my LinkedIn contacts and set up face-to-face meetings. Not only was it a great opportunity to cultivate my relationship with those contacts, but it also allowed by to deepen our relationship through meeting.

Social Media Formula #3: Share useful tips & content

In addition to sharing your promotions and content; share tips, articles, and resources you think would interest your online audience. I love sharing inspirational quotes that get me (and my community) fired up for success.

Don’t be afraid to share other resources with your community. It helps position you as an expert in your field, especially if you add your own commentary. Just make sure you always credit or link to the original source.

Social Media Formula #4: Use hashtags

Most social media sites are searchable using hashtags (#). This means when you use a hashtag before a keyword in your update, anyone on that site who's following or searching that keyword will see your update.

For example, if you're a business executive and team coach promoting your upcoming free teleseminar, you could use hashtags like #business #executive #team #coach in your updates. Prioritize the top 1 or 2 for each post for maximum effectiveness.

You can also follow hashtags to listen to what's being said about your topic online and then respond to create a new relationship.

However you use them, hashtags are a great way to make new contacts and attract a specific type of audience that’s interested in your topic.

Social Media Formula #5: Respond to comments, mentions and messages

How you respond to your customers online can be very telling about your business’s customer service philosophy. That’s why it’s so important to be responsive to your customers' and clients’ updates, especially if they mention you. For positive or neutral posts, feel free to respond and/or share as appropriate. If a client or customer posts something negative, try to mitigate the situation by inquiring for more information, or by deferring the complaint offline to your customer service department. But always post a public response so others see you take care of your customers! For example: “Thanks for letting us know. Lisa from our service department will be in touch today.”

Question: Have you tried any of the above Social Media formulas? What’s worked best for YOU? Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite Social Media strategies.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete text with it:

“Marketing mentor Christine Hueber teaches entrepreneurs around the world how to create and manage profitable marketing that gets them more clients. Get her FREE report “Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Marketing Secrets for Entrepreneurs” at www.ChristineHueber.com”

Ask Christine: “Which Social Media Site Is Best?”

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Question: “Hi Christine, there are so many Social Media sites out there … it’s overwhelming! How do I choose which Social Media site is best for me to be on? Thanks!”

–Michael Wirtz, Baltimore, Md.

Christine’s Answer: “Hi Michael, thanks for writing in to ask a great question! Volumes could be written about how to choose the best Social Media site to be on (and most likely have!), so I’ll cover the highlights for you here. If you want personalized guidance about your situation, please click here to contact me.

Simply put, the best Social Media site for you to be on is the one that helps you accomplish your goals.

What does that mean?

It means, for example, if you’re a business owner/entrepreneur and your market and audience are men who are interested in technology, you want to be sure to be on Google+.

On the other hand, if your audience is women … you want to be sure to be on FaceBook and Pinterest.

The goal is to be where your audience is most receptive to what you share. And each site has its own language, which another volume in itself!

To give you further examples, if you’re an employee looking to network within your industry or find your dream job, LinkedIn is absolutely where you want to be … also if you’re a business owner looking to interact with a local and global professional audience.

And if you’re a local or global business, you’ll want to be on Twitter as well.

Now, there are also strategies to make the most of your Social Media efforts … and if you want to know more I can help you with that (click here to contact me).

For all businesses, consider being on Yelp and Foursquare, depending on who your audience is.

And finally, be on YouTube to build your personal and business brand.

Again, these are a few of the sites you’ll want to consider, depending on who your best audience is and how much effort you want to invest in your Social Media results.

Have fun and keep me posted on your progress!”

To your success,

Have a question for Christine?

Send her your question about marketing and success now via this form.

Why Fans Share and How Your Brand Can Capitalize On It

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At fMC 2012, Facebook’s first conference for marketers, Facebook global head of brand design Paul Adams presented one of the most important talks of the entire event. In the session, “What People Share and Why,” Adams suggested that people are not necessarily predisposed to this behavior. “If you look at likes, comments and shares, there are a lot more likes and comments,” Adams said. “This is because sharing isn’t natural. Talking is much more natural and brands should focus on talking: why we talk, how we talk, who we talk to, and what we talk about.”

Adams then outlined four main reasons why people share. They are: to make life easier, to build relationships, to help others, and to craft our identity. Below are examples of how brands use each of these to increase the sharing of their content, as well as metrics for how to accurately determine what share methods work best.

Create Content That Makes People’s Lives Easier

Brands need to understand why people talk. By doing so, it is much easier to create vibrant communities and conversations. The first reason people talk is to make life easier. For brands, that means creating content that makes something easier for their fans.

