Tag Archives: LinkedIn

LinkedIn for SMB

Posted on February 14, 2012 | 1 Comment

If you are like me you think of LinkedIn as a place to keep your resumes and maintain contact with past employers and co-workers.  In recent months though LinkedIn has transformed their site into a full-blown business-networking site SMBs should really invest time in.  As a member of the site you can join groups and get involved in discussions.  I am a member of the Small Business Network, Social Media Boot Camp, and HP Business Answers to name a few.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are great but LinkedIn may be the best time use for a business owner no matter what the size of your business.  LinkedIn claims over 135 million members in 200 countries and one of the largest Internet marketing research companies listed them as the #2 social networking site online.  

 I found a great article on Small Business Trends offering a few tips to get started.

If you want a simple introduction as to how and why to use LinkedIn check out this user-friendly, 8-minute video by Jim Kukral on SmallBizTrends.  Even if you have used the site before this video provides great reminders about how to participant in the site.

The New User Starter Guide is really simple to use and explains setting up your account in getting started in 3 easy steps.  The site also provides a short video on Small Business use on the site.  Additionally, as small business entrepreneurs, you may find the section explaining benefits to your group particularly helpful.  Some of the items covered on this section are making important personnel decisions, filling hard-to-fill positions, and generating awareness for your business.

Recommendations are an amazing tool LinkedIn provides.  Check out Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation for tips on what to say and how to ask.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , ,

Promising Social Media Statistics for Small Business

Posted on November 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

Back in August I posted a blog called Steps to Social Media, offering simple steps to use this powerful tool for your business. A new blog from Social Media Examiner offered statistics showing the power of this medium for small business. I thought I’d highlight a few here but you can find the full list in the blog called 26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Business.

1. There are more than 800 million active Facebook users and over 200 million of those joined in 2011.
2. Over 80% of ALL Americans use a social network of some kind and 40% of those users do so on a mobile phone.
3. American’s spend more time on Facebook than any other website. According to Facebook, more than half of their users long in every day, on average have 130 friends and are connected to 80 pages, events and groups. (Once such page could be yours!)
4. On average Facebook users spend 20 minutes in their account on each visit and most log in three to four times per week.
5. 44% of small-to-mid-sized business decision-makers use social media, 86% of which use Facebook, 41% use LinkedIn and 33% use Twitter.
6. 51% of Facebook and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from brands they follow.

The bottom line? If you are not engaging in social media you are missing out! NALA Members have a useful tool in their Multi-Marketing solution to tie all your social media accounts together and coordinate with your email and text message marketing efforts.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Steps to Social Media

Posted on August 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

I found a great blog article I wanted to share with you about simple steps you can take to start using social media for your business.  There is so much information out there, so many options that sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.  Simple Web Toolbox posted 4 Simple Steps to Start Using Social Media and I’ll summarize here…but as always I recommend checking out the full article as well.

  1. Commit to a schedule.  I have read countless conflicting articles about how many times a business should post on social media but at the end of the day the first thing to consider is your time.  Social media can be a huge time drain but it doesn’t have to be.  The blog recommended another blog called Finding Time to Engage in Social Media that offers great suggestions.
  2. Define your goals.  What do you want to accomplish.  If you don’t know you might want to do a little research.  Do you want to generate leads?  Generate PR?  Connect and interact with customers?  Share information and establish yourself as an expert?  Generate search engine optimization links for your website?  How would social media best support your business?
  3. Choose your outlets.  There are a variety of social media outlets to choose from ranging from Twitter to LinkedIn to Facebook to creating your own blog.  If you do choose Facebook, theNALA’s website offers a simple tutorial for setting up your Facebook company page.
  4. Follow through on your commitment.  The blog suggests allowing at least 3 months of plan implementation before deciding if social media and your plan specifically is worth the ROI.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Blogging, Social Media, Social Networking

Tagged , , , , , ,

Three Things To Do With Social Media on the Big 3: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Posted on May 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

Are your employees asking why you aren’t on Facebook? Did a perspective supplier or customer try to find you on LinkedIn? Is your business partner is telling you it’s time to make friends with Twitter? If you are not engaged in the biggest social media sites, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, you may be missing out on business opportunities.

More and more local businesses are reaping the benefits of social networking today. Social networking sites help people discover new friends or colleagues by aligning shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location.

Learning the ins and outs of social networking can be downright overwhelming.  For now, we’ve got three things you can do today on the three most popular social networking sites. Also, click here for a great resource on how to get started.

Facebook: Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

1.      Establish your business fan page to “claim” your name. Provide all of the basic company information with links to your website, blog, Twitter. Suggest that friends and business colleagues “Like” your page once completed.

2. “Like” a business that is active on Facebook and see what you like and don’t like about what they do.

3.    Start off by trying to post one item per day. Post questions, links to articles, deals / coupons, giveaways, etc.

LinkedIn: A business-oriented social networking site mainly used for professional networking that allows registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business.

1.       Sign up and complete your personal profile. Try to make your profile as comprehensive as possible and be sure to upload a photo. Link your website, blog and Twitter feeds to your profile.

2.       Build your network by connecting with perspective customers, business partners, colleagues, suppliers, etc. Look up their names and add them as a contact. Join relevant groups to find other business contacts.

3.       Engage by participating in the Answers section of LinkedIn. Demonstrate your expertise by providing a response to related questions.

Twitter: An online community where people share short, text-based (max 140 characters) microblog posts, primarily for self-promotion.

1.         Visit Twitter.com and watch the video (click on link in top right corner) on how it works. Create your Twitter account and user name (i.e. @businessname) and complete your profile and bio.

2.         Search for relevant people on Twitter and follow them (click on the search tab). Search by keywords on your topics of interest. Observe how they tweet.

3.         Update your status in 140 characters or less. Try to update your status three times per day (during high traffic times in am, noon, pm). Post questions, links to articles, deals / coupons, giveaways, etc. (Note that you can link your Twitter feeds to your Facebook page to save on time).

Hoot Suite or Tweet Deck are two useful platforms for helping you to manage the above profiles with one interface. Check your mobile device to see if there are applications for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Social Media

Tagged , , , , ,