Leading LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen offered great LinkedIn strategies for business on Social Buzz Club’s Social Buzz U that made me realize how important LinkedIn is for business. Viveka got started on LinkedIn in 2006. She is a supporter of face to face networking groups and personal communication and as a business networking site LinkedIn just made made a lot of sense. Today, Viveka has 24,000 first level connections on LinkedIn and 46,000 following on twitter. She also has been ranked as one of the top ten influential people by Forbes. Her book coming out is entitled, LinkedIn Marketing an Hour A Day.
Why LinkedIn For Business
There are over 2 million company profiles available on LinkedIn. Imagine how many people you can connect with in your specific niches. 155 million professionals have accounts on LinkedIn making it the largest professional social network. Furthermore, 2 new members join every second. Important to note that half of new members are overseas. So if you’re looking to take your business global, LinkedIn is rapidly expanding.
LinkedIn Users have average 15 years of experience in a particular industry. Average age of LinkedIn user is 41 years old. Basically, LinkedIn is the GenXer social network. 47% are “Decision Makers. The average income of a LinkedIn user is $106,000. Great for business. In other words, LinkedIn is not only fast growing network and it offers incredible opportunities for connecting with high quality professionals that can make business decisions.
Optimize Your Profile for Maximum Results
The first thing to do is make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized. Use keywords in the areas that are weighted most by LinkedIn. That includes the following:
Headline – You have 120 characters here. Viveka recommends including skills, Keywords, benefits, and even call to action if you want
Title – When you add a title to your jobs, don’t simply put in your traditional title like President. However, you have 100 characters for your title. The title is the most heavily weighted place for keywords. So use them. Find a balance between using keywords and having a readable and interesting profile.
Examples:
Founder, Social Media Coach/Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, LinkedIn Expert and Twitter Expert
President, Social Media Consultant and Marketing and Branding Strategist
Real Estate Agent for First Time Buyers
Specialties section (This section is only available for long time members. New members do not have this section.). The Specialties section is the place to cram with your keywords. Specialties section is being replaced by Skills section. Nonetheless if you have access to the Specialties section use verbs, nouns, acronyms and synonyms that describe your specialties.
Summary section has 2000 characters. Use them. Can use symbols (bullets, stars, arrows, etc.) for increasing readability. Please check your grammar or type your summary in Word first then copy and paste into LinkedIn. In your LinkedIn Summary, focus on what’s in it for them and why they should hire you. You may also want to include testimonials. If you pull in the “About us” section from your website be sure to make it a little more personalized.
Interests add more keywords and synonyms. Content and keywords so your profile gets found.
Customize Your URLs on LinkedIn
Customize your URL descriptions by going to Edit profile, Other, Middle field for description. Describe what your site does vs. what it is. Put a call to action. Description is limited to 40 characters. Use all three. Page on your site, fan page.
Personalize your public profile link. Click on the Edit link and customize the public profile URL. Create a branded LinkedIn URL. Area of expertise, company name,
Add SKILLS
The Skills section is a wonderful new section. Located under More on your navigation menu. As I mentioned previously it is replacing the specialties section. Simply search for your skills terms and click to add a skill, then click on related skills. Add as many as you want. These are specific to LinkedIn and will help you to be found as people search and click on these skills on other’s profiles. Also, use these keyword skills phrases in blogs, tweets and Facebook updates. You’ll also find related influencers by perusing the various skills.
You’ll notice on the skills page, Groups are specifically indicated for your skill set. If you do a group search just shows from biggest to smallest. Group section related to skills are list here. Then in the Companies section there is a list of companies in your skill set. The most appropriate and relevant companies not just the ones with the most employees.
Ninja Tip… click on Jobs. Read through the job postings and use the language these employers are using in your profile for more visibility.
Building Your Network
Use the advanced search link to the right of the search field. This is great if you want to search by keyword, by location, title, company, or school.
You can choose to search for Companies and key words, titles and locations, get CEO’s in town, HR in companies. You will get very relevant search results. One more ninja feature is that you can save your searches. LinkedIn then sends you email when new members of your network fall into this search. Example, if you want to connect with CEOs of small to medium size businesses, LinkedIn sends email of new people in your network.