Rite Aid is one brand that has taken this to heart, knowing that it can provide its customers with a number of helpful hints for every day life. In the example below, Rite Aid offers helpful household hints, with items that can be purchased at Rite Aid, no less. Who would think to use WD-40 to remove crayons from a computer screen?

Build Relationships With Fans

Think about how you develop a friendship with someone. In most cases, you won’t become best friends with someone you have just met. Instead, the friendship forms over a number of short interactions. This is the same for person-to-person interactions as well as brand-to-person interactions. A single interaction with a brand is normally not enough to create a brand evangelist. Instead, that relationship is built over a number of short interactions. The image below shows the median number of words for posts and comments made by users on Facebook. The key takeaway from this chart is just how small these numbers are.

But using the strategy of several short interactions doesn’t just work for Facebook. In the example below, gaming website IGN shared a simple image on Google+ with four words of text in the subject of the post and just eight words of text in the image. The result of this lightweight interaction: nearly 3,500 +1s, and perhaps more impressively, more than 1,100 shares.

Provide Help to Other People

There are a number of ways in which brands can offer help and assistance to fans, which will in turn create positive experiences that lead to a trusting relationship. One option is to provide customer service help to fans when they ask questions, encounter problems, or vent frustrations concerning your brand. It can be as simple as answering a question, or as deep as providing a detailed solution to a problem. In the example below, JetBlue uses its Twitter account to respond to a number of customer service issues that may arise while passengers are interacting with the airline. But it’s not just issues that the company addresses on Twitter. There are also responses to positive experiences and wishes for a nice trip.

Craft an Identity

People talk and share to craft their own identity. We all want to seem smart, funny, cool or in-the-know. By posting content that projects the desired identity, brands can shape views of themselves while also garnering important feedback on how users perceive them. At the end of the day, people are just as much sharing a person or brand’s social presence as they are sharing content.

Benchmark Sharing Success

How do you know which of the above strategies is getting people talking and sharing? The first step is to create benchmarks and then measure them. There are a number of different metrics that you can use for benchmarking success. With respect to sharing, here are the most important strategies and indicators:

1. Post Type: Look at metrics by post type (photo, video, text, poll, question, etc.) to determine what is working for your brand, and adjust as necessary. Think about what your friends often share, and what content would get you to share to your own social networks. Use this knowledge to guide your own brand posting strategy.

2. Call to Action: In addition to creating the content, tell your fans what you want them to do. Sure, compelling content can attract eyeballs, and may be enough to get people to share. But to reinforce the point, tell people to share or retweet your content out to their own social networks.

3. Character Count: As I mentioned earlier, short is sweet. Experiment with different post lengths to determine what gets people talking the most. Remember, trust is built on a series of many lightweight interactions.

4. Time of Day: Every brand’s fan base will engage with posts at a different time of day (or night), so look at your own content to see when your fans are most engaged. If there is a particular time that does not see much traffic, forgo it for a time when more of your fans and followers are online and engaged.

From: http://mashable.com

Hachi Combines LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Google Into One, Lets You Search All Your Connections At Once

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OK, this is cool. A new networking utility called Hachi is taking some of the best functionality offered by LinkedIn (searching by name, company, title, etc. and seeing how you’re connected to other users), and is merging that with your social graphs from other services like Facebook, and soon Google contacts, Twitter and even your Outlook address book. That way, you can see who you know where – meaning, the actual path of connections between you and another person – even if you’re not connected on LinkedIn.

Um, totally bookmarking this.

Also cool: unlike LinkedIn, the service isn’t limited to 2nd or 3rd degree connections – it can go deeper than that. And it can offer cross-network paths to get you from point A to point B. For example, it can show you how you’re connected to PersonA via LinkedIn, who knows PersonB on Facebook, who’s connected to PersonC via Twitter (Twitter integration goes live next week).

And, in the case of multiple paths, it can compute the smartest path to get there via something called the “Path Score.” Hachi founder Rachna Singh says the Path Score is calculated on the basis of how well one person in the path knows the other one he or she is connected to. In the initial version, Hachi looks at factors like similar company, school and common friends. Later this month, more real-world and behavioral factors will be added to the algorithm, she says.

Using Hachi is pretty easy. You create an account, connect your networks, then kick off a search. The search box defaults to searching by name, but links below let you search by company, title, industry, location, or school/education. When there are multiple results, such as for company searches, they’re ranked in order by smartest/quickest path on down.

While networking is an obvious must in startup world, especially for entrepreneurs hoping for intros to investors, the need to know who you know and how you know them is something everyone who works for a living wants. In fact, LinkedIn’s primary value today still comes in a large part from its ability to build out your graph of professional connections and then arrange for introductions via friends and colleagues. But not everyone is on LinkedIn, of course. (Just ask BranchOut about that).

