Mistakes to avoid on LinkedIn

When it comes to LinkedIn, there’s etiquette and best practices involved which makes this professional networking platform stand out from others. Avoid these mistakes and make those small changes, that will really make all the difference.

Overusing hashtags looks spammy

Overusing hashtags on LinkedIn looks very messy, makes your post difficult to read and only drowns your message in unnecessary noise.   You might use lots of hashtags on Instagram, but LinkedIn is not Instagram!  If you’re hash-tagging every possible keyword in the hope of being found in every possible search, you’ll put a lot of people off.

I would recommend that you use hashtags strategically, here’s some great resource on LinkedIn tips and tricks.

Tag people only when it’s relevant to them

I am sometimes tagged in LinkedIn posts that have nothing to do with me – and I believe that this strategy can backfire. I believe LinkedIn’s algorithm is getting smarter and apparently it now de-emphasizes posts in the news feed if those people tagged within it don’t engage with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to tag someone when the post is relevant to them.

I wouldn’t generally recommend this action but if you want to stop connections from tagging you in their posts*:

• Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
• Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
• Click the Privacy tab at the top of the page.
• Under the How others see your LinkedIn activity section, click Change next to Mention or tags by others.
• Switch the toggle to No.

*Source LinkedIn.com Help Centre.

However, for best practice when someone tags you for the right reasons or shares your content please make a point to like their post and leave a ‘thank-you for sharing’ comment.

Posting the wrong types of content

Most importantly, LinkedIn is a business networking platform, yet many people confuse it with Facebook. Mindless and irrelevant posts have become all too familiar with its members.  None of these are appropriate for LinkedIn, so ask yourself:

• Is it relevant?
• Does it provide value?
• Does it solve a problem or challenge for my ideal client?
• Will it help my ideal clients to know, like and trust me more than they did before?

Think of LinkedIn as an extension of your workplace; it’s a professional environment where people do business.  If I were you, if you wouldn’t say or share it in the workplace, don’t share it on LinkedIn!

Here’s a great article on things you should avoid posting on LinkedIn.

Posting too frequently

You don’t need to provide your connections with a running commentary of your day or even broadcast every thought that pops into your head. This will only create noise and will annoy your connections, which in turn will result in them removing you as a connection or at least unfollowing you.

I recommend that you post only when you’re inspired to share something that’s more relevant even if that means you only post once or twice a week or even less.  Personally, I believe that less is more.

Vanity metrics

It’s easy to be fooled by vanity metrics, large social media numbers can be tempting however, when reviewing your analytics pay attention to those posts which get the most visibility and engagement, and also pay attention to competitors in your sector, especially those who get good engagement.  A good rule of thumb is that if a post gets a lot of engagement and views or call to actions clicks (CTA) increase, try to recreate similar posts, where possible.

Summary

If you’ve made the mistake of doing any of the above, then I hope this has inspired you to use LinkedIn more professionally than you may have in the past. I’m confident that if you make a few small changes now, LinkedIn will be more rewarding for you.

My LinkedIn in-house workshops are tailored specifically to your company’s aims and objectives, offering real, practical, intensive and hands-on training that works.

Whether you’re looking for a one to one or group workshop I can help. Prior to your workshop, we’ll discuss your objectives and your workshop will be tailored accordingly. All workshops include 8 weeks’ follow-up, mentoring and support to ensure you succeed as a result.

Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call me on 07752 539719 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Are you Open for Business?

Have you taken advantage of the new LinkedIn Open for Business feature yet?  They say that this feature allows small and medium business owners and professionals to network and connect with others who are looking for the services that you might offer.  Here’s a short video to explain in more detail.

So, what does this really mean for you?  When a LinkedIn member searches for a service provider with your area of expertise, your profile will appear in that search.  It is then up to your potential clients to get in touch if they are interested in your services.  However, you must remember to tick the box that allows LinkedIn members whom you’re not connected with to message you for free!

