Technology

You are currently browsing the archive for the Technology category.

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.

  • Share/Bookmark

Spice Up Your Facebook Page with FBML

March 29, 2010 in Business, Design, Facebook, LinkedIn, Technology, brand identity, graphic design, social media by gtaylor | 1 comment

You’ve probably read multiple blog posts, tweets and LinkedIn discussions praising the value of creating a Facebook page for your business.  You’re still in the dark as to how you can differentiate your Facebook page from the rest of the businesses in the world. An easy application called FBML can give your Facebook page a face-lift and attract some new fans.

What is FBML?  Facebook Markup Language, FBML for short, is simply HTML for Facebook.  FBML allows you to take HTML coding and insert it into the FBML application.  Facebook does its magic on the back end, and your fan page will never look the same.

Sound easy enough?

Unfortunately, you can’t just copy the coding on your website and paste it into Facebook.  You have to keep your coding within the Facebook wall size in order for your images to appear.

FBML allows your Facebook page to act as a landing page or microsite.  Using Facebook for a landing page or microsite saves you money because you don’t have to host the page on your server and don’t have to pay for a domain name.

Below are a few examples of fan pages using FBML:

Wendy’s ‘Get the Party’

SeaWorld’s Photo Adventure

Donato’s Pizza

Sunkist Soda

As you can see, your Facebook page can be customized to fit your business or product.  How will you spice up your Facebook page?

  • Share/Bookmark

5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn

March 18, 2010 in Communications, HootSuite, LinkedIn, Technology, social media, tweet, twitter by gtaylor | 2 comments

You’ve signed up for a LinkedIn account because you heard that was where the professionals mingled, and now you don’t know where to begin. Using LinkedIn effectively may require some extra time, but the benefit in the end is well worth the effort.

With over 60 million members, LinkedIn has proved to be a viable network.  A b-to-b social media strategy wouldn’t be complete without recommending using LinkedIn as a medium to communicate.  But, most people fall short of getting the most out of LinkedIn. Here’s a five tips to point you in the right direction.

Setup a Company Profile

Every company needs a profile.  There’s a large number of business owners that are active on LinkedIn, yet fail to have a company profile.  It’s nice that a link to your website is on your profile, but people want to know what your company does immediately after they see your profile.  Take a few minutes to setup a company profile, write a paragraph or two about what you do, follow the rest of the prompts and be sure to include your blog feed for the ‘news’ section.

Use Third Party Applications

Apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck are perfect for monitoring your LinkedIn network activity.  If you use HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor your Twitter account, adding the extra tab, or column, is worth it.  Not only are you able to see status updates, but you also see what questions people in your network have asked, what groups they may have joined, any articles they submitted and what new connections they’ve added to their network.

Get Involved

If you are serious about social media, then you need to get involved.  Look at what groups people in your network are involved in, or, search for groups relevant to your business and join them.  Participate in the discussions or start a discussion of your own.  Don’t be afraid to use LinkedIn’s Q&A forum. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to give you some advice.  Looking for blog ideas, browse through some group discussions, you’ll never know what you may come across.

Network in Person Too

People get so caught up in social networking that they forget about going out and meeting people.  Use LinkedIn Events to find out what networking events are coming up in your area.  Contrary to what you may think, people do attend these events.  If anything, it’s fun to see how many people recognize you from your LinkedIn profile picture.

Follow People

When LinkedIn added Twitter updates to their list of features, they quickly added a ‘follow’ option.  You can choose to follow people the same way you can on Twitter.  It’s a great way to keep in touch, and see what they are doing if you don’t use the available third party applications.

  • Share/Bookmark

Social Media is Pointless

March 15, 2010 in Business, Communications, Technology, social media by gtaylor | No comments

One of the hardest parts of my job is convincing C-level execs that their business can benefit from social media marketing.  The two most common phrases I hear are, “I just don’t get social media” and “Social media is pointless”.  It’s easy to provide them with examples of other companies that have increased profits from social media marketing, but, it’s also very easy to show examples of companies who failed to use social media the right way and wasted their time.  Social media is pointless, if you don’t invest time in building relationships and a quality network.

Social media marketing should be approached just like any other marketing effort.  The content you produce must be intriguing and entertaining to spark, and keep, people’s interest; and it has to be valuable enough that people will continue to come back for more.

Social media is pointless to those who “just don’t get it”.  Building a quality social network is similar to starting a business.  You start with nothing and try to turn it into something that will generate an ROI.  It’s intimidating to venture into a world with millions of people and attempting to convincing them your product/service is valuable to them.  You have to be willing to invest the time and effort into social media in order for it to work for you. Research some of the social media influencers to see how they built, not only their company, but also their personal brand.

Social media is pointless if you create profiles and neglect them.  It’s easy to create a profile, and even easier to forget about it. You can’t provide a service to your customers and ignore them once you’ve made the sale.  When you choose to use social media as a marketing tool, you begin to build relationships and trust.  Your social media efforts are an extension of  your brand.  One bad tweet, or wall post can be a PR nightmare.

Is social media pointless?  It can be if you don’t know how to use it, or show no interest in using it.  However, the right social media strategy has the potential to generate new business and introduces your brand to millions worldwide.

  • Share/Bookmark

Social Media Webinars and Workshops – Which One(s) Should I Attend?

March 9, 2010 in Communications, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Technology, emarketing, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 1 comment

Regardless if you are just beginning your social media journey or have been blazing trails of your own, by now, you should have had the opportunity to participate in a webinar, or workshop, focusing on social media.  There are companies that present the basics to you, while others provide a more in depth explanation of specific ways social media can change the way you market to your customers.  For newbie’s, the information presented may be helpful, but how do you ensure you don’t waste your time?

As a social media strategist, I have attended my fair share of webinars and workshops, and have found only a few of them helpful and interesting.

Half of them are about the social media basics, defining social media, or using the big five (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) for your business.  The other half may have a speaker that has been successful in using social media and want to share their success stories with everyone.

Here’s a few tips on choosing a webinar or workshop that will benefit you or your company:

Research the organizing company

You don’t buy a TV without shopping around.  If you’re going to invest your time into attending a ‘How to Use Social Media’ workshop, look to see how the presenting company uses social media.  It’s easy to find out how long a company has been using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and creating blog content.  As Google continues to integrate social media into their search results, a company’s social media presence will be more noticeable.

Search for hashtags

Most organizer’s promote their event with a hashtag (#).  The hashtag makes it easy for not only the organizing company to see what people may be saying about their event, but also makes it easy for people to see what others may have thought about the webinar/workshop.

Crowdsource

If you don’t ask questions, you’ll always be in the dark. Maybe some of your followers on Twitter or connections on Facebook attended a previous webinar/workshop given by the same company.  Ask them what they though or if the information was useful. Usually, you’ll get an unbiased answer.  If you really know your followers, you’ll value their information.

Review previous transcripts or presentations

Most webinars are archived for viewing at a later time.  Quickly skim through the podcast or slideshow.  Skimming through podcast make take a little more time than looking at slides but spending ten minutes of your time to avoid wasting 90 minutes is understandable.

Follow your instinct

If you’ve researched the company’s social media efforts, crowdsourced information, searched for hashtags, listened to the podcast or reviewed slides and you’re still unsure, rely on your gut feeling. Your time is valuable.  Besides, you know your social media skill level better than anyone else.

  • Share/Bookmark

« Older entries