When people invite you to connect, remember to send a thank you email asking them what they do, who they are looking to connect with and what you can do for them.
Join Groups and connect to members from within these groups. Groups are great ways to get connected with people you want to connect with but do not have their email. Join a group they are a member of and then you’ll be able to request to add them as a connection.
More LinkedIn Strategies and Insider Tips
The above are just a few of the amazing LinkedIn Strategies and ninja tips Viveka shared. You get the complete replay of this Mastering LinkedIn Webinar here or simply join the Social Buzz Club today as a Basic or Premium member and get the entire archive of all our expert social media, business and marketing trainings.
Want to be notified of future expert training programs, enter your info below and we’ll keep you posted. Trainings are FREE to attend LIVE. See you there.
We’d love to hear about your favorite LinkedIn strategies for business. Please comment below.
Game Changer: Webinar Marketing Strategy – You’re Going to LOVE This Way to Get Into Video Marketing
Video Marketers Cory Michael Sanchez and Ira Rosen know how to make your dream of having a video marketing system that gets you 80% conversion a reality. Imagine having thousands of people watching a webinar and automatically buying either instantly or over a fool proof buying cycle.
During this recent Social Buzz U program, they showed us how to place your marketing on steroids and explode your business and database using their video marketing secrets. You can become the expert and position yourself for amazing success with this system.
They have seen that 90% of a business success is your marketing. New and better ways to tell your story are key to going viral. Here are Cory and Ira’s video marketing system secrets.
Secret 1 Instant Video Follow Up
90% of all business transactions happen between the 5th to 12th touch point with a prospect. Follow up is time consuming and we need to do it in a timely manner to get sales. Imagine instantly sending an email with a personal video to a new prospect to set up a meeting with them. When you have a system already in place, you’ll have a better chance with a new prospect because you’ll stand out with the video and the request to schedule a time to speak.
Secret 2: Automated Follow Up
Here’s the next addition to improve the sales funnel.
Meet prospect.
Send the a follow up video.
Set up a meeting
Send them a series of follow up videos. Include videos of raving fans. They are your social proof. So get great testimonial videos you can send in the series… and viola your clients become your sales force.
Secret 3: Webinars
Prospects often need more information and you need to build your credibility. Webinars can bridge the gap of getting to know you better. Plus, they build trust and rapport and overcome objections for you ahead of time. They can even generate instant customers.
Be sure to tweak your webinars for maximum results with more images, lots of proof and a compelling close/irresistible offer.
Here’s the Webinar formula:
Have an introduction – what they will learn
Headlines that solve people’s problems
Build relationship – know your backstory and where you came from.
Build credibility – talk about clients, problems you solved, countries, how long
Present the problem – no one knows how to do social media and monetize it
Connect them with the pain and how to resolve it
Present the solution
Case studies are way more powerful than your pitch. Amazing testimonials sharing how happy they are with your content.
When recording your webinar use (NLP) trigger words and phrases that help people take the next step such as:
Imagine this for a moment
Because
Now
Example: Imagine having a webinar and getting instant sales. Now you have those leads, what do you do with them.
Secret 4: Offer a Free Consultation after the Webinar
Host your webinar and offer a free consultation as your call to action at the end.
Prospect watches the webinar
Offer free consultation
Have them schedule them in your calendar
Secret 5: Automate the process
How about if your prospects can watch your webinar 24-7? You don’t have to be present or run it every time. With technology like Mojo Video Marketing System, you can have a page that makes the video available whenever your prospect opens their email or visits the link.
Be sure to include a way for them to:
schedule a follow-up time to speak with you,
purchase your product/services
take a survey/poll or the next step
Cory and Ira know video marketing and have helped everyone from politicians, speakers, and carpenters grow their businesses successfully using video marketing.
See this in action right now. Check out the Mojo Video Marketing system today and blow away your competition.
Prospect enrolls for webinar –> Prospect buys If they don’t buy, offer a one on one meeting Result up to 80% closing.
How To Set Your Video Marketing System Up
Create a web Page that has a compelling headline and short video. Make this video a webinar teaser video with about 1 minute and thirty seconds of your best stuff on your webinar. Like a movie trailer. Have an Opt in form to access the webinar. IMPORTANT: The tests that Cory and Ira did found that instant replay converted just as well as scheduled webinars. Develop a post webinar email campaign.
