6 Steps to Social Marketing Success with LinkedIn

1. Social Networking

Few contact databases search and obtain results without social interaction. LinkedIn gives your business the tools to deepen current relationships and learn about new ones, including business opportunities.

LinkedIn is continually keeping you aware of changes in your connections and alerts you to new links being made. These indicators often signal opportunities to congratulate colleagues, help them find new strategic positions, or learn about new connections.

This constant flow of social information is helping you to actively manage and expand your potential social marketing audience. Important components in a LinkedIn marketing strategy.

2.Contact Management

LinkedIn is centered on the theory of social networks. These relationships start with a core database of contacts and can quickly evolve into a powerful LinkedIn marketing strategy. The secret is activating that initial base of relationships.

LinkedIn allows you to quickly import nearly any digital address book and match that with existing LinkedIn members. This immediately starts your engagement campaign. You can use LinkedIn to manage your contacts, routinely communicate, and trigger opportunities.

Share news on events you are holding or attending and share with your connections. Utilise events to engage clients. Invitations can also be sent to your LinkedIn network, which will give you an opportunity to meet face to face if they decide to attend.

3. Opportunity Research and Indexing

Opportunities are really the main aim of LinkedIn. It is designed to facilitate opportunity research. LinkedIn gives you easy tools to search and segment not only your network, groups but also the community at-large.

Peering into specific industries, companies, and niches is as simple as an advanced search.

LinkedIn also allows you to make your own profile information available for search engines to index. LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, providing a very effective way to influence what people see when they search for you.

4. Social Marketing

Building connections in LinkedIn is about constructing a premium audience for your business marketing. Your profile and activities with LinkedIn are immediately available for all LinkedIn users to see and have the potential to attract enquiries and buyers to your business.

Some clever strategies to fully leverage your marketing with LinkedIn:

• Responding to LinkedIn Questions, as well as posting your own
• Visiting targeted profiles with privacy settings off, it is like leaving your business card behind
• Request connections and referrals from your existing network
• Always reply to an invitation to connect and offer to help in anyway you can. Or why not offer to meet face to face
• Use Groups to connect with people, professionals really enjoy networking and it’s a good way to share your expertise and learn best practice

5. Lead Management

Every connection in your LinkedIn network is a potential lead. Actively managing them becomes much simpler with a tool like LinkedIn. Connections themselves are opting in, updating their contact information, and guiding you, with their activity, to what really motivates them to action.

Watching your LinkedIn dashboard is like being a fly on the wall as your network of opportunities work to find answers and solutions to their challenges. Think of it more as an opportunity dashboard. This concept allows for you to wait for the perfect opportunity to gain new business and this is your social marketing strategy in action.

6. Lead Nurturing

Not every connection or contact is ready to buy. That is why LinkedIn is so important to your social marketing strategy.
Traditional internet marketing can eat into your budget very quickly through regular activities promoting your latest offers and incentives. LinkedIn allows you to keep in constant contact with everyone in a steady lead nurturing campaign, trickling your social marketing presence, and then alerts you to researching or buying behaviours.

How is LinkedIn working for you and your business? Share your sucess and comments here.

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Top PR & Social Media Trends for 2013

Here are 6 big trends set to shape PR, marketing and brand communications in the year ahead.

1. Personalisation

If there’s one keyword for communications in 2013, it’s personalisation. This is not just about customisable product options or dialogue-driven social media streams but real one-to-one communications thanks to the mass generation of sophisticated measurable data that is now available.

What does this mean? that communications can offer relevant content delivered to the right target audience, increasingly in real time. It’s about being more precise with messaging off the back of greater understanding of who your consumers are, what they’re looking at, where they’re going and ultimately what they want.

A recent study by Accenture states that; 61% of shoppers say they’d swap privacy for personalisation, and this is the year to jump on that. Add other words like “mobile” and “context” and it’s a trend that feeds through all of the rest of this 2013 list too.

Burberry is an example of a brand already experimenting with personalisation. It sent personalised invitations to consumers for them to watch its spring/summer 2013 show, then embedded a panel of their Facebook friends alongside the live stream to encourage further sharing. Expect more of this to follow, but with greater focus on automation, behaviour triggers and ever-increasing real-time relevancy.

 

2. Social sophistication

In 2013 consumer engagement via the social space is likely to be more sophistacted than ever before.  The rise of sites like Pinterest and Instagram over the past year, not to mention Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have all heavily impacted every industry. There are still some who are lagging behind, but there is no doubt those who are not engaging within the social space by the end of 2013 will be missing out.