💡 If you haven’t downloaded the LinkedIn app, you’re missing a trick.  The app is free and connects you effortlessly to your account from your phone. I think it is very easy to use, with features constantly being updated.  It lets you check your enquiries and messages, invite people to connect, and review updates.

Of course, if you haven’t updated your profile in a while then I recommend you do the following; Choose a profile picture of yourself, not your company logo, add your work experience, include relevant work experience, add a summary – use this space to explain things such as why you started your business or role, experience and more. For more information about updating your profile click here.

Summary

Your LinkedIn connections are one of the best ways to help source experts who you trust, as well as building relationships with those key prospects.  By opting in to Open for Business, (which is free of charge), you will show up on any relevant search results (see video link above).

Help encourage new prospects to come to you, give Open for Business a try!

My LinkedIn in-house workshops are tailored specifically to your company’s aims and objectives, offering real, practical, intensive and hands-on training that works.

Whether you’re looking for a one to one or group workshop I can help. Prior to your workshop, we’ll discuss your objectives and your workshop will be tailored accordingly. All workshops include 8 weeks’ follow-up, mentoring and support to ensure you succeed as a result.

Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call me on 07752 539719 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Photo credit: LinkedIn.com

Back To Basics

Not every social media platform is right for every business and before you get started, let’s get back to basics, starting with the what, which and who:

What are your company’s goals for using social media?

Are you raising awareness, promoting your products and services, raising awareness of your culture, updates on projects, success stories, or engaging with stakeholders?

Which platforms are we going to prioritise?

Where is your audience/s and what platforms are your competitors using?

Who is going to take ownership?

Who in your company will take ownership for your social media strategy, or will this be a shared role?  Are you going to offer any training to support them, this needs to seamless because mistakes on social media will affect your company’s reputation, and how will you review and evaluate their effectiveness, always testing and measuring success?

Complete a competitor analysis

A competitor analysis in social media marketing is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your current and potential competitors. Your analysis should be able to identify opportunities and threats.  This doesn’t have to complicated, here’s our guide. 

What is your content strategy?

Your content strategy should relate to the planning, development, and management of content, whether this is written, video or other.  Consider the sources of your content, will your content come from reputable sources, will someone within your company write the content, such as blogs, commentary on latest industry news, case studies or success stories, or will it be outsourced?

Get the tools!

If you don’t have the right tools to help you manage your social media strategy, it will become all too overwhelming.  There’s a never ending array of tools, here are some ideas and recommendations for you to try, depending on your budget.

Evaluate

Over time, you will get to understand, what topics your followers like, and the imagery working alongside.  How many enquiries or call-to-actions (CTA’s) did you receive, or which posts had the most engagements?  You can set your company’s own key metrics depending on what you deem suitable. However, it is important to start at the beginning, back to the basics.

Leave it to us!

We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ business’, their products, services and audiences, tailoring solutions to suit.

If you’d like advice or to talk through your current social marketing plan and how we can help, whether it’s a training requirement or outsourced solution, please contact us or give me a call on 0161 826 7181 or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss ways my team and I can support your business.  Alternatively, we have a whole host of complimentary fact sheets to help you on your own social media marketing journey, right here.

By Ann Davies, Director

Outsource Social Media?

Should I consider outsourcing our social media marketing?  This is a dilemma for small business owners as there be a temptation to try and do everything in-house and, in some instances, this can be a wise decision.  However, hiring experts to manage certain tasks can mean all the difference; knowing when to outsource can help reduce labour, increase efficiency, save time and money.

If you have a project requiring a high level of expertise, it would be time consuming for you to undertake this in-house meaning you’ll only put it off and the work will simply not get done.  By choosing to work with us, you can be assured that the project gets started quickly and is completed on time.

