SONARconnects

Thoughts, ideas, comments and viewpoints about the world of Advertising, Marketing and Social Media.

Posts Tagged ‘Linkedin’

The Top 5 Mistakes on LinkedIn

Posted by Scott Dunn on November 1, 2009

I often write about things you should do on LinkedIn to maximize your effectiveness. Today we’re going to look at the other side of the equation…the mistakes. The five mistakes listed here are related to your ability to eventually monetize LinkedIn.

1. Not Having a Purpose or Not Understanding Why You Are On LinkedIn
Quite simply if you don’t know the answer to this question then how do you know what actions you should be taking on LinkedIn? There are numerous reasons to be on LinkedIn and you may have several. The actions you take should be done to support your purpose.

My ultimate goal is to grow my business (make money) so I focus on growing my networks and communicating my message as often as possible. Because I know my purpose, have determined what actions support this purpose, and implement my strategy on an ongoing basis, I have been successful in developing new business clients.

Action Steps:

  • Write down the top 3 reasons why you are on LinkedIn
  • Determine what actions will support each reason

2. Failure to Participate
There are 41 million people on LinkedIn and a large majority does not interact with others on a consistent basis. This is a direct result of mistake number one. Without understanding your purpose you can’t know which actions to take that will produce a positive outcome.

There are only so many hours in a day and people tend to repeat what works. Social media marketing rarely provides quick results. Most often success is built over time only after people get to know you, like you, and trust you. You have to have the patience to continue participating when you’re not seeing the results.

There are no guarantees that your efforts will produce results, but if you do not participate consistently, I guarantee that you will not find success.

I spent almost a year providing value and interacting before I started seeing results.Now I can count on several inquiries each week from potential client’s looking to engage my services.

Action Steps

  • Commit to taking action on a weekly basis
  • Schedule these activities
  • Post them next to your computer or in your electronic calendar

3. Presenting an Incomplete Picture
On LinkedIn people get to know you through being connected, belonging to common groups, the information your share, and your profile. People want to look at your profile and have a clear understanding of who you are and how you might be of service to them.

If you don’t provide enough information for them to know those two pieces they are unlikely to go looking for the information. You need to make sure you have a detailed profile. You need to include a professional photo. You need to have links to your websites, blogs, etc.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to get them to view your profile, you’ve accomplished the hardest part. It would seem a shame to lose them for simply failing to provide enough information.

Action Steps

  • Look at 20 profiles to see how others are presenting themselves
  • Spend an hour each month working on your profile
  • Personalize your profile–add keywords, personalize your public URL, and Change your Web URL’s to the name (go to edit and choose “Other”)
  • Look at the LinkedIn application to see which make sense to add

4. Not Sharing Information or Providing Value
Mistake number three is about people getting to know you. Number four is all about getting people to like you. It’s a simple fact: If you provide value to others without asking for something in return people will start to like you.

The quickest way to generate goodwill on LinkedIn is to provide value to others.Directly this might be responding to a connection or introduction request. You can also build goodwill by providing thoughtful responses to questions in Answers and in group discussion posts. Another great way to provide value to others is through writing recommendations for those who have provide great service or assistance to you.

Everything you do on LinkedIn either adds to or subtracts from your online brand so make sure you put some thought into what you say. Participate consistently and you’ll notice that your profile visits increase and people will start interacting with you.

Action steps

  • Find at least two connections to introduce each week.
  • Answer at least three questions each week
  • Identify connections that deserve a recommendation and write it. Try to find at least 15 people to recommend. Make sure these are 15 people that deserve it.If you can’t find 15 now, build this up over time
  • Failure to Build Credibility

By addressing the previous four mistakes you will have reached a point where people know and like you. You may have even started to build some credibility. There are six ways that I document to build your credibility. These include:

A. Your Profile: first impressions count.

B. Answers: In number four we addresses answers from the perspective of providing value. This is also a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. Whenever you answer a question it is available for anyone on LinkedIn to view. Your Direct connections are also notified that you answered a question on their Home page.

C. Recommendations: Nothing beats having another sing your praises. I have found that my client recommendations have been a huge part of building my online brand.

D. Your connections: Who you are connected to can have an impact. When I seek to connect to others I will often reference a common connection in the invitation.

E. Your Groups: With groups you have something in common with fellow members. I reference common groups in invitation requests as well.

F. Providing Value: This will help others grow to like you but it also is very helpful in building your credibility.

Action Steps

a. Answer at least three questions each week in your field of expertise

b. Try to get 10 recommendations. You can request recommendations but only do so from people you know that you have provided great service or help to. If you don’t have 10, keep providing great service and you’ll get there. When you do, join The “Top Recommended People” group on LinkedIn.

c. Grow your connections based on your connection strategy

d. If you don’t belong to 50 groups find 50 that are relevant and join.

e. Seek out every opportunity to help others.

Wrap Up

There are many other LinkedIn mistakes I could mention including avoiding typos, having multiple accounts, etc. These 5 though are fundamental mistakes that will impact your ability to monetize LinkedIn.

I’m a firm believer that the true value in LinkedIn as a vehicle to add to your bottom line. You may have joined to network, to find a job, or to advance your career…all are great reasons… and all that at the end of the day are about monetization.

It’s OK to be on LinkedIn to make more money. It’s what will keep you coming back and participating, which in the end helps every other person on LinkedIn.

Sean Nelson

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments »

Do you know the language of social media?