It is expected that this will be the year that social media is met with greater consideration from the boardroom (if it’s not already), alongside the more experimental approach that’s often taken. That’s not to say spontaneity will be by any means irrelevant, but that content strategy will be fine-tuned across the platforms that actually achieve results.

For some that might mean streamlining social presence, for others it will be about treating each platform more distinctly. This will not only maximise scale but enable meaningful brand KPIs (key performance indicators). Either way, integration will be the keyword in this space as social gets increasingly weaved throughout the user experience, across web, email and mobile channels, as well as in-store. The result will see more effective campaigns with higher engagement and longer-term consumer loyalty.

3. Big data

Behind the increasing call for personalisation is of course the data that enables it. As insight and analysis becomes more cost-efficient, not to mention more sophisticated, companies are gaining deeper understanding of how their consumers engage across all touch points. No longer is the term “big data” just about volumes of numbers and statistics, but details that can actually be tied to individuals.

The amount of global digital information created and shared grew nine fold to nearly two zettabytes (that’s two trillion gigabytes) in the five years to 2011, according to market intelligence firm IDC. That figure is expected to be just shy of four zettabytes in 2013, and nearly eight zettabytes in 2015. 2013 looks set to be the year companies figure out what to actually do with the information, and accordingly place it more centrally in their communications strategies.

The focus therefore is on process and action, and due to newer technologies, on real-time responses too.

4. Real-time bidding

Data is also enabling greater audience targeting and automated (or programmatic) buying of online display ads. Known as real-time bidding (RTB). This is where ad impressions are bought and sold one at a time, based on the user and their browser, and within the time it takes to click on a page. The result creates an efficient and important way to create relevancy for consumers.

In other words, marketers such as Amazon and eBay (both big users of RTB already), are no longer just buying banners on specific sites but targeting consumers across the internet based on their profiles and behaviours. It’s about personalisation and scale again.

Backing from both media buyers and publishers (including Facebook with its new ad exchange, FBX), is leading to enormous growth. According to a report from eMarketer, RTB accounted for 13% of all US display advertising spend in 2013, more than triple that of 2010, and a 98% increase on 2011. Growth for

2013 is expected at 72.4%. By 2015, it will account for a quarter of the display market in the US. The inclusion of mobile and video in this space is also expected to significantly increase spend.

5. Pictures

The rise of infographics, photo sharing, and visual storytelling will push PR pros and their clients to deploy messages visually in order to compete in a crowded content market. All Things D reported that in August, smartphone users spent more time on Instagram than on Twitter for the first time since Instagram launched in 2010. This is indicative of a broader shift toward visual content in the digital space. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”; more important, it might also be worth your customer’s attention.

6. Reputation and Crisis Management

As everything social grows, crisis management and online reputation management are key areas of focus for business. The past year was riddled with examples of organisations/businesses with no clue on how to conduct themselves during a crisis situation. Reputation and crisis management is not new, but with brands adopting social media as a large part of their communication with customers and audiences, corporate mishaps that could once be hidden or buried on the back pages of newspapers, can now trend as hashtags on Twitter.

A lack of preparedness and a propensity to outsource scheduled, canned social media posts can land a business/organisation in very hot water. Handle your brand with care. People expect businesses/brands to have a handle on the temperature of topics affecting popular culture. If high profile events have caused distress or irreparable harm, people do not want to see brands ignorant or unaware of current affairs. Nor do people want to see brands trying to capitalize on vulnerable parties. Empathy and sensitivity are proving essential for smart brands going the distance these days.

What about you?

Are any of these trends among your communications plans for 2013? Is your current website, blog or online store able to be viewed on mobile platforms?
Have you secured your Instragram name and account? Do you have a crisis communications plan?

Have you got any examples of brands already promoting their brand or service in a personalised way?
Are you still ignoring Twitter and hope it will go away?
What trend intrigues you and how can you tap into that in 2013 that grows your business?
Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below.

Should you personalise your email marketing?

Personalising, PR and Marketing go hand in hand. But why use personalised email marketing?

There are many uses for personalised email marketing, such as newsletters, niche marketing, test marketing, end-to-end campaigns, promotions and announcements, up-sell and cross-sell and delivery of loyalty programmes.