If they didn’t buy, offer a strategy session opt-in page. Once they opt-in and have the strategy session they either will be placed on the New client email campaign or Prospect Nurture Campaign.
The key however is that the automated webinar pre-sells them and covers all the objections. Therefore, DRIVE everyone to your free webinar…
Drive traffic to your webinars from:
Referral partners (offline and online)
Trade Shows
Networking
Business Cards
Flyers
Direct Mail
Telemarketing
Print/TV/Radio
Social Media
SEO
PPC
Press Releases
Email Signature
Blogging
YouTube
Podcasting
Article writing
If you need a video marketing system that can host your videos, have the opt-in page, have the ability to send video email campaigns, be sure to check out the Mojo Video Marketing system.
Social media influencer, Kim Garst, gave a fabulous training for our Social Buzz U chock full of Pinterest tips for business. Here are some of the highlights she shared:
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social network that allows you to organize and share almost anything you find on the web. Since it is imaged based sharing, you create virtual bulletin boards (or pin boards) by topic. Then you pin images from pages online that contain information related to your bulletin board topics. Topics or themes can include everything to personal interest areas like weddings, decorating ideas, exercise, fitness tips, recipes, to business interests.
Tip: Browse others pin boards created by others to find pins for your boards.
Pinterest Statistic 2012
Pinterest had over 10 million visitors in January of 2012. Driving more traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined. Using Pinterest gives your business more exposure.
How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Products and Services
Start with these tasks to use Pinterest for your online business development:
Add the Pinterest buttons to your website/blog (Find it under About/Pin It Button for HTML for your website or blog)
Install Pin It button to your browser
Add the Pinterest app to your iPhone or iPad
How To Add Pinterest to Your Facebook Fan Page
Woobox has one of the simplest applications to use to add Pinterest to your fan page.
It will bring all of your Pinterest boards up in an app tab on your fan page for your fans to follow, repin, like or comment. This app will also let you require someone to Like your page in order to see your Pin Boards (aka Fan Gate or reveal tab).
For a video on how to install the woobox Pinterest app on your fan page, click here.
Branding Your Pinterest Profile
Be sure to fill in your Pinterest profile completely. Use your business name (or yourself if you are your brand) as your Pinterest user name. Then your Pinterest URL includes your Business/Brand name.
Be sure to put your website URL in the description.
Include keywords in your bio and description because has some SEO value so use key words in description.
Link your Pinterest account to your Facebook and Twitter accounts from within Pinterest.
Using Pinterest for Business
Pin what is related to your business. For example:
Photos and videos (YouTube)
Infographics
Charts
Visual content
Text on photos – pixlr, picasa, picmonkey are a few sites to add text onto photos
Create theme based boards. Be sure to use keywords in titles of the boards and in their descriptions.
Use images between 600-800pixels wide (ideal size for Pinterest). Don’t use images less than 300 pixels wide. No length limit.
For every blog post you create, include a related picture and then pin it to the appropriate board. You may include calls to action on the graphics and in the Pinterest description.
More Statistics on Pinterest Results
There is an 80% greater engagement rate on graphics with a call to action.
Pins with tutorial/guide/DIY see 42% higher engagement
Pins relating to trending topics 94% engagement rate.
Pay attention to the Popular tab on Pinterest and empower people to share your content
These statistics came from Pinerly.com blog post April 8, 2012
When to Pin
Best time to pin is during the day 2-4 pm EST and at night 8 pm – 1 am EST.
Pinning for Business
When creating pin boards and pinning items for business consider the following:
Link to your website page or blog post in your pin description and links.
Make sure your blog post graphic depicts the content. You can even place the title of the blog post in your graphic. That makes sure your graphic encourages people to go to your web page. You will get traffic to your blog using Pinterest.
Include a hashtag of your keywords in your pin description. Don’t over hashtag your pins
Acknowledge others (@pinterestusername) in your pin description to broaden your reach.
Instead of pinning, like pins of those that may not fit your industry or niche – shows in their activity feed.