Small businesses outsource their social media marketing to us and we are in a position, having built solid relationships with other agencies over the years, to recommend various other aspects of digital marketing such as content marketing, website design, PR and graphic design, to these trusted agencies.  We keep up to date with changing marketing trends so our clients don’t have to, but bear in mind the following advice to make certain that outsourcing works for you:

Cost efficiency

One reason you might want to outsource is to reduce operational and labour costs while improving the bottom line.   This comes into question if your project is left in the wrong hands, so choose your expert carefully.

Your Business’ Reputation

It is vital that the highest possible standards are maintained when managing reputation; businesses live and die by their reputation.  Failing to take a business’ reputation into account when outsourcing may be the biggest mistake you could make.  Ensure your expert company has excellent processes in place; do not allow service levels to drop or your identity to be at risk.

Innovation

Internal constraints in businesses can stifle development projects.  For example, a software development company recently outsourced their marketing to us because internal team members were too close to the business to “think outside the box”.

Ultimately, outsourcing your areas of business to us means you can focus on what you should be doing: running and growing your business in the knowledge that your social media marketing activity is being expertly handled.

Take time to reap the rewards

Outsourcing is a key element for small businesses today and to dismiss it as an unnecessary function is short-sighted leaving companies at risk of being left behind by their competitors. Efficiency will be lost for those who attempt to manage all areas of their business in-house without external expert support.

Leave it to us!

We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ business’, their products, services and audiences, tailoring solutions to suit.

If you’d like advice or to talk through your current marketing plan and how we can help, please contact us or give me a call on 0161 826 7181 or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss ways my team and I can support your business.  Alternatively, we have a whole host of complimentary fact sheets to help you on your own social media marketing journey, right here.

By Ann Davies, Director

Create a Great LinkedIn Headline!

Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile.

Is it boring or does it tell your audience who you help, and what you can do for them?  Think about it in the concept of your elevator pitch; describe what you do and how you help others in the shortest time as possible.

What is a LinkedIn headline?

A LinkedIn headline is the section at the top of your profile where you can describe what you do in 120 characters or less. This appears next to your name in search results. LinkedIn will automatically choose your headline but if you customise yours, you’ll instantly differentiate yourself, giving prospects an interest in your products and services.

Ask yourself….

1. Which specific prospect do you help, what is their job title and are they based in a specific geographical location?
2. How do you help your prospect achieve their desired result?
3. What is the benefit/s as a result?
4. Add keywords that relate exactly to your industry and areas of expertise.  Using ‘strategic’ keywords will help you appear in more searches.  If you want your LinkedIn account to be a way that people discover you… place an emphasis on keywords¹.

Top tip….

Don’t have enough character space?  If you have an iPhone, edit your headline via your LinkedIn app as it gives you more character space than the normal 120 characters!  As I understand it, this is not available to other android phone users.

Once you have identified the above, it’s time to put that all together to create your perfect LinkedIn headline.

Let me summarise…

• Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile so make the most of it. 

• Who are your prospects?  How do you help them to achieve their desired results?

• What are the benefits as a result? 

• By using ‘strategic’ keywords, you’ll appear in more searches.

Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for you, your team either face to face or remote-based.  We also offer an outsourced social media marketing support service, helping you to get on with what you do best.

By Ann Davies, Director

¹ LinkedIn Help Centre (2017)

10 Fresh Social Media Ideas

One of the hardest parts of managing any kind of social media marketing campaign is coming up with new ideas.  If you’re expected to juggle numerous social media platforms and keep them up-to-date with fresh posts then I’ve put together some fresh ideas especially for you – enjoy!

1.Run a competition or giveaway

Everyone loves a freebie, and they’re a great way to encourage engagement.  However, it’s not as straightforward as you may think;

Is your giveaway going to be related to your brand?  Consider free products, free membership, free guides, free videos, free advice.  It’s not necessary to relate the giveaway directly to your brand but it can be useful to do so, especially if you do have branded freebies to give away.