Personalised email marketing is perfect for brand-building and increasing awareness. This marketing tool also contributes to your company’s corporate social responsibility profile, helping to lessen the impact of your marketing on the environment by cutting down on the amount of paper needed in your campaigns as you only print what you need based on the results of the campaign.

By perosnalising your emails you are building and retaining a potentially long lasting relationship with your customers. Personalising emails adds numerous benefits for your sales conversion rate. However there are a few principles to remember. I am forever receiving emails addressed to me with my name, but when I open the email it has nothing to do with my preferences, purchases or interests. So it is important to remember that just by including a name; doesn’t equal personalization.

Here are some tips to ensure your emails are personalised:

• Use personal information about your subscribers when they are willingly to give it to you.
• Ensure your emails contain relevant and creative content to each customer.
• Do not keep sending one sales pitch after the other, your subscribers are bound to ignore you after some time.

Here are some benefits of personalising emails:

• Increases conversion rates: Personalising is especially important in email marketing because it helps in building a long-standing relationship with your customers. When you greet your subscriber with an air of familiarity they become more comfortable in reading the information you sent them.
• Increases authenticity: Personalised email also gives you the benefit of being authentic and hence your email is not regarded as spam.  Personalization increases the chances of  your email landing in the prospect’s inbox and that it will get opened.
• Speed: Your personalised email marketing message is fast to deliver and can achieve instant results and feedback. This makes it ideal for test and niche marketing, where a campaign can be tested before scaling up.
• Full personalisation: Recipients receive a personalised message and from the answers they provide in a simple mini-survey, can be specific to their personal needs and interests.
• Tracking and measurement: The technology we use for these campaigns offer full track ability. This is one of the really powerful marketing tools available with personalised email marketing and allows the client to track and measure who is reading your marketing messages, when they read them and what interests them most.

Need more insights into how to personalise your emails for a better response rate? At 2Communicate that’s exactly what we can do for you.

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3 Changes To Expect From Linkedin’s New Look Personal Pages

Have you seen LinkedIn’s new look company pages? Well they’ve also thrown in a new look for personal pages too. Over the next couple of months everyone should have a new look profile. I was particularly eager to make the change so requested to be placed on the waiting list for the roll out and loving my new look!

So, what’s new?

Well, the changes aren’t massive – arguably the profile components are the same, however the new profile is more organised, and put together in a slicker and simpler visual layout putting greater focus and emphasis on content and connections – two elements that are the basis of Linkedin’s overall success.

However, one thing I noticed straight away and missing already is the elimination of a link to your Blog. For me, LinkedIn was a really effective way of driving traffic to my blog. This doesn’t stop you updating your status with blog posts though and driving traffic this way.

Here are 3 changes you will notice to your profile:

#1 Telling Your Professional Story

The new design will helps you make a much more powerful first impression – which in business, on or offline is incredibly important.

The layout allows you to showcase your skills, accomplishments and current projects you are working on, as well as added endorsements from your connections in areas they find you most competent.

Including current projects adds a valuable dimension to your otherwise static page; allowing connections to really see what it is you ‘do’ and how you do it. This is not only vital for potential recruitment opportunities; but for the ultimate in networking and showing off not just your company, but your own skills and creating new business opportunities.

#2 Discovering and Finding New People and Opportunities

The new profile provides members with a stunning visual depiction of the people and companies in their network.  Gone are the days of combing through your connections to see if you have anything in common with the prospects that you are trying to reach. The new profile shows far more rich and visual insights on not only the people, but the companies in your network.

This not only will increase engagement with those in your network; but these insights make it easier and simpler to discover people outside of your network, quickly establishing a common ground to make more meaningful and profitable connections.

Finding this ‘common ground’ is a fantastic first step in building not only personal contacts; but professional ones too – heading in the right direction of making long term connections with mutual interests.

#3 Engaging with Your Network

Finally; the new Linkedin Page has increased opportunity to engage with your community, with recent activity displayed at the top of your profile allowing you to stay current with what everyone (company or contact) has been sharing or doing.

Edit your news feed with exactly what you want to see, and tailor stories and updates to your specific interests.

The newly redesigned profile page gives you much more ways to customize and showcase your professional identity.  The new Linkedin Profile is overall very well designed in providing an improved social networking experience all round.

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• LinkedIn revamps profiles with personal branding in mind (zdnet.com)

Hootsuite or Tweetdeck

Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are regarded as two of the most popular social media management tools. My clients are constantly asking me which is the best one. I do have a favorite, but what works for one, doesn’t always work for another and I think you have to decide what you want your management tool to do for you.