Posted by Scott Dunn on September 19, 2009

I speak one language. I did learn a few word of Latin in my freshman year of college. And growing up in New Orleans and spending time in Lafayette, La I learned a few choice words in Cajun French. But for the record I claim just the one.

I don’t know a single shortened word of Text (as in to txt). No desire to learn the first. But Twitter is simple enough that even I can figure it out. For those of you still working on speaking the native language of Twitinese, I offer this basic primer course.

Tweet
A tweet is simply a statement, message, or string of words composed of a 140 or less characters. It’s a slightly elongated headline, but like a headline, the more interesting the tweet the more likely someone will react and take action with it.

@username
This is your handle on LinkedIn. I’m old enough to remember when CB radio’s were the hot thing (Think Smokey and the Bandit) and every trucker and some other interesting people had creative handles. “That’s a big 10-4 Big Momma, I’ll catch you on the flip flop”. CB’s were the Texting of the 70’s.

Want to send a tweet to someone use their handle. Respond to a tweet and it adds the @ of the person you are replying to.

Unfortunately there’s a downside too. @’s done solely for the purpose of getting your marketing message are @ssinine. There enough to make me unfollow someone. If your message can’t gain traction in a regular tweet what makes anyone think it will do better by adding my @seanenelson.

Direct Message or DM
A good idea, that isn’t much use if you have a couple of hundred followers. When I first started on Twitter I tried to look at and reply to direct messages. Now the only time I do is when I’m waiting for an oil change and have nothing better to do with my iPhone.

Automated replies when you follow someone pretty much killed DM. If you want to send someone a message you’ll have better luck putting a message in a bottle than sending a DM on Twitter.

I speak one language. I did learn a few words of Latin in my freshman year of college. And growing up in New Orleans and spending time in Lafayette, La I learned a few choice words in Cajun French. But for the record I claim just the one.

I don’t know a single shortened word of Text (as in to txt). No desire to learn the first. But Twitter is simple enough that even I can figure it out. For those of you still working on speaking the native language of Twittinese, I offer this basic primer course.

Favorite
This is Twitter’s bookmark function. If you want to save a tweet to reference at a later time simply highlight the tweet and click on the star to the right. Now you can reference a past tweet. It’s also a great way to quickly find a profile.

Retweet or RT
Gold. Money. Bullseye. Retweets are one of my favorite parts of Twitter. When I write a new blog post I can somewhat judge it’s effectiveness by the number of Retweets. This is a great way to share information and recognize someone for putting good tweets out there. The viral nature of Twitter rewards interesting tweeters

Hashtag (#)
This is the Dewey Decimal system on LinkedIn. When you tweet there isn’t a category that you assign to your tweet. So if you want your tweets to be viewable based on specific searches use a hashtag.

I try to keep up with tweets about LinkedIn. At least once a day I search the term LinkedIn. I also add the #LinkedIn hashtag when I release a new LinkedIn related blog post.

TweetUp
An excuse to hit the bar on the way home from work. A TweetUp is simply a meeting of folks that see an announcement and show up at the designated location to network and share a beer .

Tiny URL
This is simply a service that allows you to shorten a URL so that you have more characters to convey your message. I’ve seen URL’s out there that wouldn’t fit on Twitter without a trim. There are several different services that will create these shortened URL’s.

Spam
The universal word for garbage. It means the same thing here as elsewhere. Another good definition of spam is “an ineffective marketing message that actually decreases your brand value and results in being unfollowed”.

That’s the basics. Learning to speak Twitinese is easier than learning Pig Latin. Now that you can speak the language fluently get busy building your community, communicating your message, and interacting in 140 characters or less.

I’m sure I’ve missed a word or two so feel free to share.

If you need help learning another language such as LinkedIn”dia”, Facebook”en”, YouTube”ish”, Flickr”oan”, and Blog”istan” call me at (404) 663-3997 or visit the SONARconnects site for more info on how we help our clients become fluent in social media/networking.

Sean Nelson

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Social Media & Advertising. Second Life, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter what is Social Media? (1 of 5)

Posted by Scott Dunn on January 21, 2008

Let’s face it.  If you have not been living under a rock for the last 3 to 4 years, you are familiar with the term “Social Media”.  What comes to mind when you think of the term?  A bunch of 20-something year olds sitting in front of their computers text messaging each other?  If so, you are really not that far off.  Social Media as defined by Wikipedia is ” Participatory online media where news, photo, videos, and podcasts are made public via social media websites through submission.”

Knowing these forms of media and understanding how to best use them to promote you and your business is in my opinion the biggest question we struggle with.  That is, how to use the power of these groups of people to promote your products and services.  Or better yet, are these even viable medias to promote your business in and do people care?

My answer to the above is simple:  YES.  Yes, social networking is a new way to reach your target market and yes, people do care what you have to sell.  So, if we accept that Social Media is here to stay…how can you the business owner use it to your advantage?  Easy.  By trying all social media outlets and figuring out which ones work best for your business.  In other words, you must take some form of action with each media and implement a strategy for your business.  You must first decide which social media outlets cater to your target market.

In my next posts, I will be covering Second Life (what is an Avatar?), Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.  All social media networks that YOU have the ability to use to promote your business.   Some our all may reach your target market so lets figure out ways to use them.  If you have questions about these medias, or would like help in getting your business in a social media please feel free to contact me directly.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 32 other followers

%d bloggers like this: