How Entrepreneurs Can Use LinkedIn for Business

Are you dragging your feet on LinkedIn? Were you once active but haven't paid attention to it in a while? Are you wondering whether you should create a company profile and encourage your employees to have their profiles linked to it?

If you haven't paid attention to your LinkedIn profile for a while, here are some reasons* to do so now:

• 300 million people use LinkedIn
• There are 2 million new LinkedIn members per second
• There are 100 million U.S. LinkedIn users
• 40% of LinkedIn users check LinkedIn daily
• 41% of millionaires use LinkedIn
• Most LinkedIn users have between 500-999 connections
• Most LinkedIn users are members of 1-9 groups
• 41.5% successfully use LinkedIn to build new relationships with customers

LinkedIn is a social media platform that's used for more than just getting your next job. Entrepreneurial businesses use LinkedIn for the following reasons:

• Generate leads
• Identify potential customers
• Stay current on industry trends
• Build relationships
• Share expertise
• Increase visibility
• Recruit employees

Need a jump-start? Here are six things you need to do to re-engage and get active on LinkedIn:

1. Update Your Profile
2. Find Connections
3. Find Groups
4. Add Connections
5. Manage Your Connections
6. Optimize Your Account Settings

I have a full slide presentation that will walk you through the steps you need to follow to increase your reach on LinkedIn:

*Sources:
Digital Marketing Ramblings
MarketingProfs

6 Surprisingly Simple Tricks to Double Twitter Followers in 2 Months

Two months ago I decided to start using Twitter to get more people reading my blog. I found that marketing my blog posts on my Twitter account (@vginsburg) definitely increases readership, so I needed to figure out how to optimize my Twitter account to drive more readers to my blog. As with a lot of social media marketing, the first thing to do is to focus on a specific goal. 

I made a goal to get from about 230 followers to 500 as soon as possible. I know that doesn't make me a Twitter superstar, but it is more than doubling my followers in less than two months. Also, I have noticed that a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners hover around the 200 follower range and then give up on Twitter, so I wanted to write about this now, before I get to my next goal of 1,000.

I'm not a fan of digital marketing tricks like buying followers because I don't think they bring true value to my marketing mix. I want real people who actually care about what I'm writing about. So I committed to doing it myself, with no special tricks. The only tools I use are Hootsuite to schedule Tweets and, more recently, JustUnfollow to balance my followers/following ratio.

1. Follow people who Tweet. Twitter is a sharing platform, so unless you are a "Twitter Superstar" who can afford not to follow a lot of people, you need to find people who you want to follow. My suggestion is that you find people who are posting interesting Tweets that you want to retweet, as this will (ahem!) kill two birds with one stone. Also, as people start following you, you should follow them back ... but see No. 6 below for info about unfollowing, also. I add 5-10 new people per week, plus almost everyone who follows me.

2. Retweet other people's stuff. There are two reasons to retweet. First, it's a good way to be a part of the community. By sharing, you show that you aren't just there to toot your own horn, but you actually care about other people's stuff, too. Second, Tweets have a 15-20 second lifespan. That means that you need a lot of content to Tweet. For me, I use retweeting as a way to fill the gaps.

3. Use hashtags in your posts. Hashtags are a great way to participate in conversations. Use 1-3 hashtags in most of your posts to indicate the conversation to which your Tweet belongs. This will allow people who are browsing Twitter for information related to those conversations to find you and hopefully follow you.

4. Post multiple times per day, every day. Did you see the fact that Tweets have a 15-20 second lifespan? That  means that you need to Tweet a lot to get seen. I don't like blasting people - I see some people Tweeting every 5 seconds or so. Since I really don't like that approach, I schedule (using Hootsuite) 4 posts per day and then jump on Twitter 2-4 times per day to retweet. This means I get about 8 total posts per day, which is enough for me right now.

5. Use quotes to fill gaps. Just like retweeting other people's stuff, quotes are a way to make your Twitter feed not all about you. Also, people really like quotes on Twitter. Typically, one of my four daily scheduled posts is a quote, and I find that up to 50% of my retweets are quotes.

6. Unfollow people selectively. As you follow this strategy, you will end up following more people than you have followers. I like to keep a balance - there are some people who I follow for their tweets - including Inc., Entrepreneur and Harvard Business Review. They don't follow me back, but I still get value from their tweets. On the other hand, there are some people who I follow who I discover I either don't like their tweets or they never tweet. I unfollow these people to keep my total ratio of following/followed within a reasonable range. I downloaded an app called JustUnfollow to help me keep track of this.

Those are the six tricks I used to more than double my Twitter following in less than 2 months. Try them yourself and let me know how it works. Here's an idea: start by following me @vginsburg!

Powerful Brands Have Powerful Editors (Content Managers)

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners have cobbled together a few disparate people who write and develop marketing content for their brand.

Powerful brands have powerful editors. Assign one, highly-qualified person to oversee all of your marketing content (and there should be a lot) to make sure you have a consistent and authentic brand voice.

 

Your Content Manager should oversee all of the following aspects of content marketing: 

• You Website
• Your Blog
• Articles & White Papers
• Infographics
• Videos
• Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc.
• Public Relations - Press Releases & Media Outreach

This Content Manager should act as the strategic planner and the editor of all marketing content for your brand. He or she should be highly qualified as an excellent writer, editor, and manager. 

Weird Al Yankovic Knows Internet Marketing

Weird Al Yankovic pulled off a major feat in viral marketing when he released a video each day for eight straight days to launch his new album, "Mandatory Fun."

