The days of people looking for your business in the local phone book are almost over. Today everyone is turning to online searches when looking for a product or service they are in need of. There is no doubt in my mind when people ask me what are the top three most critical online marketing strategies for professionals. Professionals need tools that will have them quickly and easily showing up in online search results while also positioning them an industry leader and experts. In a world where decisions are made in a few clicks, you need online marketing strategies that will have you being found and, in my opinion, these three are your best bet for your time and resources. Three Critical Online Marketing Strategies For Professionals 1. LinkedIn Recent stats show LinkedIn is 4 times better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter but that’s not what I love most about it. When your profile is properly optimized to get you found, prospects can literally come directly to you with little work on your part. You must ensure your LinkedIn profile is well optimized for the search results to make sure you are found. Once this is done [...]
3 Critical Online Marketing Strategies For Professionals
5 Fundamental Steps To Success on LinkedIn
It’s never quite as simple as “plug and play” when it comes to a solid business social media strategy but with a little extra work, you can start creating and building relationships that produce results. At the heart of great networking lies great relationships and LinkedIn is the best online tool for cultivating those relationships digitally, in my opinion. You want to ensure you have done everything possible to make your online presence appears welcoming, professional and personalized. Related: 3 Easy LinkedIn Profile Tips That Get You Found Here are 5 steps to add to your LinkedIn approach for a more effective social media strategy: Make your initial message more personal! If someone reaches out and connects with you on LinkedIn, spend a minute to remember where you might know them from and review their profile to see if anything rings a bell. If not, look for some common ground to connect on and thank them for the connection. I still get more than 70% of my business through LinkedIn and it generally starts from the initial message as it comfortably opens up the dialogue. Be a leader in your industry. You need to personalize your profile to speak directly [...]
LinkedIn Today Gets More Social With New Update
LinkedIn just unveiled it’s brand new version of LinkedIn Today, now giving users the ability to like and comment on status updates and Top Stories buzzing around the social network. For anyone that has ignored or missed the “LinkedIn Today” section, it’s the first heading under your News tab when you login and it aggregates news stories shared throughout LinkedIn and previously lacked any significant social features. You can comment and like stories featured on LinkedIn Today and also see which stories are trending in your network through a menu on the right side of the page. Related: 3 Easy LinkedIn Profile Tips That Get You Found This provides more opportunities for users of LinkedIn to interact with each other outside of Groups and personal messaging. I see this as an incredibly positive shift for the LinkedIn experience and long overdue, to say the least! The new LinkedIn Today has a nice, sleek look to it that actually functions great and is also a pretty reliable news source. Since it’s aggregating content shared in your network as well as what is trending online, you get a lot of great business oriented content, making it effective for content curation. It would [...]
Top 5 Social Media Mistakes You Need To Avoid
Everyone learns these new tools for communication at their own pace. Heck, it took me years to finally start text messaging. Aside from the occasional autocorrect slipup, mistakes through text messaging aren’t too detrimental but some social media mistakes can be deadly to your reputation and/or sales depending on the severity. There’s a saying we have in social media…what happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! What I mean is, nobody forgets on the web and that can be a painful or blissful realization depending on how you play your cards online. Before one of your valuable customers holds a silent (or not so silent) grudge against you, make sure you aren’t making one of these 5 social media mistakes! Related: Why Tomorrow Is Too Late When It Comes To Social Media Training 1. Not Responding To Customer Tweets/Messages. Make sure you are regularly checking to see if you have messages from customers or prospects on your social media pages. People get pretty upset when they’re ignored, especially by companies that they give money to. Why can’t they just call or email you ask? This is 2012, that’s why. Things have changed ‘round here, partner! 2. Too Much [...]