These days, many of us are building our network or networks elsewhere, like on Facebook and Twitter, for example. Plus, the line between our “professional” lives and “personal” lives has blurred to where it no longer makes sense to only think about maximizing our business-only connections to reach out to people we want to meet.

Although still in private alpha (and a little less polished than this), Singh tells us that the private beta will launch in mid-May, but she’s opening up access to the first 200 TechCrunch readers who email [email protected] today with the subject line “techcrunch.”

Singh also says that following Twitter integration, support for Google contacts will roll out later this month, and the mobile version will arrive next week. The service is currently being bootstrapped, but Singh has already completed the first pilot with an enterprise customer.

“We didn’t intend to go enterprise – but there was a lot of interest,” she says. “We’re in talks with a couple of other enterprises as well, who’ve approached us.” She has also been turning down investors and seed funds while building up Hachi to something she felt was “demonstrably kickass” (and yep, it is), but now she’s talking about raising a seed round.

Something else to note – Singh is a non-technical founder who has somehow managed to build this thing with a small team (“myself and a few interns,” she says), which she admits has been incredibly challenging. So how does that work?

“Understand (invest that time) into how the problem is to be solved technically, rope in 1-2 people in your team, break the problem into small chunks, and focus” says Singh, “things are much solvable then.”

Read whole story: http://techcrunch.com

“Social Moms” Like Brands on FaceBook

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Maybe it’s no surprise that moms are an especially networked bunch online. After all, it’s hard to find a closer-knit group in the physical world.

But the extent to which mothers engage in social networks such as Facebook–not just with each other but with brands–is striking. That’s apparent from the results of a new survey of 2,998 people (half of them women) by Performics, the performance marketing agency owned by ad giant Publicis Groupe.

Moms surveyed were more likely to own a smartphone and a tablet than other women, and 56% of them consider themselves proficient at social networking. Facebook and other social networks are so much a part of their everyday lives that 38% want even more frequent communications with brands on Facebook–ideally two-way. “Over half of moms feel they can impact brands’ business decisions,” says Performics Global CEO Daina Middleton.

As the chart below shows, moms are more likely to be active on social sites. And while they remain (properly) somewhat skeptical of what brands have to say, mothers trust information they receive on social sites from brands (42%) much more than other women (24%).

Mothers are also significantly more likely to recommend, discuss, and link to brands on Facebook, as well as post a brand’s ad or relevant content about the brand. Not least, some 42% of moms have bought something thanks to a social recommendation, and 44% purchase more from companies they like, and are doing that more than they used to.

As for the rest of those people surveyed, including men, brands and social networks have more work to do before they can reliably influence behavior. Overall, more than half still haven’t used social networks to do any of the following: make a purchase after seeing a social recommendation, attend an offline event they heard about on a social network, switch or boycott a company, or try to rally friends to do something.

Read the whole story: http://www.forbes.com

The Forgotten Social Network: Linkedin

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Lost in the clamor around Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and other social media darlings is the fact that there’s a social network not called Facebook or Twitter that’s huge and profitable: LinkedIn.

The professional social network is often overlooked. Let’s face it: LinkedIn isn’t sexy. It’s pretty much a modern-day Rolodex of professional contacts that’s more often used for job hunting than socializing. Pretty boring. But it’s also something else: a place to target high-level executives who have buying power.

“LinkedIn is often a better choice for business communications, especially in the B2B world, because that audience is there with the intent of communicating about or around business,” said Jason Falls, CEO of Social Media Explorer. “Think about it, you don’t snap a picture of your kids and think, ‘I should post this on LinkedIn.’ It’s built for different reasons.”

LinkedIn’s marketing solutions revenue was $49.5 million in 2011, increasing 77 percent compared to the prior year. The company’s total revenue advanced 105 percent year on year to $167.7 million. For the full year 2011, revenue was $522 million, up 115 percent. LinkedIn has 150 million members globally.

“Members come to LinkedIn to connect with and expand their professional network and to gain insights and expertise that make them more productive and successful,” said Alison Engel, global marketing director, marketing solutions at LinkedIn. “Accessing content and receiving relevant updates from companies they follow is a key part of our members’ experience.”