Here is a man who launched his career in the 70s and 80s and somehow broke through the clutter of the online marketplace to establish relevancy 40 years later. Businesses and brands everywhere can learn from Weird Al's success in Internet marketing.

Weird Al's parodies of Pharrell Williams "Happy," Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes" and Lorde's "Royals" hit the Internet with force, and prove that an old dog can learn new tricks and make the transition from MTV to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet of all Things. 

My personal favorite, as a grammar junkie, is Weird Al's parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," called "Word Crimes." 

3 Things Weird Al Yankovic Knows About Internet Marketing

1. Be Who You Are
Weird Al Yankovic didn't try to relaunch himself as someone different. In fact, he maintained many of the 80s fashions so familiar to those of us who were children when he first hit it big (the hair! the shirts!). Nor did he decide that what he really wanted to be was a "serious" singer and abandon his strength in parodies. Weird Al knows that his entire history is visible to us online, and a quick check of Wikipedia can tell us everything about him, from his hits and flops to his LASIK eye surgery. Instead of trying to change his image, he maximized his opportunity by reflecting his existing online profile rather than trying to reinvent it.

2. Stay Relevant
It might seem counter-intuitive to what I just wrote, but Weird Al did not get stuck in a time warp. On this album he does a great job of spreading his parodies across relevant songs and high-trending social topics. In doing so, he connected with a variety of people on the Internet. If he had only parodied current Billboard Top 5 songs, or chosen to only be the grammar police, he would have fallen flat. Instead, he offered variety of content that was relevant to a broad audience.



3. Get Professional Help
When we see a performer, it's common to attribute everything to the person on the stage (or in the video), but Weird Al Yankovic clearly knows how to get the right professional help. He might be the mastermind behind his parodies, but those videos weren't produced overnight. It took a team of producers, talent, writers, musicians and graphic artists to create the videos. And then, just as importantly, it took a team of digital marketers to create the marketing strategy and start the viral avalanche accompanying the release.

As someone who owned his first album, "'Weird Al' Yankovic in 3D," I already thought Weird Al was funny, but now that he has accomplished this latest feat, I'm deeply impressed with his business savvy as well. 

Social Media Marketing: 5 Tricks You Have to Know as a Small Business

Social Media Marketing Tricks for Small Business

Social media can be a critical part of your digital marketing strategy, but it can also be confusing, overwhelming, and, as a direct result, done poorly. Here are five tricks you should know as a small business owner about social media marketing. 

1. Every platform is different
The biggest mistake you can make is to approach social media as a single entity, as if Facebook is the same as LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+.

Instead, you need to get to know each of the unique settings of each social media platform.  Hang out there for a while to get a feel for what other people are doing. For example, LinkedIn is similar to a business networking event or presentation. It's OK to promote yourself and your business, as long as you do so eloquently and professionally. On the other hand, Facebook is more like a coffee shop. If you walk in there expecting to hand out business cards and make connections like you do at a networking event, you will fall on your face. Instead, you need to be more subtle. Regardless of what social networking platform you're learning, pay attention to what is encouraged by others, and how you gain positive attention within the community.

LinkedIn vs. Facebook marketing strategies

2. Consistency is key
Anyone can join 5-6 social media platforms in one day, then create amazing profiles and the perfect first post. Most people can keep up their enthusiasm for a week. But after that, most people drop off, unable to maintain the single most important thing in marketing: consistency.

Whatever platform you choose, make a commitment and show up consistently over time. Social media is frankly a big waste of time if you just float in and out, posting updated occasionally, but never making a true impact on the community.

3. Make a commitment
If you are running a small business, there is a good chance that you don't really have time to hang out on social media networks. You probably have real customers to worry about on a daily basis, and are struggling to keep them happy, while managing a staff and cashflow.

Social media marketing is like all other forms of marketing: it requires a commitment. If you decide that your prospects are hanging out on social media, then it is worth making a commitment to marketing your business on social media, but don't try to do it all yourself. Hire someone to help. If you are knowledgeable about social media and marketing, then you can hire an assistant and guide them on how to do the work. But if you don't know much yourself, then find an expert who can guide the way for you. 

4. Use photos, infographics, etc.
More and more, social media is about graphics. It wasn't always that way. Four years ago, Facebook and Twitter relied mainly on words and links. Now, they are heavily graphically-oriented. Newcomers like Pinterest and Instagram are almost entirely graphics-based. The fact is that if you want to be on social media, then you need to accompany most of your posts with photos, infographics, and other images that make your posts more interesting to readers. In the end, human beings are attracted to pictures, so make sure you use them! 

5. Share the love
Social media is set in a basic foundation: social. This means that basic human instincts such as sharing and communicating are maximized. Don't show up to the party as the bore who only wants to look in the mirror and talk about himself. If that's who you are, then it's frankly better not to show up on social media at all. Instead, take note of the human nature involved, and show your businesses' humanity in the process. Comment on real situations that you care about. Comment on other people's posts as much as (and more than) you post about yourself. Follow the golden rule, and you can't go wrong. 

Your Website's Health & Fitness Program

Last week I attended the Digital Growth Summit in Santa Monica, CA. We received updates on the many digital strategies that make up today's marketing toolbox.

Here is one basic concept related to your website:

The days of stagnant websites are totally over.

Moving forward, our web strategies must be living, breathing entities.

Here is an infographic on how to make sure your website gets found in the overflowing Internet:

Virginia Ginsburg is founder and chief consultant at Swell Strategies. She is passionate about supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and running successful enterprises. An avid reader, in this blog she reviews books and articles and relates specific learning points back to entrepreneurial businesses.