Why Tomorrow Is Too Late When It Comes To Social Media Training
Brands and companies are moving full speed ahead into the digital age as they finally come to grips with the fact that social media is here to stay. The fear of missing the boat is now overshadowed by the realization that proper social media training and a strategy are absolutely necessary to succeed. The Heavy Cost of Late Adoption There are several struggles companies are currently facing as they finally jump on the social media bandwagon: Catching up to the competition – The fact is that the competitors that have been using social media for years undeniably have a clear advantage over those who chose to ignore the what they thought was just hype. The conversations are happening without you – Your customers are online and they are discussing topics that are important to your industry, brand and success but there’s one thing missing: YOU. More time, more work and more money – Remember when the Internet first came out and entrepreneurs everywhere debated the value of a website? By today’s standards, you aren’t even considered a legit company if you don’t have a professional looking website. Social media training will get your foot in the door but if you [...]
Social Proof: Your Magic Bullet For Success Online
If you don’t know what social proof is, it’s one of the key influencers that people use when making a decision who to do business with. People look to what others have done when making a decision and that’s why testimonials and celebrity endorsements have been so powerful for businesses. When you scroll down your Facebook News Feed, the stories that catch your eye are always the ones with the most likes, comments and shares. It’s that same crowd effect that compels people to see what all the commotion is about. According to Wikipedia: “Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This effect is prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.” Basically, people have a tendency to base their decisions from the reactions and decisions of their peers. Nobody wants to be the guinea pig because it takes too much effort on what’s perceived as a risk. It’s nice to be able to gain wisdom through the second hand experiences of those we [...]
3 Easy LinkedIn Profile Tips That Get You Found
With many credible business professionals becoming more open and engaged in social media, the clear essential tool when professionalism is a priority has always been LinkedIn. It’s obvious that the conversations on LinkedIn have a much more distinct professional tone, but getting found by the right people remains a big hurdle for even the more marketing savvy entrepreneurs. Implementing every one of the LinkedIn profile tips mentioned here will DRAMATICALLY increase your results and propel you to the top of the LinkedIn search results for the keywords you need to be found for. 3 Ways To Get Found By Prospects On LinkedIn 1. Create An Attractive Headline Your headline acts as your opening pitch to hook your potential prospects so they read your profile and can quickly establish if you are someone who can help them reach their goals. Like a great song on the radio, it can’t waste any time to hook you in! Consider these three key questions when creating the perfect headline: Does your headline stand out from your competitors? Odds are that they will show up in the search results too so make sure you catch attention faster. Can your ideal client quickly establish that you [...]
5 Ways To Skyrocket App Sales With Social Media
The prospect of creating the next “Angry Birds” is a dream for any app developer to ever type a line of code for an iOS application but even those who are creatively talented often lack the marketing savvy to get their product to the masses. How do you prevent your app from falling into the abyss of the iTunes App Store? You know you need to create buzz for your app but the question is HOW? Social media is an obvious promotional tool but leveraging it can be inefficient and time consuming…unless done properly. Related: 6 Deadly Consequences To Delaying Social Media Management I’ve compiled a quick list of the top 5 ways you can promote your app with a solid social media strategy. Create Engaging & Exciting Videos – If you have an app that focuses on productivity then make a fun, exciting video that will show a quirky situation that happens to everyone where your app will come in handy. Making a basic advertisement won’t be worthy of a share so you need to think outside of the box to relate to your audience. Once you’ve created your video, upload it to all social sites (not just YouTube) [...]
Don’t Make The Mistake I Almost Made On Google+
It was a normal morning for me at my home in beautiful Kelowna, BC. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I brushed my teeth quickly before going to the kitchen prior to my routine morning workout. When I walked into the kitchen, the site of my boyfriend cooking bacon fully naked rudely awakened me. Not only was this a dangerous idea (I mean, who cooks bacon without even a shirt on?) but it was absolutely hilarious and out of the norm. I reached for my iPhone to take an equally unwelcomed photo that I could save for future blackmailing. The next time a hockey game interrupted The Young & The Restless, I was sure to win the remote control. He was quicker than me and ran to put on some clothes, so I was out of luck with getting any good blackmail material. To my horror, the next day I realized that every one of my pictures taken on my iPhone auto-uploaded to Google+. Uh oh! I said a short prayer thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t get the chance to take that photo. Can you imagine the embarrassment [...]