LinkedIn has targeted ad options — advertisers can run campaigns for people with certain job titles in specific industries — but also wants companies to set up shop there. The pitch: Reach top-level executive who have buying power. Brands establishing thought leadership by answering questions or managing a LinkedIn group or simply conducting personal letter-writing campaigns using InMail with prospects. LinkedIn has better analytics for B2B marketers than Facebook and Twitter. Brands can create hyper-focused follower lists — based on several targeting criteria, including industry, seniority, job function, company size, non-company employees, and geography — to which they can deliver relevant content to increase engagement. In addition, LinkedIn offers marketers an insights dashboard that helps assess their follower acquisition efforts: track over time engagement metrics, including likes, shares, comments and percentage engagement, and review their followers’ demographic information.

Take IBM, for example. The company — which often targets upper-level IT management professionals — has almost 630,000 followers on LinkedIn. That’s six times its base on Facebook. The company has created several groups on LinkedIn, a means of maximizing reach beyond the network of people following the brand on LinkedIn. Within these groups — one of which is IBM Careers — users can start dialogues with one another, share news, post jobs and create subgroups. The IBM Careers group lists jobs, a video, provides insightful statistics about IBM employees and helps people learn more about working at IBM. IBM uses relevant links with anchor text on its profile, most likely for SEO purposes. Also, the company has a really detailed description that includes a summary, specialties and such. This is obviously a way to educate business professionals and, again, is a good way to impact SEO. IBM’s products and services tab includes IBM Training, Global Business Services and IBM Software. The various services have been commented on by other LinkedIn users, giving their feedback on particular offers from IBM.

“IBM has a strategy of enabling, empowering and equipping IBMers to engage
on social, digital platforms as a means of building their professional reputations, deepening relationships with clients and exploring innovative ideas,” said Ethan McCarty, global, digital, and social strategy, IBM. Seeing as this is the case, it’s no coincidence that IBM has the largest number of followers on LinkedIn of any company in the world.”

LinkedIn members appear motivated to follow companies on LinkedIn in contrast to other social platforms. In fact, half (47 percent) of current followers agree that LinkedIn is a more appropriate social environment for hearing company news and updates. In a study of over 5,000 marketers where HubSpot pitted LinkedIn against Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn proved to be the most effective social media channel for lead generation — 277 percent more effective, in fact.

“I’m a social media guy — predicated to talk about Facebook and Twitter all the time — and I still count LinkedIn as the most valuable social network I’m a part of because it drives business to my company more effectively,” Falls said.

Read the whole story: http://www.digiday.com

Best Ways to Engage Your Customers on Facebook

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Selling shovels to miners was a very profitable business in the gold rush days. Selling data to Facebook Page owners might be today’s equivalent. You can buy ads on Facebook, just like you can on Google’s pay-per-click advertising network. You can do friend and fan campaigns.

But what creates true engagement on Facebook? What can help you extract the meaningful data that helps you do a better job than your competitors?

Most of us think we know the answer, but a recent study and new analytics platforms are giving small business marketers the deeper insights that help them create stronger relationships. Here are some data points from a recent survey by Roost, a social marketing platform that evaluated more than 10,000 Facebook and Twitter posts by small businesses from over 50 industries.

Not All Posts Are Created Equal

Beyond the standard Likes, Comments, Shares and Retweets, this survey determines which posts yield the highest levels of interaction amongst local business fans and followers. As a semi-related aside, some marketers have decided it is better to buy followers or fans with ad campaigns. If you’ve contemplated that, read this 2011 Wall Street Journal post that shows ad blindness is on the rise (which means click-throughs are decreasing).

Photos Rule on Facebook

The two greatest engagement tactics on Facebook are Likes and Comments, with Likes leading the charge. Roost finds that the best way to achieve Likes is through photo posts, quotes and status updates, with photos providing 50 percent more impressions on average than any other post type, and quotes providing 22 percent more interactions when compared to all post types.

Asking Questions Increases Engagement

Findings also show that questions generate almost twice as many comments as any other post type. The second most popular way to get fans commenting is through a compelling business status update. Facebook Shares are a great way to disseminate business and product messages across fans’ networks, and links are 87 percent more likely to be shared than any other post type.

Roost also evaluated Twitter usage and found that quotes drive 54 percent more retweets than any other type of tweet, with status updates being the second highest driver of engagement. So if you’re more active on Twitter, start sharing more quotes. In addition, a different study from Optify showed how the use of Auto-DM (direct messages) on Twitter decreased follower rates by 245 percent. (Read Optify’s blog post titled Auto DM Use Led to 245% Increase in Unfollow Rate.)

The Roost study essentially allows a small business to figure out which type of post drives engagement. As on many social network sites, visual options such as a photograph or video will spark more interest in the Facebook community. Selling shovels is definitely profitable, but most small business owners would rather be standing on the gold mine along with their customers.

Read the whole story: http://smallbiztrends.com

ChristineHueber.com Marketing

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Best Ways to Engage Your Customers on Facebook