Tag Archive for linkedin

30 Apr 2012
blogging • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • social networking • twitter

What to say on social media

Help – what do I say on social media?

This is a “frequently asked question” in my experience, and it seems that many business owners wonder what to say on social media.  They are worried about saying the wrong thing,  and/or they simply can’t think of enough different things, or indeed anything at all, to say to make social media activity worthwhile.  A common misconception is that people only use social media to post about what they had for breakfast…

It’s not unusual for people to feel that they aren’t interesting, or they don’t want to sound like they’re bragging, and they know it’s not about what you had for breakfast……so their perception is that they don’t have anything useful to share on social media.

Newsflash…

…you don’t have to post about yourself or your business most of the time!  Here’s the thing:  there’s absolutely no need to continually produce original content to post on social media, in fact it’s far better not to.  Sharing other people’s content is far more valuable and will go a long way towards building your social communities and generating interaction and engagement. A good rule of thumb would be to make at least 80% of your social media updates not directly related to your own business or products.  However you can – and should – post links to your own blog articles whenever you produce them.  If you don’t already have a blog for your business,  you might want to read this article I wrote last year.

Ways to find shareable content

If you’ve just set up your social media accounts –  we’ll assume you’ve chosen Facebook and Twitter to start with – I’d recommend not posting anything for the first week or two.  Instead, just watch and learn from others.  Run a few searches to find other businesses in your niche, follow them,  then keep an eye on the type of things they post.  Do you find any of it interesting?  Chances are that you will – you might click a few links and find yet more useful information.  Would your colleagues also find it interesting?  Go ahead and share (on Facebook) or retweet (on Twitter).  Congratulations,  you’re learning what social media is all about!

To make sharing easier,  try setting up a few lists in Twitter and in Facebook.  This allows you to curate content from like-minded people or those in the same field of business as yourself,  without having to trawl through updates from all of your followers.  You can then simply visit your lists daily and quickly find anything of interest that you feel is worth sharing.

From my own viewpoint, I’d be lost without Google Reader.  It has been a real goldmine of information for me and I spend time every day going through my list of blogs and sharing links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.  (I don’t share every link to all networks, I am selective about it).  Take a look at my previous article on Google Reader to learn more – I highly recommend you set up an account if you’ve not already done so – it’s free :)

Interact with others

Once you’re feeling comfortable on your chosen social networks and are starting to build a community, you will want to start giving back to others, perhaps by recommending them.  If you see a request for help and you know someone who offers that particular service,  all you have to do is reply and tag / @mention your contact and guess what, everyone benefits and you might well gain a new follower and/or potential customer.  And it goes without saying that if anyone recommends you, you should respond quickly and thank them.  This is one reason why you do need to visit your social media accounts regularly, to check for messages and mentions so that you aren’t leaving someone waiting and wondering why they’ve not had a response to their question.

And finally…..

The burning question – YES!  It is OK to mention yourself, your products and services occasionally.  But try to keep the self-promotion as subtle as possible.  For example, I might post something like “Need help using social media for your business?” with a link to my website.

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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Naomi | 2 comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
01 Apr 2012
business growth • linkedin • relationship marketing • small business • social media • social networking • twitter

Networking – are you well connected?

Don’t be shy!

In my business it’s important to be an active networker, both on and offline.  I meet a lot of people at networking events, collect business cards, and browse scores of websites and social media profiles. I’m often surprised at how “disconnected” many business people seem to be.

Connections

 

Look, if someone had told me a couple of years ago that in 2012 I’d be a member of several networking groups, on the management team of one, and quite happy to chat with strangers about business matters on a regular basis, I’d have said they were barking!  But this is what has happened – I started networking seriously last summer and haven’t looked back –  I really enjoy it and have made many valuable contacts.

If you want to be easily found online and offline (and why wouldn’t you, if you’re in business?)  -  then you need to integrate your communication channels.  Here are a few tips to help with your networking.

Offline Connections

  • When you meet people at networking events, make a point of connecting with them on LinkedIn – always send a short personal message when you do this.
  • Connect on Twitter if the contact is active there (it’s very easy to recommend/refer on Twitter and is always appreciated).
  • Consider setting up a spreadsheet to keep track of your offline connections, and update it regularly.
  • Add your social network link URLs to adverts, business cards, brochures, posters, newsletters and any other literature you use to promote your business.

