by Marianna Muscat | Jul 19, 2016 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
Using LinkedIn as part of your company’s marketing strategy exposes you to a massive potential audience, with it being the third most popular social networking site after Twitter and Facebook. Visitors to LinkedIn range from individuals to leaders of business, across every industry you can imagine.
Here are some ways you can reach and engage with your audience, using LinkedIn:
- Use your company page effectively
Make sure your company page on LinkedIn is representing your company in the best way possible. Make sure all the relevant information is included, in a clear and concise way. Include your logo and a banner image to reinforce the visuals and maintain your page if any details change. You can look at other company pages for inspiration to see what appeals to you.
- Show off your products or services
Develop Showcase Pages, which branch out from your company page, to direct users to your offering.
- Create your own LinkedIn groups
Start your own groups and join other groups in your industry, to establish a relationship with your peers, as well as establishing yourself as an expert in your field. Keep people in your groups engaged by sending LinkedIn announcements, which go directly into their inboxes.
- Boost your company’s SEO
Just like your website, your company page should be optimised for SEO. With well over 350 million members, LinkedIn is an exceptional place for developing B2B leads and other connections. Include your title with your name, e.g. Jack White, Song Writer and Musician. Use targeted keywords in your professional headline, e.g. Award-winning Graphic Designer. Include keywords in your summary, your experience, your skills and your interests.
- Publish your content in Pulse
LinkedIn’s publishing platform, Pulse, is a great place to promote your content as well as being a good place to read other people’s industry specific content.
- Use analytics for publishing
LinkedIn’s analytics can show you who is reading your content, so you can target and engage with people who are already interested in your company.
- Use Advanced Search to find your prospects
LinkedIn’s advanced people search gives you the perfect way to identify the exact type of people you are targeting. Add filters to make the search more specific, such as location, industry, current company, past company etc.
- Promote your page
This can be easily done, by motivating your employees to add the company profile to their personal LinkedIn profiles, or by placing LinkedIn’s Follow Company button on your website. Get the word out about your company page through links placed on your blogs or newsletters.
LinkedIn offers a wealth of information and many potential leads, so if you’re still unsure of how to make it work for your business, contact us. We can assist in your social media strategy to get you connected and your company noticed.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 3, 2016 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
Whether you’re a new start-up owner, an employee, a sales person or a student, showcasing your thought leadership can be a catalyst to achieving your goals. LinkedIn is a great way to share knowledge and connect with other thought leaders in the industry. Using LinkedIn long posts is also a good way to be seen as an influential thinker in the industries that matter to you.
What is a LinkedIn long post?
Long-form posts on LinkedIn are possible thanks to LinkedIn’s publishing platforms that allow members to share longer posts (as opposed to short one-liner commentary) about their expertise. These posts allow you to give commentary, highlight your knowledge and share more information than the normal snippets that you would generally find on other social media platforms like Twitter or even Facebook.
What is a thought leader?
I often tell people that you don’t have to receive industry awards or be the CEO of a company to be seen as a thought leader. Everyone has opinions and if you’re working in a specific field, chances are you have valuable information to share. A thought leader is basically a go-to person in a specific area of expertise.
Example of a LinkedIn long post showing thought leadership
I’m currently working with BESTSAPCBI and I’m impressed by the thought leadership their team shows in real life at conferences and industry events as well as the effort they put into sharing this knowledge with the wider online community. The Managing Director of BESTSACBI, Henry Curtis, recently published an informative LinkedIn Long Post about why SAP vendors should reconcile their statements. Henry used LinkedIn’s publishing platform to explain the benefits of SAP’s vendor reconciliation process, which will help their business as well as their vendors’ businesses.
Need help with your social media strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Nov 25, 2015 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
If you’re looking to revamp your personal brand, show up higher on LinkedIn search results and get more (hiring) visitors, the process may not be as hard as you think it is. Just like in digital marketing, your LinkedIn headline has the power to revamp your entire profile image.
Let go of the default
If you don’t have a LinkedIn headline, the platform uses your current employer and job title as your headline and many people choose to stick with this. However “Email Marketing Specialist at XYZ Advertising” is a very boring headline to have. It doesn’t offer the audience new information that can’t be gleaned from your profile.
Why you should have a real headline
Sure, your headline can certainly include what you do and where, but it should also communicate your field, expertise and what makes you different. This should be done in a way that grabs attention. Regardless of your goal for your LinkedIn profile – getting hired, networking, recruiting or building credibility – you need to stand out. And it’s as simple as doing the following.