Does your competition have terms and conditions, point of contact, contact details, etc?  You must include terms and conditions if anything goes amiss, plus it shows your competition in a legitimate light.

2.Create bite-size video

Video is necessary for brands but sadly many don’t see the investment worthwhile.  However, video gets loads more engagement than text alone and especially useful on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  There are some great ideas from the @KrispyKreme feed here.

3.Re-purpose your content

For every piece of content created, either written or video think about ways to promote it beyond its original format.  For example, pull a client testimonial or quote and re-purpose it into an image via Canva (my team really like this platform).  Likewise, re-purpose your video content into bite-size previews of your longer video from your YouTube channel.

4.Tutorials and how-to’s

Free advice, and step-by-step guides and tutorials are a great way to educate your followers.  This can works especially well in the food and drink sectors for cocktail making and food recipes – think Jamie Oliver for one.  Consider short, to the point videos while still giving loads of free information.

5.Go live

There’s nothing more compelling than live video to capture your audience’s attention.  All social media platforms offer the opportunity to stream live.  Whether you’re vlogging from your kitchen table or conducting a Q & A session, responding to your followers in real-time establishes a more personal connection.  Don’t forget you can re-purpose and use again across your platforms.

6.Give your clients the spotlight

What better way to promote your brand than to ask your clients for a testimonial, here’s one that we made earlier.

Alternatively, you could show your clients how much you appreciate them by giving them a shout-out.  This goes beyond tweeting those who support your business with something much more powerful and special.

7.Take advantage of trending news

The best ideas come along when you least expect them to.  Trending news on Twitter and Facebook signify a way for your brand to capitalise on a window of opportunity for such content to be relevant.  Use Google Alerts for hot-off-the-press news and various industry-appropriate news channels as soon as it goes live.

8.Run a social-media exclusive deal

Adding a promotional code to any offer will help you to get the insights you need to know how many are buying from you and how much they are engaging.

9.Respond to your followers

Brand should always be willing to talk to their followers.  Time is precious and taking the time to respond, shows that you care.  Whether you’re praising, addressing a concern or question, or just saying hello, your response can represent your brand in a whole new light.  Think about combining customer service with a humorous twist, telling them how much you value your followers’ feedback.

10.Go behind the scenes

Show the people behind the brand because the core of any brand is their people.  “People buy people before they buy your services.”  Offer a “behind the scenes” snapshot of your people in the office, over a team lunch or team get-together.  It’s important to humanise a brand!

BizWizUK can take your business to the next level by supporting your social media marketing plans. If you don’t have the in-house resource or expertise, we provide an outsourced tailored solution.  Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call on 0161 826 7181 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Your Startup on Social Media

Getting your startup business on social media has never been as important and with 3.48 billion people now use social media, that’s an increase of 9% from last year¹. This means an astonishing 45% of the total world population are using social networks, and that is growing every day.

Check out my 5-step process to help your startup get started.

1. Set S.M.A.R.T Goals – Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.  For example, you may want 50 new followers in 30 days.  Use analytics platforms to track your online activity in real-time, we use and recommend Cyfe.
2. Competitors – Look at your competitors by conducting a competitive analysis that will help you to understand who your competitors are and spot any opportunities, strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses.  This is also a great way to draw on inspiration from other businesses that are great on social media, taking note on the different types of content they publish and how they engage with their audience.
3. Set up Accounts – Determine which platforms you are going to use, looking at those where your target audience lie.  Set up and optimise your accounts, completing all profile fields using your industry specific keywords and any hashtags, use branded images that correctly reflect your new start-up and are correctly sized for each individual platform.
4. Start a Social Media Calendar – Start creating a content schedule that lists the date, time and different types of content for each channel.  Use a social media management platform, which will help you to makes finding, scheduling, managing, and reporting on social media content much easier, we use and recommend Hootsuite.
5. Test, Measure and Test Again – Tracking your activity and data using one of the monitoring tools above will help you to see what works and what doesn’t.  Evaluate and test again until you see what works and what doesn’t.