Comment on other pins.
Follow other boards
Run a Pinterest Contest
Kim often runs “Pin It To Win It” contests on Mondays. She posts an image with contest name and/or prize. You can do contests to win things like: Your book, ½ hour consults, other products, or anything you have that would be great to turn around to give you exposure by giving it away.
Then you Tweet about the fact you’re giving this away for pinning on Pinterest.
Run your contest for 1-2 days so people don’t forget about.
Kim Garst’s training is thorough and full of tons more great information. To access the entire Pinterest training, visit Social Buzz U or join Social Buzz Club as a Basic or Premium Member.
Remember to add Pinterest actions to your Social Media calendar and include Pinterest for business in your overall social media strategy.
Companies can get significant benefits by maintaining (and updating) a business blog. For one, search engines love blog content. Creating content regularly helps your company be found more easily in Google, Bing and Yahoo’s search engines. More importantly, potential customers are also interested in good, relevant content. Once they discover it, blog content keeps them on your site longer and gives them the opportunity to get to know you on a deeper level, making them more likely to buy from you.
I will dig into these and other benefits in a minute. But first, let’s address the biggest complaint that I hear: “I don’t have time to blog”.
I could explain how you can create an editorial calendar to keep you on track, how you could carve out a dedicated time to write, how you could hire bloggers to write for you, or how you could accept guest posts to get more content on your site. These are all great ways to make blogging more methodical and to reduce your blogging workload. But, I’d like to take this “conversation” in a different direction, if that’s alright with you.
So what if you only have the time, energy or bandwidth to create a few blog posts over the next few months? Is it worth it? I say yes!
Benefits of Blogging for Business Periodically
Here are several benefits that you can get even if you just produce just a few well-written blog posts:
1) You can show your expertise to potential clients
Potential clients will often look at your blog before meeting you. Having key posts that shows your thought leadership is a great way to get a leg up on your competition.
2) Your blog helps to “Pre-qualify” your company in the client’s eyes
People want to know that you’re real, that you know what you’re talking about, and that you are serious about your business. Having an attractive website and some blog content is a great way to get “pre-qualified” by your potential customers. Often if you don’t have enough of a web presence, people won’t bother calling you to learn more.
3) Can help you get found on the search engines
If you do it right, your website and blog content can help you get found by your target clients via the search engines. If you blog, learn the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) basics or invest in a little SEO training so you can get the maximum benefit for your limited amount of content.
4) Your blog content can open you up to unexpected opportunities
Having a blog can bring amazing opportunities that just a basic website won’t provide. One of my earlier blog posts brought me two significant opportunities (out of the blue) that were about 10-20x more valuable than the typical project I was getting at that time.
5) Blog content gives you something to share on social media
If you’re interacting on social media, your blog content is a great excuse to get your name in front of potential clients or industry influencers. If your post is interesting, influencers may share it, expanding your reach.
6) Can give you a quick way to answer a question from your potential clients
Why answer each question individually? If you answer commonly asked questions on your blog, you can then send that to potential or current customers rather than typing a complete email for each one. Each time you get that question you just write a short email (possibly with a call to action) and attach a link to that post!
7) Gives you a platform to feature clients or partners
You can do a favor for a client or partner by featuring them on your blog. This can pay dividends in the future by getting you more referrals or by having your partner feature you on their site!
Is your resume for potential guest blogging opportunities
One of the more valuable things that you can do to attract visitors to your site is to guest post on other, larger industry blogs. Having well-written blog posts on your own blog will help you land posts on these other industry blogs.
Even Occasional Blogging For Business Has It’s Rewards
I hope you can see how this can benefit even the occasional blogger. If so, I recommend you address a few of the main questions that your prospective clients typically have or you can write about your perspective on important topics in your industry.
Tom Treanor is the President of Right Mix Marketing, which provides Social Media consulting and training. He helps cut through the clutter, making online marketing easier to do and more effective for your business.
Don’t take our word for it, Social Media Consultant, Shelley Webb, recently blogged about why she is recommending joining Social Buzz Club. Here’s a recap of her recent post and results she is getting with us.