Online Connections

  • If you have social media accounts (please tell me you do?), make sure they’re updated regularly.  Having an account and never updating is worse than not having the account at all.
  • Although it’s good to cross-reference occasionally, please don’t duplicate the same content across all your networks.  Tweets sent to Facebook and LinkedIn are particularly disliked.
  • Automation tools have their place, but you still need to interact daily, in person, on all your networks. Your followers will soon realise if you’re never actually there.
  • Establish a routine & find your best times to update (monitor engagement at different times of day).
  • Make sure your profiles/bios are fully completed on all networks – give as much information as possible about your business, but do add a few personal touches too.
  • Brand your accounts – be consistent with your logo, colours, background images etc. as well as your “voice”.
  • Always include your social network links in email and forum signatures.

The takeaway message here is that you need to make yourself highly visible both off- and online.  Are you ready to step into the spotlight?

Need help getting found online? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
01 Mar 2012
blogging • business growth • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • twitter

Content Syndication with Social Media

What is content syndication, anyway?

 

keyboard

 

 

 

Let’s look at a couple of definitions:

The act of syndicating a news feature by publishing it in multiple newspapers etc simultaneously

Making information on a website available (preferably in digest form) for a wide range of uses, prime examples of which are RSS and Atom feeds. Syndication is a great way of making news updates, blog entries and podcasts immediately available to a Web audience.

Basically then, syndication is a way of sharing content across a number of platforms or publications simultaneously.  I’m sure you’ll agree that it would be beneficial to your business to be able to share your latest product news, forthcoming events etc with hundreds or even thousands of interested viewers.

How could this happen?  When you publish your blog post, or details of your event, you share it with various sites. These sites may then republish to other sites, and so the process becomes exponential.  From one piece of content you get multiple shares, therefore reaching a huge number of people.

Let’s say you have a business blog and you write a new post each week. Do you write, publish and walk away,  in the hope that visitors will mosey along to read it?  Sorry, but that just won’t happen!  You need to take a proactive approach and push that content out far and wide.

Get Started with Content Syndication

Here are 7 simple ways to get your content in front of more eyeballs than you ever thought possible……

  1.  If you haven’t already, set up a RSS (“really simple syndication”) feed for your blog.  WordPress blogs have RSS built in, and for additional benefits, use a service such as Feedburner.
  2.  Add a link to your latest blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.  Whether you also add them to your personal profiles on Facebook and Google+ is up to you (may not be appropriate for every post)
  3. Add Facebook Like & Share, Google +1, and Tweet buttons to all your posts,  newsletters, event listings and product pages.  If you’re using WordPress it’s simple to do this via plugins (there are scores that do this job, but that’s a topic for another post!)
  4. Use a service such as ping.fm to share your content to scores of online directories
  5. Share your updates to Facebook and LinkedIn groups that you’re a member of –  only if the content is appropriate for the group, of course.
  6.  Always encourage people to share, retweet, like, and +1 your content. This gets you in front of an increasingly wide audience.
  7.  Given the recent exponential growth of Pinterest, I’m also going to encourage you to “pin” your new content whenever appropriate.  (If you haven’t signed up for a Pinterest account yet, seriously consider doing so!)

Benefits of Content Syndication

Aside from what we’ve already covered (getting your content in front of thousands of potential clients/customers), what are the main benefits of content to you and your business?

  •  It’s a cheap way of reaching far more potentially interested people than you could ever hope to speak to individually or even collectively.
  •  You’re boosting your online visibility by making use of social media, thus gaining massive SEO benefits.  You’re already using Google+ aren’t you??
  • When people see you everywhere online,  they get the subconscious message that you are an expert in your field – as a result they’re more likely (a) to come to you as a client  and/or (b) to recommend you to others.

Do you use any other methods of content syndication and do they work well for you? Share below in the comments!

Need help with content syndication? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
01 Dec 2011
digital marketing • facebook • google • google plus • linkedin • marketing • mobile marketing • social media • twitter • youtube

Digital Marketing – An Integrated Approach

Wordle: Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing – Why You Need An Integrated Approach

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the need for an integrated approach to the whole digital marketing thing.  Social media is of course a vital component in any business marketing toolkit,  but it can’t stand on its own.  Traditional marketing also plays an important part,  as do the newer innovations as described below.

We already know that tweets, Facebook updates and Google Plus posts are indexed by google, (are you using keywords in your social media updates?)  and of course YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine.  So you should be establishing a presence on all of these networks and building your communities.

But how many businesses (thinking particularly of the UK here) are aware of the huge growth in mobile technology?  I’ve talked about this issue in a previous post on Mobile Marketing, and another where I discuss an infographic on Mobile Marketing Statistics.   I also suggested actions that business owners could take immediately to respond to this new revolution in digital marketing.  There’s no doubt that a high percentage of web browsing, search, and online shopping will take place via mobile devices in the very near future and businesses need to be ready.