Summary

Help to improve your startup’s brand loyalty, engage with your audience, and build stronger client relationships by getting on social media. This will set you apart from your competitors by showing your audience how your company is different and reinforcing that your business is the experts in their field.

Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for you or your team, a face to face or a remote-based one to one workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support.

¹ Hootsuite

2019 Social Media Strategy

As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year. In this fast paced environment of social media marketing we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2019.  With this in mind, it is important that you start to look at your 2019 social media strategy to ensure that you are ahead of the game. Some elements to consider are:

Keeping up with social media

Big changes coming to Facebook’s messaging platform

As of the 1^st January 2019, Facebook Pages will need to be successfully approved for subscription messaging permissions if not, they won’t be able to send the free messaging type called ‘non-promotional subscription messaging’.

If you’re a Page admin you need to read this.

The type of content you upload

As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting and its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and info graphics. Text heavy updates will simply not be enough when it comes to your social media strategy!

Taking advantage of new platform features such as Facebook ‘Watch Party’

It’s official!  Facebook Watch Party has been officially launched!  It’s a new feature for groups that allows admins to hold a live screening of pre-recorded videos that are publicly available on Facebook. Group members can watch and comment on the videos at the same time to create a shared viewing experience.

Changing demographics

When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is.  Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and tome of voice that might best appeal to each demographic.  For example, graduates, teenage consumers and the ageing population means people of an older age that might not have been targeted previously should now be included in any marketing strategy.

Deciding which platform serves what purpose and how you can take full advantage

So, we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video as I have mentioned above, and LinkedIn has launched changes to Company pages so where does Twitter fit in?  Twitter has announced a relatively small, but significant update, which now means that advertisers using the platform’s in-stream video ads will be able to reach a global audience with their ad content, as opposed to being region-restricted.  Twitter has also announced a new update to its ‘Explore’ section which splits the latest news into sections, helping to improve relevant content discovery.  Twitter is more associated to real-time content, so it might prove more beneficial to users who are looking to keep up with the latest news and events.

I hope my latest blog has given you some ideas for your 2019 social media strategy?  Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy or you can sign up to our monthly newsletter here.

Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and my team and I can help draft a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2019.

By Ann Davies, Director

Get Hired Through LinkedIn

I had the pleasure of presenting to graduates at the Etihad Graduate Fair today.  Open to 2nd, 3rd and Postgraduate students with the opportunity to hear from a wide range of guest speakers, have 1-2-1 Careers guidance interviews with our highly qualified Career coaches and meet with a variety of employers offering Graduate schemes and full time employment.  My workshop focused on how to show delegates how to use LinkedIn more proactive in their search for their next job.

There are more than 500 million users on LinkedIn* and 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to check candidates**.  LinkedIn is the leading professional networking platform and a powerful job search engine to boot!

Grow your network, raise your profile, and increase your chances of being hired through referrals and recommendations.  LinkedIn can help you to get that all-important new job and here’s my steps to help you leverage LinkedIn for success.

1.The Basics – one chance, first impression!

Invest in your profile picture, it is one of the most important aspects of your profile.

Your picture should show others that you are friendly, approachable, and personable attributes to getting others to engage with you.

Write a convincing summary, this section has a limit of 2,000 characters but if people are viewing your profile via mobile *** and will need to scroll down, your first 92 characters will be essential.  Because viewers will need to take an extra step to see more content, each of those first 220 and 92 characters must pull their weight: 58 percent of LinkedIn’s users are viewing it via mobile so maximising the impact of those first 92 characters will be especially important.

Keywords are king, research the keywords that you should include for each role, highlighting your past achievements.  Research your current actual role and the essential and desirable skills for your current job and review the profiles of your colleagues and peers for ideas.