Shelley says:
I can’t remember how I found out about the Social Buzz Club but I’m glad I did! I signed up and began enjoying the benefits of membership immediately. Traffic to my website increased by 1608%!! [Gotta love those numbers.]
Founded by Kathryn Rose and Laura Rubinstein, Social Buzz Club is a new content syndication and marketing system that enables marketers and educators to collaborate and drive traffic online by sharing other members’ relevant content. It is similar to what some people call a “tweet ring” but is a lot more efficient. A “tweet ring” is a group of colleagues who have joined together to share each others blog posts or to retweet each other on Facebook. This system is based on reciprocity and helps to introduce each member of the tweet ring to a new audience. [Problems sometimes arise because there is no accountability or incentive.]
Social Buzz Club is just like that and more! Your content can easily be shared by other members on Twitter, Facebook (both personal and Facebook pages), Linked In, Digg and Stumble Upon by a couple of clicks of the mouse.
The way it works is that when ever you share the content of another member, you get a point (or 2 if it is for a charity or from the Buzz Club itself). Once you get 10 points (5 points if you upgrade – and it’s NOT expensive to do so), you may submit you own “buzz” which then gets shared by other members. You may choose to which social media platforms you would like your information shared. For instance, I may want a certain item shared only to Twitter but the next buzz submission, I may want shared only to my Facebook business page.
Membership requires an application process so that the integrity of the community can be maintained. But there are tutorials to help you learn to write and share great content so that you can become an asset to the community. There are quick start videos, resources and a learning center. They even have a Facebook group.
If you’re interested, just click HERE to watch a short video about the Social Buzz Club and to see how easy it is to share great content and have yours shared as well.
Let’s get buzzing.
Social Buzz Club is not just for social media consultants like Shelley, but for online marketers, entrepreneurs and businesses who have quality content they want distributed organically by a tribe of social media influencers.
Every month a billion people utilize Google’s search engine, making it the most visited website in the world. So it stands to reason that Google’s latest social network, Google Plus (aka G+ or Google+), will be a boon to businesses that embrace it.
Since the rollout of Google+ last year, it has quickly risen in popularity and is ranking as one of the most trafficked social platforms. Sixty percent of Google+ users log on daily and eighty percent engage weekly. Google+ allows for personal profile pages as well as business pages. For businesses, Google+ pages make it easy to connect with and interact with customers.
As with other social networks, it’s all about the ‘S’ word! Sharing! Sharing doesn’t mean dropping links onto the page once in a while, it’s much deeper than that. In order to lure the public to your business page, you must create relevant, interesting and/or entertaining information; and it must be congruent with your brand’s image. These bits of information can be in the form of links, videos, pictures, ebooks, etc. All posts should have key word rich comments.
Once you make your Google Plus business page, start following other businesses. These can be similar businesses in other areas, businesses that are local to you and/or businesses that compliment your product(s). Since Google+ is relatively new, fellow users will probably follow you back and start engaging quickly. Google+ allows users to make ‘circles’ which is really a folder of sorts and it’s a way to categorize your followers. You can make many circles and label them based on any criteria. For businesses, it might be wise to have a ‘local’ circle in which you place all users that follow you, or you follow, who are local in it. Other circles relevant to businesses may be based on demographics, products etc. The beauty of circles is that you can stream your posts to all of them or just one of them. In addition, you can send your posts out to the public so that anyone can read them whether they follow you or not. In addition, you want to continuously ‘share’ and ‘like’ posts that other users have posted. In general, users are honored that you have shared and liked their posts and often will return the favor and/or start following you. When you share or like other posts as a business page, you want to keep your brands image in mind and remember that customers or potential customers are watching!
‘Hangouts’ is a great tool that is available to Google+ users. In a nutshell it is a video chat; however, it allows up to ten people to meet online from remote locations and it allows the sharing of Google Documents. Businesses can use the hangout feature to collaborate with team members, run demos, hold focus groups, etc. These can be pre-planned or done on the fly.
