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Three Tips to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn’s Company Following

April 29, 2010 in B2B, Business, Communications, LinkedIn, Marketing, New Business, Technology, prospecting, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 1 comment

LinkedIn may have the answer for companies that have been trying to find out how social media will work for B2B. LinkedIn puts their members inside companies like never before with LinkedIn’s company following feature.

By following a company, you’ll know about job openings as they are posted, who’s been promoted and who’s left the company, other LinkedIn members that have joined the company’s network and business opportunities that may become available.

Example:

This feature can be beneficial for the follower and the company being followed.  Here’s a few tips on how to get the most out of LinkedIn’s company following:

Pay attention to your target audience

It may be fun following Starbucks, Google and Cisco, but if you’re a restaurant owner seeking franchisees, save the fanfare for Facebook. Follow companies that are relevant to your business for potential partnerships or referrals.

Add others to your network

If LinkedIn didn’t want its members to network with other business professionals, the company would never have been created in the first place.  Use company following as an opportunity to add more people to your network (refer to the previous tip for help on who to connect with).

Use the feature with Twitter

One of LinkedIn’s best partnerships is with Twitter.  As you add connections on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter if they have an account.  People do not update their LinkedIn account as frequently as they do their Twitter account.

LinkedIn has always been a great way to use social media for B2B communications between companies.  As LinkedIn continues to upgrade their features, social media and B2B communications opportunities continue to improve.

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Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your eBlasts

March 26, 2010 in B2B, Business, Communications, Design, Marketing, New Business, email, emarketing, internet marketing, prospecting by gtaylor | 1 comment

People still question the effectiveness of eBlasts even though they subscribe to receive coupons, blog and news updates via email. An eBlast may not be working for you because the design and content are simply missing the mark.

On a daily basis, my inbox is flooded with newsletters, webinar invites, LinkedIn invitations to connect and, of course, eBlasts. Some of the eBlasts look like they were thrown together in ten minutes or less, and nine times out of ten, they are deleted.

If you’re looking to get more out of your eBlasts, here are a few tips:

Don’t promote – provide value

The biggest mistake most companies make when sending an eBlast is too much promotion.  You should be more focused on providing information your target audience will find interesting, and hopefully, learn something from.  Open the door for questions and offer advice.  You can get a good idea of what people want to know from tweets and discussions on LinkedIn. Providing your recipients with value will keep them looking forward to receiving your eBlasts, and they’ll be more likely to share the information with others.

Include social media

In addition to having your social media profile links in your eBlast, include some notable tweets or discussion excerpts to show what you and others are saying about the topic at hand.

Link to other RELEVANT sources

Although you are sending the eBlast, it doesn’t have to be all about you. See “Don’t promote, provide value” above.  In case you haven’t realized it yet, you aren’t the only source of information. Post a link, and quick summary of some articles you’ve recently read.  It doesn’t hurt or cost any extra money.  Just make sure the links you are posting are relevant to the topic of the eBlast.

Frequency matters

I recently ran an eBlast campaign for a client that had a weekly internet radio show.  The eBlast went out the last Friday of the month.  The eBlast included all the episodes for the month, sound bites from highest rated shows and best comments from the audience chat room.  The eBlast acted as a monthly recap and informed the recipients of what was to come next month. Eighty percent of the emails were opened each month, and the traffic to the client’s website dramatically increased. If the eBlast would have been sent weekly, the audience response would have been completely different.

Hire help

Doctors aren’t marketing executives and marketing execs aren’t doctors.  Hiring a marketing agency to help create an eBlast campaign will get you the results you are looking for.  Determining how to get through the clutter and come up with a creative design and layout for your eBlast isn’t easy, so why not ask for an experts help?

Yes, social media is a great marketing tool to reach large and targeted audiences, but it isn’t the only option.  You still have to get your message to those prospects or customers who work at a company that blocks social media sites and eBlasts are a great way to do just that.

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What Are Your Twitter Keywords?