- Include your speciality
Instead of just writing “Freelance writer” if that’s what you do, include your speciality area e.g. lifestyle, personal finance etc. Programmers, for instance, could also include programming languages they are proficient in.
- Integrate your future
Include your future interests/goals for a future career. For instance, if as a freelance writer you hope to go into mobile or social media marketing in future but have no real experience in it as yet, you can say “Mobile Marketing enthusiast.” This lays the work for your job search, and it will also allow you to rank for searches related to your field of interest i.e. the jobs you want in addition to the job you have.
- Say what you do
This does not mean add your job title. Instead, highlight the value you add by virtue of the work that you do e.g. as an Account Manager for Example Bank. Your work may be to improve customer experience. So say “Improving customer experience as Account Manager for Example Bank.”
- Display any accolades and features
If you have appeared in, been mentioned by or written for some noteworthy source, including it in your headline boosts your credibility instantly. People will want to know more about you if your headline features a big name. Just don’t make it up.
Contact us today for more information!
by Francois Muscat | Jul 13, 2015 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
What are recruiters looking for on your LinkedIn profile? We often hear about our friends or colleagues getting ‘head hunted’ on LinkedIn, but what did they do to make their profiles stand out to recruiters?
Here are a few things recruiters are looking for when they happen to stumble on your LinkedIn profile and want to determine if you’re a suitable candidate for one of their clients:
An updated, full profile
Your LinkedIn profile isn’t going to benefit you much if you’ve only got a job title, a summary and your most recent job listed on the page. Make sure you’ve included your entire job history, information about your career goals and how you’ve grown throughout your career.
Credibility
It’s one thing to call yourself an ‘expert software developer,’ but it adds a lot of credibility if other people are confirming that you do, in fact, possess these skills. If you’ve got a number of ‘thumbs ups’ from past colleagues and clients, then it will show you are known for the skills you claim to possess (which can go a long way in terms of a recruiter looking to recommend you to one of their clients).
A professional picture
Every LinkedIn profile needs a picture and if you can upload a professional looking one (where you’re wearing work attire), that’s even better.
Need help with your personal branding or social media marketing? Contact the experts at WSI today.
by Francois Muscat | Apr 20, 2015 | LinkedIn, Social Media Optimization
If you want to differentiate yourself on LinkedIn, then you need to write a compelling summary. With over 202 million registered users and two new users joining every second, it’s worth your while to make sure that you stand out to potential clients, recruiters or business owners on LinkedIn.
Here are some tips to get the summary right:
Write in the first person
When you write in the first person, your LinkedIn profile becomes more personal and it makes a reader feel like they’re getting to learn more about who you are. If you write in the second person, it feels stiffer and like a company biography instead of a down-to-earth way to introduce yourself.
Follow a format
There’s a simple format or recipe that works well for all LinkedIn summaries. Firstly, introduce yourself and talk about who you are. Don’t talk from a company perspective but rather from a personal perspective. Secondly, talk about who you help in your professional career. Be subtle, but describe your target audience in a non-bashful way. Thirdly, finish off by explaining what you bring to the table and what you have to offer. Talk about how you help clients and companies achieve their goals and be sure to include contact details so that people can reach you. You can include your phone number, e-mail address and Twitter handle for good measure.
Include keywords
Instead of simply relying on your job title to appear in search results, integrate keywords your target audience would type into the search bar to find you. Don’t make this obvious or overdo it, just a few subtle keyword phrases is good enough.
Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Contact WSI OMS for help today.
by Francois Muscat | Apr 13, 2015 | LinkedIn, Social Media Optimization
After you’ve completed your LinkedIn profile, filled out your career history, optimised your profile for relevant search terms and joined a few groups, it’s time to start making connections on this platform. More connections mean the content you share on LinkedIn will be seen by more people, contributing to brand awareness and social influence.
Rather than sending out the generic “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn”, personalise the message and make it compelling. One way to avoid accidentally sending out the generic mail is to always open up a person’s profile and click on the ‘connect’ button on their profile page (which will give you the opportunity to type your own message). If you’re searching for a person in between other search results, the connect button is displayed beside the profile pictures of everyone with the same name and clicking on the connect button in the search results automatically sends out the default message.
You only have 300 characters in this message so you have to keep it brief. Start by introducing yourself and telling the person why you want to connect with them. Tell them how they will benefit from connecting with you on LinkedIn (for example, you could say that you will be posting content which can help them with their business or opportunities that might be advantageous to their careers).
Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Contact WSI OMS for help today.