The ‘Direct Connect’ feature is one of the reasons that this platform should be embraced by businesses! As you build your page, you want to be certain to link your business website to the page and visa-versa. By doing this, people can type ‘+yourbusinessname’ into the Google search bar and they will be directed to your company page. In addition, Google is indexing Google+ profiles and pages quickly and they do show up in search results. This may help your website rank higher in organic search results. Other tips: build a strong profile utilizing strong key words, use key words in your posts, put the Google+ badge/icon everywhere so that customers can quickly link to your page, think of creative ways to use hangouts, mention other Google+ users in your posts by typing the + sign and then their name, utilize hashtags (they are searchable) as you hopefully already to on Twitter, be sure to use the +1 button on your own posts.
Take the time to explore and utilize Google+ Pages and you will no doubt enhance your brand. Social presence is important to Google as is compelling content. Businesses that embrace this platform will no doubt be rewarded.
Kathryn Rose, CEO and Laura Rubinstein, President of content syndication community, Social Buzz Club along with Lena West, CEO of InfluenceExpansion.com announce an alliance to bring content syndication services to the members of the Influence Expansion Academy.
“We are excited to introduce the Social Buzz Club to our members,” says West. “Expanding your influence has everything to do with two things: 1) how much quality content you produce and 2)how it gets shared across the social web. Social Buzz Club is simply the best content syndication system provider for my members. I trust them and nowadays trust is everything.”
Social Buzz Club is made up of bloggers, social media professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners and internet marketers whose sole purpose is to spread one another’s content throughout their social channels. “Our philosophy is simple, we want our members to get the most visibility and traffic to their websites and blogs, and we focus on teaching and building reciprocity – people have to share content in order to get their content shared,” adds Rose.
InfluenceExpansion.com is a membership Academy of entrepreneurs who learn social media planning and strategies that work. The Academy offers social media training for as low as $5 per month via their Nano program – but, there are membership levels to match every price point. Lena West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the Founder of the Influence Expansion Academy, the only social media marketing training program created exclusively for women business owners.
Through the alliance, Influence Expansion Academy members are offered Social Buzz Club membership at 50% off of the monthly memberships (as low as $4.99 per month) to get access to over 500 influencers who regularly share content.
“This alliance is the perfect win-win for the Social Buzz Club and InfluenceExpansion.com communities,” says Rubinstein.” We are proud to be selected by Ms. West and are excited to be working together.”
About Social Buzz Club — Social Buzz Club is a blog content syndication system that provides bloggers, content providers, authors, speakers and internet and social media marketing professionals with a way to share content through a highly developed network of other professionals who all use the Social Buzz Club technology. The latest version of Social Buzz Club has a 100% free membership level as well as levels that allow for sharing to Facebook pages, groups and LinkedIn Groups as well as multiple Twitter accounts. Google Plus is coming soon.
About InfluenceExpansion.com — InfluenceExpansion.com is the home of the Influence Expansion Academy, the only social media marketing training program created exclusively for women entrepreneurs. The Academy offers membership programs at varying price points, starting as low as $5/mo. for their Nano program, up through and including Starter, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite levels. Comprised mostly of women business owners, the Academy is touted as THE place for women entrepreneurs to learn how to effectively leverage social media to build growing, sustainable, profitable businesses.
Now Influence Expansion Academy members will have the opportunity to use the Social Buzz Club content syndication system to create more online visibility, credibility and profitability.
Try and get a bunch of +K’s and get others to mention you organically to raise your Klout score and you’ll get tired very quickly. Social Buzz Club’s content syndication engine is a great way to help yourself and others’ Klout scores raised.
Raise Your Klout Score with Social Buzz Club
This video covers the step by step process you can take using Social Buzz Club premium features to increase the score you have on Klout.
Here’s the graph of my Klout score that jumped up by using this technique and has stayed up as a result of continuing the process. Continue reading →
Leading LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen offered great LinkedIn strategies for business on Social Buzz Club’s Social Buzz U that made me realize how important LinkedIn is for business. Viveka got started on LinkedIn in 2006. She is a supporter of face to face networking groups and personal communication and as a business networking site LinkedIn just made made a lot of sense. Today, Viveka has 24,000 first level connections on LinkedIn and 46,000 following on twitter. She also has been ranked as one of the top ten influential people by Forbes. Her book coming out is entitled, LinkedIn Marketing an Hour A Day.
Is your resume for potential guest blogging opportunities
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