Both offer excellent easy to use features, but in order to find out which might work best for you I thought it would be useful to identify the pro’s and cons of each management tool by going through some of their features.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a web-based application and a Social Media dashboard tool, which allows you to integrate various social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare and WordPress.

Hootsuite has over 300 million users, boasting several awards including “Best Twitter app”.

Hootsuite offers free versions where users can manage up to 5 profiles and it doesn’t limit you to one account per network. Hootsuite also has a free mobile app which is very easy to use.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is a Social Media dashboard tool, which allows you to integrate various  social networks. Tweetdeck is a software programme that you can download onto your desktop.

Tweetdeck is currently the most popular Twitter application. Tweetdeck also offers a free mobile app.

Cost

One of the benefits of social media is that’s its free, so bringing cost into the equation can often put many off. Social media management tools offer a helping hand in managing your accounts so if cost is the deciding factor over which one you choose its important to understand what cost is involved.

TweetDeck is completely free to use, whereas HootSuite offers both a free version and a paid pro version for just under £4.00 per month.  Both free versions offer almost identical benefits, whereas with HootSuite Pro the cost per month provides you with significantly more useful features including bulk scheduling, Google analytics and Facebook Insights.

Multiple Accounts  

Both TweetDeck and HootSuite will allow you to add multiple social media accounts so you can manage everything at once. TweetDeck combines all of your accounts into one window whereas HootSuite provides a tabbed interface with a tab for each account you add.

The special feature you will find with HootSuite is that you can also add multiple users because of it’s browser based interface, allowing you to create posts from multiple users and even allowing them to add a signature to each of their specific posts.  This is particularly beneficial if you are using social media as a customer service tool.

Scheduling

Having the ability to schedule update is a real advantage for anyone utilizing social media. It offers you the satisfaction that you are proviign your auidnece with regular updates and information, however you will not be answering any questions or comments.Scheduling is often one of the main reasons for people wanting to choose a social media management tool, and particularly something my clients often identify as something that would help them.

Both TweetDeck and HootSuite (free version) allow you to schedule posts in advance. HootSuite Pro (paidf version) allows you to bulk schedule updates using an imported CSV file (comma separated values). The bulk scheduler allows you to import 50 updates at once but is rather tricky to figure out how to use it.

Tip. Use the Ctrl+F/Replace function in Excel.

User Interface

User interface is one of the most important features for anyone when choosing a social media management tool. If you can’t use it and it’s not nice to look at, then you just won’t use it. Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are very easy to use platforms and both pleasing on the eye. Both take a bit of getting use too, but once you have familiarized yourself with the features you should be up and running in no time. TweetDeck allows you to see everything all in one window, but could prove a bit overwhelming. I personally think the interface could be better suited for personal use.

Hootsuite has a browser based interface downloadable for Mac, Smartphones and Tablets. Hootsuites Social media profiles are viewed in tabs, rather than all in one window, so you can. The tabbed interface might be more suited to a social media manager who is managing multiple accounts that would need them to be separated for organisational purposes.

Update Multiple Social Networks

Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to update your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles regardless of whether or not you are using the free or paid version.  However, HootSuite’s features allow you to update your Facebook Business and Brand Pages , Foursquare and WordPress.com accounts.

The verdict…..  

In my opinion,from a user ability perspective Tweetdeck is easier but the functionality offered by Hootsuite is better.

Having the ability to load Tweetdeck direct from your desktop is very appealing as is having everything all on one screen where you need it. However in my opinion Tweedeck is geared more towards personal use. If you are managing multiple accounts Tweetdeck just doesn’t seem to cut the mustard and offer that extra insight that I look for when managing my clients social media accounts and identifying their ROI.

Both versions of Hootsuite, have almost all the features that TweetDeck has. However Hootsuite offers some basic social analytics, to see the impact of your messages and Tweets and for me, this is a very powerful advantage when managing social media for business use. HootSuite Social Analytics provide you with a better view of your social spaces with  powerful analytics tools, more ways to measure, and customizable reports, all of which are designed to track campaign success and help you understand the return on your social media investment.

I don’t personally think one is better than the other and there are pros and cons for both, but I think depending on your preferences and needs one might be better than the other for you.

Do you use either of these apps and which do one do you use and why?

Sarah Michelle Willis 

Follow me on Twitter: @SarahMWillisPR 

 

 

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