Meanwhile, I would like to share this presentation.  It shows how to take an integrated approach to your social media activities.  Feel free to download if it will be helpful :)

Are you finding it easy to integrate traditional and newer marketing strategies?  Is your website optimised for mobile devices?   Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Need help with digital marketing? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

you can also TEXT

INF SOCIALMEDIA or INF SOCIALMEDIA + your email address  to 60777

to receive your free copy of my booklet “10 Reasons Why You Need to Get Up To Speed With Social Media”.

Naomi | One comment | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
20 Nov 2011
business growth • facebook • linkedin • small business • social media • twitter

Social Media for Small Business

Social Media For Small Business – Some Statistics

I came across this infographic the other day via Socialnomics. I found it quite eye-opening,  yet very consistent with my own experience.  I go to a lot of networking events and naturally, am asked what my business is. This usually leads into a discussion around social media and its uses for business – 9 times out of 10 the other person says that they’ve set up social media accounts but don’t have any idea what to do next……

Small Business Social Media Infographic

Social media for small business – takeaways from the infographic:

A massive 88% of owners believe that social media does, or will, impact on their small business – so it’s clear that they see the potential.

A somewhat lower proportion (63%) have established social media accounts, the majority spread across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Another survey found that 31% of small businesses were not using social media at all,  and the reason given for this was that they “don’t know where to start”………  this is sounding very familiar!

Apart from “don’t know where to start”, other reasons for not using social media were “don’t have the staff”, “costs too much”, “information overload”, “too many sites to manage”  and astonishingly, “doesn’t help me or my business”.

Confusion over who should manage social media for a business is also widespread, responses varying from “business owner” (18%) down to 1% for HR, customer service, corporate, administrator etc.   All a bit vague, isn’t it?

Social media seems to have become a huge mystery, a black art,  something only to be attempted by those of strong constitution. This is borne out by the fact that 67% of small businesses do not plan to increase their investment in social media for 2012.

In light of this, it’s rather strange that virtually none of the small business owners surveyed had plans to hire anyone to help them with social media.

How about you?  Do you find yourself mystified by social media?  Would you consider hiring someone to help with social media for your small business?   I’d love to hear your comments.

Need help with social media? Start by contacting me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

you can also TEXT

INF SOCIALMEDIA or INF SOCIALMEDIA + your email address to 60777

to receive your free copy of my booklet “10 Reasons Why You Need to Get Up To Speed With Social Media”.

Naomi | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
19 Oct 2011
facebook • facebook pages • google • linkedin • marketing • social media • twitter • youtube

How To Do Social Media in 10 Easy Steps

social media bandwagon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liako/

How To Do Social Media??

I go to quite a few local networking meetings, where I naturally get involved in conversations about social media.  I can’t recall a meeting where someone hasn’t said to me “I’ve set up a Facebook and Twitter account, but I don’t really know what to do now”……..
Yesterday I attended a “Blogging for Business” seminar. The speaker recommended blogging about questions that people have asked, and the topic of this post – How To Do Social Media –  immediately came to me

So, how to “do” social media??

  1. Sit down with a coffee and decide what you want to achieve with social media.  More website visitors?  More sales?  Building a community?  Being seen as the local expert in your field? The answer will probably be a combination of all these things.
  2. Also think about how you will track the results from your social media campaigns.  Google analytics is free and very powerful.  There are also various tools for tracking particular social media channels. Facebook has its own Page Insights and this has just been upgraded to give even more information.
  3. Consider your branding.  It’s important to be consistent across all the social networks so that your business is instantly recognisable.  Your social media pages should have the same branding as your website and blog.  Ideally your username should be consistent across all platforms, too.
  4. Set up your accounts.  It might be wise to start with just one or two so that you can get a feel for how they work.  If you dive into multiple networks straight away,  you’re more likely to give up.  We’re back to the original complaint of “I don’t know what do do”….
  5. I’d recommend starting with Twitter.  Many people find it difficult to believe that it can be useful for business. But if you persevere and take time to understand this platform you will soon appreciate its power. The key is consistency.  You can’t afford to miss tweeting for more than a day or two. This can seem impossible at first!
  6. If you follow my advice and start with Twitter,  ”listen” first. Begin by following a few people in your niche (find them via a google search),  watch what they’re tweeting about.  Look at who they’re following and who their followers are.  You might also want to follow some of these.  Then start to engage –  comment on what’s been posted, mention that you found it useful etc.
  7. Look for people in your local area and follow them.  Many will be local businesses who might need your services in the future.  Perhaps you’ve already met them at networking meetings? It’s always good to meet “tweeps” in the flesh after a few weeks of virtual chat!
  8. Remember, be consistent!  And don’t be tempted to use software that automatically adds followers – this is a waste of time as followers added this way are unlikely to be interested in what you have to offer. You need quality, not quantity.  It’s far better to grow your followers organically, and after a while this will start to happen without any action from you. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t continue looking for followers.
  9. When you feel that you’re familiar with Twitter and are starting to see results,  get set up on one of the other networks – LinkedIn is a good choice as it is very powerful for B2B connections and there are many possibilities for “networking” within the platform.  LinkedIn is known as the professionals’ social  network.
  10. Rinse and repeat the above with Facebook and YouTube if you wish!  A Facebook page is a must-have for most B2C businesses and can also be very useful for B2B.  YouTube is great if you have a lot of visual content,  but basically any business can produce powerful marketing videos without too much effort.  Hmmm…….about time I started with video :)