February 12, 2010 in Communications, New Business, social media, twitter by gtaylor | No comments

Whether you are creating the copy for a website, adding a video to YouTube, or writing a bookmarking a link, you are always prompted to come up with keywords so your content can be found in the search results.  Although skipping this step is common, Twitter’s trending topics is proof that keywords are important.

When creating a Twitter communication strategy, coming up with at least five keywords to include in your tweets, is a step in the right direction.  These keywords can help cure writer’s block when scheduling tweets, they improve your chances of being on the first page of Twitter search results, and your keyword(s) can become a local trending topic.

If you are having some trouble coming up with the right keywords, think about what words customers use when describing your product; or you may want to review your website analytics and find out what keywords bring traffic to your site. Align your keywords with your current online marketing efforts and your website(s) SEO.

The right keywords can land you at the top of Twitter’s search results and maybe even generate some new business.

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Where’s All the New Business from Social Media?

February 5, 2010 in Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, New Business, Technology, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 4 comments

Self proclaimed “Social Media Experts” wrote blogs, sent tweets, and created multiple presentations on how social media is going to bring in loads of new business and increase sales.  Although some companies have seen an increase, others have not.  Social media is all about building relationships and that is were some social media strategies go wrong.

You can take the time to listen to all the podcasts, webinars, and presentations you feel is necessary to become more informed on how to handle social media, but in the end, you have to cater your approach to your targeted audience.

You can not build relationships if you do not communicate effectively.  Creating a Twitter account and just posting links to your website, blog, and digital press releases are often viewed as annoying.  Social bookmarking sites were created for that.

Posting an occasional tweet with a link is fine, but two way communication is what drives social media networks.  It’s the two way communication that makes people’s Twitter accounts interesting.  Facebook works the same way.  If you just post links to your group/page wall, you don’t create any value for your group members of fans.

Social media is all about being social.  You don’t go into a new business pitch quoting links to your website or blog, and you don’t fill a presentation with them either.  If you have not gotten the response you want from your social media efforts, evaluate your activity.  If you are doing everything right, be patient, Twitter wasn’t built in one day.

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Is Cold Calling No Longer Needed?

January 5, 2010 in Business, Marketing, New Business, Technology, prospecting, social media by gtaylor | 5 comments

My marketing career began at age 16. I accepted a job as a telemarketer. I was given numerous training sessions on overcoming objections, tailoring the given script to my liking that would appeal to each cold call made, and closing the call. After a four hour shift, I’d turn in my numbers and go home. On some days, I’d convert some no’s to yes, and I’d get turned down numerous times. But, every day, I’d go back and do the same thing over again.

Fast forward to 2010 and more and more people are using social media to connect with businesses all over the world. Is social media alone enough to completely obliterate cold calling as a new business strategy? Below are a few things to think about before answering that question:

1. Social media networks can experience technical burps at any time.

Last year, Twitter’s “fail whale” frustrated millions! There were times when Twitter didn’t work at all, wouldn’t display replies and direct messages as they were received, or update timelines. Let’s not forget when you couldn’t even log onto your account because, for some odd reason, your account didn’t exist.

2. Some potential customers have dabbled in social media but just don’t get it or have the time for it.

Would you advertise to an undefined market? Of course not. You’re not going to send a message unless you know someone’s going to receive it. It is a waste of time tweeting to a marketing manager who has posted four tweets, each a month apart.

3. Words can be read the wrong way and offense can be taken.

We have all read an email and had to go back over a sentence or two feeling we may have read it in the wrong context. Not only can this happen in email, but also with Tweets, Facebook posts and blogs. The tone of your voice can play a major part in the effectiveness of your message.

4. Social media is easy to ignore.

If someone doesn’t want to be bothered, or busy, they will never log into their account. Plain and simple!

5. Some people just like personal communication.

Some people like going to lunch meetings, networking events and trade shows and interacting with people. Solely relying on social media just doesn’t do it for them.

I’m not bashing social media, as I am heavily involved in the social media atmosphere. I’m just saying don’t count out cold calling.

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