Add your skills to the featured skills & endorsements section, and add a maximum of 50 skills to your profile.  Ensure that you list the key words that you want to be found for.  This also gives you control over what you are more likely to be endorsed for.

2.Search and Connect

Having more LinkedIn connections increases your chances of showing up as one of a user’s “most viewed connections.  Enter your keyword into the search bar.   Select the member from the suggestions in drop-down or click the search icon ?.  For example, you can search for the ”HR Manager” at ”Your Ideal Company” and they’ll appear in your search.

3.Set up job alerts

To access your alerts click the jobs icon at the top of your homepage.  Click manage alerts under the search box at the top of the page where you are able to edit or delete the results relevant to you.

4.LinkedIn pages

Don’t hold back on the research! Get information on past operations, current news, products, services, culture and employees and check out their “careers” pages too.

5.LinkedIn groups

Get in on the conversation and share your expertise.  Others can learn from you too while allowing you to build mutually beneficial business relationships. Find new connections and tap into the goldmine of knowledge to enhance your career.

Need help for free of charge?

In collaboration with Google Digital Garage Manchester I’ll be sharing my tips in a workshop on 12^th April.  You’ll  be able to get the full rundown with free advice thrown in.  Book your free place here.

By Ann Davies, Director

*Omnicore, January 2018

**Jobvite Recruiter National Report 2016

*** LinkedIn 2016 Q1 quarterly results

 

Celebration of New Business Start-Ups

Events in 17 libraries throughout the UK were held on the 20^th September, celebrating Start-up Day, in collaboration with Santander, and once again proved to be a huge success.

More than 1,000 people attended across all locations, welcoming entrepreneurs for fully funded talks, workshops and advice sessions.  I was delighted to be invited to present a workshop on ‘How to Network on LinkedIn – Get Connected and Grow Your Business’, and here I have compiled my top tips from the day, so that you can continue your start-up journey.

1. LinkedIn Profile – get it complete and up to date!

Building connections starts with people seeing all that you have to offer and those with 100% complete profiles are 40 times more likely open to opportunities through LinkedIn.

2. You’re more experienced than you think!

Think broadly about all your experience, including summer jobs, internships, volunteer work, and any student organisations you were involved with.  You never know what might catch someone’s eye.

3. Ask for recommendations

A recommendation from a client or customer is a great way to show that you are the expert in your field and that you’ve done a great job.  I also recommend that you ask permission for these to be used in other areas of your marketing, such as website, brochures, email footers etc. – don’t just keep them on LinkedIn.

4. Use your inbox

Networking on LinkedIn doesn’t mean reaching out cold to strangers. Start building your LinkedIn network and connect to those people you know, like and trust, in the first instance.  The trick is to then see who they know so you can ask your trusted connection for an introduction, and guess what, they’ll be much more likely to help if you already know them.

5. Default Messages -V- Customised Messages

It’s an absolute must that you tailor your LinkedIn request, let’s look at why…

“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”

OR

“Hi XX, it was great to meet you at XX last week. It is good to see you on LinkedIn and thought we could stay in touch?”

What would you prefer to receive in your inbox?  I’d certainly prefer the message where they have certainly taken their time to be interested – try it for yourself!

6. Join in the crowd

LinkedIn Groups can help you form new connections, start with any alumni groups, find other organisations and any associations that you belong to, or groups who are relevant to your industry sector/expertise.

7. Follow-up

Take the relationship off LinkedIn – offer to meet for a coffee or schedule a “virtual coffee” – the only way for connections to get to know, like and trust you.

Summary

• Make sure your profile is 100% complete and updated, include your experience.
• Ask for recommendations, they are important to show off your great work!
• Connect to people you know, like and trust.
• Always customise your connection request or messages.
• Join in the crowd – look up those groups of interest.
• Follow-up!  Like any relationship it’s all about keeping in touch and following up.

If you’d like to chat about any LinkedIn training requirements, bespoke to your company either on a one to one or group basis, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Ann Davies, Director