Has this helped to answer your question “How to do social media”?
If you’re still struggling and need advice on setting up and using social media accounts, start by contacting me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

 

Naomi | 6 comments | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
11 Oct 2011
facebook • facebook pages • google • linkedin • marketing • network marketing • social media • social networking • twitter • youtube

Social Media in Network Marketing

The Role of Social Media in Network Marketing

network marketing

image courtesy of duchessa: www.i-pix.it

 

I think it’s likely that most people nowadays know what’s meant by “social media” –  if you don’t, all you need do is browse around this website!   But do you know what network marketing is? A common misconception seems to be that it’s “pyramid selling”. Well, sorry, but pyramid selling is actually illegal – and who’d try to sell pyramids anyway??  :)  So, how about social media in network marketing?

Kleeneze, Avon, Herbalife, Forever Living, Utility Warehouse….

…. do any of these sound familiar?  Yes?  Well, they are all network marketing companies.  Network marketing (also known as MLM, multi-level marketing) is a simple business model. Individuals are recruited, but are not employed by the company. They are self-employed (usually as sole traders) and form part of a group or team.  Each team has various levels.  It’s up to the individual to sell products (which they buy at a discount)  to earn commission. It’s also beneficial to the individual if they can recruit others into their team.   The exact details vary between companies but there are incentives and bonuses for performance in both sales and recruiting. The larger the team, the greater the potential to earn more.

However,  this post isn’t intended to be an in depth study of network marketing as a business model.  Rather,  I would like to explore the role of social media in network marketing and why it’s a valuable asset. As it happens,  in addition to my social media business,  I am involved with two network marketing companies – Wikaniko and Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic.  More information is available on my Eco-Friendly Living website.

I’ve found social media invaluable in promoting my activities with these companies.  Of course, as with any business, social media in network marketing is not the answer to all your problems, but it does add value to the mix.  I’d go so far as to say it’s essential for network marketers.

Social Media Your Strategy For Success

With most network marketing schemes,  you’re aiming to sell products and recruit new team members.  Chances are that a high percentage of potential buyers, and potential recruits, are already on the social networks.  It’s your job to find them!   At the least I’d suggest setting up a Facebook Page (preferably with a custom landing tab as these have been shown to generate more “Likes” – and a Twitter account.  You might also consider getting yourself established on LinkedIn, to gain professional credibility.  There are a number of discussion groups on LinkedIn for network marketers.  YouTube would also be an excellent channel for promoting your products and sharing the benefits of joining your team!

Once you’re set up on the social networks,  you need to find potential customers and team members.  Don’t post a string of updates promoting your latest products – that will turn people off immediately.  It’s all about being subtle,  not shouting about yourself. Post links to interesting information about your niche,  e.g. general health and wellness if you’re a Herbalife or Forever Living distributor. Search on Twitter for tweets asking about your company or products,  or just general information related to your niche.  Follow “thought leaders” in your field of interest and begin engaging with them.  It’s OK to post “sales” updates occasionally,  but no more than 10-20% of your posts should be self-promotion. Set up Google Alerts for topics around your niche,  browse a selection of blogs and share links to these.  You might find this post useful if you’re not sure of the best way to do this.  Give value to your followers and always invite comments and questions.  If someone responds to your update,  always reply and invite further engagement.

Don’t expect things to happen overnight –  it will take weeks or more likely months, to build up a following. It can be hard work to keep your community engaged – you have to keep at it and not abandon your Facebook or Twitter accounts for long periods.  If you’re not sure of the best way to maintain your presence on social media,  you might consider getting help from a professional.   Your social media strategy will pay dividends in the long run, but plenty of patience is a must!

Are you in network marketing? Need advice on setting up and using social media accounts?  Start by contacting me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

you can also TEXT

INF SOCIALMEDIA or INF SOCIALMEDIA + your email address  to 60777

to receive your free copy of my booklet “10 Reasons Why You Need to Get Up To Speed With Social Media”.

Naomi | 5 comments | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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